1960 Hillegass Sprint Car

Chevrolet's 'small block' overhead valve V8 engine introduced in 1955 models soon powered a variety of sports-racing cars. The original 265 CID production engine produced 162 to 185 HP depending on configuration, then went to 283 CID and a maximum factory rating of 283 HP seen during 1957 stock car racing. Then came the more powerful 327 CID and 350 CID engines of the 1960s that produced well over 500 horsepower in fuel-injected racing form. Such rapidly advancing output pushed competition into a new realm, especially Sprint Car racing; ferocious performance not seen with 400 horsepower Offenhauser-powered sprint cars.

This 1958 Beletsky Special is an example from that time and was raced into the late 1960s. It was featured in Speed Age Magazine, in May 1959, and shows period livery as the first Chevy V8-powered sprint car to race against Offy-powered cars in Pennsylvania. Several owners and their drivers over the years campaigned this track car largely in the New England area. Similar solid axle, lightweight cars running in-out gearboxes were a handful at 400 horsepower, then became hairy-chested beasts with over 500 horsepower. Sprint car racing took on its modern form with cars of those type, those with aluminum sheet metal bodies, chassis, and suspension similar in form to cars racing in the 1930s with 1960s era horsepower.