Trevor L Harris
Bio-Resumé

Harris Dynamics
10820 Wicks St,
Shadow Hills, CA 91040
818-353-8478 ² FAX: 818-951-6716

Mobile: 818-804-8191
e-mail:  Trevorh@earthlink.net
WWW.TREVORLHARRIS.COM

 "an innovative engineer who’s designed some of the most successful and iconoclastic racecars in motor sports history"
Preston Lerner, Popular Science article, 2004

Highlights:

• The Trevarri

• Tube Frame Street Machine

• Bardahl Special

• 1966 CAN-AM

• Toyoto_Group_6 Prototype

• The SHADOW

• The Datsun BRE

• Harris Vertical Up and Down
  Pedaling Bicycle

• The Variable Speed Transmission

• The Datsun B210 C Sedans

• The SHADOW Formula 1

• The Frissbee CAN-AM

• The VDS-001 Champion

• The Galles CAN-AM Champion

• The Electramotive Stadium Truck

• The Nissan GTP Champion

• The Vortec Trophy Truck

• New Pflueger Trophy Truck

• New Volkswagen Trophy Truck

• Racecar Engineering Designer article

  1954-1957 -- Sectioned & built for personal transport a 1937 Lincoln Zephyr, called "The Trevarri"

Oversized Trevor standing by undersized Zephyr

1956 -- Released from Roosevelt High School

• Boeing Aircraft R&D -- Test Technician for Guided Missile Electronics

1959 -- Designed and built full independent suspension tube frame "special" and fiberglass body for personal transportation.  Car developed over a 4 year period.  Car used for daily street transportation and racing.

1960 -- Moved out of garage into a shop which became a hub of activity for many projects including the final body construction of the Harris special.  Became the hottest local (Seattle) street machine

• 121 in 1/4 mile

• 0-120-0 in 20 sec

• Fastest street machine in Seattle

1963 -- Last photo before Bob Holbert's spinning King Cobra destroys car while parked in pit lane -- Harris' driver, Stan Burnett sitting in car, severely injured

1964

• Designed and built the rear engine Chevy V-8 BARDAHL SPECIAL, driven by Jerry Grant.  Qualified on pole, broke track record and won first race.

• Only car to lead all the 1965 West Coast Pro-Series races.

1965 -- Designed and built 2 Car X chassis for 1966 CAN-AM series -- due to budgetary constraints, uncompleted

1966 -- Designed and built with partner, Bruce Burness chassis and wheels for a complete Group 6 prototype coupe for Toyota. Body design and project contract by Pete Brock - BRE. Unique front and rear suspension geometries produced zero tire scrub for
6 inches of wheel travel.

1967 -- Designed and prototyped the Crown Corv-8 Kit which allowed a can owner to install a Chevy-V-8 in the back seat of his/her 1965 Corvair in a weekend.

1969

• Conceived and designed the most radical CAN-AM car in history, the tiny tired AVS-SHADOW

• Mario sitting in Shadow Mockup

1969

• Parnelli Jones tests Shadow at Orange County Raceway, writes to Don Nichols: "This car is great"

• A pensive Trevor at the race track

1969

• Trevor and Don promote Shadow to potential driver, Jackie Ickx

• George Follmer testing at Laguna

Complete left front suspension with outer portion of front wheel mounted.  The assembly bolts to the chassis at four points

The Shadow Works Shop
in Santa Ana, CA

1970-93  -- Designed Nissan chassis that have won 15 national championships. 

• Earliest work was with the chassis design of the Datsun BRE 510 and the BRE 240Z cars. 
• The BRE 510 Datsun won the 1970 & 1971 2.5 Challenge Series Championships. 
• The BRE 240Z, driven by John Morton, won the SCCA C Production National Championship

1972

• BRE Formula 5000 Lotus.  John Morton -- Driver, Trevor Harris -- Chief Mechanic

• Chronicled in The Stainless Steel Carrot by prize winning author, Sylvia Wilkinson

1972 -- Designed and built the Datsun factory supported 1200 sedan chassis driven by Don Devendorf to the C Sedan National Championship.

1973 -- Designed, built and patented the unique "HARRIS VERTICAL" up and down pedaling 20 speed bicycle.  Featured in Popular Science, Bicycling, and Der Spiegel

1974-5 -- Patented a unique variable speed transmission for industrial and bicycle applications -- featured in:

•  Design News, and

• Machine Design

1975 -- Designed and built the 2 B210 Datsun C Sedans which were driven to 3 SCCA National Championships by Dick Davenport and Frank Carney

1976 -- Designed the unique Yamaha factory short track motorcycle chassis ridden by Kenny Roberts which won its first race -- Dallas, 1976

1977-8 -- Developmental work with Huffy Bicycle Company on the "HARRIS PATENTED CVT BICYCLE HUB" for commercial distribution 

1979 -- Chief designer, SHADOW Formula 1 Team

Jan Lammers, Elio de Angelis, Trevor Harris -- Belgium Grand Prix 1980

1979-80 -- Developed with Joe Cavaglieri and owner, Brad Frisselle, the first FRISSBEE CAN-AM car

1980 -- Designed the body and chassis of the first factory supported turbo charged American Datsun race car, the Turbo 280Z driven by Paul Newman and Sam Posey

1981 -- Designed the VDS-001 rear suspension and modified the monocoque chassis.   This car won the 1981 CAN-AM series championship with Geoff Brabham.   It also won the 1984 CAN-AM series.

  Qualified on the Pole
   and won 1st race
   (Edmonton)

1981 -- Chief Designer for Dan Gurney's All American Racers Indy car team

1982 -- Designed the Galles GR3 which won the 1982 CAN-AM championship driven by Al Unser Jr.  The same car won the 1983 and 1985 CAN-AM championships.

• Qualified on the Pole at 1st race
     (Elkhart Lake)

• Trevor testing at Phoenix

1985 -- Facilitated redesign of the Nissan Electramotive stadium truck which won the national championship with Roger Mears

• Designed the Rogers Mears 2WD, Class 7 Nissan national champion desert truck

• Designed the Nissan 4WD Class 4 desert truck which won the 1989 and 1990 national championships

1987 -- Designed the new Nissan GTP monocoque and front suspension for the 1988 season.  Chassis #1 won eight races in a row in 1988

1988 -- Chassis setup engineer for the GTP championship Nissan driven by Geoff Brabham

• Won the GTP championship for the 2nd year with Geoff Brabham driving the '88 car. 
• Designed the new Nissan NPTI-90 GTP chassis which won 2 GTP championships -- 90, 91 and 2nd in 92

1989 -- Designed Nissan GTO 300ZX Chassis (tube frame)

1991

• Seventh Heaven in Portland with 7th win in a row

• Team note to Trevor before race

1991 -- Won Pikes Peak Pickup class with 4WD Nissan truck (1987) driven by Steve Millen

1991 -- GTP championship -- 4th straight year with Geoff Brabham -- track side chassis set-up engineer

1989-1991 -- Won the 12 hours Sebring Race (only American designer to win 3 consecutive years)

1992 -- Second in GTP championship with Geoff Brabham -- track side chassis set-up engineer

1991 -- Chief Designer, Nissan Group C chassis (First all carbon fiber monocoque and roll hoop to pass stringent FIA tests)

1993-4 -- Harris Dynamics designed a very high performance street commuter electric vehicle.  The vehicle utilized a unique new continuously variable speed transmission

• Freddi tests mockup seating position

1994-5 -- Designed and patented
a new rear suspension for mountain bikes
for Rock Shox Co

1995 -- Chassis engineer for Comtech

• 1st Honda engine Indy Car Pole

• 231 mph at Michigan

•  Parker Johnstone driver

1996 -- Designed the Infiniti IRL engine installation package for the factory

1996-7 -- Chassis engineer for Jonathan Byrd-Cunningham Racing IRL racing team

2000 -- Designed for Chevrolet the Vortec Trailblazer SUV trophy truck chassis.  This chassis competed in 3 races:

• Won the Baja 500 race

• Won the Nevada 2000 race

• Finished 2nd & 3rd at the Baja 2000 race

2001 -- Continued development of unique variable speed transmission for automobiles

2004 -- Popular Science article by Preston Lerner
             on the future of racing, features comments from Trevor described as:

  . . . an innovative engineer who’s designed some of the most successful
  and iconoclastic racecars in motor sports history

Read 2004 Article Featuring Trevor

2005-7-- In Development....................................

Testing plunge forces of half shaft slider

2006 -- Popular Science article by Preston Lerner on the Pflueger truck at an early Nevada test

              Preston wrote,

. . . any madman can can enter the world's most ruthless off road race, but it takes an engineering genius to win

 

The testing of the 30 inch travel A-arm rear suspension showed exceptional forward
and lateral bite (traction, adhesion).
 

Click here to read about this new independent suspension truck

2008 -- Designer of the 2008 BAJA Trophy Truck
 

-- Los Angeles Auto Show Introduction -- click here

2010 -- Racecar Engineering -- First American Designer profiled in this UK magazine
written by Ian Wagstaff

Work with Nissan illustrated just how versatile Harris is.  At one point, he had 3 Nissan
projects at the same time, an off road vehicle, a GTO and a new GTP car. It was not easy
as it required a different mind set for each series. To cope Harris had three different
drafting boards, one on each wall.

There is something about doing a drawing.  Anybody who works off one of mine
knows that I have done it, as I violate a lot of the standard rules just to get
the data down"

Harris has never taken a drafting course, and does not use a computer for design.

Click here to read more of Trevor's design history

Education -- University of Washington, Seattle, WA -- Physics
Additional -- Holds 11 US and foreign patents on variable speed transmissions and bicycles