History
This is a beautiful, one of a kind, hand built creation fabricated by National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee, (1997), Bruce Bromme Sr. for his son, National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee, (2011), Bruce Bromme Jr.
When Bruce Bromme found that his wife, Marge, was expecting their child, what would any expectant father, especially a 2'd generation racer, do but set out to create something special to have for his child when he came into this world. Of course, in those days the sex of the child was a surprise but that didn't matter to Bruce.
Employed at Hughes Aircraft, Bruce put his aeronautical fabrication talents to work and hand crafted virtually every part of this car with the exception of the tires and upholstery. The body is hand formed aluminum which also acts as the chassis which actually makes it an early version of a monocoque chassis. Taking some of the latest short track race car suspensionideas into account, he designed the car with parallel rear torsion bars and cross leaf spring front suspension.
Virtually every little detail was addressed by Bruce, even the wheels, complete with knock off wing nuts, the wooden steering wheel, front spring and torsion bars were meticulously hand crafted by Bruce. Power was supplied by a ½ h.p. engine. (No, we have no idea how much this one of a kind vehicle cost Howard Hughes.)
1951 saw the arrival of Bruce Bromme Jr and dad was ready. Needless to say, it wouldn't take too many years for his son to outgrow this miniature racer. However, dad had a solution. When Bruce Jr outgrew it, dad was ready with something that resembled a "booster seat". He moved the throttle pedal to the outside of the body, place a foot peg on the left side and they were once again off and running with young Bruce straddling the car.
In addition to Bruce Jr., California Sprint Car racing great, Dean (Deano) Thompson also took some rides in this car. Dean grew up to become the driver of the famous Bromme Sprint Cars and became the all time record holder with 103 main event victories and was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1998. It truly is a "SMALL WORLD".
