New beginnings for an old one-off
After nearly two decades of restoration, the unique Mckee-chevrolet Mahrya is once again turning heads
“The only angle that’s ugly is the very front, it looks like a guppy fish but we’re not going to change it. It is what it is and she’s unique.”
Those who attended the popular American Speedfest event at Brands Hatch earlier this month – returning after a Covid-19-induced hiatus – may well have seen Greg Thornton’s “guppy fish” as it made its way forward from the back of the Bernie’s V8 field.
An eclectic mix of machines made up the healthy grid, from Chevrolet Camaros to MGB GTS and everything in-between, but perhaps none have quite as interesting a history as Thornton’s Mckee-chevrolet Mahrya.
The unique machine was created in 1961 for the United States Road Racing Championship – a precursor to Can-am – and was piloted by ex-indycar and NASCAR driver Salt Walther, arguably most notable for injuries sustained at the start of the
1973 Indianapolis 500 and whose grandfather invented the
Walther PPK handgun used by James Bond.
After brief and unsuccessful outings, the car’s last race came in 1965 in Group 7 as Can-am was about to launch, before being stored away until it was put up for sale nearly two decades ago.
“It was completely obliterated by the Mclarens and the Lolas [in Group 7], put away and never came out again until we bought it,” says historic racer Thornton. “I bought it unseen and sold by a very clever salesman in Florida saying the car needs a little bit of renovation and he sent me a whole collection of photos. In these
photos there are people with huge trophies next to it the car won.”
While the car did in fact win a selection of impressive trophies, none of them were for its racing pedigree on the track. Instead, it was for its bodywork and paint scheme customisation that had been done by legendary designer and customiser George Barris, famous for creating other machines such as KITT from Knight Rider and the original TV series Batmobile.
Not only had the car no outright success on the race track, it was often left at the rear of the field. And when Thornton bought the machine some 17 years ago it was far from being in the good condition that had been described to him.
“It was corroded and broken,” recalls Thornton. “The engine had to be rebuilt, the gearbox was in pieces, the actual gearbox casing was cracked. Obviously, the corners have had to be remade because we crack-tested them and they all failed. So we just reverse-engineered and just had them remade.
“I’ve had it 17 years – it’s taken us all of this time to rebuild it. I hate to think how much money we’ve put into it. The paint alone was 20-odd thousand pounds.”
Despite going through an extensive, expensive and timeconsuming restoration, the car remains to the exact specification from the 1960s, featuring a V8 Chevrolet engine capable of approximately 400bhp and a four-speed gearbox, as well as hand-rolled aluminium bodywork painted in period livery.
“It was painted by a guy who does helmets. It took him two years to airbrush that paint,” adds Thornton. “The basecoat was simple but then doing all that pearlescent blend… and that’s exactly as it was in period.
“Nothing extra, nothing missing. Everything is just as it was – the fuel tank, the latches on the doors. We’ve tried to just replicate or rebuild or renovate any part of the car that needed renovation.”
Having finally rebuilt it, Thornton debuted the car at the Goodwood Speedweek last October, where it competed in the Whitsun Trophy. After starting 18th, Thornton made encouraging progress in the 13-lap race to finish 10th.
Its second outing came at Brands earlier this month, where from the back of the near 30-car field it surged through to finish eighth in the final Bernie’s V8 race of the weekend.
As for future outings, Thornton believes it is “there to be invited to events” but nothing has yet been scheduled for the rest of 2021.
“We have to develop the car – we haven’t done any development work yet,” says the 2013 Historic F1 champion. “It brakes perfectly, it has power, it’s stable under the power, it’s stable on the road. The only thing it doesn’t like doing is going around corners, we can’t get it to turn in but that’s what we need to set up.
“It’s lots of fun to drive and it’s unique. You’re out there and you’re in something there isn’t another one of in the world.”
“IT HAS POWER, IT’S STABLE ON THE ROAD. THE ONLY THING IT DOESN’T LIKE IS GOING ROUND CORNERS”