As the metamorphic decade of the 1960s dawned, Frank Arciero and his younger brother Phil were busily expanding and fortifying the family’s contracting business in the eastern Los Angeles suburb of Montebello. Beyond those everyday concerns, though, Frank’s other defining passion was auto racing, and after being forced by his insurance company to abandon driving himself, he’d begun earning a reputation as a car owner who fielded nothing but the best equipment. True to his Italian heritage, these cars had been mainly Ferraris, the most recent a 4.9-liter brute that had helped catapult a young Southern Californian named Dan Gurney to international stardom with the marque in sports cars and Formula 1. Back in the USA, though, the never-satisfied Gurney had convinced Arciero that the road to the future would be traveled more effectively with a nimble, lightweight, rear-engined Lotus sports car design, the 19. Having seen Colin Chapman’s latest Lotus 18 F1  car—upon which the new sports car was based—Dan believed  the new English racer could transform the American scene. Not to mention giving him an immediate advantage.

Ref: Frank Arciero Dan Gurney Colin Chapman Lotus 19 Stirling Moss Coventry Climax Riverside Birdcage Maserati Laguna Seca Ricardo Rodriguez Bill Krause Bruce McLaren Roger Penske Zerex Cooper Jim Hall  Jim Clark Carroll Shelby  Bobby Unser Roger McCluskey John Zimmermann