Many of you know who Jim Winsor is, but for the benefit of those that do not, Jim is a former big wheel at Chilton Publishing. Chilton of course is most known for the Chilton and Haynes automotive repair manuals, as well as the magazine side of the shop- Heavy Duty Trucking and Owner/Operator Magazine. I believe Jim was the Editor-In-Chief for the magazine division for quite a long time before he was suddenly stricken with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a pretty rare and devastating neurological disease that robbed Jim of much of his ability to walk without assistance. A short time after this happened, he resigned as Editor-In-Chief and took on lesser responsibilities, but still maintained a presence at Chilton and even had articles published in the rags occasionally. Later on he also became a contributing editor to truckinginfo.com. And, as Ken said in a post- Jim was a huge presence in the Trucking Maintenance Council. Jim grew up around trucks, and he served honorably in the United States Air Force as a motor transportation specialist, having attended the US Army’s Motor Transport School (which at the time, and still is located at Fort Eustice, Va.) He learned to operate anything with wheels, including diesel and steam locomotives (at that time, just after the Korean conflict many European countries still used steam power…..) After the service, Jim went into college where he got his degree in Journalism (I forget which college but one of the better schools for Journalism….). While in college he supported himself by driving trucks and delivering milk in the mornings in a Divco…. When he got his degree, Jim decided that there weren’t enough writers that dedicated themselves to the trucking industry, so that’s where he wanted to point himself- and he did. His career followed a stellar path, and Jim became a friend of the industry, championing for driver’s rights and safer, more efficient equipment. As Chilton was located in the Philadelphia area, and in close proximity to Allentown, Jim became a frequent visitor to Mack, and he developed both a professional and personal friendship with Walter May and Win Pellizoni. My father became friends with Jim back in the 1970’s. Does anyone remember those cards that were inside of the magazines at the time- “For more information, circle the number, send in the card?” Or, “Submit your comments….?” Dad was pretty vocal during the fuel crisis in the 70’s and also was up the elected officials asses to promote and endorse the deregulation of the ICC back in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Dad filled out a comment card one time, and sent it in….Something about an editorial that Jim wrote. Jim wound up calling Dad, and invited him to lunch since he lived locally. This began a long-time friendship, and after Jim was confined to a wheelchair, he and his wife moved to an assisted living center, where Dad and myself would (and still do, although not as often) have lunch with him at least 3 or 4 times a year. When I became friends with Bob Gabrick, Bob would join us too. Jim is one of the finest human beings on the face of God’s Green Earth. One of his most favorite stories to tell is of Walt May, Win Pellizoni and the prototype Maxidyne engine. One time in the early 1960’s (Jim places it about late summer of 63 or 64…..) he was at Mack, and Walt and Win showed him some new-fangled thing painted gold. The explained about variable-geometry turbocharging and playing with the timing of the fuel injection blah blah blah blah…….Jim was pretty intelligent and knew his way around engines, transmissions, drives, etc and was also just as comfortable with a wrench in his hand as a pen and notebook……But Jim often liked to say "when Win and Walt began to talk with their sliderules, my eyes glazed over." So, about a year later, Jim gets a phone call from Walt- it was very close (as in 2 or 3 days away) to Christmas of 1965. Walt says “Hey what are you doing, can you take a ride up here?” Jim was sort of taken aback........it was 2 or 3 days from Christmas….Why would Walt May be asking him to take a 60+ mile ride……unless…….Walt had something he REALLY wanted Jim to see….So Jim cleared his schedule for that afternoon, and made the ride up 309 to the Mack R & D center (what we all now know as the Customer Support Center/Museum.) There, out in the lot and under a van trailer was a spanking new and shiny R-Model. Walter met him out in the parking lot and told Jim to get in the driver seat. Now the usual routine when Jim was trying out something for Mack was to run it around the test track of course. Not this time. Walt told him to head out the gate for Lehigh Street and head for the 309/78 Eastbound on-ramp. This caught Jim’s attention as he had never been allowed to take anything off Mack’s property, much less onto an Interstate. But he didn’t ask questions and did as he was told. Walt explained that the trailer was fully loaded with XX,XXX lbs of parts from the warehouse (the weight escapes me right now, but I remember it was not a light load….) Working his way through the 5-speed just getting to I-78, Jim knew this was not an ordinary Mack engine. Again, for those of you who do not know the area, the climb on I-78 at MM 55 (+/-) at Lehigh Street…Where 78 goes over South Mountain. It’s a pretty good pull in excess of 2 miles- even for someone headed eastbound at full speed with momentum…..But for someone coming off the Lehigh Street on-ramp, it’s a REALLY good pull…So Jim heads up onto 78……And Walt tells him “when we hit the wall, just leave it in 5th” As they go along, Jim wants to shift gears just like every other 5-speed. Jim merges into traffic (fairly light as he remembered…..) and works his way to 5th. They hit the wall, and Jim just cannot believe the speed this thing is doing up the hill…not slowing down…..ACCELLERATING!!! Jim remembered he even had to pass a flatbed……But as they get halfway up the hill, the tach started to drop, and drop, and drop……Jim took his right hand and placed it on the stick with the intent of dropping to 4th, when Walt slapped his hand and said “I said to leave it in 5th, dammit!” So he did……And it never dropped below 1350……… So they get back to the R/D center. Jim takes out his notebook, and goes into Journalist mode, starts to ask questions. Walt says “before I answer questions, we need to have a gentlemans agreement……One. You were never here today. You didn’t see, hear, smell or otherwise think that this exists. And you CERTAINLY didn’t drive it….Thats why I asked you up here today. The big bosses are all drinking eggnog at home today......Two. You have to sit on this story until the second week of February or so. In exchange, you just got your exclusive.” They shook on it, and sure enough, Walt called Jim in early 1966 and told him “run with that story. The big wigs are issuing a press release tomorrow announcing the “Maxidyne and Maxitorque” series of engines and transmissions.”
