Hot Rods Foreign Policy

[Ryan]

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...

To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

[general gow]

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...

[striper]

Go Kart

[Jalopy Jim]

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.

[badshifter]

That car is cute and pretty neat.

That said, I like my race cars bad ass and scary!

[Acme Speed Shop]

Bloody Britishes....funny article Ryan. I am going to go brush my tooth now.

[Nads]

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.

[dodored]

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.

[lothiandon1940]

I wonder if that 11:40 time was for 1/4 mile or 1/4 kilometer.

[4t64rd]

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.

[silverdome]

I wonder if they ever put that 1200 hp 917-30 engine in a dragster.

[Jigger]

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!

[Dreddybear]

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..

[nutajunka]

Originally Posted by 4t64rd

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.

LOL, "the dancing guy"

[negativeMatt]

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!

[flamingokid]

What do you want to bet that somebody out in HAMBland is thinking about a clone for this beauty?

[ric]

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.

[need louvers ?]

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!!!

[need louvers ?]

Originally Posted by negativematt

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!

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!

[Joshua Shaw]

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