An automotive legend in every sense. His influence will long be remembered.
Ely Reeves Callaway III, 75, died on Tuesday, July 11th, at his home in Newport Beach, California, after sustaining injuries in a fall, Callaway Cars has announced. He is survived by his family of four children and two grandchildren, along with the company that made him famous the world over for some of the most impressive machinery of the past 40 years. He was a self-taught pioneer that pushed the boundaries of automotive design, and he'll forever be known as one of the legends of the industry.
Born in 1947 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania to famed Callaway Golf founder Ely Callaway Jr, the family soon moved to Connecticut where he grew up in Darien. He started racing go-karts at the age of six, falling in love with vehicles of all kinds.
After graduating from Amherst College in 1970 with a bachelor's degree, he continued to race, winning the 1973 Sports Car Club of America Formula Vee National Championship. Due to his prodigious skill and success, he soon became one of the first driving instructors at Bob Bondurant's High Performance Driving School.
His experiences teaching on BMW 320i's at the time led him in 1976 to convince BMW to let him take one home and install a turbocharger kit upon it. This was the very beginning, and after the car achieved positive press, he realized there was commercial viability in more products like it. Soon, he was producing turbo kits out of his Connecticut garage.
From there, his first commissioned project from a manufacturer was the Alfa Romeo GTV-6, turning it into the Callaway Twin Turbo GTV-6. The project, which only lasted from 1984-1986, soon left him looking for the next project, eventually leading him into GM's waiting arms. This was when Callaway's love affair with the Chevrolet Corvette began in 1987.
Soon, the famed Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette was born. The 402-horsepower vehicle was a rocket compared to the 245-hp base one, and soon he signed a deal with GM to sell the kits through dealers, making him a true Specialty Vehicle Manufacturer.
Soon after, Callaway was finally able to show the world what he could really do, and in1989, “The Sledgehammer” was born. An absolute monster in every metric, the 898-hp and 772-lb-ft Twin Turbo Corvette was piloted to 254.76 mph by his friend John Lingenfelter. This set the production car's top speed record (its claim may be dubious given the McLaren F1 was the world's fastest car at 240.1 mph), and it wasn't broken for 21 years until the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport came around.
From there, he launched the Callaway Competition racing unit, which successfully competed at Le Mans and in European GT Racing, but his love always remained with tuning road cars. He did projects with Aston Martin, Land Rover, and Mazda, but the Corvette became his muse. Every Corvette after the C4 has seen a Callaway tune, and the C7 even received the shooting brake version it always deserved.
“Dad’s passion for making beautifully designed and crafted machines can be seen in each and every project, and we remain devoted to executing to the highest standards, in true Callaway fashion,” says his son Peter Reeves Callaway, the company's President. “He was rarely found doing anything other than working towards the next milestone for the company. He was a charismatic leader with a sense of humor that we will all remember through various “Reeves-isms”. I feel fortunate to have grown up working with him and the company.”
The company’s efforts have never ceased, with many other GM vehicles receiving attention over the years, and it’s all thanks to Reeves Callaway’s hard work, ingenuity, and determination over the years. He will be dearly missed.
Keyword: Reeves Callaway, Founder Of Callaway Cars, Dies At 75