Projekt Hoopty (here we go again) -- Coupe drawings

Stephen, I hope you realize that this "Hummer GT" in those colors may put Cory in a coma. At the very least he's gonna hurl!

WOW! A Hummer in Gulf colors, 28" wheels and Lambo doors. Did this guy leave anything out?

I've attached my tow strap to enough Hummers that I'm replacing my license plate frame with "Hummer Recovery Vehicle".

Cory - sounds like you REALLY NEED that vacation with your son in Alaska! Maybe when you get back you'll be able to think with a clear mind (I didn't say 'empty' - ALMOST, but I didn't!).

Isn't it great? Real life once again is dumber than anything I could have Photoshopped.

dem lam-bow-gi-ni dowz on dat es-ko-laid

My circle of friends just got smaller.
A Gulf-schemed Hummer with Lambo doors. Vile. Disgusting.
That one truck is the embodiment of everything I hate.

Ordinarily, I'd laugh. Not at that; that owner should be drawn (slowly) and quartered.

Jim, I don't know much about offroading but I know the H2 crowd likes to pretend they are driving military HumVees instead of Suburbans.

And Cory, I did throw up a little in my mouth when I saw that thing, but I knew it must be documented. Built by a German tuner.

http://news.windingroad.com/auto-news/geigercars-gulf-livery-hummer-gt/

one more just for you:

I've been holding on to this picture for a couple of days just because I knew Cory would be on vacation... This will drive him nuts when he gets back. I was afraid if I posted it before he left that he might not leave!!!

I've not seen this car in person, but allegedly, it is fiberglass, built on a 914 chassis (mid engined).
angela

...a chopped-top and a polished hood scoop! I NEED THAT AWESOME CAR IN MY GARAGE!!

That would be the 356-version replacement for one of my dream cars, a chopped & channeled '49 Mercury! WooHoo!

I want that car!

it looks like my wife's audi tt, are there more pictures? from different sides? I'd like to see what the rear looks like.

It's got great lines, very Art Deco. The reverse wipers and scoops look a little off though.

I'm with you Stephen, delete the wipers and the little scoop on the door. The other scoops are OK w/me and provide air to the mid-engine.

Sexy little beast isn't it? Figured Cory would have a meltdown when he saw it! As always Jim, your taste wavers enthusiastically between vintage elegant and just plain naughty! This car meets both.

angela

I saw that advertised for sale in the Pano about 9yrs ago. I believe it came from Australia.

I saved the ad but I have since misplaced it. That is the best looking outlaw I have seen (including Emory's outlaws).

http://www.runtrod.com/gallery/v/vw-main/porsche/356rod9.jpg.html

Angela that just mean! Screw Cory, now we're all gonna be out there trying to figure out how to pull that off! It's a cross between a speedster and a lemans spyder, that car is just plain SEXY, I must have it!

Angela - I'm sure Cory has his own issues on that Alaska Cruise he's taking with his son. Call it a hunch, but I bet right about now, Cory is duking it out with some fat dude from North Dakota over the last piece of pizza on the buffet line!! BWAAA HAAA HAAAA HAAAAA!!

I guess youse guys all know that I am, for lack of better word, a traditionalist, so all this hot air and heavy breathing over outlaws is, interesting, but is not where I live. That said, I do appreciate the art form known as hot-rodding, where-in regular Joes and other highly talented folks work miracles in tin and high performance mills, and of course paint. I mean it, what most do are works of art and express such creativity. This chopped (or whatever) car is something to behold. very long on creativity. I'd love to see it in person. Wonder where it is? And those wipers are so out, they're in. I'd have to see 'em for real to say yay or nay. You CA guys have all the luck. There's a show for these rods just about every week out there; back east, not so much . . . sigh.

Here it is, Dude:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=470667

I got a spare set of doors if you need 'em . . .

TC,

You know, I look at those pictures, and just want to cry. How does something that was so fine once upon a time, get abused and neglected so much? I guess they suffer death by a thousand cuts, and one day you take a good look and it is just sh--. My '61 B Coupe was sort of headed down that road, lo so many years ago, and that is how it came to be sold. [I had no $$ to fix it properly.] Anyway, maybe there is enough skin here that Cory can see a Coupty in all these dents and rust.

Here is a little story I watched personally. A friend of mine asked his neighbor what was under that tarp tucked up under his deck in the back yard. Turned out it was a '57 Speedster Guy had bought it new, drove it a few years, and parked it. Sat there for over 25 years, if you can believe it. My friend worked on his neighbor, got him to sell it, took it down to bare metal in every direction, got it to near concourse condition, and then sold it to pay for his kids college education. When it was done and he went to insure it, he realized he could not afford to keep it.

I think . . . THINK, anyway . . . that maybe 356's became SO old looking once the 912/911 profile was introduced that they simple fell out of favor. Lots of them became entry level track cars and were wrecked along with MGBs and Triumphs, others just got busted or left to rot.

They lost their edge during the pony car era. If you check out Bullitt, that McQueen film from '68, you can see that the cool guys drive muscle cars while their girlfriends drive 356 Cabriolets.

By the early 80's speed was king and wings were the thing for all of the European car manufacturers, especially Porsche. I guess that during that time, a LOT of 356's just got trashed or neglected past repairing.

A lot of potential 356 owners were, by this time, were convinced that a replica car was superior to a genuine 356. (Must have been those airport displays!) Rust was a deciding factor, forgetting that the fiberglass shell was, indeed, mounted on a metal pan at least ten years old and subject to as much potential for rusting as the real thing. As dune buggies on Beetle pans lost favor, 356 bodies on Beetle pans took over. Same essential product, same manufacturers in some cases, just a different shape with opening doors, but just flimsy fiberglass bolted in place of a Beetle body. Nothing really in common with the silhouette that it resembles other than a handful of trim pieces.

Of course, everything reaches a tipping point, a pendulum swing, a market correction, whatever. Right now everyone seems to be trying to turn back time and almost anything 356 is worth money once again.

I own two 356's and can't afford to buy either of them again, even in their current trashed condition. The knobs on the dashes are going for over three hundred dollars. I have three sets, plus spares in a little baggy. That's nearly a thousand dollars worth of little blobs of ivory plastic. That's just insane . . .



THATS what I think, anyway . . .

"Little blobs of plastic". Sort of like stamp collecting, I guess: just little scraps of paper. Whatever some other idiot will pay, is what they are worth. FWIW, I was never wholly won over by the early 911 styling. The 356 never got old in my eyes, and to this day the 356 shape continues to look good to me. Some of the later 911 versions and the variations on that theme avaialble today do look very sweet, I will admit. Not necessarily better, but different and very cool. I guess I just got caught in the '60s. I suppose worse things could have happened.

To me the 356 sure looks better than the Ford jelly bean cars. and the Toyoda Sion or the Prius. When something is right It's always right at any point in history.

Timeless!!!

"I've been holding on to this picture for a couple of days just because I knew Cory would be on vacation... This will drive him nuts when he gets back. I was afraid if I posted it before he left that he might not leave!!!"

Thanks, Angela. I've been trying to catch up on some 800 or so posts ... Any other viewing I might have missed?

Oh, and for the record ... I love that car.

I knew you would! You have good taste! I'm still out here in VA, but my flight plans have changed. I'm REAL pissed off because my mountain bike arrived with a bent derailleur hangar, so I have about 5 useable gears out of 27. Been riding in mornings, but need to stay on flat ground. Blech.

Missed you while you were gone, your pics are great. Suspect your girl and your hoopty both miss you too!

angela

Angela, give your voicemail a call.
I am trying to garner an opinion; have a listen, then give a shout, eh?
Sorry to hear about the bike!