From Bob Harris:  "The Campbell car was originally built to perform in Class G Modified. Bill Campbell placed an 1100cc J.A.P. (J. A. Prestwick) motorcycle engine in it, and we started racing it at Riverside. Since it was the only Class "G" car with a motorcycle engine, they weren't sure where to start me. 

It was decided that I should start way back in the middle of Turn 9.  By Turn 6, I was catching everyone. Our problem was that the motorcycle engine would only last about one and a half laps. No matter what we did, we couldn't keep it running, and couldn't find the parts to repair it. 

I remember one day Bill took out a tape measure, made some measurments and said "I can put a Chevy engine in this thing!" That's what he did, and it became just about the lightest, most powerful car in the "C" Modified class. I may be wrong, but I think it weighed about 1300 lbs. It had so much torque, it would almost do a wheelie coming off of Turn 6. The left front wheel would come off the ground, similar to a sprint car. 

An interesting fact that very few people knew was that it had a three-speed Corvette transmission in it. The shift lever was situated to my left in a very awkward position. Because of this, I would never go back to low after starting, it was just too difficult. I only used two speeds in a race, second and third. In slow turns I had to keep the revs up, which resulted many times in spins. 

The actor Pernell Roberts of Bonanza fame attended many of our races, and he was aware of the difficulties I was having with the current shifting placement. He offered to pay the total cost to change the position of the shifter from the left to the right, with at least four speeds forward, instead of two. This would have been a much more practical shifting application. He also offered to pay for the installation of a shoulder harness. I never understood why Bill refused both offers, but I am greatful that he decided against the shoulder harness. That probably saved my life. As far as the shifting, I am positive I would have done so much better with more gear selections. 

The chassis was built by Wayne Ewing, I believe out of Burbank, CA. He was well known for building so many Indy car chassis. He said to me one day "Bob, if you ever get into a violent crash, this cockpit will never collapse." If you look closely at the pictures of the wrecked car, you will noticed the roll hoop is still intact."