The heroes and hall-of-famers of the racing world are most often drivers or team sponsors. These two roles–the one who takes a car to glory on the track and the one who hired the drivers and designers that made that car–constitute the personality and skill that make a team unique. However, there is another role on a racing team that, although often overlooked by or invisible to the public eye, is of perhaps the most vital importance to team success: the mechanic. Among this group of automotive experts there exists no hall of fame, but if there were, Phil Remington would be among the most chiefly distinguished. From his start in the 1930s to his passing in 2013, Remington was an indispensable asset to any racing team he partnered with. His skills in the garage were matched by few, and his passion and attention to detail in his work were second to none. Although we believe that Remington is underremembered today, a look into his work can shine a spotlight on a life that deserves much more attention.

The mechanical prowess that that life came to be known for began with both cars and planes. Before he was even 20 years old, Remington was already an expert among his flight enthusiast friends. His studies at Santa Monica Junior College towards an engineering degree and his job as a component inspector at Northrop Aircraft gave him insider knowledge and hands-on experience with his special interest from a relatively young age. In his downtime, Remington also helped found the Santa Monica Low Flyers, a hot-rod club whose penchant for dry lake racing made them a thorn in the side of local police. 

When the Air Force began recruiting for World War II in late 1941, Remington’s expertise in both planes and cars made him a great choice for a flight engineer–even if he had to lie about his age and colorblindness to make it in. When the war was over, he and his old racing buddies reconnected and continued to create makeshift vehicles that–despite being mostly from the 1930s–could easily exceed 100mph after a Remington makeover. This lifestyle was put on a brief hold in 1954, when a semi-truck crashed into Remington while he was out riding his motorcycle. He survived, but the injuries to his leg left him bedridden for months, and he had to enlist his mother to help him escape the hospital when he overheard doctors planning to amputate. From that point until the rest of his life, Remington would walk with a limp. However, his mechanical genius was fully intact, and his career would continue to advance beyond his wildest dreams from this point forward. 

The first of these many advances would come in the form of Lance Reventlow, the Woolworth fortune’s tycoon heir. Wanting to apply his resources to private racing ventures, Reventlow sought out the best there was when it came to mechanics and obviously found Remington. Remington had been working on NASCARs and Ford promo cars when he was approached by Reventlow, but dropped his projects in order to take on this incredible opportunity. Reventlow’s first job for the master mechanic was fine-tuning the Scarab, an original car of his own design. Scarabs used Chevy engines for power, but Reventlow’s existing mechanics had trouble making the most of the car’s potential. After Remington’s modifications, though, the Scarab was a force to be reckoned with, and it swept the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) amateur racing season in 1958. Reventlow was proud of what Remington’s Scarab had done, but he wasn’t satisfied with the relatively small scale on which it had found success, and he had his team begin working on an F1 car in 1959. Both incarnations of the car–the front-engined version that flew in the face of conventional mid-engined design per Reventlow’s request and the mid-engined version that realized the mistake of that first approach–underperformed by Reventlow’s standards despite Remington’s work. Retrospectively, their failure is accredited to the American drivers’ misunderstanding of Formula One rather than mistakes on Remington’s part. 

One individual who understood that distinction back in 1959 was none other than Carroll Shelby. He had followed Reventlow’s outings on the American front, and when Reventlow put his business up for sale in early 1960, Shelby was quick to buy. He knew that Remington and his team were indispensable when it came to making cars that could dominate U.S. racing circuits, and he hired them while taking over their existing garage. According to Remington himself, the “only thing that looked different was [his] paycheck.” For the next ten years, though, Shelby American’s work would change the landscape of racing forever. Their first product was the Shelby Cobra, which, although concepted and sourced by Shelby himself, was put together and debugged by none other than Remington. He also fixed problems with the Shelby Daytona (by adding a rear spoiler), and the GT40 (by redesigning its brake assembly to avoid cracking in intense corners), leading to SCCA and Le Mans domination throughout the mid-to-late 1960s. All of the company’s successes, no matter how big or small, had come by Remington’s capable hands. His inability to leave anything done poorly and his habit of jumping in on other people’s tuneups to fix their mistakes earned him his famous Shelby American nickname: “Super-twitch Phil.” 

Despite the overwhelming success that Remington and Shelby had created on their behalf, Ford was reluctant to provide resources to racing projects after their ‘67 Le Mans success. Remington moved his family from California to North Carolina in order to pursue a new venture with the Holman-Moody NASCAR team. His abilities’ influence on the success of the team was notable, especially after they won the 1968 Daytona 500, but the location was not conducive to the California native’s longevity. Remington left the team soon after, moving back to the Santa Ana area in search of a new garage that could use his skills. 

That garage turned out to be Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers, the organization that would be Remington’s home for the next 44 years. Formula 1, Formula 5000, Can-Am, Trans-Am, Indy 500, GTP, and IMSA cars were among the makes that Remington would influence as Gurney’s chief engineer. The Gurney Eagles’ IndyCar success in the 1970s as well as the GTO Cecelias’ IMSA championship wins throughout the 1990s were all due in part to Remington’s expertise. He was called “Remington University” by his AAR colleagues and was still a vital part of the team as he continued to age into his 60s, 70s, and 80s. Even in 2012, at 91 years of age, Remington personally engineered the suspension and oil and water-cooling systems for the DeltaWing, an experimental AAR project that saw success at Le Mans that year. When Remington left AAR later that year, it was only because he literally could no longer work; his dedication to his craft had proven larger-than-life, and his brain was still as sharp as a tack until the very end. 

When Phil Remington finally passed at 92 years old on February 9th, 2013, the automotive world lost an indispensable asset, a man who had singlehandedly advanced what they thought was possible dozens if not hundreds of times. His work had started around 75 years earlier and had not ceased since; when he passed, the resume that he left behind was larger and more impressive than might have been thought imaginable. Even though his loss was painful, the spirit of the innovation that Remington brought about will never perish. Additionally, the cars he worked on are among the most iconic and beloved in history, and are unlikely to pass out of the public eye soon if ever. So when you look at a Cobra, a Scarab, a GT, or an Eagle, look past the name on the bodywork into the soul of the car. It is there you will find Remington, his genius cast in steel and rubber forever. 

References:

Phil Remington - Wikipedia

A Tribute to a Legend, Phil Remington | Dan Gurney's All American Racers

Phil Remington - American Hot Rod Foundation (ahrf.com)

The Life of Phil Remington - An Abbreviated Biography of Phil Remington (roadandtrack.com)