By Richard Stephens, Jr
Clay Fees is multifaceted. He’s a family man, an Oklahoma National Guard Director of State Family Programs (family readiness) and a Judge Advocate (Lieutenant Colonel) on drilling weekends, Kellyville’s Route 66 representative to Oklahoma’s Route 66 Commission, and now, author of a book on American muscle cars.
Muscle Car Fever
Fees grew up in Kellyville when its population was 1,000 people, continues to live there, and knows just about everyone. He caught “muscle car fever” (his term) during his high school years in the 1980s. He just had to have a high-performance car. His father, Lynn, helped him find and buy a 1968 Plymouth Road Runner. Fees proudly drove it throughout the town and raced it at Tulsa’s Speedway. His love of performance cars led to writing a book about them.
Isn’t it a natural outcome for a man who grew up reading about muscle cars and driving one in Kellyville and who often visited his performance car-loving grandmother in El Reno – two towns that sit on Route 66 – to write a book about cars and promote his town’s portion of Route 66?
The Age of the Muscle Car, by Clay Fees, 384 pages, was published on Jan 31, 2022. Fees said, “It’s selling really well. It is Amazon’s number one new release in automotive history.” Is it a technically orientated, mechanic-loving car book? Absolutely not!
“It’s a history of the muscle car era of the early sixties to the early seventies. But it’s not a car book. It’s a history book. I talk about the history that’s going on in the wider pageant of American history and not just the cars.”
The introduction states, “This book is for the novice or passing car enthusiast. This book is a book for beginners to the muscle car hobby” and for “old car people – those who live and breathe and appreciate cars from yesteryear – any year, or any genre. They keep the old car hobby alive and bring them regularly to car shows.”
What is a muscle car, anyway? The purists’ definition, as given in the book: “mid-sized, or intermediate, car with a large cubic inch engine, at least a four-barrel carburetor, and dual exhaust.” Others he said, view muscle cars more broadly, but they include these characteristics.
I fit in the novice car enthusiast category and found the book to be highly readable – not at all technical. From Chapter 3 (1964) though Chapter 11 (1972), several pages worth of national and international social, economic, military, musical, judicial, sports, and political events provide historical context (remember, Fees is a history professor) and are followed by good descriptions of refitted or new muscle cars built that year. Are you ready for what caused the demise of the muscle car? Be sure to read Chapter 12, “Autopsy of an Era.”
Kellyville History and Rt. 66
Fees attended the University of Tulsa in 2003, graduating in 2005 as a Juris Doctor in Law (graduate level professional degree) and also with a Master of Arts in History degree. He returned to Kellyville and put those to good use, teaching history to seventh and eighth graders from 2005 to 2009 and providing legal counsel as town attorney from October 2019 through March 2021. Love of history makes him want to highlight significant events in Kellyville by posting signage.
“I think that we need a couple of historical markers commemorating, for sure, the train wreck [occurring in 1917 when 32 people died and more than 50 were hurt, Oklahoma’s worst] and maybe even the ski resort [proposed in the 1970s, never started]. I think that we need better signage to advertise the Tank Farm Loop [three-miles of 1926 Route 66 pavement]. I would like to see signs coming in and out of Kellyville that say, ‘Welcome to Kellyville’ in several languages: French, German…as a nod to the international travelers that we have through here. I think that would be something that would set us apart and maybe stick in the minds of those travelers…there’s a little area that would be a good area for a little Route 66 roadside park [grassy area with a replica oil derrick].’’
Fees pointed out that although Kellyville only has two miles of Route 66 (not counting Tank Farm Loop), those are special miles – something many other towns don’t have. “We have a lot more of Route 66 than millions and millions of other towns around the world. So, we have our little piece of the most famous road since the Appian Way.”
Lots of American and foreign tourists will drive through Oklahoma during the 100th anniversary of Route 66 in 2026. Fees wants to give them several reasons to stop in Kellyville.
Appointed by Kellyville’s Town Council to be their Route 66 Ambassador, he attends Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell’s bi-monthly Oklahoma Route 66 Commission meetings and hears about festivals and plans affecting the Mother Road.
The next time you attend a car show like Sapulpa’s Route 66 Blowout and see a 1966 GTO or 1969 Road Runner, it just might be one of Clay Fees’ cars. He loves to cruise Route 66 in an old muscle car.
