{{Short description|American racing driver (1927–1987)}} {{cleanup rewrite|date=June 2012}} {{Infobox person | name = Dean Moon | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = May 1, 1927 | birth_place = United States | death_date = {{death date and age|1987|06|04|1927|05|01}} | death_place = United States | other_names = | occupation = Automobile designer, race car driver | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }}
'''Dean Moon''' (May 1, 1927 – June 4, 1987) was an American automobile designer. He grew up in Norwalk, California. Moon was around cars and racing from his youth. His father owned "Moon Café" and had a go-kart track he called "Moonza", a pun on Monza.<ref name=bbc>{{cite news|title=For Japan's hot-rodders, the eyes have it|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|date=3 December 2013|first=Brendan |last=McAlee}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=May 2019}} Dean was involved in dry lakes hot-rodding in the late 1940s.<ref name=laobit>{{cite news|title=Dean Moon, Drag Racing Pioneer, Dies|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-06-sp-4999-story.html|access-date=25 July 2015|work=Los Angeles Times|date=6 June 1987}}</ref> He founded MOON Speed Equipment (c.1950) and worked to improve the quality and safety of speed and racing products his entire life.
Moon was one of the founding members of Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association in 1963.<ref name=smith>{{cite book|publisher=MBI Pub. Co. and Motorbooks|location=Minneapolis|author=Paul D. Smith|title=Merchants of speed|date=2009|ol=23180822M}}</ref>
Dean Moon was a hot-rodder and innovator of speed parts. He built and raced cars from El Mirage Dry Lake and Bonneville Salt Flats to the drag strips and beyond, and established a company that became an icon in the hot rodding industry. Starting his business from modest beginnings in a garage behind his father's Moon Café in Norwalk, he grew it into an internationally recognized brand name. Early products were a multi-carb fuel block, spun aluminum wheel discs, aluminum gas tanks and a foot-shaped throttle pedal. Products carrying the Moon name, including the Moon disc wheel covers and Moon Tank auxiliary fuel containers, were very popular, and Moon Equipment's bright-yellow show cars and drag cars were used as prototypes for Hot Wheels toys.<ref name=bbc />
In 1960 Moon purchased the Potvin company from Chuck Potvin, a good friend and manufacturer of ignitions, camshafts and blower drives. In 1962, he moved the company to the Moon Equipment building in Santa Fe Springs, California, and continued producing Potvin products.
The first A.C. Shelby Cobra to reach the United States, delivered to Carroll Shelby, was fitted with a Ford V8 engine and transmission at Dean Moon's shop in Santa Fe Springs, in February 1962. This historic location at 10820 S. Norwalk Blvd. is where MOONEYES still resides today.
Moon brought a level of showmanship to the sport of drag racing. His cars not only went fast but looked good with signature Mooneyes decals, yellow paint and chrome plating. His teams were well turned out in all white uniforms with the MOON Logo and cowboy hats. Revell made a plastic model kit of the Chevrolet-powered Dragmaster-chassied ''Mooneyes'' dragster, which they termed as a rolling testbed (driven by Gary Cagle to a win at the 1962 NHRA Winternationals<ref>Burgess, Phil, ''National Dragster'' editor. "More Tree tales, the Mazi model, and Stuff In My Office", written 21 December 2007, at [https://www.nhra.com/news/2007/more-tree-tales-mazi-model-and-stuff-my-office NHRA.com] (retrieved 19 September 2018)</ref>), then as exhibition car shows after it retired from racing.<ref>''Hot Rod Magazine'', September 1961.{{pageneeded|date=September 2018}} The car has a </ref> The car made a comeback in England in 1963 driven by Dante Duce. In 1964 Duce won the Brighton Speed Trials in the Moonbeam, a Devin-bodied sports car equipped with a supercharged Chevrolet V-8 motor.<ref>''Road & Track'', November 1964, pp.52-56; ''Hot Rod Magazine'', February 1962, pp.86-89.</ref>
Many Moon products are still used today and are sought after for restoring and recreating old hot rods. The “Mooneyes” logo is a well known part of the history of the sport.
Moon Speed Equipment temporarily "paused" after Dean died in 1987, then appeared to shut down after Dean Moon's wife died. In the early 1990s, Shige Suganuma (a long time Mooneyes dealer from Japan and close family friend of Moon) restarted the company as MOONEYES USA which continues to carry on the traditions of Dean Moon today, including the Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show{{dubious|date=May 2019}} in Yokohama, Japan.<ref name="CYRILHUZE">[http://www.cyrilhuzeblog.com/2009/12/26/2009-mooneyes-yokohama-hot-rod-custom-show/ "2009 Mooneyes Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show" Cyril Huze]</ref>{{better source|date=May 2019|reason=This reference is from an unreliable WP:SPS. a personal glorified blog owned by Cyril Huze, not a publisher. The embedded Youtube video is similarly unreliable, seemingly re-named by the channel owner to include the term Mooneyes which is not seen in the film.}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == *[http://www.mooneyes.com MOONEYES Global Website] *[http://www.mooneyesusa.com MOONEYES USA Website] *[http://www.mooneyes.co.jp MOON OF JAPAN Website]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moon, Dean}} Category:American automobile designers Category:Racing drivers from Los Angeles County, California Category:Vehicle modification people Category:1927 births Category:1987 deaths Category:Brighton Speed Trials people Category:Sportspeople from Norwalk, California Category:People from Santa Fe Springs, California Category:20th-century American sportsmen