Australian Slot Car Racers Association

I only just discovered that Paul Van Valkenburgh passed away on the 23rd June, at the age of 83

Whilst perhaps that name is not instantly recognizable to you, he was an extremely prolific and influential writer and engineer, based in the US and will I am sure, be missed by many.


A few of his more notable publications were:

"Chevrolet = Racing : Fourteen years of Raucous Silence" ... A fantastic and informative book.
"Race Car Engineering and Mechanics" ... perhaps along with the similar series of books by Caroll Smith, one of THE most informative and used books about race car engineering.
"The Unfair Advantage" Easily one of the best books on motor racing, specifically Mark Donohue, Penske, Trans Am, Can Am and the eventual development of the Porsche 917 - 10 and 917 - 30 variants, co written with Mark Donohue

He was also seriously involved with SAE International and was very influential in developing the Design competition series they have held for many years now.

I had actually conversed with him many years ago about his books and his work and study of Tinnitus and was at the time, waiting for the CD he was soon to be releasing with many of his published articles on. We exchanged a number of emails and he seemed like a particularly friendly and helpful person.

Below is a posting by his brother John on his Facebook page: John Van Valkenburgh, that I found on 'Autosport' - The Nostalgia Forum':
"Some of you may know of my brother, Garner Paul Van Valkenburgh, who recently passed away. He built his first classic ’23 T roadster hot rod while still in high school in Topeka, Kansas in the late 1950s. After engineering school he talked his way into an engineering job at Chevrolet Research and Development in the 1960’s. As a result of Chevy’s relationships with Roger Penske, Jim Hall at Chaparral, Smoky Yunick and others, Paul was connected with all sorts of vehicles and people in high-level racing in the late 60s and on through the 70’s. These connections were detailed in his authoritative book, “Chevrolet = Racing”. He became friends with champion driver Mark Donohue and was asked by Mark to co-write Mark’s autobiography, “The Unfair Advantage”. He worked on various Chaparral cars including the prototype of the 2J “sucker car” while at Chevy R&D and on loan to Chaparral in Midland. Paul also was a well-known automotive journalist, serving as technical editor of Sports Car Graphic and going on to write hundreds of articles for all the major automotive magazines. Using vehicle test equipment that he personally built and developed he did most of the road tests for Road and Track and many other magazines in the 1980s and beyond. He published “Race Car Engineering and Mechanics”, still considered a classic on the subject. He was also a talented driver, privately campaigning his home-built ’68 Camaro in the TransAm series against factory teams and world-famous drivers. On one occasion, he qualified Peter Revson’s TramsAm car for Penske when Revson couldn’t make it to the track in time. As a consultant, he worked on government and private vehicle dynamics studies, testing everything from snowmobiles to schoolbuses. He spent time building Human Powered Vehicles that at one time held world records in this class. He eventually moved away from the vehicle world and devoted later years to the study of migraine propagation in the brain, the problem of tinnitus and his three sons.
We had a lifetime of adventures together and through him I was lucky enough to meet many automotive legends. Paul passed away on June 23rd at the age of 83, but it could be said that he lived a full life."

It should also be mentioned and noted that his name had been added to the perpetual "Peter Bryant Challenger Award" Trophy in recognition of his work in and many contributions to motor sports engineering.