Many years ago, a fellow by the name of Jeff Harper started posting pictures of sprint cars he was building by hand, on DirtOval.com. They were beautiful—scale appearance, top-shelf craftsmanship, and were strong performers, to boot. I wanted one in the worst way, but he had only made a few, and had a waiting list of local buddies as long as his arm, and he wasn't taking orders.
I waited patiently for my day, and then a few years later, I happened to be surfing the DODC Classifieds at the right tome to see Jeff post his own "house car" up for sale. I was lucky enough to get first shot at it, and though it cost a TON, I bought it. It was gorgeous, too. Completely turn-key and ready to race. I tore it down, rebuilt it as my own and put new bodywork on it. You might have seen photos of the pink and green sprinter here before. I picked up another one of the cars a year later, but never raced it. Turns out it was a 1 of 2 cars made in a specific layout.
In 2008 when we found that we were going to have our first baby, I decided to sell off everything, and my pair of Harper sprint cars were part of that sale. I still regret it to this day. I wish I had never sold those cars.
Fast forward to 2011, and I had decided that I was going to move out some other cars and parts that I wasn't using and search for another Harper. It took 9 months to find one for sale this time, but again I was in the right place at the right time. I was able to score a Harper sprint car, but this one was a little rougher than my last car—and a perfect project for my broken knee-hobbled self. I can't do much painting in the garage yet, but I'm fine in a chair tinkering at the workshop tables.
Anyway, a couple of days after I found the Harper H2 in need of some TLC, I found the sister-car of my original 1 of 2 chassis that I sold. I actually picked that up, too, for a LOT less than I sold the original for, so again, I ended up with a couple of beautiful—albeit in need of a lot of work—Harper-made sprint car chassis.
The new-to-me Harper H2 rebuild in progress:
I created a blog to document the rebuilds of these cars, as well as some of the other details of Harper cars, now that Jeff is no longer making them at all. If you would like to follow along with the builds and see other photos of Harper cars, join the blog here: http://harpersprintcars.blogspot.com.
Enjoy,
dc
