Sounds like he was a wonderfull man... so nice to read, of the caring thoughts people had for him.. We need to tell each other, what we think of each other, BEFORE we go.. God Bless John
I've never met him, but saw his cars and seen what he had to say in HPP. He sure knew his stuff and if you had a question......he would be able to answer it. 48 is too young for anybody
Actually John was just short of his 62nd birthday, but that is still too young for someone who had so much more to give to the hobby. He gave great presentations at the GTO nats on how they used to test the different powertrain combinations. They had one test driver who actually managed to bend the shift lever of a Hurst shifter..... His inside knowledge and the stories he told were fascinating. He was always being an engineer though as well. He was one of the first to warn that the first thing to do with any old car is to replace all the rubber fuel lines with modern ones as the chemicals they use in modern gas will disintegrate the old lines.
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Hillar
1970 LS4 (eventually an LS5) Laurentian 2dr hdtp -and a bunch of other muscle cars...
I was fortunate enough to have met John at a number of POCI conventions. Always a gentleman, for sure.
He had a knack like no other. At POCI in 1990 I showed my Acadian with the 427 in it. He talked to me about it and took pictures of it that he used in some of his presentations years after. My car is nothing special. It's not a show car, it's not 1of 2 or something like that. In spite of that, he made me feel like my work on the car made it special and appeared to have a genuine interest in the car. The point being, he truly DID love the car hobby and the people he met. He wasn't just trying to flatter me by saying I had a nice car.
It would not be possible to replace John in all areas that he was knowledgeable. He will certainly be missed at car meets.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Actually John was just short of his 62nd birthday, but that is still too young for someone who had so much more to give to the hobby. He gave great presentations at the GTO nats on how they used to test the different powertrain combinations. They had one test driver who actually managed to bend the shift lever of a Hurst shifter..... His inside knowledge and the stories he told were fascinating. He was always being an engineer though as well. He was one of the first to warn that the first thing to do with any old car is to replace all the rubber fuel lines with modern ones as the chemicals they use in modern gas will disintegrate the old lines.
I didn't hit your thread.......I thought it was about Quint Stires. I was reading yesterday on PY about him. Quint was into GTO's as well and was a Judge at the GTO Nats. Writing for HPP and working for Ames. Now John as well.......
Thanks for letting us know of the loss of John Sawruck.
I met him a number of times at the POCI Nationals, and bottom line he was a good guy. He often said how he was much younger than the rest of the guys in the Pontiac Engineering group, and they're long since gone. Now he's gone too.
At the 2006 convention he was talking about how he built the 3 or 4 cars to be used in "The French Connection", driven by Gene Hackman's character. I did the math, and he would have been a fairly young man. That would likely have been quite a bit of responsibility, but John was up to the task.
John was unable to attend the 2008 convention, and I missed hearing his presentations of various things Pontiac, and general auto info.
BEFORE we go.. God Bless John