The 1949 Rounds Rocket Was America's Mid-Engine Indy Car 15 Years Too EarlyMotoriousElizabeth PuckettWed, September 16, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTCAdd us on GoogleThe 1949 Rounds Rocket Was America's Mid-Engine Indy Car 15 Years Too EarlyEvery so often an auction catalog turns up a car that was simply built in the wrong decade. That is the 1949 Rounds Rocket, a mid-engine, Offenhauser-powered single-seater that is heading to Gooding Christie's for the inaugural Retromobile New York Auctions this November as part of Selections from the Price Museum of Speed. It is one of the most daring American racing cars of its era, and it called the future of Indianapolis a decade and a half before the rest of the paddock caught on.A Sketch, a $3,000 Retainer, and the Best Builders in Los AngelesThe Rocket began as a drawing by Nathan Rounds, a Los Angeles sportsman and mechanic who had been paying close attention to the prewar Auto Union grand prix cars and the 1930s Gulf-Miller specials. Both put the engine behind the driver, and Rounds was convinced that was the way forward. He put down a reported $3,000 retainer and handed the project to constructor Lujie Lesovsky, with the great Emil Diedt shaping the bodywork.Those were exactly the right names for the job. Lesovsky and Diedt were two of the most respected craftsmen in Southern California's racing scene, and the car they produced still looks purposeful today: low, tapered, beautifully proportioned, with the cockpit pushed well forward of the engine. Progress was slow because both builders were juggling other commissions, but the result was worth the wait.Offenhauser Power, in the Right PlaceBehind the driver sits a 270 cubic-inch Meyer-Drake Offenhauser, the twin-cam four-cylinder that defined American championship racing for decades, here estimated at roughly 350 horsepower. It drives the rear wheels through a two-speed manual gearbox, with four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes and a compact 99.75-inch wheelbase.AdvertisementAdvertisementPut that in 1949 context. The Indianapolis grid of the era was a sea of front-engine Offy roadsters, and it stayed that way until Jack Brabham turned up with a rear-engine Cooper in 1961 and Lotus finished the argument shortly after. Rounds got there in 1949.140 MPH at Bonneville, Heartbreak at IndianapolisThe car was finished with barely any time to sort it, and that showed at the worst possible moment. Early running at Bonneville reportedly produced a timed 140 mph, which is genuinely quick for a machine with almost no development miles on it. At Indianapolis in 1949, rookie Bill Taylor got the Rocket up to 124 mph but could not find the speed to qualify.The 1950 effort was more serious still. Sam Hanks and Bill Vukovich, a future two-time Indy 500 winner, both took turns behind the wheel before a half-shaft failure ended the attempt. Two drivers of that caliber signing on says plenty about how much promise people saw in the car.From a Beverly Hills Garage to the Price Museum of SpeedOnce the racing stopped, the Rocket went into Rounds' mother's Beverly Hills garage and stayed there. Bill Harrah, whose eye for significant machinery was second to none, bought it in 1969 and had it restored. A later owner commissioned a show-quality, nut-and-bolt restoration by Bob Smith Coachworks, and in 1998 the car joined the celebrated Milhous Collection, where it later brought $275,000 when that collection crossed the block.AdvertisementAdvertisementFrom there it found a home at the Price Museum of Speed in Salt Lake City, a collection built around the earliest chapters of racing history, from a 1904 Peerless Green Dragon to a 1929 Bugatti Type 35B. It is the kind of company that suits a car like this, and the kind of provenance that tends to follow pioneering grand prix machinery to the top of a catalog.Coming to the Javits Center in NovemberGooding Christie's stages its first Retromobile New York sale at the Javits Center from November 19 to 22, with the auction itself running on November 20 and 21 and the full catalog due in October. No estimate has been published for the Rounds Rocket yet, and additional images and the complete lot description are still to come. It joins a New York consignment list that already includes a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider, and it arrives on the back of a strong year for the house, which cleared $67 million at Amelia Island.Plenty of cars from this era won more than the Rounds Rocket did. Very few of them were this brave. Rounds bet his own money on an idea that the entire American open-wheel establishment would not accept for another fifteen years, and he got two of the best builders in the business to make it real. That the car still exists in this condition, with this provenance, is reason enough to watch it closely in November.⚡️ Read the full article on MotoriousSign up for the Motorious Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.