Home » Let’s All Pour Out A Quart Of 20W-50 For The Man Responsible For Those Insanely Powerful Corvettes You Remember From Your Childhood

Let’s All Pour Out A Quart Of 20W-50 For The Man Responsible For Those Insanely Powerful Corvettes You Remember From Your Childhood

Reeves Callaway 1947 2023
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The world has lost an automotive legend. Callaway Cars reports that founder Ely Reeves Callaway III has died after a fall. He was 75. A Formula Vee champion and turbocharging powerhouse, Callaway helped rewrite the rules of American performance cars and built one of the greatest American tuner cars of all time, the record-breaking Callaway Sledgehammer.

Bmw 320i Callaway Turbocharger

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In the early days, Callaway built up a reputation by building turbocharging kits, and one of Callaway’s first projects was a turbo kit for a BMW, the rather underrated E21 3-Series. A successor to the legendary 2002, the E21 was only available in America with a four-cylinder M10 engine despite Europe getting the option of an M20 inline-six. Needless to say, a replacement for displacement was found. After developing a prototype Indy engine and building some seriously spicy twin-turbocharged Alfa Romeo GTV-6 coupes, Callaway caught the eye of Corvette chief engineer Dave McLellan, setting the stage for one of the greatest RPO codes in GM history: B2K.

Callaway B2k Corvette

First, a little backstory. Whenever GM offers a distinct factory-produced option, it gains an RPO code, short for Regular Production Option. Ticking the box for B2K on a C4 Corvette got you two meaty turbochargers, 345 horsepower, and a monstrous 465 lb.-ft. of torque. It was the only time third-party Corvette modifications were ever sold under a GM RPO code, which makes it pretty special.

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Callaway Sledgehammer 1

However, one Callaway C4 Corvette was a little bit more special than the rest. I’m talking about the Callaway Sledgehammer, a legendarily powerful Corvette built to take on any road car from any country. It had a re-sculpted body by Canadian Paul Deutschmann, a built engine, and two turbos to help produce 880 horsepower.

Callaway Sledgehammer 2

In 1988, Callaway drove the Sledgehammer to the Transportation Research Center’s 7.5-mile oval in Ohio and put legendary racer John Lingenfelter behind the wheel to see just how fast this hypervette could go. When the dust settled, a new road car speed record emerged — 254.76 mph. Nearly a double nickel over 200 mph. From a modern perspective, it’s a brilliant moment in the American history of hot, nasty, badass, almost unbelievable speed. Keep in mind, this was pre-McLaren F1, and well before the Bugatti Veyron was even a twinkle in Ferdinand Piëch’s eye. Callaway turned an all-American hero car into the king of the road-legal food chain.

Callaway Tahoe Sc602

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These days, Callaway Cars still makes absurdly quick GM products with 50-state emissions compliance. It’ll sell you a 602-horsepower supercharged Tahoe, a 750-horsepower Camaro ZL1, and is working on a supercharged C8 Corvette. Although Reeves Callaway is no longer with us, he will always be an automotive legend. May his marvelous machines race on, now and forever.

(Photo credits: Callaway Cars, Mecum Auctions)

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Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
1 year ago

Bow your heads, gentlemen, for a great man has passed.

Widgetsltd
Widgetsltd
1 year ago

Lest we forget, Callaway made what was widely regarded as the best turbo kit available for early water-cooled Volkswagens. It was probably the next project they did after developing the 320i turbo kit. I recall looking at a (rather rusty) Callaway turbo’d 1.7L Scirocco that was for sale in Cincinnati, well over 30 years ago. It was too rotted to save…

Cerberus
Cerberus
1 year ago

Saw a Callaway C4 with the full Sledgehammer body and I was amazed at how much more exotic it looked. In photos, it looked like a C4 with a body kit, but in person, it looked proportionately wide instead of too skinny (ZR1 excepted) and had that thin-bodywork-draped-over-a-chassis look that reminded me of a 288 GTO in presence. Also got smoked by a Callaway Chevy truck in my Focus ST, which was cool.

Paul B
Paul B
1 year ago

IIRC, there was an article back in the day about the Sledgehammer that John Lingenfelter drove. John nicknamed it the Hedgeslammer.

A. Barth
A. Barth
1 year ago

I lived in Monterey in 1990 and got to work in the pits at Laguna Seca a couple of times.

Watching – and hearing – Callaway Corvettes negotiate turn 11 and then hammer down the straight was an unforgettable experience. Fare thee well, Mr. C.

Doctor Nine
Doctor Nine
1 year ago

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. Mortality is an inevitable fact of this existence. Still, some will be remembered more fondly than others.

A star has fallen…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuwEtazDUwI

Last edited 1 year ago by Doctor Nine
TOSSABL
TOSSABL
1 year ago

I fondly remember reading about various Callaway exploits in Hot Rod—but did not know (or maybe, remember) his first was a BMW. Guess I need to pour out one for another legend passed. I’ll have to rummage around the special cellar, though: I suspect the cars Ely breathed on didn’t take regular 10W-30

Mr. Canoehead
Mr. Canoehead
1 year ago
Reply to  TOSSABL

Even the regular Corvettes took 15-50, IIRC.

Inthemikelane
Inthemikelane
1 year ago
Reply to  TOSSABL

Now that’s a comment of the day

BOSdriver
BOSdriver
1 year ago
Reply to  TOSSABL

I got to briefly see a nice red BMW that his son drove up to college, I think it was before he started, didn’t keep it at school as far as I remember. A person I met first week of college was his buddy, I was blown away to meet even his son and see the car briefly. I had always liked the Sledgehammer, had posters of other Callaway cars from the NY auto show over the years. His friend gave me a few Callaway posters, that are hanging in my garage today. Never saw him again and the friend moved on to a different college later in the year.

RIP to a person who seemed to build a cool company and happy that he went in this direction instead of going into the golf company side of family business. Sorry to his family for the loss.

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