Reeves Cllaway Death, Obituary – The death has occurred of Reeves Callaway, the creator of Callaway Cars and a legend in the world of Corvettes. An email sent out by Callaway Cars verified the news that he had gone away on Tuesday as a result of injuries he received in an accident at his home in Newport Beach, California. He was 75. Ely “Reeves” Callaway III was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in November 1947, however he spent the most of his childhood in Darien, Connecticut.
His father, Ely Callaway, established the Callaway golf firm, which is now recognized as one of the most reputable producers of golf clubs in the world. As a child, he competed in go-kart racing, and in 1973, he took first place in the SCCA Formula Vee championship. By 1976, he had already established himself as a teacher at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving.
Following the failure of his attempt to compete at the professional level, he shifted his focus to the modification of automobiles. His first product, a turbocharger package for the E21-generation BMW 320i, garnered sufficient demand for Callaway to launch Callaway Cars in 1977 from his workshop in Old Lyme, Connecticut. The company is still in operation today. Soon after that, he started selling performance kits for other people’s automobiles.
Callaway stated in an interview with Road & Track in 2017 that the company does not consider itself to be a tuner. “A tuner will take a collection of aftermarket components that are currently on the market, assemble them on the vehicle, and refer to this process as a customisation. Everything we produce is designed from the ground up to be used in automobiles. And our company is the one that makes it.”
His innovation gained the attention of major automobile manufacturers quite quickly. The first company to do so was Alfa Romeo, which commissioned a turbocharger kit for the GTV6 that made its debut in 1983. Next up was GM. In 1987, Callaway released their twin-turbo package for the Chevrolet Corvette, which at the time was only available via Chevrolet dealerships. In those days, a conventional Chevrolet Corvette had 240 horsepower.
Callaway’s twin-turbo version of the Corvette, on the other hand, had 382 horsepower, making it one of the most potent automobiles available for purchase at the time. Although Callaway Cars collaborated with a large number of other automakers, including Aston Martin and Land Rover, the company’s most significant connection was with the Chevrolet Corvette. Callaway was also responsible for the construction of race cars for the Chevrolet Corvette, beginning with the SuperNatural, which competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 1994 and 1995.
Placing second and third, respectively, in the GT2 field of the former year, and concluding in a GT3 racing version of the C7 Corvette, which competes in competitions all over the world even to this day. A noteworthy recent highlight was the C7 Corvette AeroWagon, which had a body package that transformed the coupe into a fashionable shooting brake.
This vehicle was unveiled in 2017. The products and services offered by Callaway Cars now include modification packages for a number of GM cars, such as a supercharger kit for the latest generation of the Corvette.
