1967 McKee MK10

Bob McKee began his racing career by building stock cars for Tiny Lund and being Dick Rathmann's crew chief for Indy car competition. By the early to mid-1960s, he was building racers under his own surname. His first creation was the Chevette which was comprised of many General Motors components, mainly the Chevelle and Corvette. This was actually how the name was conceived, by forming parts of 'Chevelle' with 'Corvette.' The name was not trademarked by McKee and was later used by Chevrolet.

The first creation, the MKI, was a mid-engined special with a tubular space frame. It was constructed for an Illinois Chevrolet dealer named Dick Doane who intended to use the racer in amateur racing competition. Power came from a 363 cubic-inch fuel-injected Chevrolet V8 engine that produced over 450 horsepower. 11.5-inch Girling disc brakes were used to keep the vehicle in the driver's control. In an effort to keep the weight of the vehicle at a minimum, aluminum was used for the body.

The MKI was followed by iterations of the concept, named MKII, MKIII, and so forth. The first five cars were individual cars bearing different 'MK' designations. The MK VI, however, was an attempt at streamlining production and standardizing the process to ease production and increase the units produced. There were a total of three examples of the MK VI produced.

In total, there were two or three examples of the MK VII created. The first was built for Bob Nagel; it was later rebuilt for Formula A competition by Bob Stanford. Then it was converted back to Can-Am specifications and can currently be seen racing in historic racing competition. The second car was built for Skip Hudson as a works entry. It was later sold to Ralph Slayer and piloted by Charlie Hayes. The car was later converted into a wedge-shaped design and dubbed, the MK 10. Both cars are still in existence, or so it is believed. The wedge-shaped car is rarely seen in public.

By Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2009