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 Post subject: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:12 pm 
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Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 7:11 am
Posts: 678
Amazing restoration on an old Porsche.


https://youtu.be/QakzhOElAtQ


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 7:10 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:16 pm
Posts: 1180
Location: Ansonia, CT
Excellent! :thumbs_up:

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 10:29 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
Worth a bazillion dollars today. I had an old '59 single-grille Cabriolet which had just too many things wrong with it to keep, including that it repeatedly tried to set itself on fire and simply refused to hold oil inside the engine. Sold it for about $250 if I recall right. Found out later that they only made about 1,000 of them. Today it would be worth well over a year's income.
Duhhhhhhh. :oops:

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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:15 am 
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Posts: 678
My dad had a few cars that he sold over the years and wishes he'd have kept. His first car was a 1963 Impala SS, black on red, 409/4spd. When he had it it had a 327/350hp engine from a Corvette, as the 409 had blown up drag racing. He sold it for $500 :roll: He talks about that car quite a lot. He loves telling the story about when he outran a then new, 1970 Boss Mustang, on I84. He said around 120mph the impala just walked away from it, having a good bit more top end left. He also always mentions that the needle would bury at 120 in the Impala, after that the windshield wipers would stand straight up on the window from the wind.

When he pulled off the highway after his run against the mustang both of his rear tires popped just as he came to the end of the ramp. His retreaded tires fell apart. :shock:

Fearless youth.

Jay


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 2:37 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:16 pm
Posts: 1180
Location: Ansonia, CT
Scary story Jay!

It reminds me of my young and dumber days when we used to race up and down Newbridge Road in Long Island. Two of my buddies had spent their hard earned money on muscle cars. My best friend Richie bought a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner with a 383 and 4 speed. Our mutual buddy bought a 1969 Chevy 396 Chevelle, also with a 4 speed. So of course, we needed to find out whose was faster, so one summer night we staged a race on a not so busy Newbridge Road and raced north to the next light. I was sitting shotgun in Richie's Roadrunner and we were in the left lane. George's Chevy was in the right lane. Both cars launched perfect racing towards the next light leaping with each power shift, tires chirping and engines screaming. I'm watching George's Chevy out of my opened passenger side window as it was leaping and accelerating just slightly ahead of the Roadrunner when about 3/4 through the run we heard a funny "bang" noise and saw George slow down and pull off to the side of the road. We ended up circling back to see what happened.

As we got out of our car, George mentioned that he too heard the bang and felt a big "vibration" before shutting the car down. So, we opened the Chevy's hood and after peering around as best we could in the dark, I noticed this weird cut in George's left front fender. :? It was about 3 inches long and slightly curved. So now we are standing there scratching our heads wondering what could have caused this damage and after a few minutes realized that the Chevy threw a fan blade. It physically passed though both the inner and outer fenders and continued it's flight to the unknown. :shock: That's when I realized that the fan blade just missed hitting me in the head since I was right next to the Chevy when this happened. Luckily, we were just a hair slower.

To this day, I try to avoid standing along side anything spinning fast, especially fans on revving engines. :)

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 4:33 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
OK, drag racing stories from our mis-spent youth.

Syracuse in the '60s was a hot-rodder's heaven. We even had two genuine 289 Cobras in town (stories about each of them later).

One weekend 3 of us clowns got together and replaced the single 2-Blb carb on our buddy Ray's '56 Chevy 265V8 4-door automatic with a new tri-power manifold and 3 big single-throat Stromberg carbs. We didn't do anything to the cam or the timing, expecting this thing to scream. Ray did have exhaust cut-outs under the doors which didn't really make all that much difference in performance, but they sounded good. When we decided we had adjusted it to the best power option possible, we took it downtown to the main cruising strip, South Salina street.

Outside town on our then-new I-81 connector, some brilliant highway engineer had erected a roadsign designating exactly 1/4 mile to the next exit. Thank you!

All the kids met downtown, paired-off and then drove up to this self-designated drag strip. Somehow Ray paired us up with a brand-new Mercury Cyclone Caliente, 289 HiPo 4-spd, fire engine red. Each car had 3 kids in it. The Mercury spotted us a car length 'to be fair' :roll: . We had no chance. I rode shotgun in the front, all windows down.

We took off and both cars pulled hard off the line. When we hit second the Mercury pulled along side us with ease, so I could hear his engine right in my face. Ray reached down and pulled the exhaust cutouts, which sounded explosive at redline engine speed. The kid in the Merc wasn't expecting anything like that so he said he de-clutched, which over-revved his engine. His brand-new fanbelt broke (BAM!) and made a cut up thru the hood, across about 1/2 of it and down into the fender. Looked like somebody had tried to get out from inside with a can opener. Thus, Ray won his first (and probably only) drag race with his sleeper Chevy and I got to see a brand-new Merc blow up almost in my face. Rumors grew about how a hot new Caliente "blew up" trying to catch Ray's mother's grocery car. :lol:

Your turn.

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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 4:58 pm 
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Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 7:11 am
Posts: 678
John,

You got very lucky by the sound of it...... wow! As I was reading I was thinking you were leading up to a thrown connecting rod. I've never heard of a radiator fan turning itself into a projectile! I'm glad that thing missed you, wonder if it passed through the roadrunner passenger compartment via the open windows or if it was out in front.

My dad had a friend with a 383 roadrunner in high school, which is another car he talks a lot about. Another of his good friends still has his first car from back then too, a 1969 Chevelle SS, 396/4spd convertible. Currently being restored actually. My dad borrowed it one night and claims it was likely the fastest car he's ever driven.

Frank,

That's a great story too, never heard of a fan belt tearing through sheet metal before, I didn't realize that was possible! Those tri power manifolds with stromberg's are cool, not sure how much power they actually added but they sure look great. Technicality or not, the old 4 door Bel Air claiming victory against the Comet is great, I love a good underdog story!!

Looking forward to hearing about the cobras!

Jay


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 8:17 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
First Cobra story:

When I was 15 and an AutoMech gearhead high school freshman, Ford released the Shelby Cobra. We all read about it and saw it in commercials, but the first one we saw in the flesh was during the summer of 1963, downtown Syracuse at the cruises.
Some 28 yr old "big kid" had got one from the local Ford dealership. He paid (or was paying?) over $5,000 for it (over $40,000 today). You could buy a new house with less than $15,000. The kid was a street racer who had traded some other hot car as a downpayment for the snake. The car was green with black interior, beautiful chrome wire wheels, the 289 and dual exhaust.

He pulled into the local Caroll's Hamburger cruise-meeting and was giving kids rides up and down the street. He had taped a $20 bill to the dashboard ahead of the passenger seat ($20 was a LOT of money for a kid in 1963, about $170 in today's money) and told them if they could grab it in one try under 2d gear acceleration, they could keep it. I tried but when he yelled "NOW!" and slammed the pedal to the metal, I couldn't raise my arms to grab it! He picked on skinny little kids for the offer, and I never heard of anybody actually getting the money.

After about a month he had beaten all the best of us and by the end of the summer he couldn't find anybody else who would race him. The kids seemed to consider him unbeatable, so he got discouraged and stopped coming downtown. In the summer of '64 a little blonde girl showed up with the city's second Cobra. She hung a vulgar invitation on the back of it so he returned downtown, looking for her.
But that's another story.


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 4:36 pm 
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Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 7:11 am
Posts: 678
I was rooting for you to snatch that $20 Frank!

I've always really liked those cobras, they are such cool looking cars. I'll bet they were really something back when they were new! It sounds like Syracuse had quite a scene back then. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of a cruising scene anymore, kids are all caught up in their phones. Until this thread I didn't realize you grew up in Syracuse either, that's only a few hours from me!

Looking forward to hearing about the blond in the other Cobra!! :D


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:16 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
The blonde in the other Cobra was Traci or Laci or Stacy or something like that. She was in her early 20s and not spectacular-looking, but not bad, either. She was skinny and a little bit spastic; everything she did seemed impulsive and unnecessarily brusque. Her starts, stops and turns were all exaggerated acts of unnecessary violence, in my opinion. She was a "thrill driver", not a good driver.

I only ever saw her about 4 times and only talked with her once (other than to call and wave when she cruised past). The story on the street was that she was divorced and the car had been her Ex's. A friend of mine had a GT350 mustang with a HiPo 289 and he tried her once. I didn't see the race but he said she only beat him because her car was lighter than his; she was shifting wildly and throwing herself into every movement, not smooth at all. She beat him soundly and then they talked for awhile after.

The second time I saw her she had hung a little wooden sign under her rear license plate which read, "If you can beat me....etc". We all got a great laugh about that and the news spread really fast. I don't know if she was the first to use that phrase, but I have since seen it in movies and read about other girls in corvettes painting it on their cars. Traci was in 1964 so it might have been her original thought.

Anyway, news of her invitation sign brought the first Cobra out of hiding. He cruised into Carrol's every weekend night thru the summer, asking for her and if anyone had any contact info about her. When I saw American Graffiti the Bob Falfa-John Milner hunt instantly reminded me of the two Syracuse Cobras. I never heard whether they met or not. I'm sure it would have been big teenage news if anyone had ever got to take her up on the offer.

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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:37 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
The original Cobra roadsters are somewhat slow by todays standards, but back in the early 1960s they were the fastest things off any showroom floor.

The Cobra was America's first FACTORY street car which had under 10lbs per horsepower. Race cars had better power/weight ratios, but they weren't sold from a dealer with a warranty, or intended for street use. The 260 and 289 Cobras were the first production factory cars capable of running 0-60mph in under 6 seconds. The best Corvettes couldn't even beat that. Some motorcycles could.

I've spent a bazillion dollars on my 240Z to boost it up to near-Cobra performance, and it still would lose to one. The price of a new Cobra was about $5,000, almost the same as a new XK-E. The Shelby would beat the E-Type in everything but top speed. Cobras looked outstanding but aerodynamically they were bricks. You could buy a new Cobra HiPo with Weber carbs, headers, cam and hi compression, which would give you up to 271hp off the showroom floor. Real gear heads were able to tweak them up to about 300hp, but they lost a lot of street flexibility and longevity by doing that.

In the 1950s America made the Cunningham and Cad-Allard Sports-Racing cars. In the 1960s it became all about Carroll Shelby. It was a thrill to see these then-new sports cars in our hometown when we were kids. Syracuse also had an SS-100 Jaguar and a real SSk Mercedes back in those days, but we kids were more thrilled to see the little Cobras roll thru downtown.

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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:05 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:16 pm
Posts: 1180
Location: Ansonia, CT
OK guys, now it's time to listen to this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc6FmZCT0Zc

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 9:11 pm 
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Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 7:11 am
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Never heard that song before John, reminded me of the Beach Boys style though.

Great old action photos to go along with it too!


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 Post subject: Re: Another old Porsche
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 9:14 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
"The Rip Chords" didn't really exist when this song was released. Hal Blaine and Phil Spector, rock and roll music producers in LA and their regular group of studio musicians (who became unofficially known as "The Wrecking Crew") and studio backup singers created this song and released it. The Wrecking Crew actually played a huge percentage of our 1960s rock and roll hits (look them up) and were perhaps the very best musicians of their era. Hundreds of our teenage songs which we attribute to big-name singers or groups, were actually performed and released by The Wrecking Crew.

When the song became a hit, they hired some kids to front as a band called the Rip Chords, so their picture could appear on the record label. When TV and live performances were required, the kids lip-sync'd the song and kept dancing so they weren't detected.

That same MO was used for several successful bands, including The Monkeys and a couple all-girl bands. Phil actually married one of the girls (Veronica "Ronnie" Spector, of the Ronettes). When a song succeeded, a publicity band was formed and rehearsed it enough to perform it well.

Phil Spector just died in prison this month, serving life for the murder of one of his many performers and models.

More useless trivia you didn't ask for. :roll:

I wrote about these guys a few years ago:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9423&hilit=the+wrecking+crew

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