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Davis-Carlson Mite (s/n DC-8)
Originally owned by Butch Williams, Van Nuys, CA
Some of the most competitive mite cars of the Post-World War II era came from the Chicago area from builders like Anthony "Tony" Martin, Milton "Red" Davis, John Carlson, Warren Borden, Constantine "Gus" Yonaites, and others. And one of the most successful cars to come out of the Chicago area was the Davis-Carlson Mite, a collaborative effort involving Red Davis of Harvey, IL and John Carlson from Chicago.
The Davis-Carlson Mite was designed by Red Davis who patterned the smaller mite car after a very successful .60-size car which he had designed earlier. The car was designed to accommodate either a .19-size engine or a .29-size engine, and satisfied the AMRCA requirements for competing in either the .19-Mite class or the .29-Mite class, depending upon the size of the engine powering the car. While Red Davis designed the car, made the patterns, and produced the castings for the pan and gearbox, the machine work on most of the cars along with the fabrication of many of the hand carved wood bodies was done by John Carlson.
According to John Carlson's notes, only 24 Davis-Carlson Mites were originally produced. Of those 24 cars, 18 were originally powered with Dooling 29 model engines and 2 cars were sold without engines. The 4 remaining cars were powered with .19-size engines; 3 with Hornet .199 model engines and 1 (which was one of John Carlson's personal cars) was built with a Super Tigre .19 model engine.
The car shown in the photos (s/n DC-8) was originally owned and raced by Donald "Butch" Williams of Van Nuys, CA. The car is powered by a Dooling 29 model engine. Williams raced the car on various tracks on the West Coast, including the both the 1975 and 1977 AMRCA National Championship races held at the Whittier Narrows track. The car placed third in the 1977 Nationals with a top speed of 104.16 mph.
