While small European companies were cranking out sports cars from crusty old factories in the 1950s and early 1960s, American gearheads were fashioning their own and mixing it up on road courses across America. The 1961 Hoyt Special is a perfect example of this. It’s a one-off, homebuilt sports car that was raced at places like Mid-America Raceway, Elkhart Lake, and other famous road courses.
This car really is awesome. It sports a tube chassis that was constructed by Al Hoyt at his home. He then took an aluminum drop tank from an F-100 airplane and removed all the aluminum sheathing on the outside and used it to make the body. While many of these home built jobs were powered with American V8 engines, Hoyt went the other way.
A wrecked Volvo 544 that had only racked up 250 miles gave up its motor to the car. Amazingly that same engine still resides between the hand formed fenders today. The car was raced in the SCCA and classified in the F/Modified class. We have no idea what it would have been running against.
Make no mistake about it, the 1961 Hoyt Special is a hot rod, and a damned fine one at that. We’d love to wind that little Swedish engine out around the bend at Elkhart Lake again!
Source — AutoTraderClassics.com — The 1961 Hoyt Special
