One of the best things at PRI is a little room, tucked just off the main hall, that usually houses the first-time exhibitors or late entries. This year’s “new arrivals” included an outfit called Midwest Supercub and Midwest Supercub’s line of homemade, alcohol-burning, CNC-milled racing engines. For lawn tractors.
You read that right, kids- Midwest Supercub offers a variety of parts to make your lawn tractor the all-out fastest and baddest lawn tractor money can buy. You can get a trick carb and exhaust kit for your stock Cub Cadet tractor, or go all-out with one of these …
… that’s a 90 ci, homebuilt engine called “the Brute”. It’s based on the Cub Cadet/Kohler Courage V-Twin architecture, but it’s all CNC’ed and awesome and puts out nearly 220 hp on high-grade ethanol, and bolts up to a reinforced, Midwest Supercub-built tractor transmission that feeds power to a shortened Dodge Dart rear axle.
Really.
The big take-away from all this is that these guys are serious about tractoring- and they have put a ton of serious, Serious brainpower, math, and money into making damn sure their tractor tractors better than your tractor tractors. Or something. I have to admit, I don’t really understand what this go-fast tractoring this is all about, but something inside my little gear head soul responds to it immediately. I must have one. Maybe two. I’ll let you know if that happens.
In the meantime, why don’t you tell us what you think of Midwest Supercub’s go-fast lawn equipment in the comments, below.
Ah, shades of Home Improvement.
Now, THAT’s what I’m talkin’ about!
Arrr…ar….ar…
Needs MOAR POWER…
I don’t think so, Tim
PRI refers to Performance Racing Industry, if I googled correctly.
It’s a bit of a disappointment compared to Honda’s 130 mph mower.
youtube.com/watch?v=Xe5ldu2jB2E
That Honda is lame, we do tractor pulling. Dragging a 12,000# progressive weight sled down a 300′ track at nearly 30mph, I bet that Honda wouldn’t even be able to budge it. The Honda would be a dissapointment if we were to challenge it. Given our Brute engine that make 220HP and 165 ft lbs of torque is has more torque than most crotch rocket motorcyles and you know how fast they go.
It looks to me like the engine in the pictures is not the same as the blueprints. The pictured engine looks (to me) like it’s a one-cylinder flathead, with two spark plugs.
Can anyone explain to me how it’s cooled? I don’t see any fins, nor a radiator.
stuart
And given the thick plate on top of the head, this motor must run some absolutely absurd compression, like 15 to 1.
Looks like a Junior Dragster engine, and those can put out like 60 horsepower from one cylinder.
It’s not cooled. It doesn’t even have a cooling fan on the flywheel anymore. It’s probably a built-to-the-max Kohler flathead single, around ~800cc that is pushing 60-80HP.
It only has to run long enough to make a single sled pull down a dirt track.
Yes, but how fast can it edge around trees? I also see problems on the mow strip at the curb. It runs on alcohol, you say? Does that mean you can put E85 in it?
Really? People tractor pull with these things?