Mallory goes pre-war

Hillegass

Douglas Martin has owned his 1937 Hillegass sprint car for three years, but the All-comers Short Handicap race at Mallory Park was only its third race in his hands.

He imported the car from Ohio after finding it on the internet. ‘Hiram Hillegass built three big cars before the war, and went on to build 200 midgets and three-quarter racers afterwards,’ Martin explained. ‘This car ended up being locked in a barn until the mid-nineties. It was built as either a sprint car or a champ car, because it has an adjustable rear axle. It has a Ford Model B engine, Ford Model T chassis rails and Ford V8 running gear.

‘The car was in fairly good condition, but it had been updated with BMW carburettors, Renault electronic ignition and hydraulic dampers. So I put it back to how it was, with a pair of Strombergs, an original coil distributor and Model A and V8 dampers.’

‘When we took the engine to bits we found the crank was pressurised but the conrods weren’t, so we drilled the crank to pressurise them. This prevents oil starvation, which is important when you’re cornering hard.’

The Hillegass Special was victorious in the All-comers Short Handicap for Pre-war Cars.

Wolseley 16/20

Roger Twelvetrees and his son William have spent nine years recreating an almost forgotten single-seater Wolseley 16/20 project car with just four old photos as a guide. Their hard work came to fruition when the car raced for the first time in the Edwardian Handicap race.

In 1911 Wolseley attempted a motoring milestone at Brooklands – the first car to travel at 100mph. It failed to achieve this milestone, leaving Percy Lambert to do it in early 1912 driving a Talbot.

Roger takes up the story, ‘The project car was put in a shed and sold in 1918 to a man called Harold Day who put paraffin lamps on it, drove it home and photographed his son, George, sitting in it. He converted it into a twoseater with a dickie and it was family transport until it disappeared. We had two photos of the car being tested and two with George sitting in it – that was it!’ Roger bought a pile of parts from three Wolseley 16/20s and set to work aided by William and engineer Clive Press. Using the four photos, William made a 3D model of the car and produced cross-sections which Roger turned into bucks so that the body could be made.

‘I can remember knocking the body off with an axe when I was only 13’

lagonda lg45

Nicholas Morley’s Lagonda LG45 open two-seater, which features specially-made rear bodywork, was at Mallory competing in its first season of racing in over 25 years. ‘It was a complete wreck when we first bought it from Dorset in 1973,’ said Nicholas. ‘Originally it had a fourseater body with a roof. I can remember knocking the body off with an axe and a sledgehammer when I was only 13. We had the whole chassis powder-coated and zinc-sprayed after we cleaned up all the rust.

‘All the interior, seats and woodwork were completely rotted, so we decided to turn it into a special. We raced it for a few years, then put it into storage. Now we’ve had the engine reconditioned to its original specification.’