CLASSIC AMERICAN PEOPLE Bob McKee Master Builder THE JET AGE
Bob’s first sports racers were called Chevettes as they used many Chevelle and Corvette parts. Budding racer Jerry Hansen won six races in 1965 with one of them. Bob says: “I used off-the-shelf American parts wherever I could to try and keep the price down. It was just a bunch of hot rod parts we put together to make a reasonable car that you could build at a reasonable price. Many of the tracks were quite rough and our cars had to be tough, reliable and safe. Before we got through, we had every kind of engine that was made in this country in a car at one time or another. We had ones with the 427cu in Hemi engine, one with a Ford 427cu in Holman and Moody engine and one with a 455cu in Oldsmobile engine. Making our own transaxle gave us a lot of latitude and we could custom-make things for whatever anybody wanted. Back then you could do whatever in the world you wanted.”
As well as sports cars, Bob also built Formula 5000 single seaters and had plenty of work repairing them after their over-enthusiastic owners ran out of talent. He still kept one foot in the Indy door. In 1966 he re-engineered a Gerhardt Indy car
