1962 Santee SS

The Santee Automobile Company was founded in 1961 in Santee, CA, just outside the city of San Diego, CA. Fred Puhn served as chief engineer, and later in life, he worked with Quasar, Monocoque Wheels, and the Chassis Engineering Co. He was a mechanical engineer with a background in the aerospace industry, and his experience as a structural and design engineer was instrumental in building his racing cars. John Raifsnider served as President and John McCann served as Project Manager, assisted Puhn with engineering, and provided the funding for the construction of the SS.

Santee Automobiles, Inc. built sports cars in the early 1960s including the Santee Super Sport (SS) which was the racing version of the road-going Santee Sport (S). They used multi-tubular space frame chassis with the cockpit area surrounded by a steel cage.

Around the 1960s, Oldsmobile was getting back into racing so they built a racing version of the 215 CID engine. They made the parts required to build this engine available in the catalog through the dealers. The Olds engine included special high-compression heads, special valve covers, and solid lifter cams. Puhn added ram tuning for the intake and exhaust valves with a crossflow system to reduce the height of the engine and allow the engine to close. It used four Weber 2-barrel side-draft carburetors on long-tuned length runners. During an early race, the engine blew up due to a lack of oil under heavy acceleration, so the team built a new oiling system. The four-speed Pontiac Tempest transmission was mounted to the front engine as a transaxle which gave the little sports car excellent balance and eliminated the hump in the cockpit. The Super Sport received a close-ratio four-speed unit. The other two cars were powered by a street-tuned, Buick 215 CID aluminum V8. Corvette drum brakes provided the stopping power. The suspension used lightweight tubular A-arms and magnesium rear uprights.

The styling for the fiberglass bodywork was inspired by many of the successful sports racers of the late 1950s, such as Maserati, Lister, Gemini, and Devin. The interior was sparse, functional, and skinned in aluminum with black vinyl bucket seats. The wood-rimmed steering wheel wears a Santee center-cap and rests in front of a 120-mph speedometer, a 6,000 RPM tachometer, and gauges for amperage, water temperature, fuel level, and oil pressure.

The demise of the Santee Company was a lack of funding. On the track, the Super Sport was very quick, but since it was based on a road-going car, it found it hard to compete against the rear-engine, specially-built racing machines from well-funded teams. It was hoped that the SS would be classified as a production car, thus it would be allowed to compete against heavier production cars such as the Corvette and Shelby Cobras.

The Super Sports inaugural race was in 1962 at Del Mar where it was driven by Willie West. Unfortunately, due to a lack of oil, the engine eventually failed. The car had run tremendously well throughout the race, especially considering the team had missed the practice sessions.

By Daniel Vaughan | Jan 2022