Page 9 - One Last Turn

One of the true innovators in Can-Am as well as several other forms of motor racing
(just take a look at the lists above) and a top-flight paddock mechanic, Trevor Harris began designing, building, and racing high-performance cars as a young teenager growing up in Seattle, Washington. The son of professional, highly successful, and academically oriented parents, Trevor was far more unconventional in his interests. Fortunately, he was encouraged by his parents, who saw in their young son a wildly creative and original thinker, especially along mechanical and engineering lines. Trevor’ mother was the more mechanically inclined of the two and in fact not afraid to get her hands dirty doing things like replacing timing chains. Shortly after graduating from high school and after a short stint with the Boeing Aircraft Company guided missile project, Trevor opened a small Seattle automotive tuning and fabricating shop, “Harris Enterprises” in 1960.
The Travarri and the Harris Special
His first car was a highly modified and wild looking Olds-powered 1937 Lincoln Zephyr street rod — in fact, it was two 1937 Zephyr junkers he sectioned and then welded together — that he dubbed the “Travarri.” This car preceded the Harris Enterprises operation, starting in 1953 and being put together over
95
several years in his family’s one-car
garage, culminating with it being fired up for the first time in 1956.
Trevor’s initial interest was in drag racing, and he gradually built the Travarri into a successful dragster, both in official events and non-sanctioned street affairs. In 1957, a fellow Boeing engineer then introduced him to sports cars by giving him a ride in an Austin- Healey 100-6. He was immediately hooked on these still-unconventional cars. Hearing of a 1935 Maserati Formula One chassis knocking around Seattle,
he sold the Travarri to buy the Maserati parts and build his own sports car, which he could also use for drag racing.
The Maserati came with a lot of trick parts, and the Maserati’s transaxle, swing axle, and the front and rear suspension systems were used by Trevor to build a tube-framed car powered by the Travarri’s Oldsmobile engine. A Devin body would not work on the chassis, so Trevor next tried a Sorrell body which he bought out of California. That also did not work, so he made the decision to build his own body.
ONE LAST TURN
Trevor Harris
A very young Trevor Harris peers out of his first custom-built car, the “Travarri.” (Trevor Harris collection)
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