Steve Schmidt

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by Don Rose and Ben Scarborough Don Rose owned Rose Marine Incorporated of Mt. Vernon, Texas which sold sport boats and equipment. In 1981, he became a ten-state distributor for an ultralight aircraft company and became a large center for aircraft construction, flight training, parts distribution, and research and development. The business was involved in both the ultralights and the Litestar/Pulse at the same time and became known as Rose Marine and Air Sports, Incorporated Don Rose, Arlon Fowler and Ben Scarborough were involved as Litestar dealers as soon as Jim Bede and Stan Leitner formed Tomorrow Corp. Litestar of Texas, as they were known, a 6-state Litestar and Pulse dealership, actually got one of the first Scranton built Litestars. It was red in color with a VIN ending in #000100. Today it is owned by Michael McMahon. At the dealer meeting in Chicago in Nov. 1983 Don Rose made the following comments regarding the condition of the red Scranton Litestar: "Well, to begin with, we didn't expect the vehicle to be perfect. Dad told me a long time ago never to accept the first one. David Schwartz was real nice to let me have the first one. The canopy didn't fit the hole. The rails were less than rigid. For a show car it didn't really matter, but for demonstration rides it needs to be a little more solid. On the right side of the canopy where it comes up to the windshield, there's a gap of about this much. Of course he spent the last eight hours with them. We kept calling Ron Royer to be sure the car was going to be ready and Ron assured us that it was. It was going to go to the paint shop Monday, dry on Tuesday, Wednesday they'd just have to stick the tape on it and we could pick it up. So at noon Wednesday when Arlon arrived, we stuck to our schedule and found out then the price had gone up and Stan and Ron were having some problems. Arlon spent 8 hours with them. There was no canopy on it, no plexiglass on the canopy, there was no windshield when he got there, no plexiglass on the headlights or taillights. Everything had to be done and finished. He said that after 8 hours they were getting so sloppy that he decided he would rather take it on home and finish it there. So he loaded the car up and brought it home. We worked until two the next morning in my shop ....nitpicky stuff. I have a list of twenty some things here. But the first time we drove it we realized it could take up the whole lane. The white car drove real well. Jim Bede said all you got to do is move the front wheel back an inch. It's amazing what an inch will do. As far as performance, the car out-performs the white car. We checked the 0-60 in 9.2...that's no bull. The car will perform, it will hold the road, it will change lanes, it will do everything we say it will do. The bolts were all just tightened by hand, by the Scranton factory." The white vehicle mentioned above was built by Doug Walsh. "We brought it to Texas for a two or three week visit for some promotions and television news spots," Ben recalls. Arlon and Rhonda Fowler were the original owners of this red Scranton Litestar.

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