Welcome to the unofficial IMSA History website

This site is aimed at preserving the IMSA Camel GT series. Its purposes are mainly historical and informative. Any valuable information may be sent to me and every contributor will be properly credited.

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AIR

AIR

Dan McLoughlin was a well known fiberglass wizard. Instead of carbon fiber, fiberglass was somewhat heavier, but it was cheaper and more resistant. The outcome was that cars would last much more. Dan McLaughlin was the Owner of American International Racing(AIR). Dan McLoughlin's credo was to design parts, and he did it the right way. He mastered this job. Design without drawings, which was purely amazing. And he became good at it when he was as young as eighteen. He began working at his dad's shop, who operated a body shop and boat franchise in Colusa, California. He learned to section the fiberglass his father sold, in order to redue their waterline silhouette. When he left Colusa, he was attracted by the Racing world business which burgeoned around Corvettes. He put his fiberglass art to work splitting and repairing plastic roadsters. He would then work with the best Corvette drivers from that period, Bob Bondurant, Dick Gulstrand to name a few. Corvette fenders urgently needed to get increased track width, to accomodate wider wheels. Later, he would begin to work on Porsches, and he started with 356s. He would be astonished at the quality of those cars and he became attracted by them, and his craftsmanship persisted throughout all those years. A pursuit of perfection, which he always wanted to improve in those fine looking cars. He began working with Vasek Polak, doing a job on a 911 coupe. Then he would meet John Thomas, at Bozzani Porsche-Audi, with Alan Johnson as General manager. The dealership was totally dedicated at customizing the early 911s. He would be kept busy modifying Porsche 911s to accept bigger alloy wheels. John Thomas helped Dan McLoughlin start his new business, which consisted in designing parts for exotic parts as well as Porsche parts. Bozzani would sell his parts while Don concentrated on designing them. He also prototyped parts for Mitcom, which mass produced them. His parts supply company was renamed AIR in 1974, because of the proximity of Burbank airport. Actor James Garner owned the rights to the name. But when his team folded in the late seventies, Dan approached James Garner who agreed. Parts such as the IROC tail, the RSR body kit and the 934 air dam instantly became classics. Lookalike RS or RSR cars were made affordable to the public, who upgraded their old 911s. His Racing involvement started with the 934 : he improved the original front valances, then turned to the 935 for which he developped parts. He would improve and redesign the frame of the 935, as he did with Jim Busby's car, which was a starting point. Soon, every IMSA racer would virtually use an AIR bodywork on one's 935 racer. Cars were much more easy to service as the one piece design was converted into a three piece part. When the K3 car was introduced by the Kremer Bros, he found roof for improvement, and it led to the Andial version of the car. It became known as the M16. With Rolf Stommelen at the wheel, the car became virtually unbeatable. The increased in downforce was much improved, and the car ran beautifully. While every team would use his own version of his design, he was sono to be dropped by those teams, who did the job he taught them by themselves. His last work, which was on the K4, was to be effective again, and he made this car a winner in the expert hands of John Fitzpatrick. He would also be very effective in GTU racing, and Dennis Aase and Bill Koll used his expertise to improve their car and make them winners, in their class. The third place earned by the latter's car remains the highest finish by a GTU car to date. As the racing business waned with the introduction of the 962 and other prototypes, his interests went elsewhere , where he excelled as well. Always willing to discuss with anyone interested in customizing or modifying his car, he was a wealth of knowledge. He passed away on 16 november 2010 and will be missed by everyone.

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