Classic Cars, Tech Center News, April 02, 2001

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TOP HAT JOHN-CLASSIC CARS COLUMN - Tech Center News, April 02, 2001

GREAT names of people that have pioneered automobiles have past before us through the last 100 years. The Henry Fords, Walter P. Chrysler, Enzo Ferrari, Duesenbergs, Louis Chevrolet and some of lesser fame. Some car builders never really went into production, some for just a very short time. Some burned brightly for a while as did Studebaker. And some designed and built sports cars or race cars. But they all pass on, to live in eternity somewhere. Only the name and legacy of their history lives on.

Here then comes a short history of three men, who, built some very famous cars and/or were heavily involved in making automotive performance history for the whole of their lives. Bill Frick, Bill Devin and Bob Negstad.

If you have ever heard of a "Fordillac", a "Studillac" or the famed Cunningham race cars, the name Bill Frick should come to mind. He’s the man who put Cadillac OVH-V8 engines in the old Ford ‘shoebox’ cars, starting with his own in 1949 and ultimately built somewhere between 100-200 Fordillacs. The Studillac cars followed in 1953. He also ‘did’ the Cad Allards and Cad Healeys. Those Cadillac powered conversion cars brought Frick together with the likes of Briggs Cunningham which led to the LeMans racing Cadillacs of 1950-a Deville model and the famed rebodied Le Monstre. The Cunningham-Frick relationship also led to a meeting with Zora Arkus-Duntov at the 1960 LeMans where Cunningham entered three 1960 Corvette cars, which in turn led to a 20 year career for Bill Frick with Chevrolet. According to the story written by noted automotive author/writer, Michael Lamm, in the Society of Automotive Historians Journal, Bill Frick and his second wife Pat were the folks who orchestrated the commercials that put Corvairs in the canals of Venice and Impalas on mountain tops for television. Bill Frick also helped make the movie Grand Prix starring James Garner. Bill Frick was 84.

Not all too long ago, maybe just about a month back, I was watching a piece on the Devin SS fiberglass sports car. Bill Devin started out as a Chrysler-Plymouth new car dealer in Fontana, California. He went on to build a fiberglass two seat sportscar called the Devin from 1954-64 and SS with Corvette FI-V8, and is heralded as being the worlds largest producer of fiberglass aftermarket bodies during the ‘50s. I remember well the Devin bodied race cars of the ‘60s running in A/MSP, B/MSP and C/MSP classes at drag strips around the country and oft powered by Enderle injected Chevrolet smallblock engines, backed by a B&M Hydrostick transmission. Bill Devin was 85.

If your not an automotive entrepreneur-most of us are in some ways though-you may have to explore your automotive design and engineering talents while duly employed by an automobile company. That is exactly what Bob Negstad did with Ford. In 1958, after graduating from the Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Bob drove to Detroit in his ’57 T-Bird and landed a job in the Advanced Chassis Department of Car Product Research. During his 30 year engineering career with Ford Motor Company, Bob was actively involved in the chassis development for many a special now legendary vehicle; the Shelby Daytona Coupe, Shelby 427 Cobra, GT40, Shelby Mustang 350, Mustang 1 two seater concept car, 1964-1/2 Mustang, 1979 Fox Mustang, 1984 SVO Mustang and the ill fated GN34 sports car program.

After his retirement in 1988, Bob was hired as a chassis consultant to Roush Industries and the SN95 Skunkworks Team. John Coletti of Ford SVE, who passed on this information to me, said that Bob was allowed a lot of latitude to ‘push the envelope’ on his projects. Bob Negstad was 70.

Somewhere … over the rainbow and, right around the next cumulous, is an Eddie’s Drive-In with some car guys just hangin’ around. Forever. I’m just happy every day, that they did just what they did ... the way they did. Every day.