jdoclogan
Platinum Level Sponsor
Incredible contact over this past weekend. A sports car enthusiast, Richard, reached out to Jim Stone, our President, about trying to find Greg Vederoff, the original owner/race driver of my Promotional Harrington Le Mans. Via their communication I was able to have a phone conversation with Richard. The highlights of the conversation follow:
1) Richard was an aero-engineering classmate of Vederoff at the University of Washington in the early 1960s.
2) Richard and a fellow classmate started a U of W sports car club.
3) Vederoff raced a Porche with pretty good success, thus, Richard teamed up with Vederoff to be a pit crew member
4) As a result of the Rootes group winning the 1961 Thermal Index Efficiency Award at 24 hours Le Mans the Promotional Harrington Le Mans (PHLM) was made.
5) Vederoff figure this would be a good replacement for his Porche
6) Richard was there with the purchase (from a Datsun/sports car dealership in Tacoma, WA) and further developments in race prepping this PHLM
7) When Vederoff wanted a Limited Slip Differential (LSD) for the PHLM he, with Richard, went to the Rootes Dealership in Seattle, WA. They provided a Serial number and the pricing.
8) Vederoff thought the pricing was way to high. He did notice that the Serial number was a Studebaker part number.
9) Vederoff and Richard went to the Studebaker dealership and ordered a 1962 Studebaker Lark LSD. The same LSD the Rootes group in the USA was selling as an "factory option" for all HLMs.
Along with many other enhanced historical understandings Richard elevated my happiness quotient. I was able to share a 1962 photo of Vederoff and two young men at Westwood race track in Vancouver, British Columbia. Richard filled in the identity of the two individuals with Vederoff I did not know. Indeed, it was Richard and his brother! Richard shared so much more and I'm thankful for this site and the sports car community that still has octogenarians, like Richard, willing and able to share first person accounts of past events.
1) Richard was an aero-engineering classmate of Vederoff at the University of Washington in the early 1960s.
2) Richard and a fellow classmate started a U of W sports car club.
3) Vederoff raced a Porche with pretty good success, thus, Richard teamed up with Vederoff to be a pit crew member
4) As a result of the Rootes group winning the 1961 Thermal Index Efficiency Award at 24 hours Le Mans the Promotional Harrington Le Mans (PHLM) was made.
5) Vederoff figure this would be a good replacement for his Porche
6) Richard was there with the purchase (from a Datsun/sports car dealership in Tacoma, WA) and further developments in race prepping this PHLM
7) When Vederoff wanted a Limited Slip Differential (LSD) for the PHLM he, with Richard, went to the Rootes Dealership in Seattle, WA. They provided a Serial number and the pricing.
8) Vederoff thought the pricing was way to high. He did notice that the Serial number was a Studebaker part number.
9) Vederoff and Richard went to the Studebaker dealership and ordered a 1962 Studebaker Lark LSD. The same LSD the Rootes group in the USA was selling as an "factory option" for all HLMs.
Along with many other enhanced historical understandings Richard elevated my happiness quotient. I was able to share a 1962 photo of Vederoff and two young men at Westwood race track in Vancouver, British Columbia. Richard filled in the identity of the two individuals with Vederoff I did not know. Indeed, it was Richard and his brother! Richard shared so much more and I'm thankful for this site and the sports car community that still has octogenarians, like Richard, willing and able to share first person accounts of past events.
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