The reason I was put on this earth was to drive, study, and obsess over traditional hot rods and customs. I accepted that many years ago and realize that's the one passion in my life that is never-waning. It's just part of me... and while I might get sick of people and things, I never get sick of old Fords. That all being said, a very close second to that is my love for old race cars. My preferred medium is road racing... and my preferred era starts around 1965 and ends around 1973 or so. This was a period when creativity was still high, exploration of speed was still the norm, and drivers still had a job to do. And what this equates to is cars that are capable of performing beyond the era they were born and on the street when the police aren't looking too closely. I'm also mostly into American born cars, but... Americans can't build a race car worth a shit. We are capable of making great power, but sometimes I think we still can't grasp the power of weight, balance, and agility as well as those born elsewhere. The kings of this equation has always been Porsche in my mind. Since the very beginning, they've put a priority on weight over anything else followed closely by power and reliability. As such, the early 911 is the perfect race car for the street. Driving them is second to nothing... They still feel like an old car in that they are very tactile, mechanical, and the driver has lots of shit to do to keep them busy, but... also, they are fast. Not "old timy" fast... but fast by any standard. My first early car was a 1967 912 that had been a race car its whole life. Sometime in the 1980's, someone tried to convert it into a 911R clone and sort of gave up. I bought the car, finished the job, and then crashed it shortly afterwards while doing race car things. Crushed... Not only because I lost my car, but because I knew I could never afford to do another. Trying to make a long story a little shorter... a good friend of mine famously builds hot rod 356s in California. He told one of his clients my story who then called me. "I have a '70 911 with a special serial number. The car is pretty much done. It just needs final assembly. I will trade you this car for your insurance check." And so I did... and I spent the next 6 months assembling the car. It's finished now and on the road... The motor is a twin-plug short stroke 2.5-liter that makes about 240hp... all of it really high up in the rev range. It weighs just under 2100 pounds with me in it and a 1/2 tank of fuel. It's faster around COTA than most late model 911s... and a hell of a lot more fun. *** Anyway, I can't imagine that I'm going to be using this new sub-forum a ton... But, I thought I would bring up this Porsche passion of mine to illustrate a point that I think about a lot... and it's one of the reasons I thought to create this sub-forum and something I think everyone should think about before using it really... I'm set in my ways about all kinds of cars... but it's more about them being cohesive to a period or a purpose than it is them being a certain way or shape. It pretty much always has been. It's just that I prefer the 1940's and 50's over any other period... And I prefer American born hot rods over anything else. No idea if that makes sense to anyone else but me... but...
No not my favorite hot rod, but German engineering surpasses anything built here in the States. Yesterday One of my neighbors hollered at me to come over and see his new toy. Unfortunately I did not take any photographs.. And I don't remember exactly what the model number was but it was a racetrack rated Porsche that he had bought from somebody in California... Incredible bright orange paint job, factory roll bar, rear mounted wing, and about an inch and a half front suspension travel distance. (Must be brutal on the spinal column driving on the streets.) The best I recall the model was something like 3x something something. He said that it was around 500 horsepower on a 3000 lb car... He also has a red Lamborghini in the garage that he hardly ever drives.... He said that both cars were "investments"..... Sadly, he's one of those sorts of fellas that don't know which end of a screwdriver to use.....
"German engineering surpasses anything built here in the States." Many consider it over engineering, but I don't want to instigate a posting riot over that. I spent 30 years around engineers trying to lobby for service-ability solutions. Some will, some won't and some say "So what?" Early Porsche stuff must be properly maintained - after all, they were properly engineered... I must say that Porsche is fabulous and it must be a hoot to drive!
I've always loved 911s but they're so far out of reach, the best I could do was a 65 VW bug. Big motor, lowered, I wish I would have set it up more to road race, (not sure if they're good for that) but it ended up having a 60's drag bug look. I won't post a picture to muddy up this thread, but yeah. I get it. I've gotten to ride in a few 911s, that's it.
I'm no engineer and am the wrong guy to compare and contrast the engineering of two different cultures. However, I will say that if I can work on it, anyone can work on it... And I pretty much did final assembly on both early cars. As far as reliability and the lack of planned obsolesce... time will tell. The white car was the best old car I've ever driven. The red car isn't there yet, but with a little more suspension work it should surpass the white car in every aspect. *** One interesting observation... I'm not a Porsche guy. I just really like the cars. So, I don't really do Porsche events or anything other than track days. In fact, I've only done two non-track day events - both were basically reliability runs. When you go on a hot rod reliability run, you just put around in your old car and enjoy the country side. Porsche guys don't do that shit. They drive HARD. Like, put you in jail if you get caught hard. It's crazy.
Thank You.... Mine is a 74 911. I plan on building it like a early 70s hot rod that a rich kid had but wanted an American muscle....Slot mags and all.....
Early 911s are cool by anyone's standards, swoopy and sexy and nothing else sounds like them. Out of my price range but they always catch my eye.
Before I came to the HAMB, I had Porsches for about 20 years. Autocrossing and track events were my passion. The 911 was the most perfect sports car of its era, IMO. I had a badass '74 Carrera with a 3.2 carbureted engine that I ran in SCCA and PCA. In SCCA Pro Solo, it would pull a G in first gear. You just wind it up to 4500, watch the Christmas Tree and dump the clutch and throttle when the light goes to green. What a rush! All told, I owned about 10 Porsches and restored/built several of them. I still love the sound of that air cooled flat 6. It was like no other to me!
WOW that’s a lot more car than I did it in, saw quite a few Porches when we were there, next time I go I will be in something that warrants one of photos you can buy. If I were to drive the tail in a 997 I would probably never unpucker lol Dan
A friend had one and I just had tto drive it. I am 6'2" and I could not do it. Love to look at them, however. Beautiful car!
I’m just over 6’2” and I fit pretty well into this 904: https://museum.revsinstitute.org/the-collection/1964-porsche-904-carrera-gts/ I got to sit in it… would love to drive it. On my all time top-5 list of all time cars for sure. This is really the car that solidified the Porsche formula.
Ryan, I, too, like Road Racing. I ran nearly every British Track as well as the Belgian Grand Prix Cicuit (once) in 1993 and 94. I ran a Mini built in 1967 from a new shell built by Clive Trickey. He wrote for a British Car Magazine and my car is documented in it. The car was given away in 1972 and then sold to the person I bought it from in 1985. Except for color, everything was just as it was in 1972. I restored it and brought to U.S. in 1986. Autocrossed it 1986-90. In 1990 I took it back to England and did needed upgrades to race in 1993-94. Retired from USAF in 1994 and brought car back to the U.S. My first car was actually a 1962 Mini that I drove my Senior year of High School in 1967-68. I had a really more after that one and did a lot of Autocrossing. I joined the Air Force in 1977 so I could go to England. Did two tours there for a total of 10 years. More to follow and some pictures.
The first thought I have when hearing “spirited driving in an early mini” is a boardline cartoonish scenario with @porknbeaner at the wheel. I think we could all come up with a story there and all of them would seem feasible lol
My wife's wide body all wheel drive Cabriolet. She had a 912 Targa with the AKTUNG plate. I had been in a pissing match with the San Diego Chapter of the PCA, so when she sold the 912, I had the plate converted to a motorcycle plate and put in on a Honda Hopper so no one in the PCA could get it.
Here was my daily driver from 2003 to 2010 parked in the high-rise parking lot. 1971 911E with original MFI, 5 speed and sunroof. It was a rusty, patched up eastern Canadian car underneath that later Guards red spray. Had fun with it but unlike old American cars that nickle and dime you to death this one hundred dollar-ed me to death. Bought on eBay for 3500, sold on eBay for 10,001. Miss it but do not need another.
I love Porsches. When I went to college I declared Mechanical Engineering and fell in with the Formula SAE team, designing and building half-scale indy style cars to compete against other schools. Even though I switched to a pre-law curriculum, I stayed on with the team throughout my undergrad. Our faculty advisor was and is a Porsche fanatic who had his own company building and modifying air cooled Porsches, usually swapping the older smaller 2.5 for the bigger 3.6s. He knew I could wrench and fabricate, so he hired me to come work for him on the weekends. We did all kinds of shit, turbos, individual throttle body injection. Back in the day I was super closed minded and wasn't into it at all, but I gained an appreciation for them. Now that I want one, they're expensive haha. Our family car is a Cayenne, good enough for now. Here's a link to Steve's shop. https://www.instant-g.com/
This one belonged to a friend I ran around with in my much younger days. I punched the louvers mid 80'. Kinda makes it a hot rod. Local Seattle Porsche mechanic/legend built a stout 2.2 maybe 2.4 litre, [I can't remember] That 7 main bearing flat 6 had a hell of a growl, I love the sound of those things. This little car embarrassed more than one loudmouth spouting VW slurs. My friend was a hell of a driver, that helped too, scared the living shit out of me more than once! I had a 68 911 about the same time, would love to have another, the prices, yikes! Oh to be young again.
Haven’t driven any vintage Porsche’s but have driven the whole variety of late model ones. Although I really like 356 & early 911’s. I Did all of the geometric track design for the two US Porsche Experience Center tracks. Most recently did the new Carousel in Atlanta. I’ve gotten invited to several appreciation events where got to drive the tracks.
The Jalopy Journal
