Roger Penske’s controversial Zerex Special was a converted Cooper Formula One car, shown here at Riverside in 1963 in its later, two-seat, form. Gane worked on both conversion projects for this car that went on to become essentially the very first McLaren when given an aluminum Oldsmobile V8.
Photo: Allen Kuhn
To say that Roy Gane has strong opinions would be to say that Cadbury’s makes chocolates. It’s evident as soon as you open a conversation with Roy that he has strong opinions on people in racing, races, racecar preparation and on racing politics. Perhaps it’s because he has done nearly everything in race prep that could conceivably be done. From working with the early racers in his shop in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to the creation of Roger Penske’s Zerex Telar Special, to the tasks of preparing the lightweight Camaros that Mark Donohue used to humiliate the mighty Ford teams of both Carroll Shelby and Bud Moore, Roy has done it all, seen it all. Now retired—temporarily at the age of 77—in Delaware, Roy expressed his views on racing history to VR Contributing Writer John Wright.
Roy Gane
How did you enter the sometimes arcane world of racecar preparation, and who were some of the people with whom you hung out in the early days?
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