Vintage Racing
The last race of RMVR season is the Pueblo Enduro. Bill Frey and I co-drove my ’52 356 Coupe.

An Endro is an endurance race. All open wheel cars run as one group and all production cars run as another. This means the Porsche 356 get to run with Corvettes, GT 350s, 911s, Lotus, etc. It is an hour and forty- five minute race with two ten minute mandatory pit stops to change drivers, add fuel. Bill drove the first and last stints and I drove the middle. While I hadn’t raced in a year I did improve my time from practice to qualifying by thirteen seconds but was still fifteen seconds slower than Bill.

There is a lot of excitement on the long front straight being passed by cars way faster than a 356. But then in the tight turns you can close and have fun. Sixty eight cars started and forty two finished. We finished (!) in one of the oldest racing Porsches in the world.

A couple of days after the race Bill learned his cancer is active again. He will begin some different treatments soon and while he will continue to live strong, your prayers are welcome.

Progress
It’s gone! Finally after six and a half years of storage and a six week delay in getting it gone, it’s gone. The ’58 Speedster, while not on its way to New Jersey, is gone from our shop to another storage area.

While we have worked with close to one hundred 356 owners in the last fourteen years only two have been total frustration as in PITA. When running a business it is sometimes wrong being too nice a guy. But it is gone and I feel better.

We picked up the ’57 Carrera from Autoweave. They did an outstanding job! New carpet, headliner and beautiful dark red leather interior. The Carrera has now been restored to its original specifications.

We took the Carrera to Paragon Motorcars on Arapahoe (11211 E. Arapaho-visit!) where it is eye candy among the Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, Maserati and other exotic sports cars.

The owner of Paragon is Matthew Kryjak a 356 owner and one of our customers. While we are not in a hurry to sell the Carrera, we hope the exposure at Paragon will find a buyer that wants a right hand drive 356 1500 GS Carrera.

We still have some work to do on the Shop ’58 Cabriolet. Joe Leoni rebuilt the generator and put in new bearings to stop the engine whine but it persists, the throttle linkage isn’t right and we still have some electrical issues.

BJ is almost done with the metal work on Rob’s ’61 Cabriolet and then he will get it ready for paint. Andy’s ’62 Coupe is at the painter and when done we will get it ready for Andy to do the reassembly.

I finished the metal work on the Shop ’57 Speedster and it will go to BJ for paint prep when he finishes Rob’s 356.

I spent a lot of time getting the side body deco on the Speedster to look right. Some of the original holes had been brazed over and were not lined up with adjoining panels. Fortunately the New Jersey Speedster was still here to allow measurements. I probably put ten hours into this effort but it has to be done before paint. One of our shop sayings is “If it looks right, it is right.” The side deco on the Shop ’57 Speedster looks right.

Evaluations
If you’ve noticed, we have done very few pre-purchase evaluations this year. We use to do one or two a month. There are few 356s for sale or the owners realize values have increased and are holding on to their cars.

However, we did do two evaluations this month. One was for a ’64 Coupe that had been stored since 1976! All original and complete but disassembled. The body had been hand stripped and was rust free. The underneath had been stripped and repainted and there was plenty of extra parts. Only 82,000 original miles, so we bought it. (We had to fill the space with the New Jersey Speedster gone!)

We evaluated a ’65 SC Coupe from California now in Colorado. It was in real good shape. Just an incorrect battery floor replacement, rusty front closing panels and crushed longitudinal.

Very little money and effort would make this a real nice SC Coupe which is in demand. The owner is considering his options.

Hardware Store
Boy, I miss the neighborhood hardware store. It was just down the hill and I shopped there every week for eighteen years. Well, a Home Depot went in nearby a few years ago and while the owner said he was retiring, we all knew the real reason. I really miss the service and product availability of the neighborhood hardware store. Those of you that still have one you are fortunate.

Grandpa News
Alexandra’s middle name is Mei Jie which means beautiful girl in Chinese. Which she is! She is so entertaining with all her new discoveries. She will stand by herself and walk with assistance. Barb revels in her grandmother duties. We now have a toy chest in the family room and I get to paint her bedroom here at our house for sleepovers.