Coker unveils 1939 Indy engine rebuild at SEMA show

Joe Lencki built a DOHC straight six in 1939 that made an astounding (for the time) 417 hp. The engine was in cars that raced, qualified or tried to qualify at Indianapolis all the way up to 1963. It was an innovative monoblock design that, with those cam covers and cooling fins, looks even cooler now than it probably did 63 years ago.

Well, Corky Coker knows cool.

“This engine is just cooler than dangit,” said Coker.

The man whose tires adorn about 70 percent of the great classic cars rolling around the country and parked on the lawns at various concours has brought the great Lencki Six back to life. The night before the SEMA show opened its massive doors in Las Vegas, Coker and his talented team of engineers fired up the Lencki for the first time in public in a half century.

“That is a man's motor,” Coker yelled over the smooth staccato whappitywhappitywhap BRAAAP of the re-fired six.

While they built a stand for it that looked like the front end of an old Indy roadster, Coker doesn't want to put it into any particular car, or at least any car he would build.

“I want the Chip Fooses and Troy Trepaniers of the world to use it,” Coker said.

Indeed, copies of the engine should be available in about six months at around $100,000 each. It's the perfect setup for somebody spending $2 million to try and win the Ridler or the AMBR. What's a hundred grand to a guy like that? After all, “This engine is a real ground-up man motor,” Coker said. And who wouldn't want a ground-up man motor?

SEMA -- short for Specialty Equipment Marketing Association -- is the biggest aftermarket auto event in the world, held in Las Vegas each fall. The show fills multiple convention halls and shows off everything from high-performance OEM specials to custom wheels and graphics from local shops. Get the full rundown on what automakers and suppliers are up to at the industry's biggest trade show at our SEMA Show home page.

SEMA — short for Specialty Equipment Marketing Association — is the biggest aftermarket auto event in the world, held in Las Vegas each fall. The show fills multiple convention halls and shows off everything from high-performance OEM specials to custom wheels and graphics from local shops. Get the full rundown on what automakers and suppliers are up to at the industry's biggest trade show at our SEMA Show home page.

By Mark Vaughn