Ely Reeves Callaway III (referred to as Reeves), founding father of Corvette tuner Callway Automobiles, died on Tuesday at his residence in California after sustaining accidents in a fall. He was 76.

Son of Callaway Golf founder Reeves Callaway Jr., and brother of writer Nicholas Callaway, the youthful Reeves began his firm in 1977 in a storage in Outdated Lyme, Connecticut, rising it right into a prolific builder of efficiency highway automobiles and race automobiles.

Callaway’s first product was a turbo equipment for BMWs that rapidly earned a good overview from legendary automotive journalist Don Sherman in Automotive and Driver. Callaway, who raced in Components Vee earlier than beginning his firm, moved on to extra elaborate tasks.

Reeves Callaway

Whereas Callaway Automobiles has provided aftermarket elements for a number of manufacturers, together with BMW, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Land Rover, and Mazda, the corporate is primarily related to the Chevrolet Corvette. In 1987, Common Motors gave the tuner its official stamp of approval, designating Callaway a Specialty Car Producer and permitting Callaway Corvettes to be bought by way of Chevy sellers with the B2K manufacturing facility code.

In 1989, Callaway Automobiles constructed the SledgeHammer, a C4 Corvette powered by a twin-turbo 5.7-liter V-8 that produced 880 hp and 774 lb-ft of torque—unbelievable numbers within the Nineteen Eighties. John Lingenfelter drove it to a high pace of 254.76 mph on the 7.5-mile Transportation Analysis Middle take a look at monitor in East Liberty, Ohio.

Reeves Callaway

Callaway Automobiles has continued to tune Corvettes, and even launched a C7 Corvette capturing brake known as the AeroWagon. A European arm of the corporate, Callaway Competitors, was based in 1994 and has raced them internationally. Germany-based Callaway Competitors was additionally licensed by GM to construct racing variations of the C6 and C7 Corvettes for the GT3 class, alongside the manufacturing facility Corvette Racing program.

“Due to Reeves’ visionary entrepreneurial spirit, Callaway Automobiles will proceed to innovate and develop within the twenty first century,” his son Peter Reeves Callaway, the corporate’s present president, mentioned in a press release posted to social media honoring his father.