Hi-Jumper

[offroadracer]

Hello,
I’m just trying to get a little more information on this car.
We just resurrected it, and raced it at Crandon. From what I understand a gentlemen named Louie Flour (spelling?) owned it here in the Midwest.
So far it’s a Hi-Jumper from the mid to late 70’s

 

[harleys dad]

I have won 3 races at Crandon with the same rear tires, Armstrong Desert Dogs were the best rear tire available for a wet Crandon! Cool to see them on a car, The Sandblaster Jrs up front are even older! It looks like a early 80s car to me, 70s High Jumpers had a completly different look all together, does not even look close to a mid 70s high jumper. Jerome and Orris Johnson(Old goat) raced a mid 70s High Jumper to much successes in 1200cc class 10 in the 70s as well as McMillins had 2 of them starting in 1976 in class 9 1200cc,and lot of others in class 1 9 and 10 and they all had the same body lines and hoods and you could tell at a glace they were Hi Jumpers, your car looks nothing at all like a 70s Hi Jumper did but yours looks like cars that showed at Saddleback and Riverside in the early 80s. .Dont know if it or they were Hi Jumpers, could be home made copy with changes made. A lot of cars were home made copying several cars in the making of a car.

 

[GDRBORETIRED]

I hate to disagree but I worked for a Hi-jumper dealer in 73-75 and we sold and raced a car just like that. I believe it was an Ascot model. They were often winners in their day!

 

[harleys dad]

I hate to disagree but I worked for a Hi-jumper dealer in 73-75 and we sold and raced a car just like that. I believe it was an Ascot model. They were often winners in their day!

Looking on trackside photos from 75 threw 79 at all the races listed I cant find 1 single example of that car in the hundreds of photos and I dont remember seeing one like it. For a winning design it sure is scarce. If you say it is ok,

 

[oldschool5er]

Here is an example of the Hi Jumper Hank Roed and I raced in Albuquerque circa 1978

 

[harleys dad]

Looks much different than the car above to me, the main hoop is in a much different position and the frame rails look closer together on the Albuquerque car. There were so many copies in that time period, if it is a high jumper ok, I just cant find one that looks like it and being home sick I spent over 3 hours looking today at Trackside photos. There are dozens of cars I know are Hi Jumpers, I couldnt find 1 that looked even close to this one. What happend to the Hi Jumper old schooler Big jump from class 11 and 51600 at the time!?

 

[oldschool5er]

Yeah your right Dave Lol big jump, we still had the 5/1600 at the time, we were just racing it locally short course when Hank and I moved there. I built the Hi Jumper in my shop in ABQ for a customer Jim Sanchez. He was not a driver but Hank and I raced it for him in the local short courses. Rules changed and they banned the Turbo after we won a few so the owner got it back. He sold it to my ex brother-in-law who took it to Bremerton Washington I believe. He sent me the transmission in 1984 to repair (blew the ZF in it), then I just never heard back from him and lost track of it. I still have the transmission pieces Lol. In the pictures you can see a new Funco single seat frame on the shelf and a class 5 you might remember it was Dave Beverly's old class 6 Yankee Doodle Dandy that was turned into a class 5.

 

[harleys dad]

Dint Beverly build a really late model 11 in 75? Looked like a 75 bug?

 

[oldschool5er]

I think it was his partners car, Dave was a co-driver for a few other people other than us at times. I will have to ask him about that one. I am pretty sure he didn't build one it was somebody else's, but he did co-drive with other class 11's before he started with us.

 

[Bro_Gill]

The chassis is an Ascot II. Hi-jumper started making them about 1976. It was actually a 2 seater, but they wer so narrow that you couldn't fit 2 good seats in them. Hi-jumper also sold a car with a similar cage layout, but it was narrower and was called an RS II as the single seater, but the glass was a little different. I know which cars Dave is talking about, they are RS 1s and Ascots and they did have a different roll cage design, more upright and a true B-pillar hoop instead of the hoop originating from the rear of the car. They sold those cars into the early 1980s. The RS and Ascot II versions went into the mid-1980s and were replaced by the 3 series of the same. The Ascot IIs also were changed with a bow put in the top rails of the chassis to widen the compartment to fit 2 suspension seats. I have a 1977 Ascot 2 at home. Only cure from the foberglass seats is 2 of the street sportster style with no side bolsters. Even then, they barly fit in there. These cars were tight.

 

[offroadracer]

Wow, thanks for all the great information guys!
I think I'm gonna go with GDRBORETIRED, and Bro Gill's info on this one. Because once we took the square front bumper off it was discovered that the beam clamps said Hi-jumper on them.
I was thinking this may of come with the aftermarket beam, but appears to be stock after seeing a photo he posted.
Harley's dad,
Yes the tires were a big hit up at Crandon! Everybody was commenting on them. I know going up they were on every buggy.
Thanks again.

 

[hotweyer]

The chassis is an Ascot II. Hi-jumper started making them about 1976. It was actually a 2 seater, but they wer so narrow that you couldn't fit 2 good seats in them. Hi-jumper also sold a car with a similar cage layout, but it was narrower and was called an RS II as the single seater, but the glass was a little different. I know which cars Dave is talking about, they are RS 1s and Ascots and they did have a different roll cage design, more upright and a true B-pillar hoop instead of the hoop originating from the rear of the car. They sold those cars into the early 1980s. The RS and Ascot II versions went into the mid-1980s and were replaced by the 3 series of the same. The Ascot IIs also were changed with a bow put in the top rails of the chassis to widen the compartment to fit 2 suspension seats. I have a 1977 Ascot 2 at home. Only cure from the foberglass seats is 2 of the street sportster style with no side bolsters. Even then, they barly fit in there. These cars were tight.

Bro, do you have any pic's ? I believe I just got one.

 

[Bro_Gill]

I actually have an Ascot 2 chassis in the garage. And I have a Hi-jumper catalog with pics. What are you looking for?

 

[hotweyer]

I actually have an Ascot 2 chassis in the garage. And I have a Hi-jumper catalog with pics. What are you looking for?

Do yours have a centermount Rack steering. Do yours have 3x3 tubular rear arms. this one has clamp on front beam mounts ?

 

[hotweyer]

The diagonal side bar was cut out. The car is missing the rear trailing arms but I might be able to recover them from the guy. i the car worth restoring as a vintage racer ?

 

[Bro_Gill]

OK, couple of things to look at. Is it an early or late Ascot 2? Early cars have a narrower cockpit with no kick-out of the top chassis bar where your elbows sit. Because of that, you have to run narrow seats, most standard suspension seats will not fit. If the top bar kicks out (and was not cut out and replaced to gain more room, you will see if it was) then it is a later car, probably 1982 and newer. Your car has the earlier fiberglass. Very early play cars came with the beam brackets like that and all race chassis did. Play cars switched to C shaped individual clamps in the early 1980s. Race frames came with a diagonal brace at the B post, play chassis did not. As far as 3x3s and rack mount for steering, that was done by whoever built the chassis out. The side diagonal bars were cut out of most cars. I removed mine because they will BREAK YOUR LEFT ELBOW when the steering wheel hits something with the left front tire hard and spins the steering wheel that way. Whether car is worth buying and restoring is really up to your and your wallet and how much you like the vintage stuff. They make great prerunners and play cars as well.