6 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

Chuck now lives in Villa Rica, GA, west of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Garage Party's Christmas gathering this year is at Chuck's place this coming Friday night; I'm going, as I have not met Chuck yet. I skipped his 80th birthday party a few months back because the weather was miserable and it's a good haul from my place to his, about 50 miles which on a stormy Friday night in Atlanta traffic is almost always an unpleasant experience. 

 

Chuck's best known for his replica Porsche Speedsters which he started building and selling in 1982, and he built over 2,500 of them before selling the company. His "fake cars" are still available from Special Edition, Inc. in Indiana, and are highly regarded and valued because of their inherent quality and terrific performance.

 

Chuck's also famous for his Lamborghini V12-powered motorcycle, which is shown in the video and I'll put a recent picture of it here, too. As wild as it is, the bike is ridden regularly and has gone thousands of miles.

 

Everyone who knows Chuck says he is a great guy and I am looking forward to meeting him.

 

 

[MSwiss]

Greg,

 

I've half considered getting a Beck 904, but I already get chided from Jackie on my less than graceful exits from one of my existing cars.

And a customer brought by his 914. I hurt myself, a tiny bit, exiting it.

[Cheater]

For me, it would be a "550" Spyder and that ought to be easier to enter and exit.

 

Although, living in Chicago, you would probably want the closed car, for sure!

[MSwiss]

I love the 550 and it's way, way more affordable.

You can pick up used ones for $20K, +/- $5K, all the time.

But I don't really like long drives in convertibles.

And 550s, at over 90 MPH, get dangerous, because of the poor, high-speed aerodynamics. Guys talk about turning the steering wheel at 95 MPH and the the car not reacting.

[Ecurie Martini]

The first Porsche I ever drove was a Speedster. It was not a high speed run, just a trip over some country roads near my hometown. 

 

The impression that I formed was that one could mostly ignore the steering wheel - just drive to a corner, give a hefty twitch to your rump to swing the back end around and drive on.

 

My second experience came years later. I was in graduate school and shared an apartment with a law school student. He was going to France for the summer ((his grandfather owned the patent on the Schrader tire valve) and he asked me to give his 356 coupe some exercise on occasion. I drove it home one weekend - about 75 miles over hilly secondary roads. Rolling along after clearing New Haven, was thinking to myself "so what is the big deal? This doesn't fell all that special" and then I looked at the speedo and saw how fast I was going!

 

EM

[MSwiss]

These guy is pretty interesting.

 

Juan Badel, from Colombia.

 

Somewhat affordable, hand-hammered aluminum body and seats, homemade tube frame, approx. 1,060 lb., Spyder-inspired creations.

 

[Dave Crevie]

Gee. I didn't know he was that old. He has built some interesting machines.