Bill Devin The Man and his Cars Part 1 There's always a twinkle in Bill Devin's eye. You get the feeling that he will burst out with an idea or a scheme at any moment. He's been described as charming, talkative, naive, charismatic, a tinkerer, engaging, likable, intelligent, driven, a promoter, affable, casual, an entrepreneur, a raconteur and on and on. Henry Manney once described him as "crazy like a fox." Writer Len Frank said that "talking to him is an exercise in fascinating frustration." Allard driver Erwin Goldschmidt once thought Devin was the richest guy in California as Devin was the only guy he knew who could get away with not wearing a necktie when in New York. These words and examples only scratch the surface in describing the versatile, energetic and fascinating Bill Devin.

Devin was born in Rocky, Oklahoma in 1915. Henry Manney describes Devin in the July, 1961 Car and Driver as "The Enzo Ferrari of Okie Flats." Devin smiles wryly at that description as he did indeed progress a long way from the sands of Oklahoma to a prominent place in the sports car movement and the automotive industry of the Fifties and Sixties. But it was in Oklahoma that the seeds for Bill Devin's future were planted and began growing. His father had a car repair garage and then a Chevrolet agency and the curious Bill was into it long before his father put him to work. Soon, young Bill was the only gas welder in town, working on the nearby oil rigs, farm equipment and the cars in Rocky. Devin shows a big, wide grin when he recalls the many motorcycles he rescued from the crusher with his welding and fabricating talents.

The VERY FIRST Brother Gene in the very first DEVIN Bill's grin gets bigger when he describes building his first car - an open, rear-engine, one-seater for seven year old brother Gene. The ingredients were a lot of reclaimed junk, including a washing machine motor for motivation. Suspension was via valve springs from a derelict engine and the body was fashioned from a rumpled Willard Battery sign. All Gene remembers is that he was "afraid to get in the thing" but soon he was the terror of Rocky. It was Bill Devin's first expression of the dream which was to dominate his life.