Before we talk about the car in this book, we’ve got to first point out that it’s legendary on several levels, first for being driven by one of the all-time greats in eastern Sprint car racing, Tommy Hinnershitz, the quiet Pennsylvania farmer. What happens beyond that is a terrific detective story. The Pfrommer Offy is the step-by-step tale of the research that was required to identify it from a pile of remains that had been first been raced in 1954 and was campaigned through 1972, with a driver lineup that included 15 veterans of the Indianapolis 500 and eight drivers enshrined in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa. Hinnershitz won the 1959 USAC Eastern Championship with the Pfrommer car before it gradually faded into history.
Alan F. Gross’s 154-page story is a year-by-year accounting of what happened next to the Pfrommer Offy, one of just 37 Sprint cars constructed by the hall of fame builder Hiram Hillegass, as the prologue to the race car’s eventual restoration to its 1950s appearance. Rescuing historic cars, especially after they’ve been discarded, requires the kind of intensive research that Gross conducted while trying to determine what he had. It’s a gratifying story told in this volume, which was published by Coastal 181 and retails for $34.95. Go to http://www.coastal181.com.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 