Nice Pre-A Photos

[JTR70]

Thanks Bruce, great story and car! I take it that it remains in this configuration and hasn't been returned to 100% stock?

[neilbardsley]

Here is irreverence: I sold the pictured car below to Dr. Brett and he turned it into a race car! He claimed that it was "the oldest Porsche being raced" at that time. I bought this '51 for parts. $75. I had a '53 Cabriolet and 2 Coupes at the same time. I'm guessing a total of a grand for all of them, maybe...those were the days.




-Bruce

You can't keep all of them!!

[bbspdstr]

Thanks Bruce, great story and car! I take it that it remains in this configuration and hasn't been returned to 100% stock?

Good question. I'll ask Brett next time I speak with him. I think he sold that '51.
Meanwhile, here are two shots of the '51- Brett with his ace mechanic, whose name I unfortunately forget....who used to wrench for Chuck Stoddard. Old friend John Hodgson is in there, too. The other is just the car in the shade.
Maybe Brett will see this and answer the question himself. These were at Daytona for the first (or second...they all blend after a few years) Rennsport Reunion there.





Somewhere, I have pre-digital shots of this car. I did the roll cage and major metalwork for Brett, made the primitive suspension more like an A, but he had it finished nearer to him in the mid-west, the VW based engines and transmissions done by the talented man whose name I can't remember right now....

[Porschinelle]

http://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/porsche/356/1953/268816

[JTR70]

Thanks for the link Gerard! Nice hotrod though the rear fender openings aren't exactly symmetrical. See John ,don't worry there are a lot of cars running around with asymmetrical wheel wells...

[Phil Planck]

I wonder what was done to the shifter or trans to reverse the shift pattern?

[Trevor]

http://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/porsche/356/1953/268816

I can't believe Jack didn't post about this 2 nano seconds after seeing it. Tongue must be sore from biting it. You would have let that leave the shop like that right... Ha ha!

[Jack Staggs]

Yeah, that's how the shift pattern is when you eliminate the " mouse trap swinging gate linkage" and fit a 741 low selector shaft to the preA/A shifter. Seemed like a good idea, huh??? Actually, pretty easy fixes for that... Reminds me of when the late Milt "Uncle Miltie" Milner was was at the Sebring 12 hour race years ago in a 917, as related to me by Dean Polopolus. The 12 cyl 1000 hp (?) engine blew up during the race, and when Milt got back to the pits, the factory Porsche mechanics accused him of over-revving the engine and would report their findings to headquarters. Milt countered by telling them that he would inform Porsche that during the gear changes the night before, the techs stacked the gears on the shafts in the wrong order, requiring him to race the car with an odd ball shift pattern through the gears, which he did flawlessly. Quite a driver that Milt. He also drove the 356 "Desperado" well over 130 mph with the prototype Polo 4 cyl 911 motor back in the '80s

[bbspdstr]

A racing solution to the Rube Goldberg early shifter:



Left in during street-able recon with a nice plate for the rear when 741 is reinstalled (with a BBAD)...easy clearance and access for the lower coupling:

[attachment:2]84255 undercoat 1.JPG[/attachment]

note: that's the original floor in 84255. T-2 torsion bar tubes are hollow in the center and can be 'pinched' up for clearance like the upper half is down for the original shifter exit from the 'nose'


For added enjoyment of a pre-A to be "nice," here's a '52 for the thread's namesake. It got a 901 trans and IRS and a "Massive IV". Hardly "original" but a 'pre'-A nonetheless.



Hey Jack, did you mean Milt Minter? He drove for Vasek...I think a guy named Milner drove in either "Route 66" or "Chips"

-Bruce
(who had a bizarre 8-speed shift pattern clipped from a car mag taped to the dash of his B in the '60s, just for fun)

[S.J.Szabo]

Well, you know how I hate to be the odd man out, but I have never understood why the early linkage was so frequently the target of scornful derision.

My experience has been that once set up correctly and maintained decently, the shift action is easy to live with. Of course, I'm not the kind of bloke to regularly press the issue in action, as I tend to double-clutch a lot, in both directions. And of course, dragging anyone these days is most likely to produce embarrassment.

No, the monkey-motion is not a better way, but I do believe its primary fault is its weakness in the face of abuse.

Just two cents from the cheap seats.

[356]

[Porschinelle]

[GT3]

[356]

[356]