garY BABINEAU

Gary Babineau is known for how world class vintage race car restorations, recreations, fabrication, machining, and parts. Gary saw his first automobile race in 1963 at the age of 5 and has been hooked on open wheel racing ever since. The love of racing goes back 3 generations in the Babineau family. Gary's Dad, Richard Babineau, and his grandfather went to big car races in the ‘30s and ‘40s. “The first race car I ever saw was a midget; Offy-powered with no roll bars and were they ever fast!" said Gary. Gary built his first car at age 18 – a T bucket roadster. No kit car here: he welded his own frame and built the entire car himself. At that time Gary was going to college and working days as an apprentice machinist – at not just any shop but the Bullard Company in Bridgeport Connecticut. Bullard wasn't just any shop: it was E. P. Bullard's Multi-Matic machine that gave Henry Ford the capability to mass produce consistent parts in 1914, thus enabling the mass production of the Model T. Without the Bullard Multi-matic machine tools there would have been no assembly line. Gary talked his foreman into letting him build a supercharger drive for his hot rod during his lunch breaks, machining the sealed bearing drive and cutting the teeth manually on a Bridgeport mill and a dividing head. Gary's Talent was obvious to those around him before he even finished his degree, Gary was promoted at Bullard's into the Customer Service department. Gary was in charge of three different product lines and supervised service personnel around the world. Bullard was a producer of machines on a giant scale. According to Gary, “We made a variety of machines, the biggest of which was a 100 horsepower vertical turret lathe. Capable of throwing chips that weighed 9 pounds each. That is some serious metal removal. I was into everything from programming, to designing innovative solutions, to working with the engineering department, customer liaison, and supervising our traveling service team.”

After Bullard closed in 1983 Gary was sought out by another high tech manufacturer, Moore Special tool in Bridgeport Ct. Here precision beyond belief was the daily Norm. Moore makes a variety of high tech ultra precise jig grinders, aspheric generators and even measuring machines for the National Bureau of standards. Tolerances to 10 millionths of an inch were every day accomplishments. “Here we even measured past angstroms, used the light ray spectrum, and measured rotary accuracy to arc seconds. Some of our machines used laser inferometer feedback - keeping in mind this was in 1986” says Gary. Moore machines were used in the making of the Hubbel Space Telescope and various U.S. Military and high tech applications. Gary was promoted at Moore into the Applications and Training Department where he worked on customer machine applications. Gary was then approached by another famous East Coast machine builder, Bridgeport Machines. (Yes, that famous mill that everyone has in their race shop, Gary worked for them too as a C.N.C. Applications Engineer). Having been involved at Bullard and More extensively with computerized machine tools, Gary adapted and rose quickly at Bridgeport and was assigned tasks such as product development, software evaluation, and testing feasibility studies – not to mention supporting trade shows and customer training on a global level. Gary's road travels with Bridgeport led him to many major cities and end users, but none tugged at his heart more than Indianapolis. There at a trade show convention Gary was approached by another machine tool builder of high tech machining centers, Hurco Manufacturing. Gary came into Hurco at the executive management level and rose to be in charge of all customer applications testing, training, and evaluations. Being heavily involved with the testing of new software and products, Gary was the guy who taught the end users how to make parts and run their machining centers CAD cam systems. According to Gary, “At Hurco I saw an application for one of our products in racing: the D.X.,F file translator was an awesome fit for the racing Industry. So I contacted several race teams in the area and arranged a demonstration. Before you knew It I had 4 Hurco BMC 30 machining centers in race shops across Indianapolis!”

In his career Mr. Babineau was involved with the manufacturing of parts for aircraft, ordnance, artificial limbs, all aspects of industry, and everyday life. “From the molds for ice cream cones to the space telescope, all products that touch our hands come form machines” says Gary. Some people get hired into racing teams and then are exposed to manufacturing. Others work in a job shop and only see one methodology in the manufacturing process. Gary was fortunate to see many aspects of the process by those on the leading edge of manufacturing technologies. During his Industrial employment his love of cars never wavered. Having scratch built over 30 different cars, he got bored with street rodding. Gary comes from a generation of guys who searched wrecking yards for parts and built their own suspension and frames. But nowadays, all a guy needs is a phone and a credit card and a Craftsman tool set. But not Gary – wanted to do something more. Gary’s incredible talent and passion for automobiles and racing led him to create beautiful 4-wheeled pieces of art. His extensive industrial manufacturing background incorporates both modern and traditional manufacturing techniques in his cars. Many of Gary's cars can be seen on the track and at various vintage racing events. His creations have been featured in books, magazines, TV shows, and in museums and private collections across the nation.

Gary designs, machines, welds, and fabricates every piece of these cars by himself. Suspension, Front Axles, Aluminum Bodies, Chassis – everything except hubs, brakes, and steering box. An expert metal craftsman, Gary has never used outside sources to do anything other than paint, chrome and upholstery. Over the years he designed and built all his own tooling, molds, fixtures and special machinery needed to restore and replicate classic race cars.