Not Ranked
By making a comment such as "Remington is an old disgruntled ex-employee of Shelby who wasn't around to see when Smith performed his 198mph run" is ridiculous.
To Bony and Jamo, with all due respect to the 60+ year old bail-bondsman from Fresno, I would like to see some records of this accomplishment backed up somewhere in proof, not just an unsubstantiated claim that hasn't been challenged in over 30 years.
Until then, I think I'll put my money on the guy whom you said was proud of his babies, as you put it; the 289's, the FIA's and the Coupes. (Didn't the Coupes win a World Championship or something?)
But don't forget Phil Remington's other accomplishments, too:
He took a horribly unreliable and ill-handling mid-engine Ford GT that Ford FAV tried to develop in 1963/64 and made it a race winner in less than 6 months, something that all the Ford engineers and comnputers couldn't do.
He gave to Ford and Shelby the new LeMans winning MKII GT Ford. (1,2,3 in 1966, along with wins at Sebring and Daytona)
He took a horribly unsafe and ill-designed car from Ford called the J-car, which Miles was killed in, and in one weekend re-designed into the LeMans winning Ford MK IV. Remington was the aero package designer of that car.
He helped design and build the 1972 Indy winning Eagle for Bobby Unser, not to mention all the other successful Eagle Champ cars. Then there was a USAC National Championship in 1978 with cars under his jurisdiction. 21 of the 33 cars on the 1973 INDY 500 grid were AAR Eagles, which Remington was the major factor in creating.
He has designed and built winning cars for CanAm, which Dennis Hulme and Dan Gurney drove
He built winning cars for Nascar for Holman-Moody.
He was responsible for designing and building the first Toyota GTU and GTO cars for AAR, which all won respective IMSA championships.
He was responsible for designing and building the record holding IMSA Toyota GTP Eagle which holds the record for most consecutive wins at 17. Show me any other manufacturer who can claim that kind of record in high-level, prototype racing!
He was responsible for designing and building many of the CART Champ cars which were run out of AAR during the 1990's, and is very accomplished at carbon fiber manufacturing.
All told, there have been 8 championships, 78 overall victories with AAR in series ranging from Indy to Daytona (not including all the races and championships won with Shelby and Reventlow), and 83 pole positions.
AAR's windtunnel is the responsibility of Phil Remington, as is every other facet of operations at Gurney's AAR. Remington is Vice President and Chief engineer for the last 32+ years.
Many of the current crop of CART Champ car engineers and builders grew up in the shops of Gurney's AAR; guess who their tutor was? The last name starts with an "R".
Famous drivers such as Phil Hill, Dennis Hulme, Bob Bondurant, Raul Boesel, Geoff Brabham, Wally Dallenbach, Richie Ginther, Juan Fangio II, James Hunt, Joe Leonard, Pete Halsmer, Bruce McLaren, AJ Foyt, Lloyd Ruby, Ken Miles, Tom Sneva, Al Unser, Al Unser Jr., and PJ Jones have all raced and won in cars directly related back to Phil Remington.
Don't forget cars raced in the Formula Atlantic, Formula A, Formula 5000, and Formula Ford series. And yes, Phil has had his signature on a couple of 427 Cobras in his day.
So,...when I'm walking thru the pit area of a SAAC event with a man holding these types of accomplishments and credentials, and he tells me that he seriously doubts that a 427 Cobra ran 198mph at Daytona, I think I'll believe him until someone proves him wrong.
Any takers with some facts other than just claims?.....
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Slightly Taller Bob
www.racedeckofsocal.com
Last edited by Robert Evans; 09-26-2002 at 06:02 AM..
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