19/07/2026
Ron Hoettels of SESCO Engineering looked at motorcycle engines and saw something nobody else did: cheap, lightweight, high-revving DOHC four-valve cylinder heads and barrels that could be bolted onto a custom V8 crankcase. Two banks of four cylinders. Suzuki, Kawasaki, or Yamaha, whichever was available. A billet crankshaft carved by S**t with a gear hobbed directly into the center of the crank that meshed with a secondary idler gear riding on roller bearings in the crankcase. That idler gear was actually two gears pressed together: one meshed with the crank, the other drove the cam chains for both banks. Air-cooled cylinders with a 6,400 BTU oil cooler handling the majority of heat rejection. Hilborn fuel injection feeding eight individual intake stacks. The result was a compact, lightweight, high-revving V8 designed for USAC midget car racing in the early 1980s.
The engineering trick was making both banks work. Both cylinder heads pointed toward each other in a narrow V. That meant one bank's valvetrain had to run in reverse relative to the other. The idler gear assembly between the crank and the cam chains made this possible. The cam chain drive reversed the rotation for the opposing bank so both sets of DOHC heads fired correctly. Hoettels partnered with Mel Kenyon, a legendary midget car driver and chassis builder, to create a complete racecar. Kenyon built the rolling chassis. Hoettels supplied the engine. The combination was competitive enough that multiple cars were built and raced on the USAC midget circuit.
The beauty of the SESCO concept was cost. Japanese motorcycle engines were produced in massive volumes. Cylinder heads, barrels, pistons, rings, valves, valve springs, camshafts, and cam chains were all off-the-shelf motorcycle parts that cost a fraction of purpose-built racing components. The custom pieces were the billet crankcase, the S**t billet crankshaft, the idler gear assembly, and the Hilborn injection system. Everything else came from a Suzuki, Kawasaki, or Yamaha parts catalog. A complete SESCO V8 cost dramatically less than a comparable purpose-built midget racing engine while producing competitive power from a package that weighed almost nothing.
The SESCO V8 predated the now-famous Hartley Hayabusa V8 (which uses the same basic concept with modern Suzuki Hayabusa cylinders) by roughly two decades. Very few SESCO engines were built. Surviving examples are rarely seen outside specialist collections and historic midget car events. The engine remains one of the most creative solutions in grassroots American racing: take what the Japanese motorcycle industry mass-produces, bolt it onto a custom American crankcase, add Hilborn injection, and go racing. Motorcycle cylinders. Billet crankshaft. V8 crankcase. Midget car. The SESCO was proof that the best race engines don't always come from the biggest budgets.
