Wilson Swilley: Racer, Adventurer

I posted this on the Cvet Foreskin, and decided it should go here since some of you may not be Bisexual and hang in that Formen anymore. (Foramen: it's an anatomical term.)

I just got an email from my old friend Wilson today. Met him when he had a 57 vintage racer, the ex Bob Dye car. That car is still being vintage raced today by Russ U. another enthusiast.

Wilson has had quite a few racers over the years from 1963 forward, not all Corvettes but I don't hold that against him. And raced all over the USA. His adventures are a great read and I did not know he had a web site loaded with these great stories and photos.
http://www.gt-enduro.com

Here are some more pictures of Wilson's beautiful 1957 Corvette vintage racer. http://www.oosoez.com/archive/1957-579E.html

And with Zora in 1980 in the sixth picture down. Wilson is second on the left partially hidden. His blue 66 slightly visible far left, had just picked Zora up at SFO airport. http://www.oosoez.com/dr-r-web/CurrentEvents-64.html

Wilson's real fun warm friendly car guy. A true pleasure to talk with about cars and racing.

Enjoy,
Geoffrey Coenen

cool pictures!

My first car was a '60 vette in '66 I was 22, red/black/black power slide, 283, WCFB on it....power windows too, guys called it a 'chicks car' because of the auto and p/w......

Those pix bring back mammories....this thread is going to be linked to a old buddy who was a patient and accompanied Dr. Dick Thompson to Sebring one year in the mid 60's....just before we met.....:drink::drink::beer:

Larry Hubert, please sign on here and post your recollections also, please.....

Great stuff, I also enjoyed going through your entire archive....tm

Wilson and I did some reminiscing about the Corvette hobby 30 years ago. We both agreed it was much more fun, more honest, less burdened and less expensive.

Just today I read on the National Camel Rider Society how one C1 owner lamented that the rivet (he spelled it rivit) on the underside - unseen surface of the oil filler cap has a dimpled "rivit" rather than a domed one and he lost "points". Another proclaimed that there was a new repro with a domed rivet. Lesson: the original GM cap and first Neil Porter repro were both quality items made in the USA. Now we have another Taiwan repro that's correct. I had heard that term correct - so often, for so long it became a catchword for a return, not a sale.

The Corvette repro market today, whether it be C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 or C6 has become just like WalMart and Home Depot. A load of cheaply made, overpriced imported parts that look good but don't have any life expectancy. The C3 GM head lamp and wiper vacuum relays often last 30 years. The repro one will a couple of years if your luckly. These parts are not only made with cheaper labor but cheaper ingredients. How come GM and USA made rubber parts and weatherstrip have no odor, while the import rubber parts reek? Even Ray Charles could tell them apart.

I'm not saying foreign companies cannot make quality parts comparable or better than the USA. I'm saying the Corvette marketplace seeks out the cheapest crap. Another example Corvette chrome rear view mirrors. Generally the ball stud head on these remained tight long after the chrome finish became displeasing and were replaced. Now you don't have a choice anymore. Paragon has not re-run the USA repro 68-74 small head mirror. About $70 each retail. They cannot compete with the Taiwan $69 a PAIR repro. So your only choice now is Taiwan from brand A or Taiwan from brand Z. Neat eh:waxer:?

Rant over (for now).

Geoff Coenen

Geoff, IF it was just limited to olde cars, we could live with it, it's a HOBBY, but that shit is taking over our homes, businesses, and causing lots of problems all over.....can't even find a screw or nail anymore....:sos::suicide:

I can't see the pictures at http://www.gt-enduro.com

Is it just me?

Geoff Coenen said:

Wilson and I did some reminiscing about the Corvette hobby 30 years ago. We both agreed it was much more fun, more honest, less burdened and less expensive.

Just today I read on the National Camel Rider Society how one C1 owner lamented that the rivet (he spelled it rivit) on the underside - unseen surface of the oil filler cap has a dimpled "rivit" rather than a domed one and he lost "points". Another proclaimed that there was a new repro with a domed rivet. Lesson: the original GM cap and first Neil Porter repro were both quality items made in the USA. Now we have another Taiwan repro that's correct. I had heard that term correct - so often, for so long it became a catchword for a return, not a sale.

The Corvette repro market today, whether it be C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 or C6 has become just like WalMart and Home Depot. A load of cheaply made, overpriced imported parts that look good but don't have any life expectancy. The C3 GM head lamp and wiper vacuum relays often last 30 years. The repro one will a couple of years if your luckly. These parts are not only made with cheaper labor but cheaper ingredients. How come GM and USA made rubber parts and weatherstrip have no odor, while the import rubber parts reek? Even Ray Charles could tell them apart.

I'm not saying foreign companies cannot make quality parts comparable or better than the USA. I'm saying the Corvette marketplace seeks out the cheapest crap. Another example Corvette chrome rear view mirrors. Generally the ball stud head on these remained tight long after the chrome finish became displeasing and were replaced. Now you don't have a choice anymore. Paragon has not re-run the USA repro 68-74 small head mirror. About $70 each retail. They cannot compete with the Taiwan $69 a PAIR repro. So your only choice now is Taiwan from brand A or Taiwan from brand Z. Neat eh:waxer:?

Rant over (for now).

Geoff Coenen

Click to expand...

the words Greed, planned obsolescence, stupidity and greed come to mind...yes I said greed twice because thats whats driving the hobby, pure greed.... like an old wise man once told me not too long ago "licensed by GM" has nothing to do with quality and everything with ones ability to pay a licensing fee.

The licensing program is "interesting". I had a GM Restoration Parts license for 9 years and voluntarily left the program. I was the first vendor licensed to put GM logos on Corvette hose. The contract was about 50-60 pages and required we substantially increase our liability insurance to hold GM harmless in the event of a suit. It had many restrictions: the parts had to sourced in the USA; samples had to be approved by GMSPO; we had to provide tyhe sales material for that item; we could not sell to GM franchised dealers nor international sales; we had to purchase special tags from them for parts. We had to advertise the parts as licensed. However if CC or ecklers had a license on a part and we sold their repro - we could not claim it was licensed.

Another quirk: If we sold a part to ecklers that we did not license - but ecklers had blanked licensed via their catalog - they could claim it licensed but we could not mention that fact. We also had to agree to meet ever increasing sales levels with a minimum royalty regardless of sales volume. Every 3 months just like regular taxes we had to submit sales figures and royalty. It was just another quarterly "tax" form to deal with.

The first 3 year term of the contract was OK, however EMI (the licensing administrator) soon began to sell duplicate licenses for the exact same logo hoses. So we were stuck with ever increasing required sales volumes as the market share dwindled with ever increasing license fees for the same part.

Upon each 3 year renewal I was "encouraged" to license more items that did not contain GM intellectual property i.e. no GM logo. I resisted. Why should we license say a genuine GM muffler hanger or wheel cylinder we bought from GM to begin with. GM was already making that sale and EMI wanted a percentage on top of that.

They sent me a copy of my own catalog and literally highlighted certain parts. They said I needed to license any part that even had a GM part number on it, regardless if it did not have the GM logo. At that point we added an additional digit to all such numbers so as not to have the same exact number.

Finally in the 3rd term upon renewal EMI was pressuring us to license our whole catalog so they would then get a cut of every sale from car covers to nuts and bolts. They stated that ecklers had done so and I should also. I asked the rep, how are you ever going to have GMSPO examine all those parts. And the reply was they were not and did not because ecklers was a known "quality" and they would assume the same for me. Later when another vendor undercut our wholesale price for some part, ecklers changed to them and it was "licensed" simply transferred as they had a new source.

Another time they called and offered me the exclusive on the GM aluminum expansion tanks (61-62; 63-67; 68-72) which were still available a 6000+ GM franchised dealers. They had seen in a Corvette magazine a write up of how I would stamp the dates on these tanks. I designed a tool that fit through the neck, unfolded and supported the face so a date could be stamped in the surface. Nobody else performed that service. I asked the rep why GM would loose 6000+ sales oulets to have just one - me. There was no answer. The simple answer was that EMI got no cut when the 6000+ GM dealers made the sale, but did when a licensee made the sale. I asked him how this was done and he said they had the power to get parts discontinued.
Tom Dewitt accepted the EMI offer, but EMI required that he license his aluminum radiators to get that deal.

I also asked about getting the license for various other items and was absolutely bluntly told: CMD gets first shot on all decorative items and lamps, Fortier gets first shot on anything under the hood and ecklers gets first shot on all body parts. I said:"whats left" and he said "that's for you". LOL

That was it for me. It was less grief to buy certain parts from other vendors that continue to have them made. Times have changed: now repro made outside the USA are allowed as are sales to GM dealers and international. It's all about money. The only way EMI grows their volume is to sell more licenses which allow then a cut of what is passed on to GM. Decades ago at Bloomington, EMI would send 6 or more reps, get swap spaces for a big display and get a suite a the best hotel and invite their conterparts that actually worked for GM directly to attend. They would throw a big cocktail party for the GM players and naturally the GM fellows thought that was grand.

Funny things: when Ford and Dodge began similar licensing programs, they sent us threatening letters if we did not get a license. We never made Ford or Chrysler parts so we ignored them.

Another time we got a threatening letter from EMI for not licensing the part number on the 68-69 3x2 air cleaner hose because it had a 7 digit part number on it - but no GM logo. They claimed the part number was GM intellectual property and they wanted fees. As it turns out, we had an error of one digit wrong in that part number and I only discovered it when I got that letter. I sent EMI that marking stamp and told them we owed them nothing because it was not a GM part number after all. We stopped stamping that part and oddly no one in no one ever called about that part number being wrong. Not many were sold as it was a fresh repro sold.

Rant #2 over.

Years later I concluded, if I paid the licensing fee, I could get a Mustang hubcap licensed for a Vette.

Years later I concluded, if I paid the licensing fee, I could get a Mustang hubcap licensed for a Vette.

Mid 60's stand caps and solid axle vette caps are somewhat similar, after all....

:hissyfit:

How in hell you retain sanity???:twitch:

Thanks for sharing Doc, Wilson sounds like a wealth of Corvette racing knowledge......