The car was sold for US$24,000 as the Callaway Twin Turbo and got rave reviews in automobile magazines. That caught the attention of Chevrolet and led directly to a deal to build the 191mph Twin Turbo Corvette.
More than 500 of them were sold through Chevrolet dealers from 1986 to 1991.
Since then, Callaway has tuned engines for Aston Martin, Mazda, Land Rover and the Australian automaker Holden. The Land Rover connection resulted in a run of 220 high-performance, 240-horsepower versions of the Range Rover 4.6 HSE and a supercharged version of the Freelander that has remained a show car.
Though Jaguar and Land Rover are joined in Ford's Premier Automotive Group, Callaway said his wife had nothing to do with his Land Rover deal.
"Sue wasn't involved," he said. "They keep their brand identities strictly separate at Ford."
Callaway loses money on his star car, the C12, he said.
"You'd think we could sneak a few dollars' profit from the car, wouldn't you?"
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