Sorry to see it go, Mike.
"... not a dry eye." Kinda like a death in the family. All I really hope for here (and as many have noted: it's none my damn business) is that seller's remorse (is that a thing??) does not set in down the way. Mike knows what's good for Mike, Stan told him; you do you, and so he has. And as he has done it, we have learned thereby. That car is superb, and ought to provide miles of smiles for quite a while.
I know the feeling, Mike, of letting a favourite speedster disappear.
I also know that sometime in the future - maybe sooner than later - I'll be faced with the same decision.
Tell me it’s not one of those rental companies!
@Gotno356 posted:Tell me it’s not one of those rental companies!
Not at all. A wonderful couple who are very excited to get it have bought it. It's going to a nice home!
@Michael Pickett posted:Not at all. A wonderful couple who are very excited to get it have bought it. It's going to a nice home!
Hmmmmm..... Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better.
Let them know about Knucklehead Central on the innerweb OK?
@edsnova posted:Let them know about Knucklehead Central on the innerweb OK?
I think they would fit right in. I've given them links to my build thread and recommended the geniuses here as the fount of all knowledge in general and most specifically in regards to Speedster and Spyders. I'm hoping they'll show up here. They're good folks.
Mike, that you would find a proper home for your treasure, we'd expect no less.
As to Speedsters in and around Hawaii, there is some personal serendipity involved that has been brought to mind with your post. The Readers Digest version: High school friend shows up in Arlington VA one day (1960??) in a '57 Speedster; I spend many a fun hour riding with him; I go to college and buy a '56 356A Coupe upon graduation, based largely on my earlier introduction; friend moves to Hawaii where he bops around in his Speedster, sells it, buys another and sells that too; Meanwhile back on the East coast, I buy another 356, a '61 B S90, drive that until have to sell it too. Years (decades) pass . . . Friend becomes the only person on the planet who lives his career in Hawaii and then decides to retire to Maine. Usually goes the other way around. Regardless, the 356 virus that I was inoculated with back in Arlington in 1960, and which has been dormant in me for decades rises up in 2006 and the only cure is the Speedster replica I now own. Then, through the miracle of FaceBook and having not seen or spoken to my high school friend since the late 60s, we reconnect, I in MD and he in ME. And I tell him about my Speedster, for which ownership I blame him thoroughly; he then sends me a few pointed inquiries that result in said friend making a deal with Carey Hines, and now "Penny" lives a happy life touring the backroads in and around Belfast, ME. The circle is unbroken. He is a couple of years older than I am, and I graduated high school in 1962. Age is just a number.
PSl
Because if there are no pictures, it did not happen, I include a selfie upon occasion of my visit to Maine a few years ago to personally hook up with John and his new/old replica ride, Penny. We, in the same relative positions we occupied on many a spirited ride in his first steel version.
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@El Frazoo, great story! It's something that people who don't have the same itch can't understand.
You are either a car guy, or you're not, I guess. Like the body you live with, there are all sorts of irritants and such that will result in an itch. So, there are all sorts of cars that produce the "itch" to which you refer. We like '50s era air-cooled, flat 4s of a German persuasion, and there are others with the same untreatable affliction, but caused by --- you name it, they are out there.
Love that story Kelly!
You know, this car-thing has many nuances. I suppose hooning is at the bottom of it all -- the thrill of speed, man and machine working as one (most of the time), and there is clearly an artistic element (body and paint), and the mechanical marvel of it all: metal formed just so, air, fuel, spark, fire, noise, etc. And wrapped around all of that are the like minded souls we meet along the way, the people who get it, and ultimately, their stories, and there are always stories.
I think the best thing of all is how they make people smile, and not just the owners.
... there are smiles and then there are SEGs, which are reserved for said owners. They (we) can't help it.
Smiles and waves from cute young females make having to drive this car all worthwhile...
I like the kid's reactions. And like Ed, I ALWAYS let them sit in it!
I don’t know who gets more fun out of this, the kids in the car, or me!
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while shooting the Spyder for the auction the other day down at the park:
The kid was circling the car on his dirt bike and dad was yelling at him, so I told dad to put him in there.
Later as I was driving out these two teen girls started hollering. They wanted pictures of themselves posing in front of it for the insta. So I obliged.
Really it's about my second favorite thing about owning these things, after a particularly crisp upshift.
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