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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Tom Tate
NOR'EASTER Online - July 2005

There was a detailed analysis of the getaway cars favored by Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde fame. It seems that in the early 30's Ford had just come out with a flathead V8 that produced about 85 hp. This was back in the day when police cars were four and six cylinders that were showing less that sixty horsepower. The flathead V8's would do a steady eighty miles per hour while the authorities could barely reach sixty. It was no wonder that in a letter to Henry Ford, Clyde praised the power and reliability of the Ford and said that it was always his first choice when it came time to steal a car for their next job.

That sounded really slow until I remembered that my first VW had a 36 hp four cylinder engine in the back that would push the beetle to 72 miles per hour if I could find a few miles of level ground. Driving that car took a lot of planning.  When was the last time that you had to downshift to a lower gear going up a hill? Or even step down on the gas pedal to maintain your speed?  Years ago I could spot an uphill grade from watching the telephone poles in the distance and be prepared when I got there.  Are the roads just more level now or the cars just so much more powerful?

Early Porsches were in the sixty horsepower range but could usually reach 100 mph without much fuss. They wouldn't go much faster than that but it was said that they could do it all day long. We never thought of them as particularly fast but the handling was considered to be the best in the world. This was with swing axles that were later considered dangerous, just ask Ralph Nadar.

A really fast car from the fifties was a Chevy Impala 409 or so I thought.  This was just at the beginning of the muscle car age when a big block V8 could be stuffed into a family sedan with exciting results. A show featuring that Chevy 409 was on the other night that listed its 0-60 time at 7.8 seconds. Boy that was a real eye opener. Then I remembered that my VW was in the high teens, 356's were in the 12 second bracket and the TR-6's were at 10.5 sec.  With the new Porsche Carrera GT at four seconds for that dash and most street cars well under ten somehow that 409 just doesn't seem very fast. There are a couple of 255 hp mini-vans that would probably beat the 409 to the mall and that's a real shame.

In the motorcycle area there are drag bikes, biker build off shows and even a show for chopper fans. If you're a motorcycle guy or always wanted to be one there is something to watch. There is even a program that shows bikers doing really stupid things like wheelies at 100 mph. Maybe that's so that the viewer can see how really dangerous it is and won't attempt it? 

We would probably be better off if we really didn't have to watch the interaction between the Teutul’s as Paulie attempts to build the Choppers and his father attempts to speed him up but it is interesting to see some of the bikes come to life. It is amazing to watch the assembly with all new parts and then watch as they turn the key and just drive away. No tuning, no fiddling, no nothing, in fact I don't remember seeing them add gas or oil. The motors that generate 100 hp are just pulled out of the box and plugged into the frame like a new battery. Getting the engine into a car and getting it running is a big deal in a restoration and could take days.  These shows always seem to be under some sort of self imposed deadline where it all has to be done yesterday. What I find the most interesting is when the build is complete and the car or bike or 80 mph lawnmower just needs “paint and chrome".

How is it that these guys can always find a plater that can return beautifully plated parts in less time than it takes most shops to answer the phone? Boyd Coddington has a paint shop attached to his Hot Rod Shop so I can see how he will always be first in line but how does paint dry in  less time that it takes to watch a commercial ? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's had three body shop managers in the last six months. Sometimes it's painful to watch Boyd or Paul Sr. try to rally the troops by going to a ski slope, a firing range or a go cart track. Who comes up with this stuff anyway? 

Restorations on 356's are measured in years, ask anyone that has tried one, I suppose that if you sent any of these TV producers to NASA we'd be taking recreational trips to the moon by now. Maybe we shouldn't believe everything that we see on TV.

After a while of watching these shows it's real easy to head for the garage and get into the spirit of restoration, even if it's only to clean the windshield on the street car. I've always said that it's the little victories that keep you going so I always try to pick a task that can be completed before it's time to put the dog to bed. Just last night I recovered the dash pad on the Carrera 2 (for the second time) in about an hour’s time. The first attempt last week saw me cut the ends too short after the job was all done. The material was only $23 from Autos International so I decided to do it over, something about "if you're going to do a job, do it right" that I heard from my father. Practice makes perfect so the second time around went smoothly and I was done before the eleven o'clock news, Just like the guys on TV. KTF