new to the madness

Hi Everybody, I recently joined the site. I am not new to Porsches or older cars, my dad was a porsche mechanic and my first car was a 1966 912 (it was what he had laying around at the time)! I have never owned a speedster/replica but I am mechanically inclined and feel that I have a good grasp of what I'm getting into. I work in the motorcycle racing industry and have no problem dropping a motor, but that being said, I was hoping for some input from the experienced eyes on this site. I am watching a few cars on ebay and I like one in particular. What do you guys think about this one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1957-Porsche-Speedster-Replica-By-Vintage-Speedsters_W0QQitemZ220383217045QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item220383217045&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=72%3A317%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

I plan to attend Morro, hopefully I have a cool ride to bring with me!!

Thanks, Manny

Hi Manny, This looks like an awesome car. I have a Vintage and have been very happy with it. Kirk from Vintage makes a great car, and I can't say enough nice things about him. Good luck with the auction.

Hopefully, we will see you at Morro Bay.

Welcome to the Madness, Manny. That looks like a great one to get started with. Even the "Buy it Now" price is reasonable.

Check the classified section on this site. Joseph Anthony has a beautiful White CMC for sale. If I wasn't totally in love with my black Vintage I'd jump on that one in a heartbeat.

Manny

Welcome to the madness. VS makes a great car and I'm not one to discourage anyone interested in a VS. I would suggest, however, to wait until after Morro Bay, where you can look at many makes, before you purchase. My opinion, that price seems a little high for a VS with 11,000 miles. I had a 2006 VS that I sold for 19,500 with only 5,000 miles, just for reference. See you in Morro.

I appreciate the feedback everybody. I plan to take the ol' lady with me to Morro, hopefully I'll meet a few of you there.

Thanks!

Manny,
I hope you plan to come to Morro and meet all of us and see what we have for cars. Even if you don't have one by then you are welcome to come and drive anything with wheels ( Sharon and I did for the first three years).

Be sure to get signed on for the Banquet and remember the Brown Bag Gift Exchange (read about it on the opening info on this site). I guarantee you will have a ball!!

See you there.

Happy Trails,
Dusty and the Lovely Miss Sharon

Thanks guys. I am looking forward to visiting Morro and taking it easy with the old lady. If someone was nice enough to let me take a spin I promise to be nice. I ride motorcycles a lot and do many track days. These are my two main toys at Laguna Seca.

Well, the Speedy will still put a little wind in your face and it should not result in holes in your kness ;-) It will definitely be a more civilized adventure than the bikes -- one I think you will truly enjoy. I'm going to say that it will really be hard to get the Speedster up on two wheels, but I suppose someone, somewhere has managed that. Generally, you will not be looking at road rash as a possible outcome. In any event, Welcome to the madness.

Our Speedy is the closest thing to two wheels I have ever owned, vette conv, t-top trans am etc nothing else comes close

Richard

Sweet Manny! I race Spec 125cc go karts and I'm doing my first bike track day April 20th. I'm thinking about selling my kart and just doing the bike thing. What kind of motard is that?

I think you'll like it Mickey, track days are a blast, still the thing I look forward to most when I have time. The blue bike is my Yamaha R1, my main track bike. But I blew the motor at Sears Point (Infineon) so I took my daily driver on my last trip to Laguna. Its not a motard but the upright bars make it look like it. Thats a Ducati Monster S4Rs. Naked bike with the full on Testastretta 999 motor.

Man, I didn't understand a word of Manny's last post. Didn't see flat heat, knuckle head, ape hangers or soft tail mentioned once! Motor bikes are made in Japan? Ha, a different world.

Nice Manny.

Wolfgang,
Bikes are made in Italy too. Nice bikes.

Hey Mickey,

Get rid of the cart, they are too competitive and it makes your butt and back hurt.

Michael

Motor bikes ROCK!

I read somewhere - an R6 can kill you, an R1 WANTS to kill you...

Sure miss my motor bike. The next one is a K series BMW.

angela

Motor bikes ROCK!

I read somewhere - an R6 can kill you, an R1 WANTS to kill you...


HAHA!! You guys are hilarious. You are right about the R1, Steve. Secretly I'm sure it wants to kill me. It was already fast, but last year a pro engine builder buddy of mine put a kit head gasket in, degreed the cams and re-cut the valve seats, slight port, etc. After that the thing feels like it will rip your arms out when you nail it. It makes 153hp at the rear wheel on my dyno with race fuel and weighs probably less than 400 lbs. I'm a bike guy to the core but Speedsters are calling my name.

Michael,
Not just the back and butt, also the legs getting banged into the fuel tank and steering column supports, the ribs, the forearms, etc. The only thing that doesn't get bruised is my head (thankfully) and my feet.
I LOVE that picture!
I'm committed to a full schedule this year with the kart but I'm also doing some track days on one of my buddies bikes. He has a ZX6r that he's looking to sell. I figure at the end of the season if I'm likin the bike thing I'll sell my kart and buy his bike. It should be a pretty even deal.
The kart racing takes me too far away too often. I race saturdays and sundays and it's about 150 miles from my house. The bike gig is just one day with more track time and the track is only an hour away.
We'll see? I really do love my kart. Maybe I'll just do both!!!

Fats bikes, fast karts, track time, uh...


...I hate you guys...

Hey, bikes rule...

Somebody got's a woodie...

Hey - English Morgans have a wooden frame in their cars, and they are pretty fast cause they are light!

I was wondering what your insurance company thought of your bike?

Hey Al, does Kim sell classic termite insurance?

~WB

David, David, David...

Morgans have wood in the frames of the bodywork, not the chassis. Probably due to the inability to get termite insurance on cars. Now Marcos' on the other hand...

has anyone ever done a phsychological study of thread drift? This si so bizarre -- and wonderful. You can't get this kind of entertainment for free anywhaere else. I love it.

PS: angela only uses Steve's account on the SOC. Beware: you are dealing w/ a serious gear-head in this woman. She will set you straight on many a thing, so be careful . . .

Kelly, thread drift is one thing, but how about that spelling thing...

Type fast - fat fingers -- late at night -- you get what you get. Go pester Theron to add a spell checker to his already most-amazing website. That mite fix it ;-)

PS: Vince, MGM, you got that ticket to Carlisle punched yet? Sure hope so.

Hey Vince, Kelly must be dyslexic, like my old man used to say, he's not a smart feller he's a ---- smeller! LOL, no offense Kelly just pulling your chain!

Not dislexia, that I know about. Just my hunt-and-peck style, and the fat fingers and late hours, etc. I usually proof read everything I type and send out, but obviously missed a lot on the note above. Meanwhile, I guess we've all seen the thing that went around that had all of the words seriously misspelled and it was still quite readable. It was an exercise in the adaptability and other wondrous functions the human brain posesses. Well, most humans brains, at any rate.

I know that MGAs had plywood floors on metal chassis. Given England's weather, I guess it's a race between wood rot and rust.

Lane - Had a friend in college (Bill Willoughby) who had a TR4 based Morgan (this was 1970 so dating myself). Recall the door actually falling off on one trip. Even the floor "board" was plywood. Thing really handeled in part due to the flexing of that chassis - a wheel would never lift.

Well, while we're on the subject, my old '56 Typ A coupe had a plywood floor in the back. And odd bits of sheet metal applied to the underside where the floor pan, rocker panels and so forth used to be. I also had to refasten the lower front stabilizer frame ("V" shaped piece of sheet metal) from the wheels to the center of the body (there is a great picture of what that is supposed to looklike on the site TC posted recently of a truly gorgeous restored Speedster for sale -- no doubt for many hundreds of thousands of scheckles.) Anyway, not being any good w/ a welder, and not being able to afford someone who was, I fasted more sheet metal between the two parts with screws like a splint. Sorta worked. Looking back on all of that, I consider how they made those cars back then a crime against humanity. They must have started to rust the day after they were made.

Let's not give old rusty metal too bad of a rap. The thing to remember is that the ALLOY of steel that was available to the auto industry was pretty bad. It was state of the art, but it was still pretty bad stuff. And the available coatings that the auto industry applied to that sheet metal was pretty bad also.

Could they have done better? Yes, but what is the competition doing and what are they charging for a competing product. Can we charge more for a superior product? Probably not for steel the customer will never see anyhow. Guess you could call it "planned obselescence."

In Detroit, in the 60s, we used to say a good used Porsche was one where you could see right thru thru the rocker panels to the inside of the car. A bad used Porsche was one where you could see right thru the rocker panels looking from front to back! Detroit is built over a salt mine, in the winter, the streets were covered with salt like a bad dirt road.

I had my driver's side seat on my old '58 coupe braced underneath with a 2X4.There was very little pan left under the seat at all. I was in school at the time and could barely afford the gas, let alone body work. I could look down and see the highway zipping by under my feet.It was a dry-weather coupe! But it was still the most fun I ever had driving.

Dan,
Thanks for the reminder about all the fun. Of course it was. So much so that when the rust was so bad on the '56 that it was dangerous, I got a '61 S90 that was in pretty good shape, and drove that until it got rusty. That was even more fun. Still, it was getting rusty and needed fixing, but mortgage and family would not allow, so, after I let it sit for a couple of years, I sold it. [BIG mistake, of course.] Fast fwd to 2007 and the Speedster. Now I REALLY am having the best time ever. And I do not think about rust.

"Now I REALLY am having the best time ever. And I do not think about rust."

Amen to that!