Linkedin Summary of Dick Anderson
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Summary of Dick Anderson’s Career Dick has been the #1 Inventor & Innovator in Racing Shocks, springs & suspensions – for over 40 years. I spent most of my life in Auto Racing: When I was 13, in 1952, some older boys in the neighborhood took me with them to a Stock Car Race (Jalopies – mostly late 30’s fords). I really enjoyed it but was confused: Why many cars in the back of each race roll-over? In the last race, the Feature – about ½ of them rolled over! I found out they got paid $5 roll-over money – they were going to at least get gas money to go home. I was hooked! At age 14, I was selling Flathead Ford parts (new, used & speed equipment) out of my “bedroom” in Crystal Lake IL (about 50 miles NW of Chicago) and built my first Hot Rod in 1954, a ’32 Ford 3-window coupe with a full- race flathead in it – never got beat! But, when the 55 Chev came out, one of my buddies bought one and he came closer than anyone before him, so I put a Chrysler Hemi V8 in it in 1955 – problem solved! I worked full-time as an Electronic Development Engineer (late nights & weekends through High School) from age 15 to 19 – did the production engineering of all the electronic coils used in the very 1st Microwave Relay Station System) and was “mentored” by one of the best machinists ever, George Stevenson (George made the specialized production equipment we needed for the Electronic Coil business I was working for, CoilCraft – still a leader). In 1957 I partnered with a local ¼ mile dirt-track champion and we build a Chrysler Hemi powered “modified’ that was “God-awful powerful”, set track records but rarely won (they were pure junk back then - we knew NOTHING about handling at the time). I was lucky enough to get some small scholarships that enabled me to study Mechanical Engineering a few years and then it all developed into a Speed Shop in the late 50's (A&A Drag Specialists – we did lots of special machine work and built drag chassis in addition to selling speed equipment and doing engine swaps (I think I put a Chrysler Hemi into every car made during the 50s) - then I was “mentored” by a past President of the American Welding Society (he taught me many rare skills, like torch welding “pot-metal”). In 1960 I joined the U.S. Air Force - I went to Russian Language School at Indiana University, then learned how to use it in San Angelo TX (it was close to Mexico so I learned started to learn Spanish there), went to Japan where I worked in Military Intelligence as a Russian Linguist and learned “broken Japanese” while stationed there in early 60s. I continued my Spanish Studies and later became a Spanish Linguist too (during the Cuban Crisis - I was quickly sent to Key West FL). While in Japan I knew there would be no car racing so, I decided to race motorcycles. I saw immediately that 2- cycles were the way to go – much lighter & faster – so I chose to race a Tohatsu 50cc. It was the smallest class but Tohatsu far outclassed everything else – it had 6HP at 10,000 RPM - they even had a Special Racing Model, with a, imagine this, a 4-Speed transmission, special exhaust & more. The local dealer ordered one for me & he nearly got his Dealership Franchise yanked – they did not want any AMERICANS winning any races! I got mad & decided I would beat them all with the standard 3-speed. Rules allowed anything. Us “GI”s were like millionaires there then & because I chose the smallest class, I had enough money to buy several cylinders & everything else I needed every paypay – I ground, filed & reworked everything – I learned about 2-cycle motors (these were “piston- timed” engines – the placement, height & shape of the ports is everything – essentially the cam timing as well as the valves & porting). I was too big to be competitive in the National Events but the Factory’s top rider eventually quit the team to ride for me – I weighed in at 158 lbs with full leathers & a helmet – he was only 87 lbs! The bike was 115 lbs wet. We beat ALL the factories – their teams would fly in en-mass while we would arrive, Papa San (the Tohatsu Dealer) & me, in one of these tiny little 3-wheel pickups. I had different cylinders & heads for different sized tracks, my hottest one made peak power at 20,000 RPM and we ran around 22:1 compression ratio. My pistons & rings were only good for about 3 or 4 miles because the engine ran so hot – around 700-800 degrees (blue hot), but that was usually enough to finish – in 1st Place! Toward the end I built a water-cooled head – probably the 1st one EVER on a 2-cycle race-bike. That did it – I could run flat-out forever – nothing could come close to us. I’m sure all the Japanese Motorcycle Manufacturers & Racers were very happy when the Cuban Crisis called me out of Japan. I got out of the Air Force in 1964, I worked a short time for an auto parts distributor, me & my partner, Paul Meyer, also started “The Carrera Company” (Carrera means Race in Spanish & Paul’s mother was from Mexico – it had a good ‘ring’ to it). At first it was a part-time business -we were one of the first to build complete "fixtured" Sprint Cars In 1964 - 1st to have interchangeable chassis & replacement parts that “fit”, we also did lots of specialized welding: Cast iron, bronze head repairs to cast iron, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, zinc, pot-metal and, of course, chrome-moly tubing“. Our slogan: “We’ll weld whatever the other welding shops can’t do!”. Then, I found my “real opportunity” in SPEED, with the biggest Speed Equipment Distributor in the World (CB Sales, Chicago) where I quickly became the Manager and got to know all of the founders and “King-Pins” of the Speed Industry (they were all from the West Coast in those days). Then, with my “connections” & a rapidly growing Speed Industry, I saw a new opportunity and spent a few years as one of the first Speed Equipment Industry’s Mfr’s Reps (AMAX Sales - I was the "A" & Max Phillips was the "MAX") - representing the best names in Speed Equipment (mostly from California) in the 6 Midwest States. Carrera became full-time for Paul when we saw opportunities for new products and got into manufacturing speed equipment in late 60's under the “Carrera” brand. Carrera was just one of the great lines we “repped”. Do you remember CarreraTM “Wheelie-BarsTM" - bolt-on traction bars for leaf spring cars, and Carrera Lift-Kits?, In 1965 we “accidentally” discovered how important shocks were to handling (nobody made anything good that you could buy back then – Monroe gave custom shocks to the USAC Sprint-car Superstars & would not sell them to anybody else – PERIOD. One day we were pitted next to Gary Bettenhausen at Wausau WI when we broke 3 shocks in a small accident. USAC didn’t allow its Superstars to run non-USAC tracks, so Gary, and many others ran under pseudonyms during the week – they had to pay their bills! Because we had no spare shocks (in those days we were constantly trying crazy stuff – lots of English & European Adjustable Shocks – none of which worked very well), Gary offered to loan us a set of 4. He said: “But, I’ve got 40 shocks - 4 for each of the 10 tracks we run – and I don’t know which ones to lend you! I asked him what HE does when he breaks a shock. He smiled and said “I pick the ones for the track closest to what we are running on.” OK, he went through his little book & picked us out a set of 4. Our driver, Itch Daniels – brother of the very famous at the time, Scratch Daniels, went out in the next race and blew them away. He was so excited that his smile “wrapped around his face twice” – he had never driven a car that handled so well. It had picked up almost 2 seconds per lap – unheard of. Gary was excited too. He had no idea his shocks were that good – he had never had anything but them. He too wanted to know WHY? Paul & I said we would figure out how to build something to test them with - we had never even heard of a shock dynamometer, or dyno – to see what was different. Could we borrow them again for the tests? Gary said “sure, if you’ll give me the results”. This led to us designing our first “Rube Goldberg” Shock Dynamometer (so we could tell what we actually had) and the beginning of a great relationship with the Bettenhausen team (brothers Merle raced Midgets & Tony Jr. later raced Stock Cars). We tested Gary’s shocks, a lot of stock types and all the “sophisticated European adjustables” we had been playing with -we found that these Monroes were DIFFERENT – way different than anything else we tested. This was our “Moment of Revelation” – we knew we had something - but, now, what to do with them? We started trying to modify shocks to make them more like the Monroes – this wasn’t easy – we knew NOTHING about shock design in the beginning. Then Ray Smith, a renowned USAC builder/owner from Easton OH, offered to help.