Interesting 356 related thing happened at Litchfield SHow

I managed to make it all the way from home to the Litchfield VW Show in my clapped out Ghia. Other than losing the right front brakes (again) and snapping a speedo cable, all went well.

While at the show, I was hanging around with the judge for the Specialty Vehicle class and one of the organizers. I was telling them about an incredible 356 Speedster from NH. (With "356" as the first numbers of the plate,) It was an ivory Intermeccanica Speedster, with square weave carpet, a PERFECT light brown interior, dual driving lamps and all the correct details. It was a PERFECT car in every way, right down to the umbrella e-brake conversion.

I steered them BOTH to the car, urging the judge to look closely at how well everything was detailed out to present it as a genuine 356. They both then mentioned that it WAS a genuine 356. I argued that it wasn't and showed them that it was indeed a beautiful replica. They said that the owner said that it was a FACTORY built car and such.

It occurred to me much later that the owner probably meant that it was an Intermeccanica FACTORY built car, NOT a Porsche factory built car.

I HOPE that he won as the car was wonderful! I hope that the judge understood . . .

Yes, that is an Intermeccanica 'factory built' car. Same one that won the prize at Carlisle this year.

Oh. forgot to ask . . . Gordon, you made it to the MOT German Car Day lawn event, any pictures for us all. Or at least a full report?

I think that was Ted Hatem's car from NH.....He emailed me that he was going to Litchfield and yes, he has a terrific IM. In fact, I think he won "Best in show" at Carlisle this year.

I met with a couple of guys from the Type 356 club to drive up to Boston. We did the usual hour and fifteen minute trip from Fall River to Brookline in an hour flat! I was following a real 55 Speedster and a 64 Super 90 Coupe. The Speedster is a 100 pointer and is truly authentic in every way (he was showing me his interior courtesy lights - a key-chain LED gizmo - after I showed him my freshly installed foot-well lamps (absolutely non-standard in a Speedster)).

We met up with about 15 other members at a Dunkin Donuts near the Museum of Transportation and, of course, a bunch of heads turned to see the "new car" (me), and I was warmly welcomed into the group. Then we all paraded through Newton over to the Museum to arrive and park as a group, until the Museum decided to split up cars by year groupings (pre and post-1960) so we kind-of lost our big presence a bit. There were 5 of us pre-60 cars there.

All told, there were about 30 356's there, from '54 to '64, a mix of all body styles including a 550 replica. There were two replica's in the group, Pearl the Speedster and the 550 (also the NE Type 356 club founder's car). As much as I was looking all over the other cars (including the 8 912's there) to see how Porsche did things on the real versions, the other members were looking closely at Pearl and saying "Hey! Look how he did THIS!" Other cars of note: The '55 Speedster I followed up won "Best Porsche", a nice '80 slant nose Cab, a dark blue 87 Custom Speedster (looked cool), a couple of nice 6-series BMW's, some Yuppie Baby Boomer with his 2004 Mercedes SLR (a collaboration with McLaren with only 9 built at $500K EACH!), a 1950 Mercedes 180 (think of the family car in the Sound of Music) that won "Show Favorite" and a South African DKW with the 2-cylinder, 2-stroke later used in the early Saab. Not a bad day, even if it was really overcast....

This is definitely a drivers club....they have over 50 member cars driving to Stowe Vermont next weekend for their Big seasonal run - up to 5 or 6 hours one way. Last year, 6 members drove to Pebble Beach and back for the 50'th Anniversary 356 gathering. Several others are heading to Quebec this Summer for the GP and they have something going on every week and weekend during the Summer and Fall (31 in all!!)

The trip home was just the Speedster and me, and the driver asked if my car gets hot when I run it fast, as he usually runs between 75 - 85 on a turnpike!?!?!?!? I said that was fine with me and we smoked it all the way home (running a nice 200 (F) on the dip stick at 4000 rpm).

I LIKE THIS CLUB!!!!
Pictures later today........
Gordon