R.I.P. Dan Gurney

The Gurney Flap! Had forgotten that it came from a race car driver.

RIP
 
RIP DAn Gurney. Hella racer. Yes quite a resume.
 
He won races in every major auto racing series. Not too many can claim that.
 
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We used the Gurney Flap before we even knew it had a name.

But impressive stats, very admirable, the racers racer.
 
So long, Dan. I'm always impressed when a racer from his era lives to be a ripe old age. That used to be a very dangerous way to make a living. Not only did he survive, but he went on to become quite a successful team owner.

I loved his excuse for speeding. He always maintained that your chances of getting into a road accident was proportional to how long you were on the road. Therefore, to be safe, get there as quickly as possible!
 
You'll be sorely missed, Mr. Gurney.

Probably the most impressive achievement was his win at Spa-Francorchamps in '67 in the Eagle, a car of his own manufacture. That win remains the only victory for a U.S.-built chassis in the modern Formula 1 era.

I was lucky enough to have met him a couple of times. I played a round of golf with Dan and his son Alex at a course in Southern California once. He had a totally infectious laugh, and an ever-present gleam in his eye. A quality human being and a crazy-good driver.

Alex got an eagle on the second par 5 that day. How fitting. :)
 
During my ill spent hot rod youth the crazies that wrote for Car & Driver mag back then were required reading every month.

I loved reading Car and Driver back in the day, but it slowly started going downhill after the DED, Setright, Bedard, Gordon Jennings, Brock Yates, etc., started to leave. Now it's just a hollow shill for the manufacturers.
 
During my ill spent hot rod youth the crazies that wrote for Car & Driver mag back then were required reading every month. My Dan Gurney recollection is reading about him teamed up with C&D columnist Brock Yates in a stickered up (quasi NART racer decals) Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona and driving it from NY to LA in <36 hours.

https://www.caranddriver.com/featur...ing-sea-memorial-trophy-dash-archived-feature


That's one of the great auto stories of all time. I love the part about the Cadillac team. One of the Caddy drivers, Nate Pritzker, is an old friend and in fact is sitting just down the hallway from me at the moment. He's still a practicing mechanical engineer, though he expects to retire soon.

1971 Cadillac Sedan deVille: Driveaway Special—Drivers, Larry Opert, Nate Pritzker, Ron Herisko, all of Cambridge, Massachusetts. As this trio rolled away at 12:14 a.m., they had to be strong candidates for the Style Award (if there could be such a thing in an event of this nature). Lawyer Opert, brother of racing-car dealer Fred Opert and himself a club racer, plus his law partner Herisko and engineer friend Pritzker, had no car that suited the demands of the Cannonball, so they found one in the stygian pages of the New York Times. They answered an ad from a stuffy New York businessman who wanted his new Caddy transported to California. Our three heroes got the job, provided they did not drive the nearly new (2500 miles) sedan before eight o’clock in the morning, did not stay on the road after nine in the evening, and under no circumstances exceeded 75 mph. Putting the owner’s mind at rest, the Cambridge team snatched up the car, stuffed a set of binoculars in the glove compartment, and screeched off toward the Red Ball.

Gurney was one of the greats and back in the days when I was playing with slot cars and Hot Wheels he was among my hero drivers. Sad to see him go, but he had a helluva run, didn't he?
 
I loved reading Car and Driver back in the day, but it slowly started going downhill after the DED, Setright, Bedard, Gordon Jennings, Brock Yates, etc., started to leave. Now it's just a hollow shill for the manufacturers.

My feeling exactly. Haven't read hardly an issue since Davis left. Of course part of that is I substituted AMUs for the money I used to squander on competition sports cars.
 
Dan was a regular at Cook's Corner in SoCal. He used to tear up Ortega Hwy on his Alligator motorcycle of his own design. He was also really quick on his Harley and always wore full leathers when riding. He will be sorely missed as he was a genuinely nice person.
 
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