The AIR Cars: James Garner’s
American International Racing
(A Story in Three Parts)
by: Dave Herlinger, David Reisner
and Brent Silverwood
PART ONE - WHAT IS ‘AIR’???
PHOTO # 1
DAVE HERLINGER
(Shot to repeat at start of each
section)
Today’s “Silicon Valley” is row after row of
curtain-wall office buildings housing the software giants and would-be-giants.
But in the 60's and 70's this part of the bay area was hot rodder’s heaven.
Miles of new asphalt roads built in advance of the industrial boom provided
more than one test track for the latest teenage creations.
This is where Dave and Jim Herlinger grew up and
where Dave set up his business, Herlinger’s Corvette Repair. Back then,
business boomed; demand for the latest hot ticket item drove the automotive
economy. Today, it’s lease jobs and bonzai bombers. But through it all, Dave
Herlinger has retained his love of the Corvette and continues to churn out
specialty repair and restoration work in his clean room, right across the street
from SGI.
Part One
The history of the three James
Garner/American International Racing (AIR) cars has been fully documented by
David Reisner, the Corvette Sleuth. David has agreed to cooperate with SHARK
Quarterly in the re-telling those parts of the story. But the stories of the
current owner’s and their exploits have not been addressed. After all, who
could tell the story of three cars and twenty years of history in one article?
So, for our start on this topic,
SHARK Quarterly wants to introduce you to Dave Herlinger -- the force behind
the collection and quite possibly the man responsible for taking David Reisner
down the long road of Corvette history. Dave and I spent many hours together
last May reviewing his role in recovering and rebuilding the AIR cars.
Photo # 2
James Garner
Courtesy of Dave Herlinger
The first thing we had to do was
figure out who Dave Herlinger was. So, I asked Dave to just tell me a little
bit about himself. Dave speaks:
“I originally worked for GM as a
Quality Control & Reliability Engineer at the Fremont (CA) plant in the
70's. It was about 1978 when I decided that I would open my own shop. About the
same time, some friends of mine started a business called the Corvette Stop. I
got a lot of my work for them for about thirteen years.
Through that time period there was
lots of activity with racing and mid-year restorations. There was also a period
when the speculator boom really drove the mid-year market. Nowadays, though, it
has dropped off quite a bit. Not only are a lot of the mid-years already
restored, but also now a lot of the kids lease the imports and turn them in
when it’s time to move on.
For my own interests, I usually
stick with the older cars and the racing cars as a matter of personal interest.
But I have had some dealings with the newer cars. I helped two friends run the
Corvette Challenge from 1984 through 86, mostly just doing the rear-ends for
them. Maybe we can come back to that later.
Right now I want to tell you a short
story about David Reisner. I feel a little bit responsible for luring David
Reisner, the Corvette Sleuth, down the long and somewhat tortuous path of
Corvette research. Dave (Reisner) got
his start here, at Herlinger’s Corvette Repair.
Before he came here he didn’t know
anything about searching for cars. He had got a PhD at MIT in Massachusetts and
moved out to California to work. When he got here he didn’t even own a car. So
he started looking for basic transportation... an MG or some such car. But once
he got looking he found a Corvette at a price he thought he could afford. Of
course, it needed some work so he ended up here.
It didn’t take long for him to get
interested in Corvettes in a broader context and, somewhere along the line, he
decided he would like to find the first owner of his car. Well he worked at
that for quite a while. I think he traced it back through fourteen owners.
Anyway, I guess his research training supported him because he never got
frustrated; he just kept going from one lead to another.
He got to learn how to use the
vehicle registries and even the land registry offices to track people. When he
finally found the original owner of his car he thought he was pretty much done
with that game.
But (it was 1989, now) I asked him
“How would you like to find an L-88?” Well he said, “What’s an L-88?” So I
explained that to him. And then I told my brother (Jim Herlinger), “We’re going
to find your old race car.” Well, Jim was pretty dubious too.
Jim knew that old racecars just get
moved from owner to owner without registration and then, when they’re done,
they are just thrown away. But Dave started looking. And he got nothing but
dead ends for over six months. But he kept researching.
Dave would find places where people
had lived but maybe now it was just a vacant lot. So he would ask the neighbors
who used to live there. He would track down where they used to work and ask
there. And that’s where he also learned about the property registry. If you
live in California and have ever owned a piece of property, they have the
information.
Photo # 3 The #44 car as found Photo Provided Courtesy of:
Dave Herlinger
It took about eight months, but
Reisner called early one morning and said, “I’ve found it; it’s in Michigan”.
Well this changed my brother’s view on whether or not you could find old
racecars and it changed our thinking about the potential for restoring them
too.
Anyway, my brother said, “Well maybe
I’ll get up there and see it some time.” I said something to the effect that he
would get on a plane and go up there right now! Once you start searching for a
car, each person you talk to starts to rekindle their memories too. Sometimes
you stir up quite a bit of interest and you have to move fast.
So my brother did go up the next day
and met the guy who owned it. The story is actually much longer, but for right
now it’s probably easiest to say that they had a few beers and eventually made
a deal. We traded him a mid-year racecar, which he is still vintage racing,
together with some cash.
Before I tell you a bit about the
restoration, I guess that one thing you might want to know is how we had raced
one of the James Garner/AIR cars in the first place. So that means telling you
a little bit about my brother Jim.
Jim was the driver and he originally
got interested in racing through his work with Ford. After he graduated from
Stanford in 1961, where he studied Mechanical Engineering, he went to work for
Ford for four or five years. He was a test engineer for their performance
division. They sent him to Indianapolis every year and to Riverside,
everywhere. He got interested in racing through his product work, but mostly
from watching it.
A little later he quit Ford and came
back here to work. He bought a Porsche and took his SCCA driver’s school. In
this period he would naturally hang out with a lot of the Ford engineers who
would be around to give a hand to their brand. But at the racetrack most people
are pretty friendly so somewhere along the line, and I have never figured this
out, he got mixed up with Gib Hufstader and Bob Riley. He became really good
personal friends with these guys.
Then, in 1972, Jim decided he wanted
a V-8 car for the 1973 season. He wasn’t really a Corvette fan but I had been
stuck on Corvette’s ever since I was a kid. So when we saw an ad in AutoWeek
late in 1972 he thought it sounded interesting. The car was one of the James
Garner cars and it was at Dick Guldstrand’s shop.
Jim went down and tested the car and
bought it. He had never driven a big block car before so we weren’t sure what
to expect. We raced that car (the # 44 car) for the first time at Laguna Seca
in 1973; we took the pole and won our class (A/P).
We almost won the race but, as it
turned out, we were beat by Walt Maas in a 150 cu in Datsun...Jim had spun and
lost his lead. It was a fluke but we still placed second overall and first in
class. We raced it for the rest of the year and a little bit into 1974 before
selling it. I’ll come back to that too.
Photo # 4
The #44 repainted in bright red for
Jim Herlinger’s
first big block race, Laguna Seca,
1973
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Steve
Anderson
Now I really have to move over to
one article that I did with David Reisner (Keepin Track, Vol 15 No 11,
August 1991) and another one that he did for the NCRS Restorer magazine
to make life easier. David and I worked so hard to get the story straight,
there’s no point in trying to tell it a different way. We can just run it down
quickly and then we’ll get back to the point where we got the #44 car back
where we started the restoration on my brother’s (# 44) AIR car.
So, let’s just go back and review
the history of the cars. Three factory-built L-88 cars left the St. Louis plant
for delivery to James Garner’s American International Racing (AIR) team in
November of 1967. These three Lemans Blue Sting Ray convertibles were
pre-production or COPO models featuring the new L-88 engine which would not be
available to the public until April 22 of 1968. These three cars, plus the four
“lightweight” cars with the second generation open-chamber heads covered in SHARK
Quarterly (Vol 2 No 1, Spring 1996) were GM’s rolling test beds, specially
prepared for special customers.
Photo # 5
James Garner drops in to the new
AIR shop in Culver City to see work
in progress, December 1967
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
Photo # 7
(alternate photo for #5)
James Garner
oversees work at the new
AIR shop in
Culver City, December 1967
Photo
Provided Courtesy of: Dave Herlinger
Photo # 6
All three AIR cars take shape in the
AIR shop in Culver City Quonset hut,
December 1967
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
The cars were actually ordered in
the name of Herb Caplan, a west coast SCCA National Champion, who put up the
funds before the sponsor financing for the AIR team actually arrived. The cars
were ordered by Clippinger Chevrolet salesman Bob Wingate through Fred Gledhill
Chevrolet in Harbor City (CA).
On completion, and in return for
some extraordinary services in delivering performance parts, two of the AIR
cars were put on display at Clippinger Chevrolet for a special “PR” event.
Photo # 8
Two of the AIR cars were put on
display at
Clippinger Chevrolet, December
1967,in
exchange for providing performance
parts
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
Photo # 9
Two of the AIR cars were put on
display at
Clippinger Chevrolet, December
1967,in
exchange for providing performance
parts
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
But that’s not the only unusual
aspect. As David Reisner reported, the cars were actually picked up at Gene
Jantzen Chevrolet in St. Louis and driven back to California, in the middle of
winter. The drivers were Dick Guldstrand, Bob McDonald (Caplan’s crew chief)
and Perry Moore (a former Caplan employee).
Although delivery was recorded as
being at Fred Gledhill Chevrolet, it is much more likely that the cars drove
nearly directly to the first AIR shop in Culver City, just two doors down from
Dick Guldstrand’s brand new shop.
Photo # 10
All thre AIR cars prepare to depart
for
Daytona, 1968. But which is which?
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
Sidebar: The Formation of AIR
by: David Reisner
As best as can be determined the origin of the idea
for American International Racing grew out of an effort spearheaded by Bob
Bondurant, don Rabbitt (former “pr” man for Shelby) and Sandy Sandin. A few weeks after Le Mans, Bondurant
severely inured his foot in an accident at Watkins Glen. Sandin began to pal
around with Bondurant during his convalescence, and the tow of them developed a
concept for a turbine car. However this effort never got beyond the drafting
table as a result of FIA rule changes. The turbine car was scrapped, as far as
AIR was concerned.
In July of 1967, James Garner and Dick Guldstrand
were added as equal partners to AIR, joining Bondurant, Rabbitt and Sandin.
Garner had developed a strong interest in racing while filming the movie “Grand
Prix” with Bob Bondurant, who drove the camera car, and Guldstrand, who offered
his technical expertise. Garner’s willingness to sponsor his name resulted in a
promise on the spot from Larry Trousdale of Goodyear to put up the funds. The
deal for three high performance Corvettes was truck then and there at Riverside
Raceway in October of 1967.
Garner, in addition to playing a large role in securing sponsorship from the likes of
Goodyear, and later American motors (who sponsored the AIR Lolas and Baja
racing), also played an active decision-making role in AIR. Since the crew
associated with Guldstrand and Bondurant at Le Mans in ‘67 was already familiar
with Corvettes, the acquisition of three L-88's made for a natural transition.
These three L-88's (# 45 VIN 194678S405120, # 44 VIN 194678S405175, and
promotional car VIN #194678S405186) were ordered through Gledhill Chevrolet in
Harbor City (CA) in Herb Caplan’s name. Caplan was a well-known west coast SCCA
National Champion with many wins under his belt. Guldstrand also had
connections at Chevrolet that insured these cars would get special attention,
but in fact, Caplan had fronted the money before the sponsor funds arrived.
One of the three cars was intended to be used as a
promotional car and was eventually taken to Daytona as a parts car (but never
cannibalized). In fact, this car was titled in the state of California. The
other two cars were race-prepped for endurance racing. The # 45 car was first
road tested by Bondurant at Riverside (Corvette News, Vol 11, No 4).
For more information:
Dave Herlinger
Herlinger’s Corvette Repair,
1230 Pear Ave., Unit # 3
Mountain View, CA
USA (415)
969-5351 (T)
94042 (415)
969-0344 (F)