Blog 1/16/ 2023

Membership

SEAN LYNCH has joined PCA’s Test Drive program while searching for a Porsche to purchase. If you would like to connect with SEAN, contact information is: lynchdds@gmail.com; 540 521-8736. He lives in Ranoke, Virginia.

Road trips with Don- Turkey, Texas – Steve Strickland

The email from Don Salisbury came in late January- he was buying a ’53 Bug in need of assembly in Texas, and did I want in on a road trip to pick it up? Of course! I’m always up for a car fetching mission with Don- time to find my road warrior hat!

The car was just south of Amarillo, in a little town called Turkey. The population is under 500, but it is famous for being the home of Bob Wills, the “King of Western Swing” (look it up!). Click Here The owner lived on a ranch and had a couple of VW’s “here and there”. It was a straight shot down I-40, and the weather looked promising- cold but clear. We were going to use Don’s new Sprinter based RV, pulling his enclosed trailer. We stored the rig in my shop late on a Monday evening and rolled west early the next morning.

Now a mission like this has a couple of objectives, one of which is to maximize drive time and minimize stops and other distractions. We drove and talked, and talked and drove, until late in the evenings and then picked handy Wal Mart’s to lay up a few hours before rolling on. It was a smooth trip and we timed it to arrive at the ranch around mid-morning on Wednesday to inspect the car and close the deal.

Or that was the plan. When we arrived at the turn for the ranch, the road was very rough and clearly rarely used. A quick call to the owner informed us that we were on the backside of the ranch (10,000 acres!!), and after another 45 minutes of driving we finally arrived at the main entrance to the ranch. The scene was charming and a bit rustic, with a friendly dog, free range chickens, the usual collection of farm equipment, and not just a few old VW’s, but an entire bumper crop! Type I and Type II Westy’s, vintage Beetles in a variety of years and conditions, and off in the distance a whole additional air-cooled VW bone yard.

The owner was genial and outgoing, clearly a VW enthusiast. I’ll let Don discuss the car, but the deal was closed and with the owner’s help in loading we were back on the road within a couple of hours. We elected to head home and save the tour of Turkey and the surrounding area for another time (it was quite charming). The trip home was smooth as well, the Sprinter cruising easily with the loaded trailer as we made our way East. All told, forty hours of driving and about 2,500 miles, and of course another great addition to the list of road trips with Don! More to follow.

Activities

Cars and Coffee

A Cars N Coffee is planned for January 21, 2023 at Famous Anthony’s, 6499 Williamson Rd, Roanoke Virginia starting at 9:30am.  We have 20 signed up so far. New for 2023 registration (free) is being done through Motorsportreg in the same manner for all region events.

Motorsports

Porsche RSK

Sitting in that Porsche would put a smile on anyone’s face.

Pagamo Utopia (never heard of one!)

NEW Pagani Utopia 6.0 V12 (864HP) Exhaust Sound Cold Start Up And Revs

Click Here and turn up the volume.

BROTHER OF A DIFFERENT MOTHER _{by Don Salisbury}

  Searching for a car the same age as me, turned out to be an easy task. 

What 1953 car did I want?  Vette, Jag, Morgan, VW??  My first new car was a 1972 red bug.   My first race car was a Zitler FVee.  Then a few GTIs’ and a fire breathing GT3 84 rabbit.  

  FOUND ONE!!!! 

  The Zertifikat, from Stiftung Auto Museum Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, states that this car left the factory 1/26/53 for Sweden.  According to my birth certificate (and my mom), I was born on 1/27/53 and left for Salem VA. 

  I purchased the car from a VW guy in Turkey Texas, and picked it up on my birthday, 1/27/21.  It was 28 degrees that day…..you can’t get to his 10,000 acre ranch via GPS (there are no satellites that cover that area of Texas)…… so after multiple wrong turns and multiple cell calls, we finally made it.  A long time family friend and SCCA lifer, Steve Strickland, accompanied me on the trip and watched as I couldn’t load it fast enough.  He kept quiet on the ride home, all the while knowing it was going to be a MAJOR project.  We stopped a few times to check on the car in the box trailer, finding a 2×3” chunk of painted bondo laying on top of the duct tape under a fender.  Oh, well!

  I found and purchased my first closed wheel race car a few years earlier.  In restoring it, I met Jimmy Pack in Willis VA.   I asked Jimmy to do the Zwitter.   Many parts were difficult to find, and some had to be made.  The body was twisted, the hood bent, the doors had to be reskinned and bent back into shape, and on and on and on!   Jimmy taught me patience…….it was a very large job and he needed to space it out.   I waited for his updates…..patience…..didn’t call to see how it was going (it’s been a long, almost 2 years).  His goal is for the Vorsche restro mod to be the nicest 53 VW in North Carolina.   Might be!

If you are wondering if I was mad at the Turkey Texas guy….not really.  I had a mentor, many years ago, explain perception.   He said “if a person is moving into a 500K home, from a 125K home, it’s a mansion.  If a person sold a 2 million dollar home and is moving into that same 500K home, he would ask, how do people live like this?”   Perception.   The Turkey Texas guy painted a very rosy picture of the 53….I think he got put together by the German trained body guy that painted and sold him the Zwitter.  The Turkey Texas guy had run an ad in Samba, and I guess the purest Samba VW guys saw thru the lipstick on the pig body and paint work.  It was for sale for a long time.  All I saw was the split window VW, the same age as me.   It was going to be Carrera white anyways, so the paint had no value and I expected to find body issues when the paint was removed.  I had budgeted for paint, beam, trans, and a 356B engine.  I was going to save my “brother” at all costs!!!

  My plan was in place……my wife welcomed the “new black hole”.

  My road racing hobby allowed me to experience purpose-built sports racers and formula cars as well as production cars modified for racing   this area of vehicle ownership is all black hole stuff.

  That said, most “restored to original” cars are driven very little.  The joke is:

•  4 times the first year
•  3 times the second year
•  Parade the third year
•  Covered and moved to storage awaiting the next owner the forth

  So, an outlaw, coffee and cars, go get ice cream build makes sense.  Have Tom Nelson build a hot rod 356B Porsche engine, now it’s a Vorsche, Billy Fragan- Rusty Bottom Garage build a narrowed beam with disk brakes, modified IRS transaxle and Jimmy Pack do a bare metal restore of body and paint Carrera white (chassis, engine tin, and interior all white).  Chrome and polished aluminum painted matt silver, head liner and rear seat delete (no self respecting GT race car has rear seats and head liners), heated sports seats (for old people), aluminum battery box at the factory rear seat location, Euro head light lenses and a 12-volt system.

THE END

Not really, I started my search for a tow vehicle for the 53… 1953 sedan delivery or panel truck…wonder what color Jimmy will paint it?

Evolution of the Porsche Crest

Now a familiar symbol the world over, the sports car manufacturer’s coat of arms first adorns a Porsche in 1952. Inspired by the Stuttgart city seal, the coat of arms features a rearing horse in the center and is framed by the contours of a golden shield. The city name above is flanked by the state colors – red and black – and stylized antlers, which come from the Württemberg-Hohenzollern coat of arms. Above everything else, the Porsche lettering acts as a protective roof.

Less well known is how the quality seal came about. The hood of every Zuffenhausen sports car has featured the Porsche lettering since 1948. The idea of applying a genuine trademark to the 356 doesn’t come to fruition for another three years. In March 1951, Porsche and Ottomar Domnick, a Stuttgart doctor and original Porsche customer, approach German art academies with a design competition and the chance to win 1,000 deutsche mark. But none of the designs win them over. The idea then gains traction in New York City, far from the sports car manufacturer.

Max Hoffman gives the final push More

Hogan’s Corner

Something looks a little off in this 2018 photo at Hot Shots. Do you see anything odd?

Porsche Gone Bad

First

Finally