Funny stories

[MMW]

While dropping off a fellow 4H board member last night that I car pool to meetings with his neighbor came running over. It was a nice night so we had my 356. He proceeded to check out my car & tell me all about it. I tried correcting him a few times but finally gave up as he wasn't hearing a word. You see he used to have a Karmann Ghia that he made into "almost" a Porsche.

He noticed right away that my heat tubes were missing. You know the paper flex pipe that goes up to the air cleaner on a VW. The reason I had to do that was I put dual carbs on it in place of the single carb it originally had. He then told me how Porsche let VW design & build all the engines for the 356 because after all they are VW engines. Then it was onto the body which I was made aware that Karmann actually designed the 356 for Porsche. If I looked closely you can see that it is the same interior as the Karmann Ghia also.

All in all he really liked the car so that is what mattered I guess. At least he knew it was real.

[JTR70]

Interesting story Mic. I could never understand how people can confuse a Ghia with a 356. Maybe the rear sail panel around the quarter window shows some similarity but other than that not much else.
This reminded me of a similar story a few years back. My girlfriend had some family come in from out of town and on their way in from New Mexico they picked up a sister-in-law in Arizona. Well as we were having dinner the topic came up that I was into old Porsche 356's. So immediately this women says (very matter of fact) "Oh yes, Old Porsches are just like a Volkswagon there is no difference". I tried explaining that they are first cousin's and that they share a lot of similarities. "oh No, there is no difference between the two" Well have you ever owned a 356? "No, but my late husband and I owned several beetles and buses in the 60's and 70's (BTW: I could tell she was an old hippie with her long stringy gray hair and Tie-dye t-shirt; come to think of it I thought they said they picked here up in a commune she was living at in AZ, anyway)and I was right out there helping him rebuild motors etc. and I know all there is to know about these cars and a Porsche and VW are exactly the same car, no difference." Could someone please pass me the salad.... She had her open mind made up and no one was going to change it.
I can only guess that gross generalizations like this that people cling to help them to feel safe so their world makes sense. Anyway there was no changing her mind on this one. Justin