My love of performance race cars began at Watkins Glen in 1952. Racing was a passion for my folks’ friends, so there was where we went whenever they were racing. Often a fender bender would put someone out of the competition for the week end due to a crash on Friday time trials. In the 1950s a guy named Bill Devin, he was an avid racer, loved Ferraris but could not afford one. Bill was the SCCA National Champion in 1955 or 56. He was the inventor of the belt driven overhead cam. He started making fiberglass bodies that could fit a variety of chassis. Specifically, to retro fit a crashed car and get it back on the track for racing quickly. That morphed into a kit car business.
In July of 1959 Hotrod magazine published a front cover of Bill Devin’s newest creation, the Devin SS. The car was available in both finished form and as a kit. It had a tubular chassis, four wheel independent suspension with Disc brakes, Chevrolet V8, 4 speed manual transmission,with a fiberglass cloth body. This car far surpassed Corvette in 1959.
The Devin SS was in 132 SCCA sanctioned races,12 drivers won 36 firsts, 8 seconds, and 3 thirds. (36% in the winners circle)
From 1958 thru 1966, AK Miller raced his Devin at Pikes Peak, “C” Class winning 6 Firsts and 2 Seconds. (90% in the winners’ circle)
In 1958-1960 Dean Moon and Joe Carboni drove their Devins into the 200-mph range at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
In 1960 Dean Moon set drag racing records in his Devin, named “Moon Beam” setting an AHRA record of 10.18 sec in the 1/4 mile.
I was forever fascinated with the Devin car. In fact a few years ago I restored a 1957 Devin S model. When I was scavenging parts I found a Devin SS body, so I bought and stored it for the future. My idea was to build a high performance, race bred, tribute car calling it the Devin “Z”. “Z” meaning the last one. I described my concepts to Brian Stupski and hired him to create several renderings of what I was thinking.
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Using the old body as a base, we engineered what the wheel base and track width would need to be if we widened the footprint and body to accommodate today's tires and performance. I sat down with Mike Stockdale at SR3 and he agreed to engineer and build a custom tube chassis with four wheel independent suspension and disc brakes using some Corvette components. Dave Daunheimer built in additional side crash bars and and roll over hoops for safety. We added Viking‘s interactive “Berserker” coil over shocks. This would allow us to manage yaw and performance handling 1000 times a second according to Chris King.
Bill Devin was a huge fan of Chevrolet’s small block V8 and 4 speed transmission. Knowing that, it was significant to maintain the GM drive line. I asked Brian Thomson to build an LS7, Peterson dry sump, with Harrop’s side draft intake (697 crank HP), McLeod dual disc clutch, with a 6 speed Tremec and Getrag tran-saxle.
We chose Holley’s “Dominator” ignition with their Digital Dash and Davis traction control. The Holley digital dash sits in the “Navigator’s” position as it is critical that the navigator know everything going on in Road Rally Racing. Back in the day, when I was a boy in the 1950-1960 era, road rally racing was highly competitive much like Autocross is today. We made a neat carbon fiber cover panel for when the digital dash was not in use.
I built the stainless steel gas tank out of cardboard and repeatedly installed and uninstalled it with the body in place to assure ourselves it could be done once the car was finished. It sits well protected behind the roll bars and under the down bars. Knowing that there could be fumes accumulating in the down bar pods, Dave and I engineered flow through ventilation to keep anything from developing.
Following that I had the original Devin SS body as a platform that permitted building onto it with foam and carving it to achieve the desired shape.The body sculpture was given to Motor City Solutions' Jeff Adwell to create a mold for a one-off carbon fiber body that weighed in at 161 pounds.
B-Forge supplied the custom wheels with Billet Specialties owner, Glen, helping me develop the custom adaptations simulating knockoffs. All of the Assembly and fabrication of the extensive inner body panels to create wheel wells, heat extractor, engine bay, Hood, interior panels, trunk panels, fuel tank, exhaust headers and side exhaust with protective shrouds were hand fabricated by Dave Daunheimer, owner of Competition Fabrications.
At this point, we did not have a hood. Since my concept included a side draft intake and a heat extraction Dave said, “can you draw what you want?” So I began. Using a shell we had, we began cutting and pasting. Dave is a master in metal work, but I think he could be in plastic too if he did not hate it so much. We both feel it is a work of art. Just for fun I added a disappearing license plate just above the rear Difuser.
Many of the components, (windshield base, tail light bezels, interior escutcheons, headlight lens) are one off CNC machined originals. I began each of these components using Cosplay plastics, creating an original piece that I had laser scanned, and then CNC machined out of aluminum. You would think the most challenging was the windshield base blue to the complex body curves. While it was a true challenge, it actually was easier than the headlight lens. They were my nightmare, right up to the 2022 Detroit Autorama. Another feature of the car is, NO MIRRORS. I built into my concept, side view, rear view, and an optional front view, cameras
displaying on a divided screen in the center dash. D& M Corvette’s, Pete Kramer, and his team did the final body work and spray with PPG’s David Flores. Our Devin Z Blue is a one-off color, using PPG discontinued tints. I have an extra gallon for any misadventures. Riggs Brothers, John Hein is responsible for the interior. Over 6000 hours were spent building the car and that does not include my several hundreds of hours time. I could go on more about the engineering and technical aspect of the car but suffice
it to say, I cannot wait for track time to test and tune the car this spring at Autobahn and Blackhawk raceways.
We brought the car to the Detroit Autorama for the 2022 show and were thrilled to be selected as one of the Great 8. I understand that most people think it’s a kit car. It’s not. First, it is an authentic hand built, roadworthy, performance car, not a show only car, not a Hot Rod. It’s a tribute to a not so famous guy, Bill Devin. Not a Carol Shelby kind of guy, but he made significant contributions to the racers of his day and after years. He is the guy GM wanted to hire, but could not, so mimicked finally in the mid sixties with a US Built 4-wheel independent suspension and disc brakes.
