WCSTA -04- 1956 Speedster Family Car
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:49 pm
This contest might just be the kick in the butt I needed to start down the road on a long (very long) delayed restoration of my very special Speedster.
First, the backstory…
Part 1.
In March 1972 I was 9 years old and my dad was looking for a Porsche – specifically a Speedster. Circumstances dictated that it was going to be a Speedster project. So he kept a close eye on the newspaper classifieds (remember those?) and saw this in the Feb 27th Cleveland Plain Dealer:
I love the note in my dad’s handwriting below the ad “No rust – visible, underneath - rust” That’s priceless.
With terms agreed, arrangements were made to pick up the car almost 2 months later on April 23, 1972. We made the relatively short drive from our Cleveland area home to New Philadelphia, OH, towing a rented car trailer behind the Chrysler Town & Country station wagon. There was still a little snow on the ground, but the roads were otherwise clear.
My recollections of the Speedster from this era are somewhat spotty;
- It was never really running well, but it lived up to Harry Pellow’s expectations of a “good” Porsche and never stranded us.
- We ALWAYS had a spray can of ether (engine starting fluid) on hand – and used it frequently and liberally. [Note: check back on this later in the story when I reveal the piston and cylinder pictures]
- We had to keep the car at a rented garage space that was about 20 minutes from home, so never really convenient to access for maintenance or a drive
- I had to sit on a boat cushion so that I had a half-decent view from the passenger seat
Going for a drive was somewhat a hassle and didn’t happen often. It always involved first driving over to the rented garage, wrestling with the always near dead battery, and hosing down the carbs with ether in order to get it fired up. Winter in Cleveland, means that there are limited months out of the year for enjoying a drive in the Speedster. [The “underneath-rust” mentioned above was severe enough that the car had no heat]. And my dad was a pretty busy guy. He worked full time at TRW and then taught Managerial Economics at Cleveland State University in the evenings.
But, those few nice days when my dad went through all the trouble so we could go for an open air drive in the Speedster were awesome, and definitely put the Porsche bug in me.
...to be continued
First, the backstory…
Part 1.
In March 1972 I was 9 years old and my dad was looking for a Porsche – specifically a Speedster. Circumstances dictated that it was going to be a Speedster project. So he kept a close eye on the newspaper classifieds (remember those?) and saw this in the Feb 27th Cleveland Plain Dealer:
I love the note in my dad’s handwriting below the ad “No rust – visible, underneath - rust” That’s priceless.
With terms agreed, arrangements were made to pick up the car almost 2 months later on April 23, 1972. We made the relatively short drive from our Cleveland area home to New Philadelphia, OH, towing a rented car trailer behind the Chrysler Town & Country station wagon. There was still a little snow on the ground, but the roads were otherwise clear.
My recollections of the Speedster from this era are somewhat spotty;
- It was never really running well, but it lived up to Harry Pellow’s expectations of a “good” Porsche and never stranded us.
- We ALWAYS had a spray can of ether (engine starting fluid) on hand – and used it frequently and liberally. [Note: check back on this later in the story when I reveal the piston and cylinder pictures]
- We had to keep the car at a rented garage space that was about 20 minutes from home, so never really convenient to access for maintenance or a drive
- I had to sit on a boat cushion so that I had a half-decent view from the passenger seat
Going for a drive was somewhat a hassle and didn’t happen often. It always involved first driving over to the rented garage, wrestling with the always near dead battery, and hosing down the carbs with ether in order to get it fired up. Winter in Cleveland, means that there are limited months out of the year for enjoying a drive in the Speedster. [The “underneath-rust” mentioned above was severe enough that the car had no heat]. And my dad was a pretty busy guy. He worked full time at TRW and then taught Managerial Economics at Cleveland State University in the evenings.
But, those few nice days when my dad went through all the trouble so we could go for an open air drive in the Speedster were awesome, and definitely put the Porsche bug in me.
...to be continued