Roe racer
Warren Leveque recently acquired one of the best known Corvair racers - the Bill Thomas/Doug Roe 1960 coupe. Click on any photo to see an enlarged version.
Warren wrote the following short history of the car:
The story the way that I understand it, is that when Doug Roe lived in
Michigan he had and early coupe family car that he played with but not to any great extent. I don't know what happened to this car or if it is even of any
concern.
When Doug moved to Arizona at the GM proving grounds, The Bill Thomas (
Cheetah racing fame) drag car ( a 1960 coupe) which Chevrolet and Bill Thomas
developed in house as a "skunk works" under "car research and development" to
avoid the agreed upon corporation wide "racing ban" was there.
The drag car had a naturally aspirated engine, . The carbs were fed by 3
holes on each rear fender. These holes are still on the car but , blocked
internally . This naturally aspirated version was road raced some by Mike Jones with many wins against other "skunk works" cars.
Doug Roe took over the development on this car and turned it into a
turbocharged hill climb and road racer with many documented wins. It had the turbo/carb mounted near the rear seat back. It had the snow plow front end and the huge rear scoop on the rear deck lid. The front and rear lids were fiberglass and the entire rear clip slides off so that the engine and drive train can slide straight out the back.
The car was forced to runs with A sports/ racing cars and ran entirely
window less. The car was red when Thomas ran it and Hugger Orange when Doug ran it.
This is a very short hand description of the car and events. They are the
same car and I have the original 1960 title to prove it.
Does this help or just muddy it up even more?
I invite all other helpfull memories of the car's history, even if they
disagree with what I think that I now know.
Warren
These first photos are when Warren received the car, you could consider them the "before" pictures.
Last update: 27 Feb 2005.
