| Ron Cummings offered this info on the
"Pink Elephants":
"The Pink Elephant at Paramount Ranch
is the Pink Elephant I, a Devin body on a stock MG TD Mk II that Chaffee
built and raced. He previously raced the production TD before going modified.
The Pink Elephant I raced for many years in the CalClub. Chaffee was a
Devin dealer.
The Pink Elephant II, by the way, was
built using an old Miller two man Indy frame. I think Chaffee sold the
Miller parts and put the Chevrolet motor into III.
The Pink Elephant III was built on the
Healey chassis about 1960-61. I seem to remember it first racing with the
Healey motor, later with the Chevrolet. I looked at the car at Chris'
lately and it is mostly a Healey chassis.
I forgot to mention the Pink Elephant
IV. It was a Devin body on a Triumph chassis. The car ran the Triumph motor.
I seem to remember the car being painted more of a red color rather than
the typical Chaffee pink. After one or two races the car was entered simply
as a Devin-Triumph and lost its Pink Elephant name. I think Chaffee built
the car for one of his foreign car garage, in Ontario California, customers".
More from Ron:
The Pink Elephant III finished 13th at
the Stardust,
Las Vegas, USRRC race ahead of Ol' Yaller IX. I kid you not!!
(9-27-11) From Tom Mitchell:
"In 1959 and 1960 My uncle Jim Mitchell
lived in Ontario, and was a good friend of Jim Chaffee and his wife Dote.
My uncle raced a white Austin Healey 100 ( #150) At several events (i.e.
Dec 5-6 1959) my uncle and Jim would team together. My brother
and I (I was 12 and my brother was 16) helped as pit crew … On one occasion
I took the chalk board out to track side to let him know his lap speed
and position. Today that is still one of the great experiences of
my life (and I’m now 64). I love the information and the pictures
of the car (and all of the other cars as well) I think the site is really
terrific! If possible I would like to see the car again.. I
have a couple of restored cars as well, a 1964 type IV AH Sprite and a
1963 Chev. Nova II SS (restored)." |
