Six weeks clean and sober . . .

When it's snowing or raining, or colder than --- or even just gloomy grey, like what we get here most of the winter, it's easy to resist tempatation and avoid the addiction. But since mid 40's and bright clear sunshine can pass for a Speedster day here in the mid-Atlantic, I confess to having fallen off the wagon -- or having fallen in to it, depending on your point of view. I have a circuit in the close environs, two-lane twisties, takes about 20 mins +/-, and the neighbors were obligingly scarce on these roads today, and so I had a fix. One fellow even pulled over to let me by -- tip o' the hat, there. Maybe he was not satisfied just to gawk through his rear-view mirror. Screw Betty Ford -- I can't be cured . . .

That a boy!! Find something else to keep you busy. AS long as its not your wife . I don't think you want any more kids at our age.

Its been 22 years for me.

Yeah baby - that's what I'm dreamin' about - more top down weather. C'mon spring & Carlisle!!!! Thanks for the virtual fix kelly! Way to go! It was 62 degrees but RAINING today here in PA. . . . . I gotta rethink selling the speedy.

Now THAT'S what I like to hear, Tom. I had mine out yesterday with just a T-shirt on (me, not the car), and it was great!. Remember, the body needs sunshine to produce vitamins A and D - both necessary to be healthy. Maybe you can write it off as a health-related expense.

We finally got some rain here But its so mucky here I dont want to roll it out and get it dirty. i still havent had time to get it ready to be lined up.

I havent had time or felt like adjusting the rear suspencion up to match the new front beam.

Had La Bomba out this weekend. Roads relatively dry, until Sunday night, but its a great driver. I dont really mind driving with the low bow top up. Its nice and cozy, heated seats, great heat from the vents, side and defrost, I can really get used top this. I put the top down just to appreciate how it will look in the Spring. Man, nailing it is really a thrill, all 250 horses and a screaming exhaust note!

Howard,
Your next assignment is to take that monster out to a wide, dry, straight highway section and video (with sound of course ) a 0-100 run so we can all appreciate the engine noise and the scenery flying by. I love my little 85 hp cars, I can't imagine what an e-ticket ride 250 hp must be.

Howard: How are you going to keep the front in place at 100+MPH? I have lost track: where, exactly, are all those horses? In front of the rear axel?

PS to Tom: Keep the Speedster. It's paid for, right? Things can't be that bad -- at least I hope not.

IM 's frame design locates the motor appox 75mm further foward than on the original, while not a mid-engine car by any means, its does give the car a less rearward bias. Ive owned 911's and this car just dosen't break loose, very neutral and sure footed. Ive had it up to 110, and it dosen't catch air at all. Very sure footed. I will have to get the sound of this flat six on tape, MK exhaust built an a free flow exhaust which is a deep growl, no cat, no nothing, except G-force power. Car is unbelievably fast, yet stable, brakes well modulated with 911 components.

Good for you, Kelly! We're back in town for a couple days now. Funny ... I don't know where Teresa put my key!

Howard, I am as green as my coupe. Can't wait for that video!

Howard,

I'm not quite sure how to put this, but seems to me you are driving a brand new 1957 911 Porsche Speedster, and we're driving clever remakes of various kinds of VWs that look like a 1957 Speedster. My hat's off to you and of course the master up north who makes this truly awesome machine. It will be TFA to see and hear this car someday. Carlisle this year?? What a treat that would be.

Henry has asked me to bring "La Bomba" to Carlisle this year, so he can showcase this 'Speedster 6 custom". Im happy to oblige. Not only to show off the car to interested parties, but also as a way to "pay back" a wonderful building experience from start to finish. Nothing left undone, every reasonable request integrated in this build.I could go on and on, it wasn't cheap, but what I have is a car that will NEVER age! It will always be what it once was, and will always be, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Its a sub- 5 second car!

Hopefully it's only indoors for a little while, or that weekend might suck for you, Howard ... Speedsters of ANY ilk need sunlight ...
Congrats on being asked to showcase the three-fifty-"six" though! Cool beans!

About the "clean and sober" guy -- I'm pretty sure that was a metaphor.
I bet'cha that right now, 2253 hours EST, he's glued to a telescope, looking for a fireball over the Pacific. He's probably clutching a big glass of barley, malt and hops in a steadfast Kung-Fu Grip.

(I think he gets to keep his job if the ship hits the space-cluttering defunct Peeping Tom satellite with a missile and it goes ker-bloooie.)

I'll confess: I was asleep. Apparently ker-blooie was the order of the day, according to the Wash Post. Like shootin' fish is a barrel -- really tiny and fast fish in a VERY large barrel. My guys did good.

PS to Howard: Does your car come with drool protection? Can't wait to see/hear it.

SNOW SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! I've been locked in the house for months! The shop would take a week to warm up and I only have a little time to work each month. The garage up front is so full of salt I have little salt palaces all over the place and no way I'm welding under 40 degrees! I have a steering assembly I have to design but I can't get to the car as my beetle is in storage in front of it!
AAAAAGGGGHHHHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll just go in the basement and sulk....
:P
Jeff

You can live vicariously through me. It's 70 here and I'm taking the Speedie to a cruise-in in an hour.

Lane, you're always rubbing it in . . .

Payback comes in July - aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!

73 degrees today. Worked on the Coyote!!!!! Happy Happy Happy!!!!!
Jeff

Weather was almost perfect, yesterday, for working in the garage so, instead, I spent the day doing errands with my wife...

Should be even a little warmer today, so the Sand Gnats (No-See-Ums) should be out in force.

Next time Lane is bragging about his great weather, remember that Mosquitoes (the State Bird of South Carolina) and Sand Gnats don't like really cold or really hot weather - they only come out when the weather is "perfect", especially at Lane's house!!

BTW: the AAA Minor League baseball team from Savannah, GA, is "The Savannah Sand Gnats". They must have named them that to provide incentive to play well and get moved up to a team with a classier name ;>) (Or, if they play average they could get traded to the "Toledo Mud Hens!!")

To be outside and able to drive your speedster with bug spray on is much better than just staring at it in the garage. It looks like 65 any mostly cloudy here in St. Charles, IL. In comparison it like say 75-80 to you warm weather folks. My only reservation is the forecast of a stray shower. I have never driven more than a few blocks with the top up.

Enough said, I think I'll go for it.

Marty G.

Sand nats? No seeums? Come to the Florida,Alabama,Mississippi coast and have your car coated with an apparently permanent coating of LOVE BUGS.

If you don't know what they are, you don't know how lucky you are.

If you don't wash your car immediately after encountering these flying epoxy filled insects, you can spend many, many hours prying off individual carcasses.....

What the hell, it's worth the drive....

Run into a swarm of Love Bugs on a bike at 60 mph and and you'll say more than ouch !

Yeah, and as Leon says, if you don't get them off almost immediately, they'll even stain the paint.

Lovely, sick little creatures...

love bugs, did you say love bugs? This is from a couple of years ago when we had a bumper crop...check out the windshield....

My sympathies Jim.....After I washed my car in the 90 degree heat, I speent an hour and a bottle of shampoo getting the little F#%&*+rs out of my hair.....

Wear a hat. Of course, the hair issue would be a problem for me (sob!)

Edit: "would NOT be a problem" #$!%&!!!

I knew what you meant....;-)
BWAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAAA HAAAAA!

Warning to speedster owners in southern California: Be very wary of driving a speedster across the Imperial Valley to see those desert wild flowers in full bloom. The local butterflies are the size of sparrows, they all fly in groups of a few thousand and they only hover over paved roads. Getting slimed (Ghost Hunters?) is nothing compare to getting buttered (flyed?). Visualize a fuzzy speedster.

Well, I dunno about what it would have done to a Speedster, but I did run one night in a rental car up from El Paso to Alamogordo (near White Sands) when the yucca moths were doing their thing. Medium to small white bugs that were swarming in the millions, I'd have to say. The car was completley plastered with them. Had to stop now and then to clear the windshield so as to be able to see out.