Man this thing is Cool.... I think it's my new favorite car !.. Well almost .... Buddy of mines new toy... The 718ci Hispano-Suiza 8b started life in a Spad, cut down to it's 4 banger configuration it ran in a sprint car. The builders name alludes me at the moment ... The motor was retired from the Sprinter and given to Benham and Archer. They intern built it into "The Hiso Special" ... She was good for something like 130 in 1/4 and about the same the one time it ran on the salt... That's a " Real Broad Brush " history of the car .. I'm sure a lot of guys know more about her than me ... Know I have an article on her in one of my 'ol mags .. just need to find it...
Oh, cool - I remember reading about this car around 10 years ago. It was supposedly sold at a collector car auction to a fellow from Europe, and everyone thought he was going to pull the motor out to put in an airplane resto. Glad that didn't happen.
The car is down here in soCal .. was up in the Bay Area for along time.. I'm sure it's going to pop out at an event or two. Have some more Detail photos on an other disc .. need to hunt out ... The aluminum work on the crank case where the bank of cylinders was blows me away...
Had no idea that the Hisso's were that popular in the dirt cars. Guess that would have been cheap surplus power.. Great info...
Sorry I made that "Typo" 4 years ago... I didn't do it as a slight to your father as it sounded in your pm.. I was just trying to show a really beautifully designed car that my buddy now owns ... I'm sure he would love to have a more complete and correct history on the car to keep with her... -Dave
That car was written up in one of the very first Hot Rod Magazines I ever encountered, somewhere around 1960. I think there was a feature and also some pictures of it at a four-ever-four hill climb...
Yes, Ronnie was always thinking out of the box. it was always a treat to stop by his garage and see what his latest trick project was. RIP old friend.
Rulebook probably just said "pre-135 four cylinder"...no one was considering the far edges of that box! That car impressed me when I was 12, despite the dearth of info in the HRM articles. Recently I picked up a Hisso V-8 parts and tools catalogs...really interesting material after a 50 year wait for more detail!
I have the article this photo is from. Car Craft IIRC. I think i had it out just the other day, will post it if its handy...
Yes, it was Benham & Aicher. Some other facts are a bit skewed too, it never ran on the salt, and it never ran 130 in the quarter. Ron & Paul were 4 ever 4 Club members when the car was built, and Ron & I later ran my 4-port Cook in a T roadster that Ron built. My recollection was it was 366 cu. inches, non-counter weighted crank that vibrated like crazy at RPM, max was about 4,000. When restored the new owner had a new crank made that was much smoother. I remember it as running about 110-112 in the quarter. Our Benham & Brierley roadster beat the Hisso one night in Fontana but it went by me like a freight train just after the finish line, it ran 110 and I ran 99, in the mid 12's.
I wonder what it'd be like if they hadn't cut it down to four cylinders and instead, had built and run it with all 8 cylinders and 718 cubic inches??!! Mart3406 ===========
I will have to hunt for the Hisso book. I live in a bibliographic landslide, and some other residents think there should be space with no books so stuff goes into odd places... What I have is a fat catalog from about 1929 from an outfit still selling WWI surplus airplanes and parts...everything in there is available in new, rebuilt, used, or total deathtrap condition, and there are full catalog sections of parts and tools for both Hisso and Liberty. Cannot remember what the planes are...not referred to as Jennys, but are something similar, two seat slow biplanes.
When the Hisso's ran on the track it took the drivers a while to get used to them, they were very high in torque but because they didn't rev like other race engines it didn't sound like they were going fast, this brought the turns up quicker than the driver expected, or so said Joe Gemsa.
I remember Ronnie Benham showing me pictures of this car and telling about it when I was a kid, hanging out in his garage back in the '80's.
The Jalopy Journal
