A Short History of Callaway Cars - Powerfully Engineered
On the cover: If it’s August it must be Corvettes! Our annual tip of the hat to America’s sports car includes the 21st anniversary of the Callaway Corvettes. David Temple takes a look back to Corvette’s first year and features the very last 1953 model built. We also get a look behind the evolution of many legendary Corvettes as author Gary Witzenburg reviews the Bill Mitchell concept cars and Senior Editor Paul Zazarine turns back the pages to the 1960s and the next installment of The Corvette Chronicles. (Cover photo of the 1989 Callaway B2K by Chris C; new Callaway C16 courtesy of Callaway.)
By Rick Carey
August 2008 Page: cover
Reeves Callaway’s career as a race driver didn’t seem to be making progress. “I’d won the Formula Vee race at the SCCA runoffs. It was supposed to be the portal to a professional racing career, so I waited by the phone, but Roger Penske never called.” That aside, one thing was apparent: Ely Reeves Callaway III was going to make a career with cars.
He moved to the woods of Old Lyme, Conn., house-sitting the home of legendary photographer Walker Evans. It had no garage, so Reeves built one where he could indulge the experience and skills he’d acquired working at Autodynamics, the Formula Vee race car constructor in Marblehead, Mass., and before that when his senior thesis in Fine Arts at Amherst College had been the restoration of the 1954 Le Mans-winning Ferrari 375 Plus.
At the time “performance” was a dirty word. Emissions had strangled engines in the early ’70s, followed by the Arab oil embargo in 1973 and the 1979 oil crisis which put a premium on small, lightweight, efficient automobiles and engines. Reeves was one of the first instructors in Bob Bondurant’s driving school which exposed him to the school cars, BMW 320is. They were reliable. They handled well. What they were not was fast.
21 Years of Callaway Corvettes - Article:
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Re: 21 Years of Callaway Corvettes - Article:
CHRIS,Callaway Chris wrote:Car Collector Magazine
A Short History of Callaway Cars - Powerfully Engineered
On the cover: If it’s August it must be Corvettes! Our annual tip of the hat to America’s sports car includes the 21st anniversary of the Callaway Corvettes. David Temple takes a look back to Corvette’s first year and features the very last 1953 model built. We also get a look behind the evolution of many legendary Corvettes as author Gary Witzenburg reviews the Bill Mitchell concept cars and Senior Editor Paul Zazarine turns back the pages to the 1960s and the next installment of The Corvette Chronicles. (Cover photo of the 1989 Callaway B2K by Chris C; new Callaway C16 courtesy of Callaway.)
By Rick Carey
August 2008 Page: cover
Reeves Callaway’s career as a race driver didn’t seem to be making progress. “I’d won the Formula Vee race at the SCCA runoffs. It was supposed to be the portal to a professional racing career, so I waited by the phone, but Roger Penske never called.” That aside, one thing was apparent: Ely Reeves Callaway III was going to make a career with cars.
He moved to the woods of Old Lyme, Conn., house-sitting the home of legendary photographer Walker Evans. It had no garage, so Reeves built one where he could indulge the experience and skills he’d acquired working at Autodynamics, the Formula Vee race car constructor in Marblehead, Mass., and before that when his senior thesis in Fine Arts at Amherst College had been the restoration of the 1954 Le Mans-winning Ferrari 375 Plus.
At the time “performance” was a dirty word. Emissions had strangled engines in the early ’70s, followed by the Arab oil embargo in 1973 and the 1979 oil crisis which put a premium on small, lightweight, efficient automobiles and engines. Reeves was one of the first instructors in Bob Bondurant’s driving school which exposed him to the school cars, BMW 320is. They were reliable. They handled well. What they were not was fast.
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