Phil Henny

Al Bartz: Engine man Phil Henny

Biography of Al Bartz, renowned racing engines builder. Born in Milwaukee Wisconsin in 1938. At a very early age he showed a keen appetite for dismantling anything mechanical to find out how it was made and how he could improve it. After an apprenticeship at Hilborn Injection, he worked for famed engine builder" TRACO". Al opened his own racing engine shop in Van Nuys, California in 1966. He was very innovative, always exploring new concepts with the dry sump and injection systems. Al Bartz built some of the best racing engines to power Formula 5000, NASCAR, INDY cars, CanAm, TransAm. These were driven by the best drivers in the world. Al Bartz died in 1981, he was 43 years old. Strongly recommended. A hard-to-find book not generally available in the conventional book trade. The author Phil HennyPhil was born in 1943, in the village of Montagny près d'Yverdon in the French speaking region of Switzerland. In 1966, he joined the Shelby American racing team as a mechanic, in time to work on the 1967 Le Mans winning Ford MK IV driven by Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt. His stories of the American racing scene and particularly the Shelby era are fascinating. There are scant few memoirs out there written by the men who turned the wrenches, and a number of these frankly have little of substance to say- not so with Phil Henny's book. With unparalleled access to the world of the great Carroll Shelby, Phil presents an engaging look at an incredible era in racing. To his credit, he doesn't gloss over any aspect of what he saw, either within or outside of Shelby's organization. His comments about drivers are particularly insightful. Fascinating and strongly recommended. They are hard-to-find books not generally available in the conventional book trade. Phil lives in Portland Oregon U. S. A.