Kjell Qvale

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Kjell Qvale
Born(1919-07-17)July 17, 1919
race horse
breeder
ChildrenJeff, Bruce

Kjell Qvale (July 7, 1919 – November 2, 2013

Laguna Seca.[3]

Early life

Kjell Qvale was born in Trondhjem, Norway, and was the son of a Norwegian sea captain. He moved to the United States in 1929.[2] Qvale attended the University of Washington and was a U.S. Navy pilot during World War II.[4]

Car importing, dealing and manufacturing

On a trip to

Rolls-Royce. The business traded under the name 'British Motor Car Distributors'. Later Qvale further diversified his business interests by importing non-British brands including Volkswagen (exclusive distributor of the first Volkswagens in the Western United States [5]), Porsche, De Tomaso, Maserati and Lamborghini. For a brief period Qvale moved into car manufacturing by acquiring a significant stake in Jensen Motors.[6][7]

Jensen and the Jensen-Healey

By 1970, Qvale's organization was selling more than 160,000[2] cars in the United States. The Austin-Healey, produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC), was popular with American buyers. BMC's announcement that it would end production of Austin-Healeys created a problem for Qvale, who stood to lose sales. It was also unwelcome news for Austin-Healey's designer Donald Healey – who received a royalty on each Austin-Healey sold[2] – and for English car manufacturer, Jensen Motors, who built the Austin-Healeys for BMC. This prompted discussions between these three parties which ultimately led to a plan for the design and production of a vehicle to fill the gap the Austin-Healey would leave. In 1970 Kjell Qvale became the majority shareholder in Jensen Motors. The first production version of the Jensen-Healey was completed in 1972.[8]

Movie financing and Nico Minardos

In 1974

MGM, but it failed dismally at the box office and Qvale wrote off his investment.[10] As Qvale recounted to Minardos's godson, Owen Prell, in the 2010 documentary film, Finding Nico, "I have no regrets. It was a fun experience being a Hollywood producer."[10]

Qvale Automotive Group

Kjell Qvale's son,

De Tomaso Biguà. In 2003, Qvale sold the rights to the Mangusta to MG Rover Group
.

Horse racing

Qvale spent a lifetime owning and racing

United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing because of the horse's ill health. Variety Road's biggest win came in the 1987 Grade I San Fernando Stakes, when he nipped Broad Brush at the wire with Snow Chief and Ferdinand right behind them.[11]

Death

Kjell Qvale died at the age of 94, still racing his horses. Until the day of his death he maintained an active racing stable in Napa, California. His last win came on October 20, 2013 at Santa Anita Park.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Kjell Qvale passes at 94 Archived 2013-11-06 at the Wayback Machine - Racer, 4 November 2013
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-900549-21-1
    .
  3. ^ Kjell Qvale - SCCA Hall of Fame Archived 2013-11-05 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Kjell Qvale, 1919-2013". Autoweek: 11. 25 November 2013.
  5. ^ I Never Look Back, My Story, Qvale's autobiography
  6. ^ "Kjell Qvale: An Automotive pioneer, Part I". carlist.com. 1 January 1947. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  7. ^ "Kjell Qvale: An Automotive pioneer, Part II". carlist.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  8. ^ "1972-1976 Jensen-Healey and Jensen GT - Auto How Stuff Works". Retrieved 6 August 2008.
  9. ^ "Finding Nico (2010) - IMDb". IMDb.
  10. ^ a b "Watch Finding Nico Online | Vimeo on Demand". 19 January 2017.
  11. ^ Variety Road
  12. ^ Bloodhorse obituary

External links

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