I've become pen pals with a classic Porsche loon in England. He couldn't give two-shits about traditional hot rods. Nope. His head is too buried under German dirt shoveled by Ferdinand. And while he hasn't said so directly, I'm pretty sure he sees th... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
The good news is that people will find ways to go fast no matter what equipment they've got at their disposal. But yeah, you can't trust them Brits...
You have to love the older days of racing, The rules let people be a lot more creative. HP to weight that rail with a light driver probably was pretty fast.
Well I'll be, I knew about the Yanks going over there, but I didn't know about these Teutonic powered beasts running against them, musta been the timing close to WW 11 that kept this craziness on the DL.
We should all give due respect to our foreign counterparts. To take a car design, the Porsche 911, and refine it year after year for 40 years is beyond amazing. I sold my '34 coupe and bought my first 911 last year, and it is truly the most bad ass car I have ever owned. Never mind that you can drive over 170 mph with a 3.6 liter air cooled flat 6, its all about the cornering. Porsche is indeed a steel hand in the velvet glove. Keep in mind also that Porsche during the 1970s brought out the baddest of bad ass race cars ever, the 917-30. Over 1200 hp in an AIR COOLED 12 cylinder engine with sustained speeds of over 230 mph in a chassis weighing less than 1800 pounds. Ryan you should do a tread on the 917, as they had to change the rules and outlaw it to end its domination. Engineering is engineering, and they have earned my respect regardless of which continent they happen to live on. Not my enemy by a long shot.
You know when you go to an free concert in the park, there are usually people enjoying the music, dancing "normally" just swaying back and forth, a head bob, maybe even snapping their fingers. They are enjoying the music. Then there's always "the dancing guy" up in front of the stage... filthy tie-dye shirt... By himself...Just flailing around, bouncing up and down, out of step... This guy, doing his own thing, is enjoying it on a whole 'nuther level... He's dancing, man! But he's doing it alone, and he's going home that way too... But you laugh and smile at him, because he's having fun. Maybe even enjoying it more than you. You gotta read up on the 917-30, the body made them look substantial, but the chassis looked like it was made of 1/2" conduit. Can-Am was completely insane by the mid 70's.
Rather a bit small, isn't it now? I say, Jolly good read though. These haughty chaps are everywhere. Well, let them have their tea and crumpets, we'll see their 'gentleman's sports cars' and raise 'em with some good ole' fashion Yank knowhow: Cubic inches and brute horsepower. Seems the 'Motion' boys took a Shelby prepared AC Ace roadster down the strip with some success back in they day, now didn't they? Glad your pal has a good whit about him, Ryan, you too seem to have a great friendship!
Weird. I was on pelican parts last night completely off my rocker looking for a 69-73 911 I could turn into a little beast. Not that I could afford to, and I have alot of work left on my dumb coupe, but man theres somethin about a little 11-1 2.7L with webers that screams. I will someday..
I daily drove a '63 ragtop bug that would make alot of these "hot rods" on here play catch up. I still miss the sound of those 48IDA's sucking all of creation down into that engine!
Next to my '31 A coupe, my 356 C cabriolet is my favorite car. Can't get much more ying and yang than that. Two completely different cars, two completely different driving experiences, but each a blast. Gotta love a 356 flat four in a dragster. Don't forget the Inch Pincher, VW flat four powered. It kicked ass here in the states.
You easties and midwest folks are never gonna "get" the VW/Porsche thing... It just aint gonna happen. I for the life of me will never understand why not, but it's also kinda good too. Imagine your in dark deserted industrial area, because some dork in a beat up VW had the audacity to chose you Chevelle back at the Burger King and put a couple hundred dollars on the deal "just to make it interesting". I mean, your car has a V8 and sounds deep and tough, how could something like THAT even have a chance! Now imagine this "thing" launching so hard that it pulls it's front wheels and all you see is tail lights of in the night ahead of your big bad muscle car, taking with it your lunch money for the next couple of months... Guys like Gene Berg, Dean Lowery, Darrel Vittone, Lloyd Mosher, hell, we even have a VW legend here on the board in Frenchy Duhaux. All these guys figured out how to build these little watch-winder engines into a beastly thing of beauty that one guy could carry down three fights of apartment stairs. As far as the scenario above? I don't have to imagine it... I lived it, paid the first couple of years of my home mortgage doing it! And a nother vote for 917-30s Viva La Loco!!!
WORD! I still have a 2274cc bullet in my coat closet waiting for "someday" to go together. I cant wait to here that same noise again!
Neat car.. HALARIOUS article! Well put Ryan. Might wanna point out to yer "Bloke" that there is an awfull lot of AMERICAN equipment on/in that Persh Powered rail job to make it go fast.. Moon GoodYear Autolite Valvoline Vertex Bell STP Those are just the few I saw in the first couple pics. J Shaw
Neat article - BUT Doug Church is/was American as apple pie. The car was built in the USA . Ah Blackbushe - I remember it well
Best sound to word translation ever i might say Ive had the pleasure of watchin VW drag bugs more than once, both in England and here in Italy, yeah, we have a pretty kool drag bug team on here, and they are frantic. I even seen'em burn big V8s...
Always 1/4 mile. a 1/4 kilometre doesn't count. In continental Europe it's 400m, which is 1/4 mile - give or take.
I gave them Southern boys hell when I was stationed at Moody AFB in Valdosta, Georgia back in the early '80s. I had a pretty radical '70 Bug with a 2140 that would spank the locals when we used to drag from light-to-light on North Patterson Avenue. It was so "Non-Southern" it was funny. Slammed, Moon discs, and wild paint. They hated that car. It was the only car I have ever owned that would actually pull the wheels. On the launch, it used to drag the stinger. Fun car. Years later, while out here in California, I had the good fortune of working with and becoming friends with Johnny Hefler, who used to campaign the Hefler & Cherry VW drag car out of Louisiana back in the late '70s and early '80s. The car was a record holder back in the day, and a terror. If you've ever read any of Gene Berg's literature on setting up a VW drag car, they basically reverse-engineered Johnny's Bug. Johnny had a great relationship with Gene Berg, and Gene used to supply them with lots of parts for them to test. If you met Johnny, you might think he was just a good 'ol boy, but if you started talking racing, he'll blow your mind. He's possibly the smartest racer I've ever met, kinda like a Smokey Yunick in the VW world. For example, a few years ago, we were at the Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, and we were in the stands waiting for the CackleFest to begin. Johnny started talking about some of the tricks they were doing when they were racing, and after a few minutes, I looked over my shoulder and nearly everyone in our bleacher section had been eavesdropping and were mesmerized.
What a fun, well-written piece, Ryan. It's very true that Yanks love their torque, isn't it? Why is it that the styles differ so much, even to this day?
I gave them Southern boys hell when I was stationed at Moody AFB in Valdosta, Georgia back in the early '80s. I had a pretty radical '70 Bug with a 2140 that would spank the locals when we used to drag from light-to-light on North Patterson Avenue. It was so "Non-Southern" it was funny. Slammed, Moon discs, and wild paint. They hated that car. It was the only car I have ever owned that would actually pull the wheels. On the launch, it used to drag the stinger. Fun car. Years later, while out here in California, I had the good fortune of working with and becoming friends with Johnny Hefler, who used to campaign the Hefler & Cherry VW drag car out of Louisiana back in the late '70s and early '80s. The car was a record holder back in the day, and a terror. If you've ever read any of Gene Berg's literature on setting up a VW drag car, they basically reverse-engineered Johnny's Bug. Johnny had a great relationship with Gene Berg, and Gene used to supply them with lots of parts for them to test. If you met Johnny, you might think he was just a good 'ol boy, but if you started talking racing, he'll blow your mind. He's possibly the smartest racer I've ever met, kinda like a Smokey Yunick in the VW world. For example, a few years ago, we were at the Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, and we were in the stands waiting for the CackleFest to begin. Johnny started talking about some of the tricks they were doing when they were racing, and after a few minutes, I looked over my shoulder and nearly everyone in our bleacher section had been eavesdropping and were mesmerized. The stuff that he and Lyle Cherry were doing back in the day was groundbreaking.
"Put simply, he’s the enemy. So, I keep him close...." Way OT thread, Ryan, but a nice reference in that quote.
You are correct, for the most part(about the mid-west folks). I don't know why it is that way, but it is. To this day, I get strange looks from guys that call themselves "car guys" when I smile at a VW. I still have the hood crest off my first car - 57 oval. Coincidently, my last post on my build thread pays homage to the screamin' flat 4. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=656966&page=10
Hmmm....coming from the cultural vacuum of the planet,do you think we don't like our VW's and Porsches.I've owned a 356 Cabriolet,several 911s,a 944....I could go on.My parents had matching 356s in '62 ,but then my sister and I came along shortly therafter.They traded the Cabrio off for a Saab,but kept the hardtop.