Maricopa, a suburb of Phoenix, AZ, has one of the coolest museums of you fancy engineering and automobiles. While it is titled a museum, it is more garage like and if you are a gear head that is the best way to do it! There are no guides, just builders hanging around the garage waiting to answer questions about the machines they put a lot of pride in. The Dwarf Car Museum is a bit off the beaten path but not hard to find. From the time you pull into the drive way you get the feel of the yard where everyone brought there cars to either work on – or be worked on. It is a very comfortable environment.
Ernie Adams had a fascination with cars starting back in
grade school. He would admire the cars of the time, drew them for school
assignments and even built a wooden car as long as a crate box with steering
and peanut butter jar lids for taillights. His mother would pull him through
out his hometown of Harvard, Nebraska.
Ernie’s first Dwarf Car came to life in 1965 as a 28 Chevy
two-door sedan made out of nine old refrigerators. Ernie began gathering the
materials for this little car in 1962. By 1965 he had enough materials and an
18 hp Wisconsin motor to begin construction. With a homemade hacksaw made from
a chair frame, hammer and a chisel, Ernie began construction. He had no idea
what this would be the beginning of. Because this is the first Dwarf Car ever
built, it is known as “GRANDPA DWARF.” This first Dwarf Car is kept in running
order and is still driven today.
The Dwarf Race Car idea came about after Ernie Adams and
Daren Schmaltz had attended motorcycle side hack races in Phoenix, Arizona.
During the drive home, Ernie expressed concern that three-wheeled racers were
to slow in the corners. He said they could improve considerably by adding a
fourth wheel to help thru the corners. Ernie suggested that adding a car body
would also help spectator appeal. The first
two Dwarf Race Cars were built in Dec. 1979 and early 1980 and the first Dwarf
Car race took place at the Yavapai County Fair in Prescott, Arizona in
September, 1983. There were 12 cars registered.
After leaving the Dwarf Race Cars, Ernie had learned a lot
about bending and shaping metal. He loved to see heads turn in admiration of
the Dwarf Race Cars while being towed down the highway. Ernie knew it was time
to change and put his metal shaping skills to the test. Now he wanted a fully
dressed Dwarf Car with fenders, chrome, finished interior and most of all
street legal and the Dwarf Car Cruiser was born.
The museum (garage) consists of two large bays with dwarf
cars on display and a third bay work shop with a home-made chassis jig and
engine stands. When we entered the ‘museum’ there was two people working on the
next dwarf in an open bay outside the work bay and two builders were hanging
out in the second garage bay. There is a
video that runs on a loop with Ernie talking about jigs he had to make to hand
mold metal to the intricate shapes necessary for grills, bezels and other metal
work. Once we started looking I
mentioned to Lori what a work of engineering to down scale a car to this size
and yet keep it drivable. Before you know it I had one of the builders with me
eager to explain any detail I pointed out.
Lori asked if they “actually worked” and the second builder had one near
her fired up and reving the engine.
Showing her how the interior was setup for a full size person.
I was amazed at the backyard engineering that goes into these
mini cars. Figuring out suspension
geometries and linkage attachments and pivots – and these guys just look at the
car and they know. No computer
math. No Computer Aided Design drawings. Just shade-tree engineering!
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