Friends since childhood and hot rodders since high school, Robin Dripps and Rob Gibby are living proof that people and relationships are as important as cars in the enthusiast automotive community: DRIPPS & GIBBY SHARE A PASSION FOR SPEED.
When they were around 11-12 years old, Robin “Bobby” Dripps and Rob Gibby met in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, where both their families had summer homes. They were fascinated by “speed,” leading them to build small boats with five-horsepower outboards. And, trying every trick in the book to increase performance. That was the start of what eventually would become a commitment to build hot rods and pursue land-speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Noted author A.J. Baime celebrated their relationship and their ’34 Ford E/STR Bonneville racecar in a MY RIDE feature article, right, in the Wall Street Journal on September 24th, 2019: A 1934 Ford Rebuilt to Run Over 200 MPH – Two childhood friends reunite to build a land-speed record-chasing race car for the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Their first four-wheeled hot rod adventure involved a Ford Model A pickup truck, and it didn’t end well. It wasn’t running due to a starter jammed into the flywheel, but they thought the motor was frozen from lack of use. After stripping off all the fenders, Rob pushed it with Bobby behind the wheel down a hill, and Bobby popped the clutch to free up the motor. The motor wasn’t frozen, and the pickup and Bobby wound up in a ditch at the bottom of the hill!
By the time they were in high school, those small boats and a wrecked pickup had morphed into larger-than-life, low-budget hot rods. Rob Gibby built a traditional, stock-bodied ’30 Ford Model A coupe, above, powered by a 265-inch Chevy V-8 mated to a ’37 Buick Roadmaster three-speed. It was finished with a $29 Earl Schieb paint job! Robin Dripps took a more “sophisticated” approach, building a ‘54 Austin-Healey with a Rochester fuel-injected Corvette V-8 hooked up to a Borg-Warner T-10 four-speed. Dripps’ bumper-less car may have had sports car cred and a great powertrain, but it was lacking floorboards! Both cars showcased: DRIPPS & GIBBY SHARE A PASSION FOR SPEED.
They continued their need for speed while attending high school, both graduating in 1960: Gibby from the Pingry School in Hillside, NJ, where legendary racer, Mark Donohue, had graduated earlier; Dripps from Tabor Academy in Marion, MA, where she is currently on its Board of Trustees. (In later life, Robin “Bobby” Dripps transitioned from male to female.)
After high school, they pursued markedly different career paths. Dripps, above, enrolled as a pre-med student at Princeton University, changed majors, graduated with a B.A. in architecture, and then received a graduate degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the T. David Fitz-Gibbon Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and has been on its faculty since 1970. Her book, The First House: Myth, Paradigm, and the Task of Architecture, received a Phi Beta Kappa book award in 1999.
Rob Gibby graduated from Lehigh University with an engineering degree and started a career in manufacturing. And, building relationships with other Lehigh graduates who were involved in motorsports. Roger Penske had also graduated from Lehigh, and Rob has longtime friends at Penske Racing. Later, he built his own engineering/sales business, specializing in designing and importing tool steel products for clients.
In 2002, Rob Gibby got together with Robin Dripps and other hot rodding and racing friends at a rod and custom show, and before long, the subject of land speed racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats became the central focus.
“I was the one who ended up actually doing it along with Gibby,” said Dripps. “The iconic hot rod has always been the ’32 Ford, so that is what we built. I spent two years designing it and laying out its sophisticated suspension. Being an architect, I thought our car had to look good, too.”
Dripps took the lead, later resulting in the first DRIPPS & GIBBY SHARE A PASSION FOR SPEED project: A stunning, very traditional ’32 Ford highboy roadster, above, with Rob Gibby, with a Brookville reproduction steel body painted by Jeff Davis at Specialized Autocraft. Renowned New Jersey hot rodder and racer, and a friend of Rob Gibby, Bob Dauernheim was responsible for most of the roadster’s metal fab work, including the TCI chassis mods and floor to its hood, cockpit tonneau, air box, water tank, and roll cage. Its NACA hood louvers were designed and fabricated by Gordon Smith and Ernie Cabrera.
Debuting in 2005, the Dripps & Gibby E/STR roadster got a lot of attention, but neither teammate could post impressive times during Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The next year, the duo clocked 168.370 mph, with Dripps, above, setting a class record.
In 2007, the roadster tripped the clocks at 173.609 mph, but the record had already been set at over 200 mph by another team. At speeds approaching 200 mph, the Dripps & Gibby highboy proved to be too difficult to handle. Their need for speed and a goal of 200 mph-plus forced them back to the drawing board. Dripps was prepared to build another racecar, laying out specifications, a design for maximum aerodynamics, and even fabricating a number of components.
The team’s original ’32 Ford highboy roadster was converted by Bob Dauernheim from salt-shaking to street cruising and is now registered in New Jersey, and owned and driven by Rob Gibby. No longer fitted with its racing engine, it’s still powered by a small-block Chevy built by BBC Speed & Marine, Linden, NJ, and backed up by a Corvette T-5 transmission. The usual suspects (friends of Dripps and Gibby), Bob Cuneo, Chassis Dynamics, Rob Ida, Rob Ida Concepts, and Jeff Davis were involved with turning a serious racecar into a street rod. Even though it’s been updated for the road, it carries much of its original racing livery and still looks like it belongs on a race track!
Designing a car to break records at Bonneville requires incredible attention to detail, however small, aimed at cheating the wind. In other words, aerodynamics. The challenge was squarely in Robin Dripps’ wheelhouse, and she created the specifications and produced the drawings, even fabricated some components.
“Since we have to run minimum dimension and specific location for headlamps set down by SCTA (Southern California Timing Association), Bonneville’s sanctioning organization, we employed a NACA profile for the headlamps to shape air flow and reduce drag. An artist friend painted the solid aerodynamic Teflon headlamp lenses to look like factory originals!
The second-generation Dripps & Gibby Bonneville roadster has a longer wheelbase, a highly streamlined ’34 Ford-style fiberglass body, and a scratch-built chassis by Bob Dauernheim. For all intents and purposes, Dauernheim constructed the new roadster. Aiding Dripps in his quest for maximum aero and suspension tuning was Bob Cuneo, Chassis Dynamics, Oxford, MA, who, in addition to being involved in racecars, has designed racing bobsleds for the multiple gold-award-winning U.S. Olympic teams. Cuneo teamed up with NASCAR great, Geoff Bodine (BO-DYN Project), streamlining the competitive bobsleds used in the Winter Olympics.
DRIPPS & GIBBY SHARE A PASSION FOR SPEED, and that includes respect for small-block Chevrolet engines, dating back to the construction of their first hot rods and Bonneville racer. Built by the highly respected engine builder Ken Duttweiler, whose powerplants are used in the land-speed-record-holding Speed Demon Team cars, the ’34 roadster is powered by a naturally aspirated, short-stroke 259-cubic-inch, 650-665-horsepower Dart/Chevy small-block. It’s topped off with a pair of Quick Fuel 850-cfm carburetors mounted on a custom Hogan intake manifold.
The Duttweiler-built small-block, redlined at 9,000-plus rpm, utilizes a custom Dart low-deck-height block, Dart Little Chief canted valve heads, and a Crower 2.55-inch stroke crank. Jesel and Comp Cams supplied the valve train, while ignition and data logging are by MoTec. An air-shifted Jerico five-speed transmission and Speedway Engineering quick-change rear complete the powertrain.
Plagued either with poor surface conditions at Bonneville or engine issues, Dripps & Gibby have yet to claim a record at Bonneville with the new car. Early on, Gibby posted a 210.588 mph run, some 3-4 miles off the class record. In 2023 at the Loring Time Association event in Maine, Rob set a one-mile record at 167.149 mph in E/STR. Last year, they ran over 213 mph, unfortunately burning a piston in the process and ending its time on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
DRIPPS & GIBBY SHARE A PASSION FOR SPEED, but both being Octogenarians, they have opted to hang up their helmets and retire from driving – as well as prepping and tuning – the E/STR roadster. While Dripps still owns the car and he and Gibby will be involved in racing it, Paul Powell, Paul Powell Performance, Battlesboro, NC, will take over preparing and driving the roadster.
“While there is, so to speak, a ‘changing of the guard’ as it applies to our racecar, our friendship, which has lasted more than 70 years, is stronger than ever. Robin and I plan to be back at Bonneville this year. The Salt is very seductive,” said Rob Gibby.
For more information about Paul Powell, please visit https://paulpowellperformance.com/
SPECIAL THANKS to A.J. Baime, Chad Kirkland (WSJ photographer), Michael Alan Ross, Tom Shay, and Richard Toonkel for their editorial and photographic support.