My life with Porsche… And my latest (last build) – 2.8 RSR style on 9111121235

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1971 911T – no VIN or CoA info & 9112110963:

I remember finding the targa for a friend, he wanted a blood orange (tangerine) 71 targa, and after looking for a bit, I found him this one… He was living on the east coast, and I only owned for a very short time, probably why I don’t have CoA or VIN info…

I bought 9112110963 because it was the first viper green car I had seen, and I just fell in love with the colour… It was rough and needed a complete restoration, but was complete, numbers matching including the MFI, although in need of the magic from Gus at Pacific Fuel injection and Norbert from Eurometrix… The photos show both the blood orange targa and my dad’s 911 S targa 9113310091in the driveway and are the only photos of 9112110963 I can find in the garage being reassembled… Strange, as seen in the photos, it is just back from being resprayed, and in the process of going back together… I know I must have taken more photos (maybe they will turn up in a box one day)… It ended up with a friend…

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9112111273:

I bought this car, and a friend, Paul, had just recently crashed his BMW 635i, and was in need of a car, I threw him the keys, and that was that… He crashed it a couple years later, and it was an insurance write off… I have no photos, but have the CoA…

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9113100739:

I don’t remember much about how I came across 9113100739 or where it went… no photos, just CoA

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9113102684:

My friend Carlo traded this car to me – more on that later… It was gold metallic and reminded me of Doc Haslam’s 912 from when I was a kid in Indy… I only have the CoA, and hope Carlo turns up some photos…

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9113102869:

This was a nice T other than the rear license panel… I ended up selling this to a friend, I had too many 911s, but kept buying more… 

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UNKNOWN 1973 911T:

I can’t really remember this one… clearly around the time I have 9110123749 (pastel blue), but I have no idea where it came from or where it went… Looks like pretty clean though, even still has the front ’73 USA only front bumperettes…

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9113103419:

I can’t remember much about buying this one, but I remember I found a unique 911T, made towards the end of the run… I think the factory was trying to get rid of parts for the G models or fulfil some special orders… and this one had an RS ducktail, RS flares (not listed on CoA, so maybe added by dealer) and a front S spoiler… Sadly, I can’t seem to find any photos (hopefully will turn up in a box), but I have the CoA, and I think this one might have gone Carlo’s way… Hopefully he can shed some light where my memory is failing… 

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THE ROCKET MAN & HORSE TRADING:

I first met Carlo (my911s on PP), when I put 119301377 up for sale… I had decided a ’69 911S wasn’t for me, and was addicted to the increased torque and drivability of the 2.4 liter S engines, and for sure the RS engine in 9113300757…

Carlo had called, we chatted about 911s and the ’69 S, and he came to have a look… we hit it off straight away, and just hung out chatting about 911s for a while… Carlo worked at JPL (Jet Propulsion Labs - https://www.jpl.nasa.gov) at the time – my first encounter with a real-life rocket scientist! 

I’m not quite sure how Carlo and I ended up making a deal for 9113301270 instead of 119301377 (maybe he does) … Especially with the sentimental significance 9113301270 had for me… but that is what happened… I would go on to have an interesting path and 9113301270 – but more on that later…

In any case– Carlo traded me a 1973 911T 9113102684 “a CIS car” and some cash for 9113301270 if memory serves… then, later I wanted 9113301270 back, and he wanted a ’72 911S I had recently bought in Arizona 9112300825, and we ended up trading those two… Not sure what he did with the ’72… He will need to fill in the blanks there…

Then, somehow, he convinced me to sell 9113300757… I think he was going to make an RS replica out of it, and it had a real RS engine, so perfect car to start with… or maybe we traded again, my memory is fuzzy on this one…And can’t for the life of me imagine why I let my favorite car get away…

Carlo (my911s) – need your help here on memories and photos if you have any… Carlo still has the California license plate – MY911S – which I picked up for 9113300757… HELP! 

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PAY DIRT - 9112501899:

Finally a 72 911T showed up in the Recycler (LA weekly classified paper)… I used to pick it up early… I started going to where they printed it, or maybe distributed it, maybe it was both… Mainly because I could get it at around 6am on Thursday morning (my memory may be off, but that is what is in my head) instead of waiting for it to get to the news agents…

After a very early morning call to discuss the car, I arranged to come right away to see it… I always found how willing someone was to talk about selling their car at about 6am on Thursday a good gauge of how motivated they were to sell… is this an “O the good old days” moment… 

Can’t remember where in L.A. 9112501899 was located… When I showed up to see it, I found it was in pretty good shape – especially for a European RoW car that had found its way to California – no idea to this day how many previous owners there were, or which one brought ‘1899’ to the USA… ‘1899’ was Bahia red with a black interior, had factory installed sport seats with corduroy inserts, S package, with a weird style fiberglass S front spoiler… and the wrong engine… not a big problem for me, as I wanted to change it anyway to the Euro Carrera 3.0… but, instead of a 2.4 liter T engine with Zeniths (RoW cars had carbs)… it actually had a ’73 2.4 liter S engine, albeit missing the MFI system, and with Weber 40s (I have no record of the engine number)… Not bad for a “wrong engine”… 

After a pretty thorough once over to look for rust – I couldn’t find any, and none turned up later… I bought ‘1899’ for the princely sum of 4,500 USD! I finally had my race car!

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CONTINUING EDUCATION – CONVERSION TO A RACE CAR:

Later that day, I brought 9112501899 to Otto’s for John, Tom and the guys to see, tell me if I screwed up, and if not, start the process of converting it into a race car… It was to be a phased process, as I learned to race, tried to increase my skill, and figure out the right class for me and ‘1899’…

PHASE 1:

Phase 1 for ‘1899’ was to basically upgrade the mechanical components and keep the body/chassis mainly stock for now…

With John’s guidance (orders), “I” or I should say it was decided instead of a complete strip down and rebuild to full SCCA GT2 race spec… we would work in phases… I’m not sure, but I have a feeling John was steering me this way for one of three reasons…

1. making it easier for me to handle budget-wise and talent-wise, and move up at a rate that worked for both… I started with PCA and POC events before getting my SCCA race license…
2. making it easy for me to change my mind about racing, especially if I wasn’t any good at it, and still have a car that was basically a street car or easily put back to street car spec…
3. ensuring I would be a good customer, as I kept upgrading and replacing components and spending money…

Maybe it was all three combined… 

In any case, for phase 1, we would basically keep ‘1899’s’ body intact, a narrow body ’72 with rolled / flattened wheel arch edges to clear the tires on the wider 7x15 Fuchs, and upgrade all the mechanical components…

I needed parts… John had given me a shopping list of used parts to find, so off I went to the next Pomona swap meet (https://www.pomonaswapmeet.com)… I had been going to the Pomona swap meet for a while, and knew it was just the place to find everything I would need… For those that don’t know, the Pomona swap meet back then was held about every month at the L.A. County fairgrounds, near Pomona, a city within L.A. County, about 50 miles from where I lived in Marina Del Rey, and not too far from what was left of the Ontario Motor Speedway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Motor_Speedway), and on the way to Riverside International Raceway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers...tional_Raceway), still there for a while, with the last club race held in 1989… I got to see some racing there, but unfortunately, never got to drive the circuit…

Back to Pomona… I ended up finding an aluminum front suspension cross member, used 3.2 Carrera brake callipers, another 915 gearbox with an LSD inside, and a pair of Fuchs 7x15s for the rear tires, and since I was shopping, a set of H4 headlights for 9113301270… I would eventually get a set for ‘1899’, but not this trip – I’ve just always liked the look of the RoW vs the USA headlights…

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PHASE 1 EXECUTION:

Back at Otto’s with my “new to me” parts… I was given a corner to disassemble and clean everything I had bought, and to start stripping ‘1899’ – the suspension, brakes, and ‘dropping the engine and gearbox for refreshing… John and the guys would keep watch over me, out of the corner of their eyes, and every time I looked perplexed or about to royally screw something up, would come and help me out… If it was John, it was usually accompanied by one of his many favourite phrases, like “that’s dumber than a football bat”… and sometimes followed with “time for you to get the f**k out of my shop”, and a laugh… I have to say, I learned so much and had a great time at Otto’s working on the race car and various other early 911s, and John, Tom and the guys were always really supportive… Again, I was firmly in camp 1 with regards to John…

So, with Tom ordering whatever new parts were needed, and me doing a lot of cleaning, we started the upgrades… The suspension stayed with torsion bars, but got larger ones (I can’t remember the sizes, as we changed them a couple of times), the used aluminum front cross member was cleaned up and installed, new Bilstein shocks all around, 3.2 Carrera brake callipers were rebuilt, and installed with new Carrera discs and circuit oriented brake pads (can’t remember which brand or compound), stainless steel brake hoses, new master cylinder, rebuilt pedal cluster, adjustable front and rear stabilizer bars, a bolt in shock tower brace, adjustable rear spring plates, and all the parts to install a ’72 front oil cooler, a fire extinguisher, and all new fuel lines, oil lines, wheel bearings, etc…

The gearbox and LSD was rebuilt, John had a lot of used gear sets for both 901 and 915 gearboxes, but I just can’t remember what ratios went in (I’ve got notes somewhere, but can’t seem to find them)… John was adamant that the right ratios for each circuit, was a must use weapon in the Porsche factory arsenal, and would give me an edge / opportunity to beat other (better) drivers even in more powerful cars… I ended up with 4 gearboxes with ratios for specific circuits I would race at (Holtville, Willow Springs, the Streets at Willow Springs, and Buttonwillow), so it was easier to get ready for each race without having to strip 1 gearbox down each time, and they were about 500 bucks back then at Pomona… We started with 915s, but ended up going with 901s – with a 904 mainshaft, LSD, and circuit specific ratios… John had a preference for the 901, and they held up to all the punishment a racing season could throw at them… I never had a gearbox related failure, and that was racing in the heat of southern California… I also really like the shift pattern of the 901… Nothing wrong with a 915… I like them both…

Can’t remember which gearbox of all the ones I had this is of – I think it is the first 915 we did, because of the other photos it is with… In any case, these are the only photos I have of all the gearbox rebuilds at Otto’s… His shop always seemed a bit of a mess, but he seemed to know where everything was, and I never had a problem with anything John or the guys at Otto’s rebuilt, installed, etc… Never…

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I then got a lesson in rebuilding axles and CV joints… That was one of the messiest jobs I can ever remember doing… John had a little trick for CV boots he showed me… He said the boots would basically rip from the extreme heat of racing in the California desert, and he would stick the spray extension from a can of WD40 under the boot to allow air to escape from rapid expansion… Can’t really make it out in the photos… These are the only photos I have of the first phase…

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Then it was time for the engine… John checked it and pronounced the S engine as strong, and not in need of a rebuild yet… Also, he said that using the 2.4 liter S engine would allow me to run in a lower class, and give me time to learn with less power, and besides, we had the Euro Carrera 3.0 liter in 1193310010 to use as a base for a race engine, so I should use this one until it got too tired…

So, I got the task to clean it up… Then, John made sure it was adjusted and in spec, and we replaced the things that needed to be replaced… One task, was that I got a lesson in rebuilding Weber carbs… John did all the work on one side and I copied on the other… It was such a great opportunity to learn how to work on these cars… Once finished, we mated the engine to the refreshed 915 gearbox and into ‘1899’ she went… I have to say, that was the first 911 engine I was going to be responsible for cleaning, so I wanted it to look good… I removed all the engine tin, engine support (crossmember) and bracket, gearbox, etc., and bead blasted it in a cabinet I had bought and installed at home in the garage, and painted it all satin black, I bead blasted the fan and housing, and any parts John would let me do… Bead blasting became addictive for me… something about taking parts down to bare metal and restoring them…I’m sure I got the end finishes wrong, but I wasn’t focused on building a concours car… This was the beginning of my race car…

I’m not sure why we used a black shroud or why we left the MFI pump drive on the cam, since we went with the Webers… A mystery…

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9112501899 GETS A NAME:

It was around this time that John indicated I needed to name ‘1899’… That his race car was called Rudy… short for Rudolph… Rudy was a 914/6 SCCA GT2 spec race car… From memory, and others may know the car much better than me… It had a 2.9 liter engine built on a mag case, and mag case 901 gearbox running a 904 main shaft, and drilled lightened gears… It was ugly (to me) as my view of what a race car should look like, but John and Rudy had enough trophies and race wins to prove they were a potent combination…

And so, the first name that came to my mind was Gertrude… From that day on, ‘1899’ was known as Gertrude…

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FIRST CIRCUIT EVENT FOR GETRUDE & POC SLALOM JI CHAMP 1996:

My first track event with Gertrude in Phase 1 build was at the Streets of Willow Springs (https://www.willowspringsraceway.com...llow-springs/)... I can’t remember the exact date… But it started with Gertrude in POC class HI and we came in 2^nd on our first outing… I then moved up to JI, and ended up 1^st in 3 events, and that was enough to win the JI class for 1996… It was great fun…

Some photos of the day… Basically a modified road car… The weird front spoiler can be seen – kind of looks like it is for a front EU license plate, and since it was originally an EU car, maybe explains it…

Clearly I was proud of my engine detailing… 

And my placing in the events… (https://porscheclub.com/archived/eve...ite/sl96.html)...