VOL. 55 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 16, 2018 P35
RACING LEGEND
DAN GURNEY PASSES
A
merican racing legend Dan Gurney passed away
from complications due to pneumonia on January
14. He was 86 years old.
Gurney was widely recognized as a giant of American
automobile racing, having competed and won in every-
thing from Formula One (with his own car) to IndyCar,
Sportscar and NASCAR competition, as well as going
on to design and engineer some of the fastest racecars
this country has ever seen with his All American Racers
brand, located in Santa Ana, California.
Even though Gurney's exploits remained mainly in the
car racing and constructing realms, he was an avid mo-
torcyclist and designed the Alligator Motorcycle Compa-
ny, a step-through/feet-first machine aimed at incredible
corner precision thanks to its ultra-low center of gravity.
In later years, Gurney patented a new large capacity
parallel-twin cylinder engine with two counter-rotating
crankshafts that canceled out primary vibration, as well as
making "up to 280 hp at 9000 rpm" according to a story
published in Cycle World.
Gurney was also lesser known as the Montesa im-
porter with friend Kim Kimball in the early 1970s after he
retired from four-wheel competition, as well as being a
keen two-stroke tuner and fried to many legends of mo-
torcycle racing including Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson,
Wayne Rainey, Mick Doohan, Mike Hailwood and fellow
avant-garde thinker, John Britten.
Gurney's engineering mind was well known and
respected, and aside from his racecar engineering busi-
ness, his company's talents
were even being used to
construct parts of the new
SpaceX rocket that was
tested late last year.
American auto racing has
lost one of its greatest driv-
ers, engineers and personali-
ties. American motorcycling
has lost one of its greatest
fans and enthusiasts. CN
(Above) Gurney, seen here in
1970, was one of America's
most accomplished racecar
drivers and builders.
(Below) Gurney's passion
outside of auto racing
was motorcycles, with this
machine—the Alligator—his
creation.
