1963 Huffaker Genie Mark VIII

Joe Huffaker was a race engineer working in the Competitions Department at Kjell Qvale's British Motor Car Distributors (BMCD) in San Francisco, CA. He was also a drag racer who built his first road racer in 1954, followed by several homebuilt specials and Formula Junior racers. Near the close of the 1950s, BMCD introduced a series of Formula Junior race cars designed and built by Huffaker. The mid-mounted revolution from Europe soon made these cars obsolete, prompting a shift to a modern sports race car design using the competitive and popular 1100cc SCCA G modified class. Rather than follow the prevailing practice of simply widening and modifying the FJ chassis, Huffaker began anew, creating a lightweight, fully triangulated chrome-moly spaceframe chassis that weighed just under 60 lbs. and used a rear sub-frame setup that could accommodate larger capacity, more powerful engines to compete in several classes of sports racing.

Huffaker set out on his own in 1966, creating Huffaker Engineering. The Genies built by Huffaker were competitive machines, thanks to their lightweight design, aerodynamic fiberglass bodywork, mid-engine placement, ability to house engines of various sizes, and a sophisticated chassis and mechanical componentry. Their competitiveness led to Huffaker becoming, at one time, the USA's largest specialist manufacturer of racing cars.

The first Genie Sports Racer was known as the MK IV. It had a spaceframe chassis, glassfiber body, disc brakes, coil-sprung independent suspension, and BMC A-Series 1100cc engine. The MKIV was followed by the MKV which could accommodate the larger Coventry-Climax FWA, Ford, Porsche, and Alfa Romeo power units. A single MK VI was built with a Chevy Corvair engine and transaxle. Race cars that followed were designed to house large-displacement American V8 engines for the CanAm series. These vehicles were initially successful but later lost ground to the Lolas and all-conquering McLarens.

It is believed that approximately twenty examples of the MKIV and MKV were built (ten each) along with a single MKVI.

The Mark 8 (MK VIII) was a sports racer with a tubular space frame chassis and could carry a variety of American V8s, including those from Ford, Chevrolet, Buick, or Oldsmobile. The suspension arrangement was similar to the design used on the MK5, but modified to cope with the more powerful engines. Disc brakes and Dunlop magnesium calipers provided the stopping power. The fiberglass body had a similar shape to the previous Genie cars. Approximately seven examples were built.

by Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2024