Along For The Ride
Freedom came, and with it the ability to take care, work on, restore, drive, race. 35mm, delivering a smile to my face. Three time winner of the National Paul Heinmiller Award for producing and editing the best Regional Newsletter/Magazine in the Porsche Club of America. Published in: Car Kulture DeLuxe (Hot Rods), Classic Motorsports (Vintage Racing), Porsche 356 Registry (Porsche), New York Times (Photos). 1962 Porsche 356 Cab. First in Class National Porsche Concour: 1982 Reno NV., 1985 Costa Mesa CA., 1988 Colorado Springs CO., 2002 Boise ID. Naturally, restoring cars and showing them competitively over the years, has lead to a pleasant opportunity to join the community of judges. I've enjoyed a Concour judging history with some of the following groups and shows. The angry sounds of an engine doing its best work, has always pushed my blood to pump, and with it, the drive to don a helmet and compete.
These are some of the cars that I've had the pleasure to drive in competition. Driving events during 1970-1988 at: Riverside Raceway, Ontario Motor Speedway, Laguna Seca, Sears Point, Willow Springs, Holtville. Vintage Racing during 1985-1988 at: Riverside Raceway, Palm Springs, Willow Springs, Laguna Seca. It's a 1965 911 which I've owned since 1970. I took the car racing early on, leading to vintage racing such places as Palm Springs, Riverside and Laguna Seca in the early/mid-eighties. After retiring it from racing, I then started on the restoration and it has been shown regionally and nationally since 1985. The car has been featured in several books and has been used by Porsche Cars North America for advertising. It's a 1970 914-6 GT which I've owned since 1988. It still wears it's factory GT racing parts and was used for hill climbs early on in it's life. The car is still being used competitively, racing at the Monterey Historics, Coronado Vintage Festival and at Porsches Rennsport Reunion IV and V held at Laguna Seca. It's a 1967 911 rescued from a shed in 2009. Shortly after I got this car, it started calling the shots, "Preserve the Patina, the world is full of over restored trailer queens," it said. It has a style that can only be duplicated by time. It wears it's original paint with a rock solid chassis, the body-lines are straight and the panel gaps uniform. The interior is right out of the sixties with a mahogany wood steering wheel, old racing belts and a "Ferrari/GT" drivers seat. With its painted on Pegasus and vintage magnesium Minilite wheels, all mechanicals have been rebuilt from the ground up from brakes, engine, trans, suspension to bring it back to prowl the roads after it left in '74.
Audi鈥檚 history goes back to the very early days of the automobile. The company鈥檚 founder, August Horch, started A. Horch & Company in November of 1899鈥攕ome 13 years after Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler built the first automobile. A political dispute caused him to leave that company and start another one in 1909; Horch Automobil-Werke GmbH. Unfortunately, when he was forced out of his first company, Horch lost the right to use his own name on products. His former partners had trademarked it, so he had to come up something new. Discussing the problem at a friend鈥檚 apartment, the friend鈥檚 son (doing his Latin homework at the time) overheard them talking and suggested the name "Audi". In the German language, the word horch means basically to listen, which, in Latin is audi. In 1910, Horch produced the first of the Audi autmobiles. Horch operated independently until the Great Depression forced him to sell shares in the company.
In 1932, Audi merged with the brands Horch, DKW, and Wanderer to form Auto Union. In today鈥檚 four-ringed Audi logo, each of the rings represents one of the four Auto Union companies. The first ring represents Audi automobiles, the second DKW, third is Horch, and the fourth is Wanderer. And yes, the close approximation of the Olympic rings did eventually get questioned. The International Olympic Committee sued Audi in International Trademark Court. One of the greatest strengths of Auto Union was its racing cars, which is where the four rings first appeared. Auto Union鈥檚 silver Grand Prix cars from the 1930s dominated the sport and established records that stood for several decades. Auto Union鈥檚 chief engineer? One Ferdinand Porsche (yeah, the same Ferdinand Porsche whose name now adorns some of the most coveted sports cars ever produced). Prior to the emergent dominance of Auto Union, Mercedes-Benz had been the leading team in Grand Prix racing. Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz were pitted against one another in 1934, offering cash to support development鈥攁s well as a major cash infusion to the company winning the most races that year.
However, Mercedes-Benz got the last laugh. In 1958, Daimler-Benz (the parent company of Mercedes-Benz) acquired controlling interest in Auto Union, and bought the company outright in 1959. By 1964, the other three companies forming Auto Union were dead鈥攐nly Audi remained. Audi cars hav been part of Volkswagen ever since. The first Audi vehicle to gain notice in the United States was the Audi Fox. The model came to the U.S. Audi 100LS in the 1970s. While the Fox was prized for its crisp styling and sprightly handling, the 100LS was rather dowdy and didn鈥檛 make much of an impact. However, the follow up car to the 100LS, built upon the styling of the Fox and called the Audi 5000, attracted a lot of attention. Large, luxurious, and featuring what would soon come to be a hallmark of Audi鈥檚 cars鈥攁 deliciously inviting interior treatment鈥攖he Audi 5000 made the company an overnight success. During this period Audi took advantage of a change in the rules for rally cars permitting the use of four-wheel drive. By the way, the only Audi vehicles to feature the word quattro with a capital Q on its badging is that first racing car.