Just got back a little while ago from our Local Mopar club meeting.......

[pettyfan43]

...and we had a guest speaker this morning. A guy named John Vaughn.

John worked for Chrysler Corp as an engineer until he retired a few years ago, he was one of the chief engineers when they designed the Daytonas.
It was very interesting and he is a SUPER guy.

I didn't know who was going to be there and I REALLY wish I had, i would have taken my Supercars book, one of my 1/18 cars and a Revell model kit to get him to sign it. I also found out that there is another one of the engineers that lives here and actually owns a carpet store that has been here for decades! They keep in touch and Mr Vaughn is going to get the other guy to come to a meeting.

The other guy is a guy named Bill Wright. His son Paul is actually a member of our club.

Back in the 60s there were two different Chrysler Skunkworks here in Huntsville Alabama.

One of them was on Leeman Ferry. The other shop was on Pratt Av and for while was Chrysler's southern racing Headquarters.

Occasionally you would see on Chrysler race cars "woodward garage", that was this place.

The work done here also included those cool scoops on the Challenger T/A, the 6 Pack A12 cars, and the AAR Cuda and 70 Super Bees, Not to mention the ultra cool Air Grabber scoops that would open up on Mopars. That stuff was done here by engineers who originally started with the Space Program here, when NASA was still NACA.

VERY interesting morning.

[tan top]

 yeah say that again ...intresting morning    .............. bet he had some good storys &  info to tell 

[69_500]

Would have been some pretty interesting stories to have recorded on video for future reference as well.

[Aero426]

Wow.  It was my understanding that John Vaughn passed away in 2002-03.     In the photo from 2001,  John Vaughn is at the far left.   Bill Wright is third from left.

Bill Wright and John came out of the Huntsville based rocket program.     Bill would have been John's boss.     When Chrysler lost the Apollo Saturn V contract to McDonnell Douglas,  Bill was looking for things for his group to do, and the instrumentation and aero work was what came of it.    John oversaw the development of the 3/8 scale model program and the Daytona wind tunnel testing at Wichita State U.     Bill was also responsible for helping to diagnose the Pogo effect at Talladega where the drivers were exspieriencing momentary blackouts in the rough corners. 

[Ghoste]

I had always assumed "Woodward Garage" meant the little shop they kept in the back of Hodges Dodge on Woodward in Detroit.  That would have been a very interesting guest speaker for sure. 

[Aero426]

The original Woodward Garage in Detroit was an old Buick dealership not far from Highland Park engineering.

The Huntsville race shop was the "Woodward Garage South",  and was chosen because it was close to the Chrysler space personnel, and easy to go track testing.    Either way it was easier than commuting from Detroit.   The #88 car was based in Huntsville.    The shop itself was a non descript 1960's steel building like you'd find in any industrial park.  It does not exist today.

The actual Chrysler facility where Vaughn and Wright were worked was still in operation until recent years.    They made Mopar electronic ignition and radio components there.    It was announced to be shut down during the Daimler reign, but I don't know if that actually took place.

[pettyfan43]

My mom worked for Chrysler for 23-24 years. The place you are talking about is the old Chrysler plant #2.

It was used for several years during the Daimler days but I think an electronics place has it now.

John is still kicking, and a heck of a nice guy to boot. 

kind of reminds you of James Best. (You know, Sherrif Rosco Coltrane!)

It was really cool to hear some of the stjuff about the cars from one of the guys who helped design them.

One of the funniest things was him talking about climbing in the test car and riding around Talladega with Baker!

He said it got interesting at about 160! All he could do was sit there on the floor and wrap his arms around the Roll Cage! He was trying to turn a dial on some kind of equipment, but could barely reach up and touch it.

[pettyfan43]

The original Woodward Garage in Detroit was an old Buick dealership not far from Highland Park engineering.

The Huntsville race shop was the "Woodward Garage South",  and was chosen because it was close to the Chrysler space personnel, and easy to go track testing.    Either way it was easier than commuting from Detroit.   The #88 car was based in Huntsville.    The shop itself was a non descript 1960's steel building like you'd find in any industrial park.  It does not exist today.

The actual Chrysler facility where Vaughn and Wright were worked was still in operation until recent years.    They made Mopar electronic ignition and radio components there.    It was announced to be shut down during the Daimler reign, but I don't know if that actually took place.

Also there were two buildings here besides the original main plant.  There was the "Woodward South" and then there was  a building at the old Airport where a lot of Drag Racing work was done. They also did a good bit of the low speed testing with the Daytona there as well.

The old Airport for the most part is still there and now there is a building owned by the Jaycees. There are a number of events there  and the local Corvette club even has an autocross there on occasion.