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This one's a real mystery!

UPDATE - Desert Bill's sharp eyes have solved yet another mystery! We now know, thanks to him, that this is the cast iron top part of a classic Hubley No. 22 race car toy. This top part was originally painted red, while the remainder of the chassis was a natural aluminum alloy color. This toy (Model #456) was produced in the early 1930's into the 1940's. If you'd like to see what the toy originally looked like, you can click here to view an image from Gasoline Alley Antiques. Bill was also able to find out the story behind the No. 22 designation. He reports, "Car No. 22 was active from 1928 to 1933. It was driven by Bert Karnatz and was powered by a Hisso dry sump aircraft engine. The name of the car was the Murray Tire Special and it was a legend in its time, which explains why it was featured as a toy. [To see a photo of #22 in action, click here to see an image from the Hisso Racing Cars website.] The Murray Tire Special was the first known race car to use of this type of engine for racing. I was very interested in this research because my Dad held the water speed record in 1929 in his boat the Louisville Kid, which was also powered by a Hisso engine!"

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