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That would've been the late Gus Babin of Baton Rouge, LA and Apache Junction, AZ. His firm was "Engine Research" although I am sure he might have used another corporate name a time or two during his lifetime. Indeed he was a frequent advertiser in TAP.
Gus had quite a collection of Allison engines, aircraft turbo chargers and other assorted aero and vintage automotive performance components. He had warehouses of stuff all across the southwest, stretching from New Mexico to Tucson to Phoenix and no doubt others I never visited.
He passed many years ago and his surviving son disposed of most of the business inventory. I'd purchased some of the Allisons, as did Joe Yancey and Bud Wheeler. The company I worked for acquired a good portion of his V-12, starter/generator and turbo charger inventory and last I'd heard his remaining aviation shop stores had been acquired by AZ Wing of CAF, Airbase Arizona. His phone number has been disconnected for years.
Gus was a good man and taught me an awful lot about Allison engines. Sadly, I think he'd quietly retained more than I will ever hope to learn about the subject and quite frequently wish he was around to educate this slow learner. Bought a P-40 and P-38 engine from Gus at different intervals and remembered I'd passed on P-63 engines because I wasn't interested in E series powerplants. How I regret those stupid and impulsive decisions...
Don't recall him having any P-38 regulator inventory but that certainly could have been so. He spent decades finding rare goodies across the country and always had something interesting to share. I do recall him telling me he'd assisted Lefty Gardner with his Lightning back in the day, and this very well could have been where some of those items ended up. That was, sadly, 20+ years ago so this is more than likely a horribly dead lead.
Feel free to drop me a PM on the matter.
- Robert in PHX
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