It is with heavy hearts we report our leader, Art Carr passed away, surrounded by family on the morning of Saturday, September 09, 2023. Art is survived by his daughters, Ellen, Wendy, and Dana along with 6 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.
Art’s first love was airplanes. He designed, built, and flew his own model airplanes. It was an expensive hobby in the 40’s. He once spent the equivalent of one month’s house payment on one airplane engine. He even won an award for one of his model planes.
His love of cars started in his preteen years with the purchase of a model A using money he saved from a newspaper route. His parents weren’t aware of the purchase for quite some time because he was storing the car at a friend’s house. His parents weren’t happy once ‘the cat was out of the bag” seeing as he was too young to have a driver’s license let alone own a car! The Model A was quickly sold.
He worked on cars in his mother’s garage. Since he didn’t have equipment to lift the automobiles, he dug a pit in the floor of the garage.
He developed an interest in transmissions and worked in car dealerships and other automotive repair companies all the while learning more and more about transmissions.
In the early 1950’s he won the Winter Nationals in his division. He went on to race many different types of cars including top fuel, funny cars, off road, and even boats. He was very proud of his top fuel license because it was one of the first ones issued and he carried it in his wallet all his life.
Art invented the Nifty Shifter. It was push button column shifter with a guard that helped prevent drivers from inadvertently putting their car in reverse. He also worked on cars for movie companies that needed specialized transmissions. He worked on the Bat Mobile used for drag racing, a James Bond movie car and a car used for the filming of Days of Thunder.
Art was also inducted into the Hot Rod Hall of Fame in the Original 100. You can see his name on many of the cars at the Hot Rod Museum in Pomona, California. Art Carr and California Performance Transmission stickers are on many race cars to this day.
Art enjoyed going to work every day through May of 2023 when he was 90 years old because he loved cars and sharing his knowledge of transmissions.
Art was co-owner of Jerry’s Hydramatic Service located in Huntington Park, then he went on to own and operated the following shops in California; Arcadia Transmission Service, Art Carr Transmission Company, Advance Transmission Engineering, Art Carr Power Max Performance Transmission Components, Art Carr Transmission Company, and the current company California Performance Transmission.
Art continued to work into his 90’s. He loved talking about cars and sharing his knowledge. California Performance Transmission will continue to operate per Art’s wishes with the same crew and technology he developed over the years. Art will live on in the hearts of his family, friends, racing buddies and anyone who was lucky enough to get his personalized technical support.
