Phil Henny
Published: 2020-08-15
Total Pages: 236
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PHIL REMINGTON "REM" Remembered by his friends.Proceeds of this eBook goes to "The Former Shelby American Employees Fund"As Carroll Shelby said many times, "There probably wouldn't be any Cobra stories without Phil Remington".The contents of this book is a tribute to Phil Remington. It is a collection of reminiscences sent in by colleagues and friends who agreed to share their personal stories of the man they universally admired, respected and honored. He shared his incredible craftsmanship, knowledge, and mechanical genius with generosity and patience to those of us smart enough to pay attention. Phil Remington was born on January 21, 1921 in Santa Monica, California. By the time he was in his teens he had developed a strong attraction to automobiles. Remington was the main engineering force behind all of Shelby American's racing endeavors until the late sixties when, for all practical purposes, Shelby's racing involvement ended. A short stint at Holman and Moody preceded employment at Dan Gurney's All American Racers where Remington became a major factor in AAR's successes for more than forty years. Successes included many Indy car victories with an Indianapolis 500 victory as well as numerous IMSA wins and championships. I know that Dan Gurney would also attest to this fact: wherever Phil Remington worked, he became the heart of the successes that came to his employers and teammates. "His strong point is his incredible intuitive feel for machinery. When there is a problem, by the time other people realize it, he's already made six fixes." It was this natural affinity for all things mechanical that allowed Rem to out distance his contemporaries and surpass his mentors. Simply put, as he gained experience he had no equals.The author Phil HennyPhil was born in 1943, in the village of Montagny près d'Yverdon in the French speaking region of Switzerland. In 1966, he joined the Shelby American racing team as a mechanic, in time to work on the 1967 Le Mans winning Ford MK IV driven by Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt. His stories of the American racing scene and particularly the Shelby era are fascinating. There are scant few memoirs out there written by the men who turned the wrenches, and a number of these frankly have little of substance to say- not so with Phil Henny's book. With unparalleled access to the world of the great Carroll Shelby, Phil presents an engaging look at an incredible era in racing. To his credit, he doesn't gloss over any aspect of what he saw, either within or outside of Shelby's organization. His comments about drivers are particularly insightful. Fascinating and strongly recommended. They are hard-to-find books not generally available in the conventional book trade. Phil lives in Portland Oregon U.S.A.