Donnell ‘Sully’ Sullivan’s career was a long one, marked with success after success in the automotive engine design field.

Sully was born in 1904 in Port Huron, Michigan. His mechanical instincts emerged at an early age. At the age of 13, Sully and his brother Jim took the brand new family Model T over to a local carriage repair shop where the waiting shop owner was tremendously curious to see what a dissected Model T would look like. The shop doors swung open and then immediately closed after the T sputtered in. Sensing that older brother Sully was up to no good, brother Jim promptly jumped out and ran home. Sully went right to work carefully taking the entire car apart. Every part was noted and logically spread out on the floor. Just when Sully was done studying all the pieces and ready to bolt her back together, Sully’s dad walked in. Dennis P. Sullivan was fuming from head to toe and ready to strangle young Sully. With arms folded and leaning against a work bench, the shop owner said, “Denny, I think the boy’s doing mighty fine.” He fired a wad of tobacco juice out the side of his mouth and continued, “ Now, you can’t go and beat the boy senseless and leave all these pieces on my shop floor. You better let him finish.” With no alternative, but to let Sully put it all back together, Dennis P. Sullivan stood and watched as his boy reassembled the Model T. The anger slowly melted away and turned to amazement when at first crank, she fired right up. About this time, brother Jim came back to see if his older brother was still alive. He witnessed his father and Sully backing out of the shop. Jim jumped in for the ride home. Of course, Sully was driving because he was the only one in the family that could drive the new Model T. Jim remembers as they passed each street light on the drive home, seeing his father’s illuminated face proud as could be, looking down at his son. It was the first success of Sully's automotive career.

Sully’s career spanned over six decades beginning at the Ford Motor Company as one of five engineers personally picked by Henry Ford to design and develop the original flathead V-8 engine in the late 1920s. In the mid 1930s, he developed engines competing at Indianapolis including the Bohnalite Special and the Miller-Fords. During World War II, he was instrumental in the design and development of the Ford tank engine and was even called upon to inspect the engineering and design of a captured German Messerschmitt Bf109. He became Ford’s first ‘resident engineer’ at the Cleveland Engine plant, which manufactured the Y-block 312 V-8. When Ford entered NASCAR racing, Sully was called upon to work his magic on the 312, 352, 390, 406, and the legendary 427. His finger prints are all over Ford’s most successful V-8 family, starting with the 221 small block. Sully was part of the four-cam Indy engine program resulting in Ford wins at Indy in 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, and 1971. He played a big roll helping Ford score victories at LeMans, Pikes Peak, and in the Trans Am road racing series.

Even though he retired from Ford in 1969, he never stopped working. He soon was hired by Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations and for nearly two decades perfomed his craft for SVO making the V-8 competitive in NASCAR and developing a new generation racing V-6.

Sully was married to Hazel and they had four children, Patty, Don, Larry, and Tom. He also had eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. If you want to learn more about the life of Donnell ‘Sully’ Sullivan, visit The Hod Rods of Dearborn.