A trivia question -- not so EASY for Breazeale

[Larry Wilson]

In the early 1960s, what SF Bay-Area independent Porsche shop used this slogan:

"Go With LUSH Porsche Special Equipment"

Hint: The LUSH Porsche name didn't last long.

Larry Wilson

[Bob Garretson]

Larry
I think this must be Lukes and Shorman.
Bob Garretson

[Larry Wilson]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Lance SEYMOUR]

For those 'out of town':

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsjyT_r

[David Sweeney]

I can remember going to their shop in 1975 for some reason(bent swaybar by a 21 year old kid!) and seeing a red Speedster up on the rack with the most beutifully clean undercarriage I've ever seen. They said it belonged to the disc jockey for KFRC(my favorite radio station growing up) and that he brought it in once a week to have it serviced and completely wiped down top and bottom. That was the most stunning 356 ...the image of it is still stuck in my head. Those were the days. Thanks for the picture. Dave

[Jim Breazeale]

In the early 1960s, what SF Bay-Area independent Porsche shop used this slogan:

"Go With LUSH Porsche Special Equipment"

Hint: The LUSH Porsche name didn't last long.

Larry Wilson

Larry

I was on a trip to the midwest and not near a computer when you posted the question. Lukes and Shorman officially started in 1963. I was not aware of the LUSH part, though. Richie Lukes was active in the business for just 1 year. He went on to a different career but his name remained on the building and in the business name. Richie did consult and remain friends with Harry and his son Bill. Richie was a mentor to many of us in the Bay Area and it was a sad day when he passed. Bill Shorman operated the shop until it closed for good in 2004. Bill passed away in 2007. I am fortunate to have known those guys very well and I have Lukes and Shorman motors in my 62 356B Cabriolet, my 65 C Coupe and in my 71 911. I expect all of those motors will outast me. Thanks for that bit of trivia.

Regards

[Guest]

Another story about Lukes and Shorman was their Indy attempt in around 1965-66. They built an Indy car using 2, 911 motors and was 4 wheel drive. The support from Porsche was not too great so they had little to work with. Lukes and Shorman missed the show by 2 mph! Had the 911S motor been around they would have made the show. The car was totally a local San Francisco home brew, Jack Haggeman body, some help from Joe Huffercker for the chassis and many other local people. What might have been! The entire car was lost somewhere, the only remaining part was the main upper body that Billy Shorman had on his wall.



Alan

[Greg Bryan]

I had a repair shop down the street from Lukes and Shoreman back in the late 70s/early 80s and did quite a bit of business with Bill Shoreman - heck of a nice guy. They had a great machine shop that was operated by a big guy whose name I can't remember - also a good guy. I met Richie Lukes once - he was at a guy's hobbie shop in the back of a plumbing business hand lapping 356 engine case halves on a large piece of plate glass smeared with carborundom paste. He then hand lapped the main bores back to standard size with a mandrel.
Bill drove a beautiful Irish green C as his daily driver.
Sorry to hear that both Bill and Richie are gone . . .

[Brad Ripley]

Machine shop guy was/is Tom Manning. Don't know where he is now.

[Jim Breazeale]

Machine shop guy was/is Tom Manning. Don't know where he is now.

Tom (Big Bird) Manning is living in Turlock, Ca and enjoying a semi-retirement. I see him every so often when he drops in for a visit.

Regards

[Michael Hodos]

Since we seem to be into stories about Lukes and Shoreman . . .

At what I believe was the last North-Meets-South event that Ritchie Lukes attended, someone convinced the twenty something girlfriend of one of the attendees to "look after" Ritchie by riding along with him as part of a small group of 356s that came down the Coast Highway from the Bay Area.

When they finally arrived the young lady was driving and when she stepped out of the car she was white as a sheet. When asked what happened she explained that Ritchie had taken the opportunity to teach her how to drive his 356 (her first experience with a stick shift) and that "he never let me touch the brakes all the down!" Of course Ritchie had an ear-to-ear grin on his face having obviously enjoyed the whole experience!

[tom manning]

Just happened to search Lukes&shorman and found this thread,
I am currently living in Tracy semi retired; I have most all of the special tooling and machines In a new barn up in little river ca. but this economy has been tough on everybody and have not been able to move up there.
I believe only myself john Scammon (L&S first employee) and bob cobal are the only early guys still alive. Bud Hopkins is probably the only guy left to witness the years from 57 to 63 when I showed up. The LUSH logo was invented to go on the VW to Covair engine adapter plates
That was one of the first products that they made, witch was pirated by crown mfg. in la.
The other product was the forged pistons that were made and branded LUSH that were a total disaster and almost put L&S out of business in 64. There is more to the story but it led to Ritchie And Harry parting ways.

[Guest]

The twin engine Indy car owner was Al Stein of Orinda (near Oakland), who had midget racers going back before WW II. Pictures of this car are very scarce, I gave up looking.

Here is a link to a bit more history on L and S and the Indy car:

http://www.pca-ggr.org/node/821

The driver at Indy was Bill Cheesbourg.

http://www.historicracing.com/index.cfm?fullText=2213

Quote from above link about Cheesbourg's attempt to qualify:

"He also attempted to qualify the Stein Porsche. One of the many weird cars to compete at Indy this one had two Porsche engines. One in front, driving the front wheels, and one in back, driving the back wheels. It was build by Joe Huffaker for Al Stein, the two Porsche 906 engines provided 210HP at each axle driving through Porsche 901 transmissions at each end. During his quaifying attempt he hit and killed a little rabbit coming out of Turn 2. The rabbit was unfortunate as the car had the aerodynamics of a brick and was hopelessly slow failing to qualify by over 20 mph."

[Jim Breazeale]

Steve

You have come up with some incredible inside info! Bringing up Dink's golf feats shows superb knowledge! Also the little known Indy car effort. Both of those bits of history are only known by a few people that are privy to that sort of stuff and are older than dirt, but still have some semblance memory. Do I know you?

Regards

[tom manning]

Jimmie
I am not older than dirt, just well seasoned. LOL you know it would be a great idea to have a little get toghter this winter on this twin engine Porsche. There are 4 of us still alive that were involved with that project at Indy maybe we could get some if not all to come and straighten some of the facts out all at one time. There were a lot of things that happened from the inception to the 4 weeks at Indy and some after like the car was run later at phoenix. The body is hanging on the wall at classic auto body. I wonder where the hp numbers came from, I am the only one that dynoed them that I know of: D this topic comes up a lot and even I do not know all of the things that happened or the reasons for them
I am the youngest of the 4 that are alive so if there is an interest we should not wait to long. A
another fact is that the car was built because there was a car made in Oakland called the Faegel twin Porsche or some thing like that, Faegel made twin engine buses I believe.
It was I think an autocross car maybe in the 50’s