RALPH HAUN’S STORY

My interest in cars dates back to probably around age ten.  It was 1953 and a family friend was a “car guy” with a ’53 Ford Victoria that he had a modified Mercury flathead in.  I really looked up to him.  My mother also had a ’53 Ford two door coupe.  As a boy, I remember getting in trouble once after loading mother’s trunk with large rocks, with the plan of “lowering” the car.  I grew up mainly in Whittier, attending Whittier High School and later starting when I was around fifteen, I would hang out at Ak Miller’s Whittier garage.  It was before I had my driver’s license and I had to walk a couple miles thru a pretty bad part of town where roads were not even paved to get there but I didn’t mind.  Some famous racing types like the Unser brothers would often be there as well as lots of other not so famous types.  Ak’s shop manager Jack Lufkin had a very fast, modified ’56 Corvette.  I learned a lot.  After I started driving I would hang out at night with my friends at Nixon’s Drive-in (owned by Richard Nixon’s brother).  We would often clear out the drive-in at night and everyone would proceed thru the La Habrahills to race at a spot in the country called “Fifth Avenue” near what is now the city of La Puente.  We had the road marked with paint for the quarter mile and we would bring a starter with flags.  A lookout in the hills would flash his lights if the police approached and everyone would scatter.  We had some very fast cars there, occasionally even trailered.  My third car was a Fuel Injected 1958 Corvette, four speed, hardtop only.  I was the third owner.  I had three different rear ends which I could swap out in an hour or less, depending on the venue I wanted to race.  I managed a gas station, so had access to the rack which made that work easy.  I installed a roll bar, a scattershield, Traction Masters, and performance exhaust.  The car remained a 283 CI, but in my garage I removed the Duntov cam and replaced it with a Clay Smith cam.  I took the heads to Ak Miller where I had them ported and polished.  After a year or two, my friend Terry Haines (today a member of Bonneville’s 200 Mile Per Hour Club) and I painted the car in his home garage.  I should say Terry painted the twenty two coats of lacquer and Ralph hand rubbed the twenty two coats of lacquer.  We changed the color from Panama Yellow to a turquoise color and I had removed the hood louvers and trunk spears to make it look like a ’59 or ’60.  The car was a daily driver and weekend racer.  I had joined the Roadrunners/ Southern California Timing Association (still have my jacket), and raced the standing start mile at El Mirage – holding a record in 1961 at 142.40 MPH, the ½ mile drags at Riverside and Taft – 126 MPH, as well as the ¼ mile.  I always tuned the car myself, but after good racing success I decided to take it to “Dyno Don” Nicholson, then famous for Chevy racing and tuning, to see if he could make it run even faster.  After tuning it on his chassis dyno, I went from his shop near Pasadena directly to El Mirage where it ran slower than when I tuned it.  It should be noted that in the photo at El Mirage the car has bias ply tires on the rear.  That was to achieve what I believed to be the proper tire diameter/gear ratio for the record attempt.  An unseen trick was to run 30 weight oil in the trans and differential instead of 90 weight to lessen friction.  Finally in the photo of myself being interviewed after setting the record, the caption below refers to the “Stock ’58 Corvette”.  That is untrue since it had stock displacement only.  I kept the car about four years, selling it to a friend when I got married.  While I have not actively raced since then, I have remained an avid car fan, especially a fan of fast cars.  The ’58 Corvette can be found today listed in the Registry Of Corvette Race Cars   www.registryofcorvetteracecars.com .  I obtained my Master’s Degree  in Business and Industrial Management and in 1966 graduated as a Distinguished Graduate of the Army’s Infantry Officer Candidate School.  My service was mainly in the Central Highlands of Vietnam as a Rifle Platoon Leader, an Infantry Company Commander and as a Battalion Intelligence Officer, as well as sometimes a liaison with Vietnamese forces.  My civilian career began in the early 1970’s in the motorcycle parts industry.  Later I became a commercial real estate broker specializing in apartment buildings.  Also, I owned a successful restaurant (lots of work) for twenty two years, and have been married to my wife Diane for 50 years.  Diane was attracted to me as she was into cars and liked my ’58 Corvette.  Cars remain my passion and I have owned many over the years, having seven today.  These include two street rods, a ’32 Ford and a ’38 Chevy.  I also have restored a 1957 Fuel Injected Corvette to NCRS award winning standards, have a 2013 ZL1 Camaro and a 911 twin turbo Porsche.  Daily driver is a SRT Magnum.