How Duct Tape Made a Corvette the Fastest Car in the World
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Hey, how you doing, everybody?
Welcome back to the show.
This week, we're talking about Callaway,
the purveyors of some of the coolest Corvettes
and Escalades and trucks
and a lot of other sports cars in the world.
Reeves Callaway started out doing some kart racing,
did some open-wheel racing,
then put a turbo on a BMW and that changed his whole life.
So let's get right into it.
It's Callaway on path gas.
In October of 1988,
a NHRA driver and Hall of Fame engine builder,
John Lingenfelter,
climbed behind the wheel of a 1988 Chevy Corvette
and carefully pulled out of the Callaway Cars facility
in the old Lyme, Connecticut.
With engineer Tim Good riding shotgun,
they waved audio to Reeves Callaway, the car's owner,
and pointed their headlights towards Northeastern Ohio.
It'd be a 700-mile drive through sun, rain, and snow,
all of which the Corvette handled with ease.
Throughout the trip, Good dialed in the car on his laptop,
ensuring that it'd be ready for action
when they arrived at the Transportation Research Center.
This was not your standard C4 Corvette.
Upon their arrival, Lingenfelter and Good met up with Callaway,
who was grateful to see the car in one piece.
This Corvette that had just crossed the Eastern U.S.
was the one-of-one 900-horsepower twin-turbo sledgehammer.
Ooh.
The preposterous streetcar had been conceived by Reeves
and built by a small group of talented engineers,
mechanics, and designers to conquer a specific mission.
Break the record for fastest streetcar
and solidify Callaway Cars as a leader
in automotive performance.
This was the mission that would make
or break the young company.
From the early days of building turbo kits
and competing at Le Mans,
and crafting some of the fastest cars
to ever come with a warranty.
Today on Pass Gas, it's the story of Reeves Callaway
and Callaway Cars.
Hello, and welcome back to Pass Gas, everybody.
I am your host, Nolan Sykes, joined this week.
We got one co-host this week.
It's Justin Freeman, sending a cross for me.
Hello, I'm on a podcast.
That's right.
It's been a while since you've been on Pass Gas, Justin.
Yeah, I think a Susie?
Or...
Oh, maybe.
Maybe a Mini?
I don't remember.
That sounds about right.
Well, welcome back.
Thank you, thank you.
Glad to be here.
Yeah, we recorded Big Three this morning.
Justin, what do you know about the Callaway Sledgehammer?
Well, you started off talking about Lincoln filter,
and I got excited.
But then you said Callaway, and I got more excited.
I know that it was one of the fastest Corvettes
to roll off and quote-unquote assembly line.
It was super fast.
I thought there were more than one, though,
but that makes sense.
It might have been the one that was built at the time.
It's a legendary one-off, yeah.
There's only one of these.
Yeah, I knew it was like,
it's like a cool little goofy 90s design Corvette
that has twin turbos on an engine
that turbos on seems kind of crazy.
So, yeah, pretty cool.
Fiberglass body, you know.
Just really can't beat it, man.
Corvettes forever.
It's an iconic looking car, man.
It's got tons of vents in the front there.
Yeah, it's in the first two, right?
Look at this young man Reeves Callaway with his Corvette.
I don't have my laptop.
Yeah, only I have the laptop.
Look at this guy, look at this.
That's wonderful.
Yeah, yeah, it's like 300 Z vents on the front nose.
It's crazy.
There's just a lot of 80s stuff going on here.
You know why they have to add those vents, right?
And why the Corvettes look so funky?
No.
Because it's just like the Camaro.
They're bottom feeders.
So just like an algae fish, they suck the air from under the car.
They don't take the ventilation straight on.
So they had to cut some holes in there to feed that radiator.
Probably for intakes, yeah.
Reeves Callaway looks like a dad on a 90s sitcom,
especially with this fit and this picture here.
But yeah, it's like, I mean, you know what I'm saying.
Oh, yeah, looks like Austin.
It does.
Austin's our producer, who's also a father.
That's hilarious, dude.
OK, well, let's get into the story and just feel free to chime in whenever, Justin.
You know the drill.
Yeah, they do anything to the suspension.
That's my question.
So we'll see.
We'll find out.
Ely Reeves Callaway III was born on November 22, 1947.
Some 35 years later, his father would found Callaway Golf.
Oh, but as a youngster growing up in Connecticut,
his dad found success in textiles and wine.
Reeves, as he'd be called throughout his life,
developed a passion for performance at a young age.
As a toddler, he'd often be spotted carrying around a toy engine purchased
from the pages of popular mechanics.
He'd graduate to go karting and soon began racing competitively.
Oh, his parents supported his passion,
pulling the cart behind the family wagon to events throughout the Northeast.
Reeves' affliction for speed eventually led to an outright passion for cars,
but it didn't come without trouble.
While a junior at Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia,
Reeves regularly drove his V8 swapped Austin Healy through campus.
Oh, wow, that's sick.
Yeah.
What's the story on that?
On one full throttle tear, like an opera singer shattering a champagne flute,
the exhaust notes blew out a window on the headmaster's house.
Whoa, that must have been loud.
Holy cow.
That's cool.
They weren't a fan of the antics,
and Reeves found himself expelled from the school.
That's a bit harsh.
Once back home, the hits kept coming.
Unbeknownst to Reeves, his father had traded in the hopped-up Healy
for something a little more tame, a Volkswagen Beetle.
Dang.
Sorry, kid.
Can't have you break in headmaster's windows.
We had to slow you down, son.
That thing must have been loud.
Let's put you in the most modifiable car ever.
Good point.
Yeah.
Dude, I mean, the V8 on low car is pretty ear splitting as well.
But it has not shattered a window.
No.
Well, we should try to maybe do that.
Interestingly, that Beetle proved inspirational for Reeves' career.
After receiving a degree in fine arts from Amherst College,
Reeves found his canvas to be the automobile.
He accepted a role with Massachusetts-based Auto Dynamics,
designing and building VW-powered, deserter kit cars that became popular in autocross.
While learning to weld and fabricate, the company began designing a Formula V car,
of which Reeves became the de facto team driver when competition started.
In 1973, at age 26, he landed at the top of the podium in the SCCA Formula V championship.
Racing became his destiny, until it became apparent that dream came with a sky-high
price tag.
I want to look up this.
Formula V.
Desert.
Well, Formula V is just open-reel race series with, like,
spec Volkswagen engines, so they don't go super fast.
Oh, I've seen those.
Yeah, they have them in iRacing now.
As Reeves used to say, Roger Penske never came calling, so he sought new opportunities.
Reeves took a role as a racing instructor at Bob Bondurans driving school,
where they used the BMW 320i as practice cars.
This guy knows everybody.
He soon tired of the wannabe race car drivers nearly killing him as he rode shotgun,
so he tried his hand at journalism.
Reeves attempted to land a role at car and driver,
only to be denied, with staff citing him as overqualified.
Even without an offer, the magazine would later play a significant role in the establishment
of Callaway cars.
In 1977, Reeves, citing his time at the racing school,
convinced BMW to lend him a dealer training 320i for personal testing and tuning.
He took the car to his home garage in Old Lime, Connecticut,
and promptly began exploring ways to improve its performance.
Ultimately, he fabricated a custom turbo system, boosting horsepower from 110 to around 164.
Geez.
Just calm up and be like, hey, can I have a car to just...
You just **** around.
Just figure that out on your own, bro.
That's pretty cool.
Wow.
Automotive journalist Don Sherman over at Car and Driver took it for a spin
and published a short write-up on the hopped-up beamer.
There was just one problem.
The article stated that Reeves manufactured these turbo kits at scale,
and his phone number appeared in the text of the article.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
What a person above a holy cow.
Yeah.
Reeves wasn't manufacturing anything and completely lacked a tooling to do so,
but the phone started ringing.
Essentially forced into business,
Callaway cars soon became an official entity, and turbo systems became its specialty.
In the coming years, Reeves, cashing in on his time as a driver,
sought to improve the driver-car relationship.
Along with BMW, the budding performance company developed turbos for Volkswagen,
Audi, and Mercedes.
A pivotal phone call came in 1984 from executives at Alpha Romeo,
who had caught wind of Callaway's achievements.
Mazurati had been beating up on Alpha Romeo in terms of North American sales in the early 1980s,
and they needed a new plan of attack.
Lacking the funds to develop a brand new vehicle, Alpha came to Callaway seeking more power for
their existing GTV6, resulting in Callaway's first major factory performance program.
The result was the Callaway GTV6, of which only 37 left the garage before Alpha pulled the plug
on North American sales altogether.
Yeah, they probably would have done better if they just let them happen, you know?
Oh, this thing's sweet, dude.
This is on Bring a Trailer, one of these sold for 62 grand.
Oh, yeah, look at that, dude.
Come on now.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Those are awesome.
Super cool.
I think this was also in Top Gear's worst cars ever, the GTV6.
But yeah, it was like worst car, but yet you had to have it, you know?
Yeah, that's what Jeremy said.
Clarkson drove that one for a while.
He had one personally.
This thing's got a fat hood scoop on it, big old widebody.
Dude, this thing's sweet.
Yeah, that's crazy though.
Top mountain air cooler.
Wouldn't that be the dream though, Nolan?
Just like, oh, I built this one thing and now so many people want it.
That's all I have to do for the rest of my life.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, that's crazy.
That's super cool.
That's like the dream career intro.
What would you modify to get your name out there, Justin?
To get my name out there?
Well, unfortunately, I like rare garbage and not enough people to sustain that.
Well, I mean, you've kind of carved out a niche in the weird Subaru,
pointy Subaru game there.
Yes, sir, yes, sir.
You got your XT6.
You've got your SVX.
We have a series on that.
I don't know if it'll be out yet.
And then your brat.
Yeah.
Is that getting, have you gotten more suspension for that?
Justin bought a brat with long travel suspension.
Quote unquote, long travel.
So brats have little tricks built in from the manufacturer where it's really easy to lift them.
So the rear, you can actually get a three inch lift stock just by adjusting like one bolt,
which is incredible, but it's really meant for like payload stuff to throw stuff in the back.
The front, you can lift by either doing a subframe space or they actually had bolts in the struts
where you can lift the strut, but it kind of ruined the ride quality because it's just pushing this
the preload.
So when they, when I got it and they said it's long travel,
I could see that he went through the rear fender and tied it into the roll cage that
the guy built to the suspension.
Yeah.
But since it's a torsion bar, there's no spring.
So it's just a really long Rancho shock that's adjustable.
I'm like, I guess that's long channel, but the front's not done up like that.
So I've been trying to reverse engineer everything they did.
And I've come across a couple weird issues.
I don't think they ever drove it.
I think they built it, left it on the showroom floor and then that was it.
Gotcha.
But recently we had Bill come in for real mechanic stuff and he's an old Subaru guy.
And dude, ever since I've met him, it's just been a snowball.
Just like he's got so much stuff.
See what I'm saying is you, Bill and Bucky, you come together,
make some weird Subaru magic happen.
Dude, it's happening though.
It's already happening.
I have my wheels stuff that I'm doing with Brent, who used to work here.
And Bucky is now on our wheels for a Subifest coming up, but it's, oh,
it's immaculate because we designed those wheels for the XT and Bucky's XT is a lot
cleaner than mine.
So it looks phenomenal.
And then now I've met this guy and I met another guy that he's in Cahoots with and they,
they don't post stuff.
So they're just like, yeah, whatever you want, man, and we'll help you out.
That's good.
Now I've met other weirdos like myself and yeah, it's getting kind of wild.
But yeah, the brat, brat community is pretty tight.
SVX community is kind of weird.
But the, yeah, the brat community is that pre EJ community is pretty cool.
They're pretty great.
But then they sent me a picture of a legacy wagon on 39s that they built with Land Cruiser
axles.
So I was like, all right, these are the right guys.
Wow.
Back to your question.
What would be my development thing that would start huge?
If anything, it would be the flat six motor that Subaru developed.
I would probably make some kind of kit for them to where they're more widely used.
That's what I would do.
Yeah.
So like we said, they only sold 37 of these Callaway GTV sixes.
This was a major blow for Callaway, but it wasn't all for not.
GM acquired one of these GTV sixes and parked it in the war room at headquarters.
Corvette chief engineer Dave McClellan took a deep dive into the example,
coming up for air only to share his belief that the horsepower subdued C4 Corvette
could benefit from the Callaway treatment.
A phone call to Reeves led to a handshake agreement between himself and McClellan,
resulting in a plan to establish the first regular production option,
RPO code for a GM car not built entirely in a GM plant.
This meant the Callaway enhancements could be ordered from the factory
and it would still come with a warranty.
The consensus among the powers that be, Reeves said,
was that someone interested in purchasing a higher power, high cost car,
such as a hopped up Corvette, wasn't going to try to break it or abuse it.
They would take pride in it and drive it regularly.
That seems pretty significant.
Yeah.
For this guy that's, I mean.
But also leave it the GM to shortcut their way into development.
You know, ah, someone did this.
Let's just, let's just call that guy instead of spending money.
I mean, that makes sense.
Yeah, but I hear we're coming from one of the biggest corporations in the world.
Yeah, I got you.
We'll be right back after these messages.
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Now back to the show.
Starting for the model year 1987, checking the RPO B2K box on the Corvette order form
added the $27,000 Callaway twin turbo option,
bumping the 5.7 liter engine from a standard 245 horsepower up to 345,
which would then jump to 382 the following year,
giving it a top speed just shy of 200 miles per hour.
The only US market car to feature a higher rating was the Lamborghini Kuntosh at 425 horsepower.
The engineering involved in such a feat is nothing short of miraculous.
At a rate of two to three cars per week,
the old line facility saw complete transformations of C4 Corvettes,
coincidentally known as Project C4 at Callaway.
This was because each project they worked on got its own C designation,
so it just kind of coincidentally it was Project C4, Callaway 4, not C4 Corvette.
In the simplest terms, the twin turbo build began by stripping the stock Corvette to its bare block.
With little wiggle room under the hood, they converted the main bearing caps to
a four bolt configuration, installed a forged crank with premium rods, low compression pistons,
and stainless steel intake valves with new springs.
Then it was time to add the Callaway turbo system, which consisted of new exhaust manifolds,
twin water cooled rotomaster TO4 turbos, intercoolers, and under hood mounted ducting to feed these
turbos fresh air. A microfueler auxiliary injection setup helped the stock Corvette's
fueling system keep up. Finally, they added extra heat shielding to protect the floor and internals,
and a bigger radiator, plus a whole new exhaust system with fresh cats to finish the upgrade.
The program was a success, but Reeves believed he could one up himself, so even this wasn't good
enough. Car and driver once again entered the scene when it put out an all call for a top speed
shootout for the fastest streetcar. Callaway showed up with its production twin turbo vet
and a research and development version known as Top Gun. Lined up against other highly tuned
builds in the December 1987 article, the production twin turbo version hit a jaw dropping 191.7
miles per hour, yet was beat by a motorsports designed Porsche 911 Turbo that hit 202.5 and
a Keith Black Camaro that landed at 216 miles per hour. At the top of the list was Project Top Gun,
which bested the competition with a blistering speed of 222.4 miles per hour.
So that's the one of one. That's their special project.
Yeah, because then you could buy Callaway Corvettes with the Turbo.
Yet, the car hardly fared in the street driving portion of this test. Reeves, who had built the
Top Gun out of the original twin turbo prototype that failed miserably on the same car and driver
test track about a year prior, took note. A determination to improve the machine for
day to day action while also increasing its top speed turned into a priority.
Reeves' management style of pulling together a skunkworks team and handing them impossible
deadlines shown bright in the moment, but for ultimate success, this team would need a new face.
A one-off Porsche dubbed the Spectre appeared on the cover of the June 1988 Motor Trend magazine
and caught Reeves' eye. Part 9-11, part 550 Speedster. It featured a Kevlar and five-wheel-ass
body. The lightweight design led Reeves to dial up its designer, Canadian Paul Deutschman.
Reeves had a simple question for Paul. Quote,
can you design bodywork for a car that can go 250 miles an hour? Paul's answer was, of course.
Let's give it a shot. In truth, in his own words, Paul had no idea if he could achieve such a feat.
That's that old man mentality. Just say yes and you'll make it somewhere, sir.
That's right. But a great partnership was born. He'd become a leading designer for
numerous Callaway projects and remains active within the company to this day.
Paul came to know Reeves as a natural leader. Hardly a fist pounder. Paul remembers him as
a man you just didn't want to disappoint no matter how extreme his goals may be.
The goal this time was to build a 250 mile per hour Corvette
that could still handle the duties of a daily driver.
Aerodynamics became a key component of the build. Paul would shape the car. Tim Good would lead
engineering and Carol Smith, a former constructor, was hired to look over everyone's shoulder.
Paul focused on the lower bodywork of the C4. While much of the car above the wheels
remained mostly stock, major changes had to be made below to prevent lift.
Mmm. One thing quickly became clear to the team.
Looks matter. During one late night of fabrication, Carol called Reeves from his office at 2am,
letting him know that they would rivet on some ductwork. Reeves stared at him for five seconds
before declaring, there will be no rivets on the bodywork and returned to his office,
no taken by the team. And so in less than four months and a serious injection of horsepower,
the team ready the car dubbed sledgehammer for testing.
In the words of Tim Good, here's a Corvette you could chase after an indie car with
and also give your mother a ride to the store.
After the 700 miles drive to the Transportation Research Center,
the car suffered a misfire in its first test run, still hitting 210 miles per hour,
running on just six cylinders. Wow, that's sick. With the issue resolved,
Run 2 yielded 223 miles per hour.
Convinced it could do better, Chief Engineer Good fashioned three-quarter inch scoops out of duct
tape to force more air into the engine. The duct tape fix netted more than 30 miles per hour,
given the car a final top speed of 254.76 miles per hour.
That's crazy. Just from a duck?
Yeah. Callaway proved it could build the ultimate street machine.
Key word being street. Inside the cockpit, all that differed from stock was a boost gauge,
a five point harness, and a roll bar. The bodywork itself would lead to the aerobody styling that
became available on the factory order sheet. Despite the limited aesthetic alterations,
the bar for fastest daily drivable car had been set.
On the heels of Sledgehammer, Aston Martin commissioned Callaway to update its aging
Tadek Marek V8 by giving it more power and making it emissions compliant worldwide.
The effort was so successful that Aston Martin used a race tune version in the 1989 AMR1 Group C car,
which placed 11th at Le Mans in their one and only 24 hours of Le Mans appearance.
The effort was so successful that Aston Martin used a race tune version in the 1989
AMR1 Group C car, which placed 11th at Le Mans in their one and only 24 hours of Le Mans appearance.
Reeves must have thought that Le Mans had a nice ring to it,
as Callaway wound down production of twin turbo vets, the planning for the next generation
of Chevy V8s began with the LT1 on the horizon. By the time the L98 was phased out in 1991,
a total of 510 twin turbo Corvettes had been assembled. The successor came in the form of the
C6 Supernatural Corvette in 1992. Built on both the LT1 and the dual overhead cam LT5,
the naturally aspirated design maintained the Callaway doctrine of increased power,
clean emissions, and daily reliability. However, the conversion more than doubled the cost of
a base Corvette, leading to a highly limited run of just 17 cars. Reeves, more determined than ever
to build his brand, approached shop manager Mike Zoner in February of 1994 saying, hey Mike,
let's go to Le Mans. Under the impression that Reeves meant for the following year,
he enthusiastically agreed, exclaiming that the Supernatural Vette would be perfect for the GT2
class following significant racing modification. Turns out though, he only had four months to
get it done as Reeves was ready to race. A mad rush to build the Le Mans car resulted in the
organization of German based Callaway competition, where racing experienced European engineers
took the lead on the vehicle's transformation. Paul Deutschman remained designer who cited
the technical work on the 10 inch headlights as one of the biggest challenges. The team excelled,
taking the pole position for their class. Drivers Frank Jelinski, Boris said, and Michael Mesonov
would handle the car on race day, which became a family affair. Reeves' son Pete took on wheel
and tire duty and daughter Augusta ran the stopwatch. As the day progressed, everything
was going as planned, until some sort of miscommunication resulted in the car running out of gas
while leading its class, leading to a DNF. The next year, the same chassis was entered,
as well as two more Callaway Supernatural Corvettes developed by Augusta Racing,
no relation to Reeves' daughter. The Callaway competition car took a respectable ninth overall
and second in its class, while one of the Augusta cars took third. Reeves got a taste of the podium
and only look forward to what would come next, a Callaway car built from the ground up. Honestly,
pretty good outing. Yeah, top 10 overall and second in class is fantastic. That's great.
DNFing is, yeah, running out of gas is a big no-no. Don't do that. Generally speaking,
you want to have gas in your car. Yeah, because that's how it drives. Yes. Not this hybrid stuff.
No, before all the hybrids. We'll be right back after these messages.
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Starting in 1993, Reeves & Company began development of a bespoke Callaway
supercar, destined for the GT1 class. The C7 project marked a transformation for the business.
From tuner to constructor, a moniker that Reeves had desired since he began the performance
business. Based around the 650 horsepower supernatural engine, the team crafted a carbon
fiber chassis fit with a body pen by Deutschman. The project was immense and surely costly,
but Reeves led with a passion over profit. According to Deutschman, quote,
I'm sure he lost money on some projects, but he didn't let it phase him. When you allow yourself
that kind of freedom in your approach, you can achieve something far more exciting and interesting
in the results. Unfortunately, the results of the C7, Callaway's first tailor-made automobile,
didn't hit the mark. With only two ever built, a run at the 1996 24 hours of the mall had been
planned, but the car failed to pre-qualify. The Daytona Rolex 24 hour was another story.
After qualifying for the event, the team was running practice the day before when the car
ended up in the wall. After pulling it all nighter, they got it on the grid and let it loose.
Out of the gate, its potential was obvious. By the 12 hour mark, it led the race,
only to be withdrawn shortly after due to an electrical failure. Then a rules change in the
GT1 category rendered it obsolete by the following year. The C7's racing days were over and Callaway
would turn its focus back to engineering existing models for maximum performance,
expanding far beyond the sports car it had become synonymous with.
Well, look up this Callaway C7. Look up Callaway C7R. That way, the C7 Corvette's disappeared.
I've seen one of these in person. Really? Not the C7R, but I've seen a Callaway Corvette in person
here in LA. The C7R, the race car, like is Corvette S come in the front, but then like Porsche
like 928 from the back. That's strange. It looks very McLaren, but it's like McLaren with like a
R7. It's very strange looking. Well, not strange. It looks like a sports car. You'd look at it,
you're like, that thing is meant to go racing, but it's also... Okay. I've seen the Callaway C12,
which is essentially either a C5, I think it's a C5 with the Callaway lights on it.
Yeah, looks C5. Yeah. Dude, that's sick. Dude, these things are so cool.
While Callaway cars is most often associated with Corvette, performance versions of a number
of other makes and models, including the Dodge Viper, Camaro, and an Impala have been birthed
at their old line facility. Callaway Viper sounds terrifying. In 1999, the Connecticut-based crew
attracted a new client, Land Rover. What? The 4.6 HSE Callaway Edition rode near the top of the SUV
maker's lineup, boasting a high performance, 240 horsepower engine, a custom torque converter,
new TCU, strengthened axles, and numerous other upgrades. The package went beyond performance,
though, with each receiving custom wheels, GPS, additional wood grain, and leather trim,
along with Callaway badges, all for 75 grand, about 10,000 more than your standard 4.6 HSE.
That's close to $145,000 in today's money. Also starting in 1999, Callaway began a limited run
of GTS 300 coupes and sedans for Holden special vehicles in Australia. The stock LS1 V8 was
remapped and rebuilt, giving it an output of 402 horsepower up from 285 brake horsepower. That's
402 in 1999 in a little Chevy like that. That's incredible. That's cool. Additional modifications
to the intake and exhaust pushed that number to 456. The fully loaded sedan recognized as one of
the fastest production option four doors in the world at the time could be had for as much as
105,000 Australian dollars when new. That's about 140 grand today in American dollars.
This is why I love 90s cars. They came out with nothing, but a little bit of tweaks,
and they're just all powerful. It's like, what the heck happened?
Yeah, crazy. With just 200 sedans and 100 coupes built, it remains one of the most
sought after contemporary collector cars from down under. With its fingers in North America,
Europe, and Australia, Asia must have seemed like a logical next step for Callaway as it
continued to expand its partnerships with legacy automakers. When Mazda decided to make its racing
division Mazda speed consumer facing, it turned to Callaway. The result was the 2003 Mazda Speed
protégé that featured a Callaway turbocharged 16 valve two liter engine that produced 170 horsepower
and 160 foot pounds of torque. I did not know that was a Callaway car. Me neither. I've,
my friend Cora, she had one of them. Yeah. And I remember one night we went and hit Mulholland
in it, and it was like, this is the sickest car ever. Dude, for real. There's like under the
radar. Perfect car. Very under radar. They're hard to find now in good condition, but they're sick.
Some 5,500 of these tuned sport compacts went to market marking Callaway's largest production
effort to date. Thank you Mazda. Yeah. During these years in the late 1990s, Reeves' son Pete,
who had kept the tires polished in Le Mans, began spending summers learning the ins and outs of the
family business. With each high school summer, he'd be assigned to a new department, engineering,
welding, engine building, before heading to Northeastern where he earned a degree in mechanical
engineering. Upon graduation, he returned to learn his first task, bring Callaway to the
heart of car culture. It became Pete Callaway's duty as a young engineer to build and staff
Callaway West, a new facility to be developed in Temecula, California. As it stands today,
the old lime Connecticut shop would remain headquarters for global operations. As soon
as the doors to the new location opened, Callaway Corvettes of the C6 generation began rolling out
of it. Throughout the growth of Callaway's engineering efforts with existing automakers,
Reeves' dream of building his own vehicle never faltered. That mission came to fruition once again
in 2007 with the unveiling of the C16 Speedster on the lawn at Pebble Beach. Based on the C6 Corvette,
but featuring custom bodywork, a 700 horsepower supercharged V8, 3.3 zero to 60 and a price tag
nearing half a million dollars, it sat comfortably in hypercar territory. All that and you didn't
get a windshield or roof. Though only one example was ever sold, it served as a powerful expression
of Reeves' Callaway's vision of being recognized as an outfit that went far beyond tuning. A tuner,
according to Reeves, bolts on existing parts and calls it customization. At Callaway,
everything is built specifically for a car. The C16 Speedster remains one of Callaway's
purest statements of identity. It's low production, high performance, and unapologetically beautiful.
Quote, he always wanted some sort of sexiness with the cars, whether they were GT1, GT2,
or street cars. Paul Deutschman said, sexy is a great way to describe the one-of-one Callaway
Speedster. I'm going to look this up. Callaway Speedster. They look like mausolors. Have you
ever seen those? Mosle. Yeah. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. That one's a little fishy.
Yeah. It's very, yeah, you're right. It's aquatic-esque. Yeah. It's cool though. I'd drive that.
I'd drive that for a dollar. It's like the McLaren Mercedes. That's what that reminds me of. It's
really cool. The cheery response to the car on the grass at Pebble confirmed Callaway's belief
in doing things his way. And while Coop and Roadster versions of the C16 sold in double-digit
figures through 2013, his son Peter later reflected that his father carried a quiet
frustration that this and other projects had not resulted in higher production numbers.
Despite his exasperation, Callaway did in fact build thousands upon thousands of high-performance
vehicles, a majority of them being warranty-backed Corvettes. In 2011, it expanded its relationship
with General Motors by bringing trucks and SUVs into its performance program. Initially marketed
as the Callaway Sport Truck Series, today each rig carries a Callaway Eponym, such as the Callaway
Silverado or the Callaway Escalade. The Cadillac, for example, is delivered with carbon fiber engine
covers, bespoke engine control components, custom badging throughout the vehicle, a high-flow intake
system, and of course, a Callaway Supercharger that gives the Escalade's 602 brake horsepower
nearly 200 more than the stock version. Before Cadillac, there was always Corvette.
With the debut of the C7 Corvette in 2014, Reeves once again tasked his designer and friend,
Paul Deutschman, to re-envision the vehicle's appearance. Deutschman drafted a carbon fiber
openable hatch that replaced the original bodywork, giving it an elegant shooting brake design.
It was named the Corvette Aero Wagon and would be the last
road-going version of the Corvette approved by Reeves himself. Dude, what?
Yeah, it's pretty sick because the C7 started getting the angles back, so they put this shooting
brake hatch on the back of it. It's pretty nice. Whoa, that's interesting. Yeah, it is like a
shooting brake C7. Yeah. That's cool. I actually saw someone make a shooting brake IROC.
Uh-huh. This is sick. That looks nice. On the racing side of things, the C7 presented a new
opportunity for the team at Callaway Competition. On October 3rd of 2015, they unveiled a new factory
backed Corvette GT3R, which it would enter into the 2016 ADAC GT Masters, which was a sports car
racing series founded by the German Auto Club ADAC and attracted many well-funded teams composed
of the best engineers, designers, and drivers in the business. Among Porsches, Lamborghinis,
and other European racing greats, the Callaway Competition C7 Corvette snagged second place
in the team's championship in 2016. Nice job. The next year, in a story similar to David and
Goliath, according to Paul Deutschman, Callaway stood at the top of the podium. You know what's
beautiful about Callaway? Most of the time, these stories are people that started with racing
and they're just trying to get their stuff kind of into the OEMs. He went straight to the street,
like built cars, and then just kind of like, here's a race, second place. Here's a race,
top 10. Here's a race. Let me win that championship real quick. I just got to prove
my worth a little bit, but I'm already over here. I still got it, man. Yeah. As Callaway Competition
continued pounding tracks across Europe, the homegrown US team focused on building GM vehicles.
When Chevrolet announced the C8 Corvette, it went without saying that Callaway would get its hands
on it. With an Aero package available as early as 2022, June 2023 saw the announcement of the
Stingray kit. With styling by Deutschman and development by Callaway Competition, the $20,000
Supercharger option resulted in a 687 horsepower 6.2 liter V8 that powered the car to 60 miles per
hour in 2.67 seconds. The base Corvette had put out 490 horsepower and the Z06 sported 670.
Around this time, Reeves and Paul were in the planning stages of a C8 Corvette GT race car.
Then tragedy struck. Ely Reeves Callaway III passed away July 11th, 2023 due to injury sustained in
a fall. The man behind the mission was suddenly gone. The race car was shelved, but Paul keeps a
half-carved clay model on his desk, a reminder of what can be. It's a legacy that could not and
would not be forgotten. With son Pete stepping in as president, the show goes on. Today, Paul
Deutschman continues to lead design and Mike Zoner remains managing director of Callaway Cars.
The Competition branch remains active as well. Product-wise, Callaway continues to focus on
GM products, primarily anything with the 6.2 liter V8. For 2022, Callaway debuted its version of the
e-ray, which pushes 847 horsepower, 160 of which comes from the electric drive unit.
In addition to Corvette, Callaway dealers carry Escalades, Suburbans, Tahos, Silverados, and
Sierras. As for the future, the Cadillac CT5V Blackwing is just around the corner, as is a European
spec C8 Corvette. Pete Callaway himself recently performed road testing in Germany, where he
achieved its limited top speed of 197 miles per hour on snow tires on public roads. For Pete,
ensuring Callaway products work in all conditions remains as vital today as when the sledgehammer
drove 700 miles across a snowy eastern U.S. With Callaway cars celebrating 50 years in 2027,
there's a lot to look forward to, Pete says. For the son, he's not just driving in his father's
shoes, but quote, we're carrying on Reezy's vision for the next generation of car enthusiasts.
And that's Callaway. Wow, a lot of cool cars. Yeah, he branched out quite a lot, you know,
Alpha, Mazda, like that's pretty incredible. Yeah, wow, dude, this Escalade is pretty hilarious,
man. That's wild. I wonder if you went to a dealer right now, how could you option out Callaway
stuff? That's a great question. Is I highly doubt they just got them there, you know? No,
there might be one or two depending on the dealership. According to Callaway's website,
you can order your Callaway from a local Callaway authorized dealer, build your vehicle, and then
they drop ship it to Callaway's Connecticut or California factory for final assembly,
okay, or you can go to like a Chevy GMC or kind of like dealer, buy a car from them,
and then they'll ship it to Callaway where they do the conversion. Okay, so this is very much
like Hennessey in a lot of ways, except Hennessey doesn't have, you know, dealer tie, like, you
know, production tie-ins. So that's really cool, man. Looks like there's on their website, you can
look at Callaway's for sale. They have a C8 right now. Ooh. So $120,000 for this Callaway Corvette.
I've never seen that gray slate color. That's kind of cool. That's pretty cool. Yeah.
Limerick Pennsylvania. So if you're in Limerick, go and get yourself a Callaway C8.
Justin. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here on the show. Thanks for having me, Nolan. Follow
Justin at Justin Freeman, right? Yeah. Justin Freeman. Just two A's because some other guy took
it. Oh, that's right. Follow me at NolanJSykes. Big thanks to our crew,
Edgar, Audrey, and Mark behind the board there. And thank you so much for listening this week.
We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.
About this episode
Reeves Callaway's journey from kart racing to creating the legendary Callaway Sledgehammer Corvette is a fascinating tale of innovation and speed. This episode dives into how Callaway Cars transformed the Corvette into the fastest streetcar in the world, featuring a 900-horsepower twin-turbo engine and a record-setting top speed of 254.76 mph, achieved with a clever duct tape modification. The hosts discuss the engineering challenges, the history of Callaway Cars, and the impact of Reeves Callaway's vision on the automotive world, highlighting his legacy and the future of the brand.
Original notes
This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/PASTGAS and get on your way to being your best self.Thanks to Allstate for sponsoring today’s episode! Click here [https://bit.ly/3GOytQd] to check Allstate first and see how much you could save on car insurance.This week on Past Gas, we’re looking at the life of Reeves Callaway — the fine arts major who got expelled for hot-rodding his Austin Healey and went on to build some of the fastest, strangest, and coolest cars GM ever sold. From Alfa Romeos to Aston Martins, from Range Rovers to Mazdas, and of course the Corvette Sledgehammer — it’s the story of Reeves Callaway, the man who proved a roll of tape could change automotive history.
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