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En icon har lämnat oss, Bob Wallace
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Ulf
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Här sen Jun 2004
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En av ursprungsmedarbetarna på Lamborginhi, Bob Wallace har lämnat oss.



Originally Posted by Red Angel View Post
On behalf of Bob's family, we would like to add the following:
Bob Wallace left N.Z in 1960 with John Ohlson. They both were involved in the early Hot Rod scene in Auckland.
He spent a bit of time working for Lotus and absolutely hated it. The workers had to tip their hats when any management went passed. The class system was very much alive and well in England.
He previously worked with Ray Stone on the Mansell 250F at Ardmore and met the Temple
Buell team with the Piccolo 250F of Harry Schell and Carol Shelby.
He left England to go to Italy and ended up getting a job with Camoradi running a team of light weight Corvettes with a non existant all-alloy motor plus a couple of Birdcage Maserati.
He crashed one of the Corvettes at LeMans and it ended part way up a tree. Bob spent sometime in hospital after the crash. The motor from that car ended up in N.Z. in Rod Coppins Techmec.
He spent 1961 with Ferrari as Phil Hills head mechanic, when he won the F1 championship with the 1.5 litre car.
When Lamborghini was starting Bob, very much enjoyed his time there as he pretty much had free reign on what he did. I visited Modena in 1974 not long after he had married
Anna.
Lamborghini had allowed him to build a lightweight Urraco and we had several fast drives over part of the old MilleMillglia course, leaping of the ground while going past an up market restaurant. The patrons would hear him coming and be out on the balcony to cheer
him on. The car was nicknamed "Urraco Bob".
With the rise in industrial unrest and the rise of communism, Bob and Anna came to NZ in 1975, but they never settled and about eighteen months later went to the States.
In 1977 they were hit by a car in the side and Anna had head injuries which started a 21 year slide until her death.
I visited regularly. A couple of years ago when I was there I said to Bob you need a hobby, his reply was "I have a hobby, I go to work".
He had a test frame on wheels on which we used to run up the motors he had rebuilt with short exhaust and no muffler. The sound of the 12 cylinder Ferrari at full noise was enough to wake the dead!
Bob did not suffer fools gladly, but if he liked you it was ok.

RIP BIG BROTHER
CHARLIE AND FAMILY.


_________________
Ulf Danielsson
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En icon har lämnat oss, Bob Wallace
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