Callaway Cars announced today that founder Ely Reeves Callaway III passed away on Tuesday, July 11 at his home in Newport Beach, California. His cause of death is said to be “from injuries sustained after a fall.” He was 75.
The son of Ely Callaway Jr., the founder of Callaway Golf, Reeves Callaway initially wanted to become a race car driver. But when that didn’t work out, he became a racing instructor at the Bob Bondurant racing school. While working at Bondurant, he developed an aftermarket turbocharger kit for the BMW 3 Series and managed to get Car and Driver to review it.
While he initially ran Callaway Cars out of his garage, the positive review from Car and Driver led him to open Callaway Cars’ first headquarters near where he was living in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Over the next several decades, he would go on to modify BMW, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Mazda and General Motors products. But he is arguably best known for his work on multiple generations of Chevrolet Corvettes.
Callaway had a close relationship with GM, which allowed him to sell his cars through Chevrolet dealers. In 1989, a Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette, known as the Sledgehammer, made 880 hp and 772 lb-ft of torque. In the hands of John Lingenfelter, it set a production top-speed record of 254.76 mph. That record would stand for 21 years when Bugatti managed to hit 267.85 mph in the Veyron Super Sport.
From there, Callaway got into racing but continued to modify Corvettes, including models with custom bodies such as the Callaway C12 and the C16. Callaway still modifies Corvettes today, as well as Camaros, Silverados, Suburbans, Tahoes, Sierras, Yukons and Escalades.
In a statement, his son Peter Reeves Callaway said:
Thanks to Reeves’ visionary entrepreneurial spirit, Callaway Cars will continue to innovate and grow in the 21st century, inspired by his unique, extraordinary vision, and by his personal example of integrity, resourcefulness, and leadership as our founder. Dad’s passion for making beautifully designed and crafted machines can be seen in each and every project, and we remain devoted to executing to the highest standards, in true Callaway fashion. He was rarely found doing anything other than working towards the next milestone for the company. He was a charismatic leader with a sense of humor that we will all remember through various “Reeves-isms”. I feel fortunate to have grown up working with him and the company.