BILL DEVIN’S SUPER SPORTS

CALLED “THE Enzo Ferrari of Okie Flats” (by no less than Henry N. Manney III), Bill Devin brought a lot of automotive fun to lots of people. Bill offered a Devin sports racing car for my first vintage race. One of his Super Sports gave me an adventure with an early morning flight, a sinister Porsche 911 and a wayward powdered substance.

Bill Devin, 1915-2000, race driver, sports car builder, entrepreneur extraordinaire.

Bill, born in Rocky, Oklahoma, spent most of his life in California but kept his wry Oklahoma charm. When I asked him about the Devin cars’ origin in the early 1950s, he told of buying out a Glendale, California, Panhard franchise. “It wasn’t hard to do…,” he said. This and a 1953 meeting with Ferrari coachbuilder Franco Scaglietti gave him the idea.

Franco Scaglietti’s Ferrari Monza, above, was one influence on the Devin’s shape. Image from www.extravaganzi.com. Scaglietti’s Ermini, below, was another. Image from www.thechicaneblog.com.

Bill translated Scaglietti’s timeless shapes into a fiberglass car kit. Many of these bodies had Bill’s favored reverse hood vents—“They’re good,” he said, “because you can see when the engine’s catching fire.”

Starting at $295 in 1954, before long there were 27 different combinations of length, width and wheelbase to cover just about any automotive chassis. Originally Devin Panhards, there were also Devin Volkswagens, Porsches, Corvairs—and Corvette-powered Devin Super Sports.

An excellent source: Bill Devin: The Man and His Cars, by Art Evans, Photo Data Research, 2009. It’s listed at www.amazon.com. See also www.devinspecial.com.

I drove Bill’s 1959 Devin C, the Corvair variant, in my first vintage race, Palm Springs, 1987. And in August 1991, a Devin Super Sports was the subject of an R&T “Salon” article.

The Super Sports arose through Bill’s mid-1950s encounter with two enthusiasts from Belfast, Ireland. They fabricated the car’s tube frame, double A-arm front suspension, De Dion rear with Salisbury differential, coil-over units and Girling disc brakes. Bill took these rolling chassis and clothed them in especially potent-looking Devin bodywork.

The Super Sports had its rolling chassis produced in Belfast, Ireland, with the rest added in southern California. Image from www.devinsportscars.com.

“I never did see any facilities in Belfast,” Bill said.

Just a little cottage shop? “Either that,” he said, “or they were buying one piece from a goat farmer and another from a turkey farmer. On the other hand, they had access to those disc brakes and coil-over shocks….”

The Devin Super Sports. When the simplicity and elegance of its front bumper were commended, Bill said, “Yes, and it’s useless too.” Image from Road & Track, August 1991.

The Super Sports was potent indeed. Tested in R&T, July 1959, it did 0-60 in 5.7 seconds (a ’59 Vette needed 6.6). Back then, Devin “Super Shillelaghs” were hot cars in SCCA C-Modified. Today, they’re good raucous fun in vintage racing.

Bill Devin and Alex Quattlebaum’s Super Sports. Image from Road & Track, August 1991.

For the R&T “Salon,” Bill Devin and I visited Devin Super Sports vintage racer Alex Quattlebaum in Charleston, South Carolina. At the time, this city was an east-coast port for Porsche, and I was able to borrow a Carrera 4 coupe, with pickup and dropoff at Charleston’s airport. The car was wonderfully sinister in its coal-black livery.

Earlier in the trip, I had visited my mother in eastern Pennsylvania, where she and I enjoyed touring Amish country. There, at the request of wife Dottie, I bought a 2-lb. bag of local baking flour. Double-wrapped in plastic, it resided in a corner of my duffle bag for the rest of the trip.

Or, at least that was the plan. I arrived at Charleston’s airport for an early morning flight, checked my luggage curbside and dropped off the Porsche.

My duffle bag got through the system, but I never saw Dottie’s special request again. In an exchange of subsequent airline correspondence, I noted “It’s disturbing that somewhere within your organization there’s a thief sniffing a kilo of Amish flour.”

I told Bill Devin about it, and he agreed. ds