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 2011 - Jim Kipp Private Garage Collection

March 12th, 2011

On this morning, we had a very unique opportunity to see a spectacular private collection belonging to Jim Kipp.  The garage is located in Lake Elsinore.  Jim is a friend of SDP member Ralph Suarez, and Ralph managed to talk him into letting our gang come up for a visit.  Jim's collection is very unique, and includes: A dozen or so stunning cars, tons of racing memorabilia, model cars, boats and airplanes, a massive 8-lane slot car racing track, a 2-lane slot car drag racing track, guitars, drums and much more.  But perhaps his most impressive and amazing items are his collection of operating miniature internal combustion gas powered V8 engines!  These are absolutely mind blowing, with miniature pistons, rings, cranks, cams, heads rockers, superchargers.  Nothing short of incredible.

We had a great turn out of 14 Panteras and a GT40.  Members and guests included: Ralph Suarez, Bobby Udell, Glen Chancellor, Bret & Nash Gann, Chris Lee, Leon Rower, George Bagdasarian, Klaus Schoenherr, Kevin & LLynne Ryniker, Dave Briggs, Mike & Mike Jr Becker, Craig & Randi Cline, Bruce Mallery, Ron & Carol Ketcham, Scott & Martha Miller and John & Kethy Buckman.

Big thanks to Ralph for arranging this and of course huge thanks to Jim Kipp for sharing his incredible collection.

From the outside, it seems like just another unassuming warehouse in an industrial complex.

But open the doors and you can't believe your eyes!

Airplanes and boats and cars - oh my!

Fully operating flathead V8 table.

George admires the unbelievable workmanship on these little blocks.  This pint-sized blown V8 cranks out about 10 horsepower.

My Hand/watch helps to give you an idea of the actual size

On this workbench, Jim displays some of the internal components being used to build his next engine.

Little baby camshafts!

Heads, cylinder sleeve, crank, piston, con rod, distributor cap...

Yep, those are roller rockers!

 

The slot car drag strip was about 50 feet long.

More model planes

8 Lanes and no waiting for a turn to drive these lightning fast little machines.  Keeping the cars on the track was a full time job for the corner workers.  We had a lot of fun.

This would be amazing if it were a real steam powered vintage machine shop.  But it was actually a miniature, only about 8 inches tall!

Some other miscellaneous stuff.