Car 66

   This is a set of photo's I posted on G+ when I first started my profile there. I had some brief captions with the  photos. It is a good story, and a piece of my family history. So I thought I would revisit these pictures, and tell the story in a little more depth. I did not take any of these pictures, they are from my mothers collection. And I also have to say off the top, this story takes place before I was born. I was not there... My information comes from my family (Who were there...), and magazine articles that I have read. So this is how I understand it.

   This is my Grandfather, LaVerne Ottmar. This picture was taken in 1964. The year my Grandfather died. He died while out rabbit hunting from a massive heart-attack at the age of fifty-six. Being that I was born in 1971 I never had the opportunity to meet him. The car you see behind him is the Chevy 6. A car that he built from the ground up at home in his garage, on the corner of Miller and Fountain in Ann Arbor, MI. That is my Mother sitting in the car at age thirteen.

   This is my Mother sitting in his car again in 2008, in Connecticut. She received information on the cars location then, and made a trip out east to go see the car for herself. The car itself has a little bit of history and my family had lost track of the cars where-abouts for a long time. So I am sure it was quite an experience for her to go see a piece of her past.

   The deal with this car is not that it was super fast. It isn't that it won a ton of races. It was a six cylinder engine racing against big-block eights, and not just keeping up, it was a competitor. It was a fuel injected six cylinder, and it was the only one of it's kind.

   My Grandfather had worked for GM. I don't know dates and times unfortunately. But as I understand it he worked with the team, and was directly involved in the pioneering and invention of fuel injection. Of course, GM was full owner of any technology engineered by their employees, and my Grandfather never received any credit for his involvement. I don't know if it was these events specifically, but he and GM ended up parting on what I understand to be "bad terms".

   Some time after he left GM. Or possibly during the end of his career with them he started building this car.

   As I said, he built it in his garage, with what ever he could find to use. He had friends who worked with him on the car, but as my Mom tells it the garage was a secretive place. What happened in the garage stayed in the garage. He machined his own parts, cut and bent his own pipes and steel, and shaped all the sheet metal. He built the engine, the fuel systems, the frame and suspension. He did it all. Quite an accomplishment all on it's own.
    My Grandfather was very well known, and respected within racing circles. My Mother has a collection of photos from, I would guess, the 40's and 50's. They are all black and white photos of race cars, racing teams, and drivers. Some of them show Indianapolis Speedway when it was a dirt track. Nearly all of them are not just autographed, but have personal notes to him on them. And as I understand it there were always race cars parked outside of their house, waiting their turn to go in the garage to receive my Grandfathers attention.
   This car was a culmination of all his racing experience. GM became interested in what he had created in this car, and at some point offered to buy the car. Because of the bad blood that had developed between them, my Grandfather flat refused. As a matter of fact, he said he would rather park it under the porch and piss on it than sell it to GM.

   My Grandfather retained the car until he died in 1964. After that my Grandmother sold the car. And that is were the history of the car becomes less clear to the family.
    Years later Jack Layton was in Ohio and recognized the car in a scrap heap. He obtained the car and rebuilt and restored it. It is not clear to me how long he had the car, but over time it ended up living in a couple of different museums, and was eventually purchased by this private collector in Connecticut. And I'm sure there were others in between.
   There have been several magazine articles about this car. My favorite is an article published in Open Wheel Magazine, in November of 1986, titled "My Life as a Sprint Car". It tells a version of the cars history, from the cars perspective. It's written as if the car is telling the story. Some of the story told there does not exactly match the things I have heard from my Mother, Aunts, and Uncle. It's okay, it doesn't have too, as I said even they are not clear as to what happened after the car was sold. So it is hard for me to say exactly how the car ended up in the places it did.
   As well respected as he was within the racing community, there are a lot of different opinions regarding my Grandfather personally. He was definitely a unique individual no matter who you talk too. Some say he was a genius, some would tell you he was as crazy as his ideas. Knowing my family, I would be willing to believe maybe a little of both. Regardless, he created not just a piece of cool family history, and racing history, but he left a mark in time that will likely outlast generations of my family... I can only hope to do the same within my own lifetime. Hats off to Grandpa...