| The Santee
Sports Car
This is a very interesting car which I only recently learned about. Co-creator John McCann tells the story in his own words: "Santee Automobiles was
founded in 1961 to build an American high-performance sports car, on a
level with the best from Europe. The Chief Engineer was Fred Puhn
(of Quasar and Monocoque Wheels fame). I joined Santee Automobiles
soon after start-up and became the Santee's Project Engineer." (Fred and
I went to engineering school together at SDSU.)
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| "With a team of 5-10
we built a prototype production car and I financed (company funds were
tight) the lightweight racing version, the Santee SS. The production
car had a 185 HP Buick 215 CID aluminum V-8, Pontiac Tempest transaxle
and Corvette metallic drum brakes (there were no US-made disc brakes in
1961).
We designed a fiberglass body, rigid space frame chassis, and F-1 type independent suspension." |
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"Here's a "Tuft test"
of the airflow over the Santee at Del Mar."
Fred Puhn learned a lot by checking out the competition. In these photos from 1962 he eyeballs design details in these winning cars: In blue t-shirt, Puhn looks closely at Dave MacDonald's "00 Corvette Special" In blue shirt, Puhn peers at Bob Harris's innovative "Campbell Special" |
| "My SS had the Olds HD version (with big valves, etc) not available from Buick. We mounted four 45DCOE9 Webers and an Isky Cam. The headers were F-1 type 180 degree design, so each of the twin exhausts had even exhaust pulses-- which made a wild non-V8 sound! Power was 250+ HP." |
| "The production version
weighed 1850# and my SS weighed 1400#. The SS would turn the 1/4
mile in the low 13 sec bracket with road racing tires!
Unfortunately, the stock market crash in the Fall of 1962 ended the production hopes of the Santee. Today all 2-1/2 Santees are owned by Fred Puhn and are in the process of being restored. Fred hopes to race the SS at the San Diego/North Island Vintage Car Races in October, 2001." |
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At Del Mar near San Diego
on Sept. 29-30, 1962. The Santee, driven by Willie West, leads Don
Maslin in his Lotus Mk.11.
From John McCann: "I think this was 1963 and it was driven my Oceanside car dealer and road racer Willie West [Willie rans Alfa's and ran a Fiat-Abarth at Sebring, one year]. If we had been prepared, Willie was going to drive the SS in the Times-Mirror race at Riverside, that year, but problems with the economy and the Santee business precluded any pro race." |
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| John McCann in the Santee
at Del Mar on Sept. 28-29, 1963. He trails Frank
Monise in #244 Lotus Mk.23 and leads Jim
Chaffee in the "Pink Elephant". This was McCann's last road race.
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