1956 Hillegass Sprint Car

Hiram Hillegass began building race cars in 1919 while working at Mack in Allentown, Pennsylvania. By the time he died in 1960 at the age of 65, he was recognized as one of the foremost builders of single-seat race cars in the Únited States, a stature that was endorsed when he was elected to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1997.

Hillegass is perhaps best known for his midgets, which he began building as the midget racing boom took off in the Thirties. At the time he was living in Syracuse, New York, and working in Carrier Corporation's research and development department. He continued there through World War II but then returned to Allentown where he set up his own shop at 2435 South 4th Street.

Midgets, as builders like Frank Kurtis and Pop Dreyer proved, were viable businesses and Hiram Hillegass approached it as such, even going to the extent of investing in cast iron bucks over which he could accurately, quickly, and repeatably form the complex body panels that clothed his creations. Racers earned their livings with the diminutive but shapely single-seaters, sometimes racing every evening of the week during the season and twice or more a day on weekends. The cars and their engines had to be quick enough to command appearance money, bring home prize money regularly and stand up to constant use and competition.

The midgets of Hiram Hillegass met the test, and it is not surprising that the drivers who survived racing his midgets turned to Hillegass for bigger cars which were then known simply and logically as 'Big Cars'. These were the sprint cars that carried bigger engines, campaigned on larger tracks and each year adjourned for the month of May to Indianapolis, Indiana for the 500. Hillegass built two Big Cars in the Thirties, one for Frank 'Butcher Boy' Wierer in 1937 and one for Doc Keim in Hillegass's hometown of Allentown in 1939.

Following the war, both car builders and racers looked for an alternative to the recycled production car frames that had been the basis of many pre-war Big Cars. Many had worked in the aircraft and defense industry during the war and brought from it some lessons. Car builders began to use large diameter high strength steel tubing for frame rails. Rigid, rugged, and straightforward to build and repair, the tube frame caught on quickly, particularly with Frank Kurtis who put eight of his tube framed KK2000s in 'the show' at Indianapolis in 1949.

Hiram Hillegass recognized the practicality of frames made from lightweight, strong tubing and he quickly developed his own design which he offered as a chassis and body package for $925 with the buyer to provide his own engine and driveline. The first three tube-frame Hillegass sprint cars were built in 1949, three more were built in 1950.

Source - Bonhams & Butterfields