Designer, innovator

Few have designed championship-winning vehicles across so many forms of motorsports and innovated so resoundingly in the process. Harris’ first professional racecar was Jerry Grant’s 1964 Bardahl Special, a heavily modified Lotus 19. His first major full design was the radical “Knee High” Shadow Mk I Can-Am car for Don Nichols, which landed on the cover of Road & Track in 1968 and qualified 6^th for its first race two years later. It was just the beginning. Over his career, Harris designed the chassis or full cars for Pete Brock’s SCCA Trans-Am champion Datsun 510s and national championship-winning 240Zs, Can-Am champion racecars for inductees Geoff Brabham (VDS) and Al Unser Jr. (Galle), off-road championship Nissan trucks, a Pikes Peak-winning 4WD Nissan pickup for Steve Millen and the Electramotive Nissans that dominated IMSA GTP four straight years. In addition, Harris has been responsible for innovative designs in IndyCar, Formula 1, IRL, bicycles, mountain bikes, Trophy Trucks and variable-speed automotive transmissions. He even designed a short-track motorcycle for inductee Kenny Roberts.