Ernie McAfee Category: Person Wikipedia: Ernie McAfee Born: 1919 Died: 1956 Description: A race car driver and hot rodder who customized cars in his Ernie McAfee Engineering garage. Page Sections: Biography · Photographs

Biography

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Ernie McAfee page on 26 September 2022, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Ernie McAfee (1919–1956) was an early hot rodder who was a member of the 90 MPH club and the SCTA Road Runners club of Southern California. He was killed in a vehicular accident in 1956 in Pebble Beach.

Mcafee's main claim to fame in the SoCal area was his 1938 136 mph Modified division record; this record was set in a Winfield-modified 4-cylinder flathead Ford. McAfee raced Modified Fords during the 1930s and was an innovator in streamlining. McAfee, along with fellow SCTA Road Runners Club member Jack Harvey, built and ran the first wheel enclosed Streamliner on Lake Muroc.

McAfee was known after World War II for building and customizing cars through Ernie McAfee Engineering, McAfee during this time also campaigned Siatas, Crosleys, and his all-conquering baby blue 4.9-litre Ferrari. McAfee raced in the La Carrera Panamericana in 1953 as a driver of a Siata 208s, then as co-driver to Porfirio Rubirosa, who campaigned a Ferrari 500 Mondial in the 1954 race. He owned a Ferrari, Siata, Alfa Romeo, Moretti, and O.S.C.A. dealership on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. He was killed during the 1956 running of the Del Monte trophy (Pebble Beach race), after colliding into a tree.

Subject:  Ernie McAfee at Beverly Hills Photographer/Source:  Lester Nehamkin Location:  Beverly Hills, California Date:  1955 Caption:  PAYS TO WIN—Here's the reigning sensation in the sports car world today—and that includes the entire U.S.—Ernie McAfee, Beverly Hills. He has won the last three CSCC big-bore main events,—two at Santa Barbara, another at Hansen Dam. And he's a hot choice again Sunday at Torrey in the over-1500, going in either Bill Doheny's famed 3-liter Ferrari Monza or a 4412cc 6-cylinder Ferrari. He drives the little Moretti in Saturday's enduro. Here he reaps part of his reward from Actress Jeannie Baird for one of his Santa Barbara victories. View photo of Ernie McAfee at Beverly Hills - 1.1MB