well here`s my first try at putting a post together. Bear with me i`ll make plenty of errors i bet. I am in the process of bringing the old "C rown seven" back to life for one of the original owners out of conn. I will try to keep posting as i go along and hope that many of you are interested in following it`s progress. As far as the history i will have the car owner stop bye on here and provide all the information he has. The owner of this car is Stanley "Skip" Matczak out of Somers Ct. also the owner of Seals-it racing products. Just before the snow had started we went down to ct. and picked up what we had of the car. After getting it home and into the shop we began to take inventory of what we had and what we needed. This is going to be alot of fun....that it quite evident! I`ll start with a few pics as we got it here and will try to give a rundown every week if possible. If you have any questions......fire away later jim
Great Score ! Maybe he can give you some old pictures to go by for the build . Yes that really does look like a nice fun project ! Keep us informed ! RetroJim
Welcome Mr. Lobitz...... I had the pleasure of meeting you at your annual racers get together a couple years ago. I was there with Skip and you took us around to view some of your collection. I was amazed at some of the race stuff you have collected. I have a few pics of that day and if you dont mind i will post a few if possible. I have overhauled the in/out box that Skip picked up a couple weeks ago and will post those pics shortly.......there was a clever trick that someone did to the box and i will point it out in that post. Again thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy the storys.......
Keep the info coming Jim... fwiw: We raced against another Crown 7 (Western Racing Association-West Coast Vintage Racers) at Havasu City Speedway this past weekend-Santa Maria past Champion Kenny Van Blargen - just turned 80 ps Stop by The Clam Box and down a few for an old New Englander if you will.
Was glad to see Skip when he stopped by for the Box. No trouble with the photos. Hill-a-gass is the way its pronounced. Stan..............
here`s a few pics of the in/out box fix up. the neat little trick that i saw is in the first pics before i took it apart.......they seemed to use the fumes from inside the box to keep the front splined lubricated. a hollowed out top bolt with a hose clamped on it and then drilled a hole and stuck the hose inside.......maybe they all did that back then but i had not seen it before........
Cool Prodject. I sure miss watching Scott scream around the track, He and your cars have always been some of my favorites. Good luck.
Back again.......In this post of pictures i have begun to assemble some of the pieces that came with the car more or less a exercise to see what we have and what we dont. I have come to realize that it takes alot of patience to bring these car back to life. Searching for parts takes a lot of time and you so want to be doing something mechanical on the car but you need just that other little piece thats missing. Thank god for the internet and also to the members of hamby.....when i needed a couple brake shoes and two brass bushings to complete the front brakes 2 hamby members one from texas and the other from miss. replied they had them and sent them here at no charge too.....I will pass it forward whenever i get the chance...thanks guys. I am working on getting the history of this car and will post as soon as i get it together......interesting item is that it was driven by a tobias early on.....
This car was built about 1948 in the race shop of Hiram Hillegass. According to the price list the car w/o motor sold for the big sum of 650.00. It is rumored to be the last rail frame car built by Hillegass. The next car produced was the tube frame Blue bird of Tommy Hinnershnitz. The suspension of the rail frame car looks to be very similar to that of the tube frame car. The original motor in this car was a DO Hal. We have no driver or results from that time but we do have a picture of the mechanic who later bought the car. More on that later....During the 50`s the Dodge Red Ram began to show up with URC and with other clubs. Stan Lobitz still owns the very sucessful Ellis Bros. Dodge...The driver after the dodge motor was installed was Lawerence Toby Tobias, older brother of Dick Toby Tobias. The car won a few races using wire wheels,a hand pump for the fuel,and of course a hand brake. The car has never been raced with power steering and looking at the pictures we have of the car racing you can see how muscular the drivers were in the early days. It was a beautful car car with classic Hillegass lines,number 11 painted similar to the aggie 98. White with red fames. A 1950s pic. shows the crew attired in white pants with red shirts. Very snappy. The car was sold to Bill Bower who installed Bill Wentz as his driver....speaking with Bill W. at the chili bowl he stated the car handled very well and had good power but it suffered from rear end problems By the way Bill W. said he is still looking for a ride......Thats it for now...i will follow up soon with some neat pics and a list of the original owners..........
Think I've seen photos of Gene Bergin, and maybe Buddy Krebs in that car, will be neat to hear it's history. Thanks for posting.
Hillegass cars were made in Allentown PA.. He did some louver work for me in the late 50s. Some of the forms that they made the bodies on are still at the America On Wheels Museum.
Right you are Hugh from Chrome Horn (see their 1962 photos) http://www.racerhub.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=145729 http://www.racerhub.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=145728 http://www.racerhub.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=145727 Gene Bergin in the Crown 7 at an open event at Thompson Speedway. I was there, and what an assemblage of racecars (Reino Tulonen (whom I believe began his storied career driving a Hal) even brought an old flat tail sprinter and bolted a model A roof section to it) and hello to Denny Zimmerman Left Norwood Arena and Boston for the service in 1962 and never went back but I can probably recall everything I ever saw there, especially as I fall to sleep. carl schulz Indio, CA
His "louver press" is on display at Latimore Valley museum, when it was shown to me I couldn't guess what it was for...couple of leaf springs with home made dies attached. Tried to duplicate it later and it's not as easy as it looks. wish I had taken a picture.
Thats the one he used,10 cents a louver, two hits to make one. If it took three hits he said he lost money.
Hugh, I bought the contents of Hillegass`s old shop. That louver set and a smaller one were in it. Back in about 55 old Ben cook and I were at the shop and I copied the dies. I have been louvering since, I can copy any shape louver in about 15 minutes and can louver faster than any mechanical press. He was right it only takes two cracks with the hammer. Stan
well you have to bear with me i wanted to upload even more pics but am having a hard time. i will upload them tomorrow........but as you can see i have the huge short block stuck into the chassis....cant wait to see it with heads etc..........been gathering parts as fast as i can am finding that you need to have multiple tasks going cause getting the correct part takes alot of searching..........have been informed that one of this cars original drivers Mr. Bill Wentz is following our project and would like to welcome him in here..........it would be a honor if Bill would provide us all with some of the history of this car......Please Bill jump right in here and tell some stories......thats all for now gonna watch usac midget show from hickory on the usac site........later Jim
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