Thankyou Simon, The Daily Telegraph told the story with a bit more accuracy and
depth than either the Boston Globe or NY Times.
The auto dealership in White Plains NY was, as far as I know, for Willys, not
Mercedes, as stated in Globe and Times.
I believe The Fitch Phoenix was to be a passenger sports car rather than a
"race car". 200 orders were taken before Nader/GM pulled the plug.
I have a series of photos taken a few years ago by a girlfriend at Lime Rock,
of Mr Fitch with the Pheonix. John had just been told that something seemed to
be leaking from the car. 90+ year old Mr Fitch gets down on the ground to look
under car to verify, jumps up and gets in car saying he must get it back
home(about 200 yards from the track) and speeds off. Inspiring!
The first time I saw he and the Pheonix was when leaving the track one day. He
was driving in front of me when I recognized the car, remembering those side
mounted spare tires, different sizes front and rear, from the magazine articles
back in the day. As the exit road turns left just after the bridge, he looked
back at me, I waved and smiled, he did the same.
The annual Jaguar Drivers Club meeting at Lime Rock is a low key non spectator
event that was the perfect time to find him and converse. When it was
discovered that my girlfriends mother was a cousin of his friend, and inventor
of the racing stripe, Coby Whitmore, we had plenty to talk about. Once, when
talking about the Pheonix, he suddenly said, "That reminds me, I need to call
Roger Penske tomorrow". I was somewhat stunned to realize that I was talking to
an icon that had a hotline to the titans of the industry.
As others have said, he will be greatly missed at Lime Rock.
Best
JK
------------------------------
On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 3:41 AM EST Simon Lachlan wrote:
>Obituary in UK's Daily Telegraph:-
>
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/9654484/John-Fit
>ch.html
>
>
>
>Simon.
>_______________________________________________
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