Callaway Cars introduced in the present day that founder Ely Reeves Callaway III handed away on Tuesday, July 11 at his residence in Newport Seaside, California. His reason behind demise is alleged to be “from accidents sustained after a fall.” He was 75.

The son of Ely Callaway Jr., the founding father of Callaway Golf, Reeves Callaway initially needed to change into a race automobile driver. However when that didn’t work out, he grew to become a racing teacher on the Bob Bondurant racing faculty. Whereas working at Bondurant, he developed an aftermarket turbocharger equipment for the BMW 3 Collection and managed to get Automobile and Driver to assessment it.

Whereas he initially ran Callaway Vehicles out of his storage, the optimistic assessment from Automobile and Driver led him to open Callaway Vehicles’ first headquarters close to the place he was dwelling in Outdated Lyme, Connecticut. Over the subsequent a number of a long time, he would go on to switch BMW, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Mazda and Common Motors merchandise. However he’s arguably finest recognized for his work on a number of generations of Chevrolet Corvettes.

Callaway had a detailed relationship with GM, which allowed him to promote his vehicles by Chevrolet sellers. In 1989, a Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette, often known as the Sledgehammer, made 880 hp and 772 lb-ft of torque. Within the palms of John Lingenfelter, it set a manufacturing top-speed file of 254.76 mph. That file would stand for 21 years when Bugatti managed to hit 267.85 mph within the Veyron Tremendous Sport.

From there, Callaway received into racing however continued to switch Corvettes, together with fashions with customized our bodies such because the Callaway C12 and the C16. Callaway nonetheless modifies Corvettes in the present day, in addition to Camaros, Silverados, Suburbans, Tahoes, Sierras, Yukons and Escalades.

In an announcement, his son Peter Reeves Callaway stated:

Due to Reeves’ visionary entrepreneurial spirit, Callaway Vehicles will proceed to innovate and develop within the twenty first century, impressed by his distinctive, extraordinary imaginative and prescient, and by his private instance of integrity, resourcefulness, and management as our founder. Dad’s ardour for making superbly designed and crafted machines could be seen in each challenge, and we stay dedicated to executing to the best requirements, in true Callaway style. He was hardly ever discovered doing something apart from working in direction of the subsequent milestone for the corporate. He was a charismatic chief with a humorousness that we are going to all bear in mind by numerous “Reeves-isms”. I really feel lucky to have grown up working with him and the corporate.