Famous Auto Guys You have Met

[pkhammer]

  I've met quite a number of NASCAR drivers including Tony Stewart, Sterling Marlin, Ken Schrader, Bobby LeBonte, Ryan Newman and others. My wife, as a surprise 40th Birthday present got me a Richard Petty Driving Experience at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2003. Randy Dorton, lead engine builder for Hendrick Motorsports was there for some reason. The very next year, in October 2004 Randy was killed in an airplane crash as it attempted to land at Martinsville Speedway, a race I also attended.

  I should also mention Dave Coco although instead of getting HIS autograph he had ME sign his garage door. 😁

[trimacar]

40 minutes ago, pkhammer said:

  I've met quite a number of NASCAR drivers including Tony Stewart, Sterling Marlin, Ken Schrader, Bobby LeBonte, Ryan Newman and others. My wife, as a surprise 40th Birthday present got me a Richard Petty Driving Experience at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2003. Randy Dorton, lead engine builder for Hendrick Motorsports was there for some reason. The very next year, in October 2004 Randy was killed in an airplane crash as it attempted to land at Martinsville Speedway, a race I also attended.

  I should also mention Dave Coco although instead of getting HIS autograph he had ME sign his garage door. 😁

Hey, come to my house, sign my door...what’s the problem?  I value you as a friend, and there are some good memories on that door, complete with appropriate drawings and annotations!  I’d give up cars before I’d give up memories of friends, or current friendships, on that door...

[zepher]

5 minutes ago, trimacar said:

Hey, come to my house, sign my door...what’s the problem?  I value you as a friend, and there are some good memories on that door, complete with appropriate drawings and annotations!  I’d give up cars before I’d give up memories of friends, or current friendships, on that door...

 

Sounds like I need to get out to Virginia so I can sign your door.  😀

[FLYER15015]

I did some welding on Steve McQueen's dune buggy back in the summer of '68 when he was racing them at Ascot Park in Gardena, Ca.

He introduced me to James Garner who was racing a jeep that night.

 

My bride, Ms. Ruth came around a trailer in the pits at the  Elkhart Lake, Wis. Road America Can-Am race and ran smack into Paul Newman.

He bought her a new Coke.

 

Oh, and I bought a car from the famous Mr. Marty Roth.

Does that count ?

But he made me come get it. All the way from Colorado.

Though he did buy lunch...................

 

Mike in Colorado

[ojh]

I've met and and know a few but I have the fondest memories of Zeke Justice visiting my shop whenever he was on the east coast, he'd come and sit and we'd talk aluminum shaping and welding, his days at Kraftworks, TQ Midgets & IndyCars, he paid me the ultimate compliment 'this is a comfortable shop, I could work here'.   

[60FlatTop]

Talking with Gene Winfield at the Syracuse Nations back in '11.

 

Hard to believe, but that was right before my stroke and heat attack, carrying about 40 pounds less cheeseburgers today.

 

I had a good long talk with Ed Roth when he visited Lockport, New York. Talking about itching all over from building those '60's fiberglass cars. I bought a couple of items from him including the Rat Fink that still hangs from my "60 Electra rearview mirror. I gave the big Rat Fink cut out to Stevie J, western NY disc-jokey for his trailer sound booth. I think that is still around Steve has passed.

 

 

[46 woodie]

Many years ago my wife and I were at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale AZ. We were looking at some of the outdoor exhibits when we heard a beeping sound and before we could react a golf cart backed into my wife. The driver got out and was apologizing to us and we realized the passenger was Carroll Shelby. After a while, after things calmed down, I said to Mr. Shelby, "if I knew you were here, I have a friend that owns a Shelby Mustang that want's your autograph on his glove box". He replied, "just tell him to sign it himself, most my autographs are fake anyways". He went on to say, "if I signed all the glove boxes, air cleaners and radiator shrouds that have my name on them, my arm would fall off". The driver of the golf cart told me that "for some reason people think that having Carroll's autograph will add thousands to the cost of the car and as he said most are forgeries". He gave me his business card and told me to send the glove box cover to him and he will have it signed. Guess what, my friend never took him up on his offer!

[John S.]

Two of the nicest people that I have ever met were Gene Winfield, and Don Garlits . They both are true Gentleman, and very down to earth. Another fellow that I met,  who was on a different level was Big Daddy Ed Roth. Just as nice, but very intense. A true character , God Bless him. John

[trimacar]

22 hours ago, zepher said:

 

Sounds like I need to get out to Virginia so I can sign your door.  😀

Yes, please do!

 

Not a car guy, but car related....in the mid to late 1970's, my date and I were walking down a side street in the French Quarter in New Orleans.  A beautiful Mercedes pulled up, parks right next to us, and the driver, a  tall gentleman, gets out, probably in his early 50's.   I say "Hey, nice car, what year is it?" and he stops, tells me, and we start talking about cars.  The whole time, my date is jabbing me in my side with her elbow, trying to say "it's, uh, it's uh....", and the fellow and I keep talking cars.  Guess we talked for ten minutes are so, I introduced myself and my date to him.  Super nice guy, I think he was so taken aback that I was paying attention to the car and not him that it stopped him in his tracks.

 

The guy that my date was muttering about was James Coburn.

[Captain Harley]

Back in the 60's my dad knew "Fire-Ball Roberts" of early NASCAR fame.  In fact, my dad and Fire-Ball were the first people to circle the new Daytona Beach track when it was just finished and drive-able.  Dad was a heavy equipment (road building, etc.) salesman and he had sold most of the equipment that was used to build the Daytona track.  Volusia County was in dad's sales territory and he used to hang out at Smokey Yunick's shop, who he considered a close friend, any chance he got.  He also was a good friend of Bill France Sr. and was asked by Mr. France to come work for him.  Dad turned him down, telling me many years later, that the job he had paid good and he didn't want to take a chance with his growing family.  There is no telling what our, my dad's and I, life would have been like if he had accepted. 

 

Capt. Harley😉

 

PS:  I never met any famous car guys, but I did meet Peter Fonda at Daytona Beach Bike week once.  Super nice guy who signed my "Easy Rider" poster.

[Marty Roth]

On 10/15/2020 at 8:52 PM, FLYER15015 said:

 Oh, and I bought a car from the famous Mr. Marty Roth.

Does that count ?

But he made me come get it. All the way from Colorado.

Though he did buy lunch...................

 

Mike in Colorado

Mike, you and Ruth are always welcome here. That Seafood/Cajun restaurant burned down last year, but is now rebuilt and reopening soon.

Is that car still crossing The Great Divide twice daily? The 37K-mile 2001 Tahoe we bought our grandson to replace it, has lasted through 4 years of college, and is now with him at grad school in Macomb, Illinois. Too bad he no longer has a 4-WD since he will be facing ice and snow, something the New Orleans kid had never lived with before.

Edited October 17, 2020 by Marty Roth (see edit history)

[Billy Kingsley]

I met Bogi and Faye from All-Girls Garage last year...They are great. 

I

 

I met Derrike Cope at the New York International Auto Show also last year, who'd expect to find a NASCAR driver in the middle of Manhattan?

 

Dang, just realized I'm wearing the same shirt in both photos. Auto Show was in April and Nationals in September, maybe it's my lucky shirt 😄

 

Back in 2008 I met Steve Kinser, Terry McCarl, Jac Haudenschild, Joey Saldana and other Sprint car drivers, but no photos.  I had Steve Kinser sign a windshield for my scale model of his 1995 Winston Cup car. All these years later and I still have not finished it yet. 

 

In the early 1990s I met Andy Brass, Dennis Anderson, Lyle Hancock, lots of other monster truck drivers...from the era when it was still actually motorsports and not just destruction for the sake of destruction. Have pictures, can't find them. (my photo archive, of stuff my family has taken, is over 400,000 images spanning back to the 1800s)

 

Was completely ignored by Boyd Coddington at a Goodguys show. I was just a junior high aged kid then, knew he was "somebody" but didn't know anything else about him. I do now, and I'm not a fan, so not lamenting the missed opportunity.

 

I've seen Richard Petty, Jay Leno, Wayne Carini and Dave Kindig from a distance, but not close enough to talk to. Jay Leno was not at an automotive event, I went to one of his performances at West Point. 

 

It's possible that I have crossed paths with others, and just didn't know it. I'm pretty sure I would not recognize most movie stars if they were standing in front of me. And when I do go out, including car shows, I tend to not really talk unless I'm spoken to, so random conversations don't happen all that often. 

 

I know most of the big name people in the scale model car hobby. I've even been to Rick Hanmore's house. 

 

I know I have been on the same show field with several of the forum members here, but I had not yet joined the forum and didn't know they existed yet. I know I've photographed at least one member's car at a show without knowing it at the time. 

 

I sort of met Henry Ford last year as well...

 

at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. 

Edited October 17, 2020 by Billy Kingsley (see edit history)

[wayne sheldon]

9 hours ago, trimacar said:

The whole time, my date is jabbing me in my side with her elbow, trying to say "it's, uh, it's uh....", and the fellow and I keep talking cars.  Guess we talked for ten minutes are so, I introduced myself and my date to him.  Super nice guy, I think he was so taken aback that I was paying attention to the car and not him that it stopped him in his tracks.

 

The guy that my date was muttering about was James Coburn.

 

Almost exactly the same thing happened to my wife and I about thirty years ago. Except that it was Jay Leno driving a 1931 (or was it '32?) four seater Bentley. We were visiting Southern Califunny for a model T club national tour on Catalina Island. He had seen several Ts being driven or trailered during the day (and we had actually seen him driving the Bentley on the freeway earlier ourselves!), so we had quite a chat about the Bentley, the tour plans, and other hobby stuff. He did (for my wife) autograph the map I had bought so I could find my way to the docks where the Ts were to be loaded onto a barge for the ride over to the Island. I had to go buy another map because Linda wouldn't let me use that one after he signed it!

 

That story, I wanted to tell. Otherwise, I have met and known so many wonderful people in this hobby, personally known several national club's presidents, and recipients of 

Marion Welch and Walter Rosenthal awards. I have also met or personally known several significant collectors, a few that prefer to not have their names dropped, and I generally respect that. 

A lot of wonderful people in this hobby!

[Str8-8-Dave]

Peter DiPaolo worked with my dad at Ford Motor as a vehicle safety consultant.  He was first to average 100mph at the brick yard.  Pete used to show his old racing films at the annual Sports Cars in Review in the Ford Theater held in the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village around Christmas time.

 

Klaus Arning, who defected from the German Luftwaffe in WWII and came to America.  My dad hired him at Ford.  He was a brilliant suspension engineer that Carroll Shelby employed to redesign the Shelby Cobra suspension to accommodate the 427 Ford side oiler.  Shelby correctly stated Arning was first to completely design a suspension system on a computer.   

[JACK M]

Billy reminded me about Dave Kindig and entourage.

I have seen them at a couple of shows of coarse. But I was working for a collector and hot rod dealer a few years ago that was tasked with liquidating the Ardell Brown collection in Salt Lake City.

I dont think that the liquidation thing really happened but my dealer friend (boss if you will) did know Dave Kindig. (they were golfing buddies)

The boss took me to some kind of grand opening of Kindigit merch store and I got to roam around the shop for a few hours while all that got filmed.

The Future liner was at the dealership in a warehouse and I got to climb up and sit behind the wheel. Pretty sure that thing sold. Last I heard some baseball team bought it. Or was at least negotiating.

The dealer partnership ran into some disagreements and the whole thing folded. That was a fun job that paid about ZERO other than expenses. Oh well onward and upward.

 

Oh yea, Kindig bought the beer and eats.

Fun stuff.

Edited October 17, 2020 by JACK M (see edit history)

[jukejunkie1015]

Being from Western Washington the only car fame guy I ever met was the late Harold LeMay who until his death had one of the largest private automobile collections in the world. Many of the 2500 vehicles in the original collection are now in the private LeMay Family Collection at Marymount School. A few others are at the LeMay-America's Car Museum in Tacoma WA.

 

Kurt M

[Restorer32]

Ferdinand Porsche's Great Grandson stopped at the shop one day and claimed to have Ferdinand's office desk. 

[JACK M]

juke, Have you ever visited the family home? Only open one day a year.

They have an open house of sorts at Marymount with shuttles to the home.

This happens on one of the auction weekends.

When I was a kid in Tacoma (Browns Point for you locals) my folks used to threaten me with the Marymount Academy.

[greenie]

One night in 2013, I bribed my wife (Beer)and youngest son (food) to accompany me to the restored, Art-Deco, movie theater in Carlisle, PA. We were there to see the screening of the documentary “The Quest”, which chronicled the late Chip Miller’s obsession with the 1960 Corvette which won its class at the 1960, 24 Hours at LeMans. In attendance that night was John Cooper Fitch, who drove the car in 1960 and again 50 years later when the Corvette was flown back to France for a special parade lap prior to the race.

Fitch, who has passed, was about 94 in 2013 and raced cars into his 80’s.

But his life, looked at in its entirety, seems almost impossible. Trained as an engineer, he flew the last generation of prop-driven fighters in WW2. He shot down a German jet and later was shot down over Germany. He was freed from prison camp by none other than George Patton. He came home and started a career as a sports car driver. He drive a few Formula 1 races, but he excelled at endurance racing.
He was driving for Mercedes at LeMans in 1955 when his teammate was involved in the most horrific accident in the history of motor sports. Fitch went to the Mercedes management and convinced them to withdraw from the race. He later designed several highway safety devices we take for granted. Those barrels of sand arranged in a triangle to save you from hitting a solid object head in? He built the first one and tested it himself.

He designed and built his own car, a highly modified Corvair he called the Fitch Sprint. 

He lived his later years as the resident manager at Lime Rock Park in CT.

Someday his life will be the subject of a fascinating movie. I was privileged to see him briefly one evening in Carlisle.

[carbking]

In person, very few (not too many movers & shakers in the Baja boondocks of Missouri, and I have been too busy with carburetors to attend a show/meet for 30 years!).

 

However, through the shop, have had the opportunity to converse with many via telephone.

 

One of the telephone contacts (and my mentor in the carburetor business) was Jim Rowe of the J. R. R. Company. We spent many pleasurable hours on the telephone some 50 years ago. He is missed.

 

Jon.

[SC38dls]

I went to high school with Fred Lorenzen’s younger brother in Elmhurst IL. We use to open the hood of my 57 Desoto and look like we knew what we were doing as Fred’s crew worked on his car in the garage. After a few hours they finally told us to get lost but leave the car and come back in an hour or so. I have no idea what they did to it but that beast ran like a top!  Nice guys but they loved their beer. Last I heard Fred is in a nursing home with dementia and his daughter has pledge his Brian to science to support dale Earnhardt’s charity.