People
Shelby American fabricator and Daytona Coupe crew chief
The record
New Zealand fabricator who worked on Shelby American's first Daytona Coupe with Peter Brock, Ken Miles and other Shelby staff, and served as the coupe's crew chief.
Born in Takapuna in 1937, he trained as a panel beater and then as a mechanic, volunteered on local racing cars including Stan Jones's Maybach Special, and built highboy roadsters from 1957. In 1960 he left New Zealand. After a cancelled Yeoman Credit contract and work at Donald Healey's shop on the Sebring Sprite, and with Ian Walker, he reached the United States in 1962 with Frank Gardner and Graham Hill. When they returned to Britain, he stayed at Carroll Shelby's workshop in Venice, California.
After Remington's crew initially rejected Brock's coupe concept, Remington assigned the project to Ohlsen. Brock wrote that Miles agreed to help Brock and Ohlsen create the full-size wooden buck; the three later led other shop workers in building the prototype. A detailed account says the hand-formed aluminium panels were made at Cal Metal Shaping in downtown Los Angeles. CSX2287 was completed by Shelby American between October 1963 and January 1964.
Miles tested CSX2287 at Riverside on 1 February 1964 and beat his previous Cobra lap record by 3.5 seconds. At the Daytona Continental that month, Ohlsen was changing differential oil when a pit fire burned him. That spring he returned to England to marry and began the Willment Cobra coupe; Shelby recalled him after the Le Mans trials. At Le Mans in June, Brock recorded that Ohlsen assembled the untested Modena-built second car and acted as crew chief; Gurney and Bondurant finished fourth overall and first in the GT class.
He remained at Shelby American until 1966. A back injury then sent him to a Jaguar specialist in Santa Monica. He returned to New Zealand in 1969, worked at Shorter's Jaguar and with Mark Petch on the Katipo cars, partnered at Cassino Motors in 1970, and in 1984 opened John Ohlsen Developments in Onehunga, building FIA 289 Cobra replicas. He died suddenly in 1998 while building a second Daytona coupe.
When Remington and several in the Venice shop refused Brock's chopped-tail design, he assigned the project to Ohlsen. Brock wrote that Ohlsen built much of the first Daytona almost single-handedly, while a small group of crew members joined after hours.
Brock wrote that Miles agreed to help Brock and Ohlsen create a full-size wooden buck. A detailed account attributes the plywood buck to Brock and Ohlsen, and the hand-formed aluminium panels to Cal Metal Shaping in downtown Los Angeles.
At Le Mans he was the only mechanic who understood the Daytona's structure. Brock recorded that he assembled the untested Modena-built second car, checked it on the airfield behind the stands, and served as crew chief.
The stations
The house
Credited through Shelby American.
In the register
The files above are the register's own record of this name. The people index holds everyone the register credits.
Sources
