Most vintage sprint cars on the market these days have either seen full restorations – including gold-leaf lettering and plenty of chrome chassis parts – or remain track warriors with selected upgrades mixed in with beat up body panels. Not many are like this Hudson-powered 1949 Hillegass sprint car for sale on Hemmings.com – that is, unrestored and left pretty much in period race condition, in this case, thanks to spending more than 40 years in a private museum. From the seller’s description:
This mostly original, unmolested (except paint) and magnificently preserved example still has the original “Buck” molded aluminum body, hand formed by the inimitable Hillegass himself more than half a century ago. This racer necessarily had engine upgrades several times in its life but now sports a Flathead 6-cylinder Hudson Hornet block with an aluminum racing head and still retains the original “banjo” steering wheel with missing steering wheel hub. This very durable, Hall of Fame-built Hillegass race car started its life racing the oval tracks in Rochester, New York, and also in and around the Northeastern and Midwestern United States oval race track circuits.
This historic American race car was ordered and purchased by original owner Bill Helinich Hudson from Hiram Hillegass’ Allentown, Pennsylvania, workshop in 1947-49 and raced by driver Jim “Smoke” Smolinski. It was later sold to a collector and race enthusiast in Ohio in the late 1960s and then purchased by a wealthy car enthusiast for his private museum collection in Morganton, North Carolina, where it has been curated indoors for nearly 20 years and presently remains. However, I am the full and present owner of this legendary Sprint Car and the car will be shipped from the museum in Morganton, North Carolina.
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