Just picked up this new Speedster. Black/black, skinny tires, 1500 cc engine. Runs ok, needs a bit of fine tuning. My first speedster! @chines1 looked it over for me, and @Former Member received the car for me on arrival.
I'm gonna get burned by Teby in his @Pat Downs 2L speedster, but I'll just enjoy the fumes :-)
Anand
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I like the Pre-A look. 
Bet you get tired of that 1500 cc engine.
Love the beehives, congrats Anand!!
Wow. I'm envious. Looks amazing!
I love everything about this speedster
Arajani! Welcome to the madness!
Who manufactured this beautiful creature? It's just terrific! 1955 all the way!
Cory I believe this one was manufactured by a little German company that goes by the name of Porsche. 
The real deal?
Lane Anderson posted:Cory I believe this one was manufactured by a little German company that goes by the name of Porsche.
LOL
Yes! I've heard they put out a pretty nice product!
I kept looking at the pics, thinking, wow! -- they shaved down the tunnel AND moved the hand brake! And sprang for the steering wheel and column, too! 
I don't think I've ever seen a $300,000 Speedster introduced so casually! LOL
Cory McCloskey posted:Lane Anderson posted:Cory I believe this one was manufactured by a little German company that goes by the name of Porsche.
LOL
Yes! I've heard they put out a pretty nice product!
I kept looking at the pics, thinking, wow! -- they shaved down the tunnel AND moved the hand brake! And sprang for the steering wheel and column, too!
I don't think I've ever seen a $300,000 Speedster introduced so casually! LOL
Take a look at Anand's profile (and other cars) and you'll understand why the good doctor is so low-keyed...
Beautiful, Anand! We hope to see you at SLO in June. Tebs can tag along if he must.
Congrats. Pure and clean!
Love! Congrats!
Congrats, very nice... Anand, what happened to that roadster Carey built for you or is it also history 
Your going from one baby to another ... have fun Ray
Stunning. Bet you're gunna want to stick a suby turbo in that thing.
Phil IM356D posted:Stunning. Bet you're gunna want to stick a suby turbo in that thing.
I'll take that bet. Anand is old skool.
Anand and I talked about throwing one of his leftover 356 gearboxes in this one with a big CB motor just to play with, but who knows...
This car has a WAY cool history, but I'll let Anand share the details.
And, YES, for those of you who guessed that the "builder" was Porsche, indeed it was, back in 1954 (November 23rd IIIRC)
As far as Anand's GT coupe that we did, I am proud to say it was prominently on display at Wilhoit's open house this past weekend and it drew a TON of attention... and then someone had to have it worse than Anand...
Hey Arnand. If the guy who bought your killer Beck spyder ever wants to sell, let me know. Beautiful car. Or maybe I'll just get Carey to make me my own.
Love the speedy. First class.
Someone needed badly ......Well if you can build em and be living in a marketplace area where there are interested buyers ... why not enjoy your hobby and keep building, restoring etc, as you can even drive your toys for a while then part with them and make a little or a lot and keep playing until someone does not want your toy. After all creating the projects is really the fun...
The real story here is that you guys missed out on the premiere unveiling of Teby's recently finished garage. He went from an unsightly mess of a space to a newly completed, freshly painted, fully sheet-rocked, enclose the water heater, put in LED lighting, and create an attic/storage space type garage. And to think he did all of this JUST to receive Anand's new Porsche.
I'd also like to add that I think it was WAY COOL of Anand to register this beauty in my name. Thanks Anand, what a guy!!
@arajani @Former Member
Anand, congratulations on a beautiful (real) car.
If you come to SLO, you better watch out, that beautiful grey steering wheel may end up on Whitecloud. (I think I have a steering wheel fetish)
We would love to hear about the provenance of your car. I love watching (and re-watching) the piece on Petrolicious about the '56 Speedster that was almost exclusively raced until purchased and restored by the current owner, fascinating!
Oh, and you can wake up Robert now, he's been dreaming long enough!
Great score on that beautiful car, Anand!
Hope to see you in SLO in whatever car you decide to drive. Take care, my friend! 
Will Hesch posted:Anand, congratulations on a beautiful (real) car.
If you come to SLO, you better watch out, that beautiful grey steering wheel may end up on Whitecloud. (I think I have a steering wheel fetish)
We would love to hear about the provenance of your car. I love watching (and re-watching) the piece on Petrolicious about the '56 Speedster that was almost exclusively raced until purchased and restored by the current owner, fascinating!
Oh, and you can wake up Robert now, he's been dreaming long enough!
Anand doesn't always travel with a bodyguard but when he does it's me!! Hands off the steering wheels Will.
Its the real deal and 1500 CC pre-A will draw the attention of the P folks. A great looking speedster. Have a great time cruising Anand 
Very cool Anand! The 4th, 5th and 6th pics were the giveaways; the rubber floor mats, the tunnel (or lack of) and the under dash emergency brake and I was thinking "look what he's done now"...Congratulations! Al
I just love this car, no doubt about it. But he can't park it at the grocery store and walk away from it, or at least I wouldn't. I can drive the heck out of my car, not worry about the miles I'm putting on it or the cost of maintaining it.
It sure is a beauty though and I'd love to drive it.... at least once.
@PaulEllis. At the end of the day, it's just a car, and meant to be driven and experienced; regardless of price or rarity
There's no better display of this than at the historics in Monterey. Watching a $55mil 250GTO tearing around the track, driven like it was stolen. Driven like it was meant.
Agreed, I guess if you can afford a car like this, replacing it or maintenance cost isn't an issue.
If you can do it, and you want it, then go for it.
Life is too short, and can be cut off at any moment.
My Grandpa Meyer was a farmer. He tilled 160 acres of flat-black and raised 6 kids. All of them had a good deal of spin on the ball. Half of them left town to go to college, and came back once or twice a year if they could summon up the gumption. They were too urbane for the hick-town, and were sometimes (when their guard was down) ready to point out how small-minded those of us who stayed really were. Professors and diesel mechanics sharing a reunion every couple of summers. Good times.
Dad came from a family of 16 kids. His father was a Serbian immigrant who cut meat and started a supermarket in Akron, Ohio in the '30s. Dad's brothers and sisters were all crazy successful, but only three of them went to school. The overarching characteristic of all of them was their toughness and dogged determination. They all possessed a sense of destiny-- that failure really wasn't an option. For them, it really wasn't.
Dad was a plumber, who was skilled enough in all trades to build a dozen or so homes (including mine) with minimal/no help. He doesn't suffer fools kindly. Mom finished 3 years at ISU before she chucked it to marry Dad, but none of the rest of us went to college. We worked. We lived in Mom's hometown, which meant we were the part of the family who decided to be losers. We didn't care, we were too busy busting it and building things.
So it's easy for a blue-collar guy like me to lump buyers of classic cars neatly into "the stereotype". You know the caricature: educated, but worthless at anything outside of his speciality. Mechanically inept. Stuck-up. Afraid to drive their car because it might get a rock-chip or bug-splatter. More concerned with looking good than being good.
... and then you meet a guy like Anand.
He may be one of the smartest dudes I've ever met. He's a neonatal ICU doc-- he works with tiny little babies, helping them make it through some ridiculous situations. My grandsons were in NICU for 12 weeks, so I know the pressure this guy works under. He's unrelentingly kind and generous. He just loves air-cooled cars-- talking to him, you get the vibe that he's just as excited about a plastic clown-car as he is about his 99 point, original, low-mile, numbers' matching Porsche Speedster. It's just different strains of the same illness. He can afford cool stuff, so he buys it. That's really the primary difference.
With the "professor uncles" on my Mom's side, I always get the feeling that they are looking down on the rest of us, even though we have had more successful lives by pretty much any metric. We're the rubes who went nowhere. With my Dad's family, I stopped going to reunions because I figured it'd be quicker and easier to just mail in a copy of my 1040 and save the time.
Anand's not that guy. He'll drive the car, and probably let people with no business driving a half-million dollar machine (guys like me) take a spin as well. I can easily see him taking out the numbers-matching 1500 lump, sealing it up for reinstallation at some later date, and dropping in a Pat Downs 2332-- you know, just for the fun of it.
If ever there was a guy who should own an original speedster, it's this guy. Anand is the man.
Ditto. to what Stan said. I have only had a couple of interactions with Anand, and they were about his connections to an old and dear friend whose outlaw speedster Anand had driven via John Wilhoit.
He was very kind in helping my friend and I to reconnect.
He is the man.
..."just mail in a copy of my 1040 and save the time."...
classic, going in my back pocket for future use, thanks Stan!
X2 on Anand. He helped me out on my build last year for no other reason than he is a good person. When I first started toying with the idea of stone grey he was the first person to send me links. He also sent the paint sample from John Willhoit to Carey, which Carey crushed of course.
@Sacto Mitch Anand already owns that "other motor" LOL It was going to be used in his coupe project before we went the 356 push-rod route.
all the above re: @arajani is correct. he is the kindest guy you'll ever meet. He started out as a good client and has become one of my closest friends.
This is one of the things I like best about this group - the wide range of folks from different parts of society brought together through the love of a adult toy that many would find silly. This is where I really enjoy the Big Tent.
@Stan Galat, @chines1, @Joe Fortino, @MusbJim @Panhandle Bob, Thanks for all of your kind words. You all have become my closest friends, and I appreciate the incredible community we have here.
@PaulEllis -- you're right! This car is definitely one that will stress you out at the local supermarket. I have said -- and I maintain -- that there is no better car than the one that @chines1built for me -- my 550 Spyder replica. I was never afraid to drive it, everything was fixable without spending a fortune, and it drove like a dream.
That said, I love details. I love history. This car has both -- and these sorts of things keep me interested in the original cars as well as the replicas.
This 54 Speedster was #121 out of the first 200 made in late 1954. They were made from Cabriolet bodies that year. This car was produced the same day as James Dean's. It was the last to have a two piece VW case, no front sway bar, and an under dash heater knob. There's loads of things that are just "a little different" from the later Speedsters, and I love that quirky stuff.
All in all, it is cool for different reasons than our replicas. But then again, variety is the spice of life.
Anand
Very cool, thanks for your reply. I retire in September and I want a Beck 550 in addition to the Speedster. I'll have to get some special customizing done so my head doesn't stick up over the windshield. We just fired up the new 2180 yesterday and broke it in. I sounds great.
PaulEllis posted:Very cool, thanks for your reply. I retire in September and I want a Beck 550 in addition to the Speedster. I'll have to get some special customizing done so my head doesn't stick up over the windshield. We just fired up the new 2180 yesterday and broke it in. I sounds great.
Man, I wish you lived in Irvine, CA and could come over to help me build an engine! I'd pay you in various micro brews and Jameson
Got any video of that 2180??
Lane wrote: ..."through the love of a adult toy"
Lane, care to rephrase?
Paul, Good for you on the retirement thing where every day is Saturday...be sure to keep busy, exercise and allow the inner kid we all still have inside to escape now and then :~)
Lane I think the issue is simple.
While it does take some time In life to figure things out ie: mature You need to be yourself and be real ... you can't be someone else ! Life may not be fair but accepting your lot in life and remembering that there is nothing you have that was not given to you frees you from chasing impossible goals which are the other guys giftings . Remembering that most things achieved come with a lot of sweat for everybody ... use your gifts to the fullest and excel at them and appreciate the others giftings we all need the other guys gifts because I
" Got to be me" "Got to be me"
I am not what I do for a living, what I own or how much Money I have
I am just Me ... Mr Wonderful to me
and Your Wonderful too
now back to cars
