Walt & Chip Hane
Racing Story
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Walt Hane has been a hot rodder since age 15 when he rebuilt a 1924 Model T Ford. He worked through other Model T's, A's and through flat head Ford V-8s of the 1930s & 1940s. After graduating from college as a Mechanical & Electrical Engineer, Walt went to work for the Ford Motor Company as an experimental test engineer. As such, he got to hot rod experimental Fords. After moving his family to Florida in the late 1950's, he was back to hopping up his own Fords again.
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He started building and racing sports cars in 1961. They ranged from small British to Formula Vee cars. In 1965, Walt stepped out of a Vee, into the Shelby GT350 R Model.
Here are Chip & Walt with the R103 in September 1965 at Daytona.
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After winning the 1966 SCCA B Production National Championship in 1966 in the Shelby, he drove a Mustang in the 1967 Daytona TransAm and 24 hour races. In mid 1967, he moved his family to Evergreen Colorado, where he still lives and runs E.P.S. with Chip. Walt continued limited racing participation through the 1960's & 1970's, racing a Lotus 61 Formula Ford.
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In 1970, Walt's son, Chip started participating with his dad. Chip went on to prove his own driving skills winning Go Kart championships.
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In the mid 1980's, they were back into the Shelbys & Mustangs, then called Vintage racing. Since that time, Chip and Walt have completed varying degrees of racing restorations on 15 Shelbys, Mustangs and Falcons. These include Walt's Shelby GT350 R model that he originally raced in the 1960's, his 1966 Shelby GT350H and a 1965 K Mustang that Walt has owned since its racing days in 1967. Over the decades, they have built dozens of 289 Ford performance & race engines.
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Watkins Glen SVRA race, September 1989.
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Walt's development of the 289 Ford powered race cars has continued over the last 33 years. As a result, all of the vehicles' parts have been updated & optimized. Walt & Chip are now passing the benefits of all this development on to their customers of E.P.S. Inc. They have owned a chassis dynamometer since 1974 and an Engine Dynamometer since 1998. So, engine development has progressed along with the rest of the car.
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In 1997, they built Walt's Shelby from bare painted body in six weeks and ran it in the Monterey Historics in California. The cars ran very well and proved the up-to-date capability of Chip & Walt's vintage race shop assembly and parts capability.
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Walt driving the Shelby GT350 R model at Monterey Historics - Laguna Seca, CA in August 1997. This is the Shelby Walt drove to win the 1966 SCCA B Production National Championship. It is now owned by Ross Myers.
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Monterey Historics - August 1997
Chip driving Walt's racing restored 1966 Shelby GT350H. This is the vehicle they restored in six weeks and now run in vintage races.
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Monterey Historics - August 1997
Walt driving his original 1965 K Mustang A sedan that he has owned since 1967 when it raced SCCA and has been driven in Vintage races since 1989.
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