Offenhauser

The Offenhauser Racing Engine, often shorted to the Offy, was a series of racing engines that dominated American Championship Car racing for more than fifty years. Versions of the engine won the Indianapolis 500 a record 27 times between 1935 and 1976. The engine was also widely used in sprint and midget car racing. The Offenhauser engine was first raced in the early 1930s, and continued to be used in top-level competition through the 1970s and into the early 1980s. It is still popular in vintage racing.

The engine took its name from founder Fred Offenhauser, who originally partnered in the project with Harry Miller. Numerous configurations and displacements were produced over the decades, including I-4, V-8, normally aspirated, and turbocharged configurations. In 1946, the company was sold to Louis Meyer and Dale Drake, at which time they formally became known as Meyer-Drake engines. However, the legacy name "Offenhauser" remained the preferred and most widely-used moniker. In 1975, by which time Meyer had since sold his interests, another derivative engine was introduced called the DGS (Drake-Goossen-Sparks). Considered the final engine which was part of the original Offy lineage, it saw modest success on the Indy car circuit.