Racing Through Time: Bob Wood's Automotive Adventures and the GT40 Legacy

I am on a road trip today with a longtime friend . We've probably known each other for 20 plus years , maybe 25 years . His name is Bob Wood . We have one time actually lived next door to one another . There's a couple things that stick out in my mind about Bob . Well , number one he's a car guy , so I was real excited to talk to him .

The other thing is when Henry was a Cub Scout , I'll always remember Bob coach us in building our first Pinewood Derby little car . That was a big deal to me . Then we got involved in go-cart racing and Bob and his son were also involved . I'll never forget the first race we went to and our cart was not a top performer .

Something broke that night I think it was the clutch and Bob was just really quick to lend a hand to me . The other thing was if I ever needed a tool when he was my next door neighbor . I knew I could walk next door and Bob would have it because he had quite a collection of tools .

Anyway , I'm excited to talk to him today about cars and road trips and whatever else comes our way . Welcome to the show , bob . Thank you , dan .

So we were going to see what Butch was doing . It was a bug-eye sprite and he never raced it but he autocrossed it . And then , after the bug-eye , he got a Lotus Europa . So again , this is back in the 60s . He got a Lotus Europa . After the Europa he got a Shelby GT350 in 1965 , one of the original Shelby Mustangs from the 60s .

So that's what got me interested in cars . I love the cars , it was just fun . It was fun watching him do things , then learning things . When I went to college I went to an engineering school . I'm a mechanical engineer by degree and when I went to college I was always looking to find a bug-eye sprite just for the fun of having a bug-eye sprite .

And there happened to be a bug-eye that was there . The owner had just bought the car , paid $150 for it , and I saw it and I said don't you want to sell it ? And he said well , I just bought it and I said I'll give you $200 for it . So again , this is the late 60s . It's probably 69 or 70 .

And that was a lot of money back then , particularly when you were in college . So I got a bug-eye sprite . That was my first car and that's what really got me interested . The car was in 1960 . This was again . It was about 1970 .

And the car needed a lot of work and so I pulled the engine out , learned how to rebuild engines , learned what machining was to clean a crankshaft and to put in new bearings and new rings and to home and clean the cylinder . So I just got involved with cars at that point . I've always been interested in mechanical things .

That's why I went to college to become a mechanical engineer . It was always just fun for me to be working with automobiles .

That I did way back when was to go to Jim Russell's International Racing Driver School , and it was in Canada and we lived in Eastern Massachusetts time , so I was going to try to sneak away , because my father died only About eight months before that yeah , how old were you at ?

And so two friends and I Went from where we were in Eastern Massachusetts and we drove to to Laurentian Mountains , just the Northwest of Montreal , which was about an eight-hour drive .

We went , drove up there and , interestingly enough , we get up there and Friend of mine , one of the two friends Was studying you'd be a pharmacist , and so he was in , he worked at a pharmacy and and on a Saturday night he didn't get off work to above oh , I think it was about 10 o'clock and so he got off work at 10 and we started winning our way

northward . So we went through Montreal about 2 30 in the morning , okay , and then we . Then we went To the racetrack in the Laurentians at Saint-Jubet and we arrived at about 4 30 , so we put up our tent .

When we get up the following morning to start the race school , the School instructor said we're gonna be a little late and the instructor was Jacques Kutcher .

He was a Formula B national , canadian national champion and he said we're gonna be starting a little late and Because they had been a break-in and the break-in , someone stole a whole bunch of tools from the race car shop , the prep shop for all these formula fords .

So my Glasses started and my two friends were walking around the track as I was driving and learning , and they were walking around the track Taking pictures and they got way out to the back of the track and they stumbled across this big box of tools and so apparently what had happened is , when we arrived at that early hour of the morning , we scared off the

thieves oh , wow you steal , stealing the tools , and they left the tools there , and so my two friends brought the tools back , and Jack Koutura was most appreciative and Left us with two cases of a LeBards beer and we never had . We've never had LeBards , beer and so and then we went from there .

I went , did the school , came back down through Montreal , went to expo 67 , which was now , of course , 1973 . We went down through there and that was a great road trip , yeah , but I took with my friends .

And so we were looking at different things about the track , thompson , connecticut in particular , which was very close to the house , and so we're looking at Thompson .

My mother knew I was doing that and my Confirmation for Jim Russell's was was sent to my house and my mother saw Jim Russell's International Racing drivers school and thinking that it was something to do with the safety and design class . Okay , she opened it and it said thank you , bob Wood , for your deposit on your school and Driver's school .

So , and interestingly enough , 30 years later , we moved to Cincinnati and there's a guy in Cincinnati and Bill Brock , sick . I don't know if you know Bill . No , I don't yeah , but but Bill has a race car shop . So I was at the shop one day .

Talking to talking to Bill about cars and things , I saw that he had some pictures of the Jim Russell driving school and I said to him I went to the gym , muscle driving school . He said when we were there . I said I was there 1973 . Bill said I was there in 1973 , oh my , as one of the mechanics . And then we we talked a little bit more .

So what you must remember then that the the shop was was broken into and the tools were stolen . I was that shop and my two friends were the ones who brought the tools back and Bill Brossick said to me oh , those were my tools .

And when I sold the Alon I had the money for a formula for and it was someone who was getting out and it was . It was a car and a trailer and a few spare parts and some things like that , sure , and so it was . It was in 1975 . I took the car to my SCCA driver school , which was required .

I had to do two SCCA schools , or one SCCA school and a professional school . So I had done the pro school with Jim Russell's , okay , and so I did a school at Thompson down , got my novice permit , novice license after Thompson , connecticut in .

It was in August of 1975 , so that's that's when I started and I ran enough races in 75 after that , three races To get off your not novice permit or essentially is to get those stripes taken off the back of your car . Yeah right , the novice had three stripes .

So Essentially the people knew that they could pick on you and you're gonna get out of the way and stuff like that , yeah and so . So I got that done in 75 and so 76 , I started . That was my first year . Yeah , I ran a full season in 76 .

They all started in Formula Ford and they all ran the nationals . Not many regionals , but they ran the nationals . But but these guys , dan were was Michael and ready and and Jeff and ready to John and John and ready and Chip ganassi raced in Formula Ford in the Northeast .

Craig seabourg Raced in the formula Ford in the Northeast , got me made great name of Drake Olson and all these guys went on to to run Indianapolis , to run the Toronto turn , seeming as professional driver . The problem wasn't so much of of that , they were that much better . I have a Michael and ready story , I'll tell you in a minute .

But the big deal , dan , was that they had so much money , sure , and so I would .

I would buy a set of tires the beginning of the year and because we're going clockwise in racing the left-hand side tires , I've taken the beating and so I would put on a new set of lefts , move the ones that were on the left till the right , sure , and had two fresh tires , whereas Michael and Chip and these guys would come out , they'd have a set of tires

for practice during the week , they put on a fresh set for practice on on the race weekend . Then they put on a first set for qualifying on the race weekend and then they put on the first set for the race and Fresh tires were always nice and they were always fun to drive on . But my Michael story was for a bridge hampton .

That's another thing , dan , I was 30 years old at the time and these , these kids were 18 years old . Yeah , davey , davey Jones , remember Davey Jones ? Sure , yeah , yeah , I think he was 18 years old and we had a double race weekend at prior . It was called prior . Now it's called New Hampshire international . We had a double race weekend .

I won on Saturday and he won on Sunday and I was 30 years old and he was 18 . Okay , so I was running against Michael and we're at Bridge Camp , and so it just so happened that going out in the qualifying session , I just was in the paddock and I lined up right behind Michael and we had virtually identical cars .

We had Van Diemen , he had a Van Diemen RF80 . I had a brand new Van Diemen RF79 , but they were virtually identical , just a couple of little changes on them . Off we started , came out of the paddock and got on the track and we started going around doing qualifying and if I just stayed close enough to Michael , michael was gonna be on the pole .

There was no doubt about that . If I just stayed close enough to Michael as we went out , I knew I'd be in the top five . So out we went and we started going faster and faster and faster and I was staying on Michael , staying on Michael . And then we came to a turn and he just kept going deeper , and deeper and deeper .

And I said Michael and already knows something I don't know . And so I got on the brakes and Michael didn't and Michael whistled off the track . So Michael didn't know anything that I didn't know , but he had a spare car . If he had ripped off a couple of corners or something , he would just gone back to the paddock and pull out his spare car .

Sure , if that had happened to me , then I would have been out . Sure , maybe the rest of the season or something such as that . But those were great , fun racing days . But it was , and the one race was at Briar . It was a double race weekend and I qualified . I qualified third and by oh , not too many laps in . I was in the lead .

Then the next and I won the race , and so the next morning we had qualified for that day , that day's race , and so I didn't go out in the practice session because I didn't wanna wear out tires that I didn't have to .

I was just gonna wait for qualifying and I didn't know that the timing and my distributor had loosened to the point that when I went out onto the track the engine was just misfiring .

So I pulled into the end of the pits , tightened , found the problem , reset , the timing tightened , the distributor got back onto the track and I only got one or two laps in , and so the tires weren't warm and I was 10 seconds slower than I was the day before , and so when we got the grid sheet , the grid sheet had me seventh on the grid instead of being

22nd on the grid . So they saw the 10 second difference and thought that must have been a mistake . They knocked the 10 seconds off and put me seventh on the grid and I was able to pick up four places and I wound up finishing third of the second day .

. But tell us a little bit about the GT40 story . I was telling somebody about my neighbor , bob Wood , and he owns the trademark for GT40 . And they're like what and how ? And so I said , well , you'll have to listen in because I'm gonna ask Bob that question and I know you've told me the story before .

But share what you can with my guests and I know you have a couple of partners .

Years went by , I was always looking to see if I could find a GT40 and buy one , but they just became brutally expensive . Sure , we had a friend that knew about these cars that were being made in England that were being made after the original run of the GT40s , okay , and so I was getting . It was back then . It was called Competition Press and Auto Week .

Whenever I saw a GT40 for sale I would check it off in the magazine or the paper . I still have those .

I've spent 30 years in my garage out here and then I kept a whole record of what issue had what car in it so I could go to it and I thought , in the years when I can come up with a car or have the money to buy a car , that I will have to track them down , not knowing not knowing at all that the GT40 would be what the car is .

And so , time passed , I had the ability to get one of the 40 cars that was made after the original run of cars and those were the Safer Mark Vs . Okay , I stayed in touch with Peter Thorp and England who made the Safer cars .

When all of the cars 40 were done , 20 of them were in the United States and Peter said to me , because half the cars were in the United States and because I facilitated the deals on two or three of the last cars , peter said I would like to have you have all the parts in everything for the cars in the United States .

I spoke to my wife , Joanne , and she said no , we're not going to do that . I talked to John Sadler up in Canada . He said nah , he wasn't interested either .

So I talked to another friend , alice Hubbard , and Ellis is in Cincinnati , and Ellis said let's go to England and look and see what we can get , and so he had to be talking to Brady back and Brady said geez , can I just go along ? And Ellis called me into Dominic Brady . I said no . So we went to England .

Ellis drives a hard bargain and it was never part of what Peter Thorp was offering to make additional chassis . It was just the hand of the parts and Ellis really knew that . But I think what his thought was was hey , can we make chassis ? Peter says no , I'm not interested . Then Ellis and Peter changed the price or whatever . We want to come back .

Brady and I were in our driveway right there on Elm Lane , dan , and I said would you be interested in Brady in doing this ? He said yeah , he would . So Brady and I did , and then John Sadler heard that we had actually done it . He wanted to be in on it then . So that's how we wound up getting Safer GT40 Spayers Limited .

And Peter Thorp was making GT40s and so was a couple of other companies Tornado is one in England , ken Atwell , which is KAD . The CAD was a company down in South Africa . So a lot of people are making these cars and Peter wanted his car to be the genuine deal .

So he had worked a deal with John Wilman of JWA MotorBenz and he worked a deal with them that cars would be made with successive serial numbers . So Peter had successive serial numbers and he wanted to be sure that they were genuine GT40s . So he trademarked GT40 . The Ford Motor Company never did .

You would find a trademark for auto light spark plugs In some time in the 80s is when they did it , the only things that they trademark . They trademark the blue oval in 1903 , yeah , and they changed the blue oval , put to the script and did some things . And that was about 10 years later , 15 years later maybe , they trademark none of that stuff .

So never would they have ever considered to trademark a race car , gg-40 , that that Raced was done and they were , they were over and done with and so none that was trademark . So Peter trademarked it .

And when we bought everything , along with what we purchased Was the trademark we realized that when we got a call from South Africa company in South Africa and they were making a car that was a replica . It was . It was not a space train , it was a space train , rather , it was not a monocoque chassis .

And they said we , you have the GT 40s , can we get a license , and so it was at that point that we realized that the trademark had not been transferred to us . So we did some work , and that's when we got the trademark transferred to SAP , a GT 40 spares , limited In Ohio .

I still are there , that's Ellis Hubbard and they are down in Plebe's . Oh , ellis would machine the bell house , the , the clutch package that we use , the . The clutch is a McLeod clutch but the flywheel that we use is only 12 in 316 inches in diameter at the reindeer , which is a tiny flywheel . Yeah , we have a tiny bell housing .

We have a tiny flywheel , ellis Hubbard . Ellis makes the flywheel . They were engineered . They were engineered originally by red Roberts and the cloud and he made their Magma force twin disc eight inch disc clutch fit onto a Flywheel that they made and then they took that flywheel and we reproduced the flywheel , the bell housings I ate cast and Cincinnati .

They are machine and Cincinnati , the flywheels are machined in Cincinnati . We have all the body molds for , for all the body parts . If someone wants a Body part made out of carbon fiber , the company's called Wolf Den .

Okay , wolf Den , wolf Den is up in in outside Columbus and they do Virtually all the work for the Indian lights cars and those in some of the any , the carbon fiber Cars . Okay , and so if you want a car out of carbon , that's what will be done in Cincinnati and Cincinnati .

If you just want fiberglass , then it was done by company called the glass hand and they're the ones who make all fresh freshes big boy , okay , boy Statues that made a fiberglass and then the glass hand made those .

And if you want something that's was a little more upscale in the way the Vacuum forming the body , then that would be done by a guy who works in his own shop out in Indianapolis .

Maybe that's bright , I don't know . What would you talk about ?

He was a big Ford guy . So when Ford came out with Ford GT back in 2005 , the reason the car is not called the GT 40 is because Ford wouldn't pay us for the use , and you'll find stories that are we demanded 40 million dollars and all . None of that stuff is true . Okay , that's , that's another time . But I've been on road trips a bit .

I've met these people and I've known them , and so I was thinking when , when you asked me to think about that . I Think the one person that would be the most fun to go on a road trip with now would be Dan Neil .

That I would find to be fascinating because you did , and so it would be learning road trip stories from someone who has a very diverse amount of road trip stories , and I think that would be the most fun .

Anything on your bucket list that you want to knock out in the next little bit ?

The one real big bucket list is the Goodwood Revival in England . It is a weekend , long weekend , four days . Of those cars that we're racing , then racing now . The drivers who are driving them , dan , you just cannot believe how they will thrash around a $50 million Ferrari 250 GTL . There was this someone wants to see something ?

Go out in YouTube Kenny Brack , it is raining and Kenny's in a GT40 . Watch Kenny Brack's hands and listen to that engine and watch how he is driving that car . That would be a bucket list . I would like to go . We tried , we're going to go last year , but a couple of things just came up and so obviously we didn't do it .

I would say , yes , I'm sure you can get .

You have a little company and you can not only buy parts there . So for those who don't have a GT40 , they can also go check it out . But tell us how to find that .

We have one of John Sadler's associates up in Canada loves guitars . He has this boutique shop that he uses and this boutique shop is called Houdou Guitars . They make an absolutely magnificent guitar . They have made a GT40 guitar that looks just like a GT40 .

You hold it up and you look with the neck away from you and you're looking at the body and it looks as if you're looking at the front of a GT40 . Very cool . We have guitars and watches , high-end watches and we're going to be coming out with some bags and things , shaving kits for men and stuff all GT40 .

Of course , we have hats and mugs and the Pell pins and those things , but it's wwwgt40.com .