Back in December 2009 I covered the exploits of my friend Duffy Sheardown and his pursuit of a new career beyond motorsports – as a Chocolatier.

I expounded the values of niche marketing and the parallels between what we started at WEVO in 1996 and what Duffy initiated in 2009.

On the first steps to fame, Duffy has cracked a nice mention he on the 70% website, headlining above Raymond Blanc no less!

A visit to Redstarchocolate.co.uk will leave you slightly underwhelmed today (march 8th 2010), although I would encourage you all to inundate Duffy with orders and help his niche business gain the momentum that any purveyor of fine chocolates deserves – especially the 2nd largest in the UK!?!?

Well done to Duffy for bringing glorious flavor chocolates to the market, doing so in a sustainable manner and with a social conscience of how the real cost of the product is rationalized for all concerned from bean to bar…..

It will now be interesting to see if the oak that grows from Duffy’s acorn can ever provide the building materials for his windmill to grind the beans.

Many of you know how the plans of Steven Harris and I to participate in the 2009 London to Casablanca Rally were scuppered by the logistic incompetence of the freight company who failed to deliver Mexicar to the start of the event in London.

As we executed a series of Hail Mary attempts to intercept Mexicar and make all efforts to start or join (late) the Rally, it eventually became clear that 2009 would pass without the enduro Rally experience that Steven and I had prepared ourselves for.

As Steven and I parted, miserable in Amsterdam Schipol airport on November 9th 2009, he closed by suggesting we would find a way to make it right…….

This was Steven’s second false start on major Classic Rally events, as his 2008 La Carrera Pan Americana efforts to race the roads of Mexico were foiled by a last minute change of circumstance for his co-driver, resulting in withdrawal just days before the event. His appetite for a world class event had now gone twice unfed.

So now, just 115 days later, “make it right” has been conjured into an entry in the 2010 Peking to Paris Marathon. What was an 8 day hi speed run in Europe and North Africa in a 1967 911S, has been converted to a 38 day marathon across Asia, the Middle East and Europe in a 1964 356C. In terms of adventure and commitment, this is a huge step up and Steven and I are suitably nervous and excited by the challenge.

We have acquired the 356 and set about converting a charming little well preserved classic street car into the pack horse and tractor that we will need to cross the high deserts of Mongolia, the mountains of Kazakhstan, highways of Persia and the valleys of France. If ever a vehicle needed to be a swiss-army-knife of versatility, the Peking to Paris event is the test of that capability. Attempting to do all this in a car with little space and load carrying capacity is an added challenge.

We are only a couple of weeks into the event preparation -so far mostly research and dis-assembly. Some decisions have been driven by the stern recommendations from the event organizers, some by the necessities of packaging, component scale and weight.

The very poor fuel we will be able to buy in central Asia demands that the engine have a low compression ratio, therefore less power, add to that the Altitude often over 3000m and I know we are in for some slow and patient motoring in what is likely to be a 65hp drivetrain in a 1150kg (fully laden) package.

As we resolve the design and execution of the car build, I will cover some of the details in this blog. Many will be 356 centric translations of systems we built into Mexicar in 2008 and can trust to perform reliably in all the conditions we have been able to imagine.

This is not only a technical event, the travel planning, logistics, provisioning and navigation are also major aspects of the event, needing no fewer than 11 different currencies to purchase fuel and acquisition of visas to allow for 10 controlled border crossings.

We have already discovered the support of scores of 356 enthusiasts and other Porsche enthusiasts, plus suppliers and vendors providing or manufacturing special parts for “Lola” as the 2010 Peking to Paris 356 has been christened.

In January I had the opportunity to pour some much needed attention onto the Australian contingent of my fleet – very gratifying. Thankfully, it has not been since the late 90′s that my collection was spread over 3 continents. These days my relatively stagnant fleet is corralled in two locations and although roughly 12,000km separate those two locations, the cars themselves are all within stones throw of each other, all stored indoors, in dry and fairly ideal circumstances. There are many car enthusiasts who have cars much more valuable cars stored in far less ideal conditions and have few cost effective options on how to improve that situation.

Secure, dry storage of my 56 year old VW

Contemplating all this while having a beer with John Forcier in Brisvegas recently, I started the trivial pursuit of remembering all my past cars. I was equally reckless enough to guess the number of cars I have owned…….. Given that John has spent a fair amount of time riding motorcycles, plus he’s a handful of years my junior, it turned out to be an unfair contest. We drank more beer and restored the conversation front and center to Porsche’s and in particular his blue coupe that is earmarked for a major freshening in 2010 – serious fleet maintenance that I expect I will cover later.

As it turns out my current fleet is 12 &1/2 cars, five of which I have never driven (yet), one I have driven only once (thanks to the bungling of CA DMV……..another story) and the one I half own, I doubt I will ever drive…

My driven once, ’67 912 barn find (36K miles)
Jimmy’s Car BBQ, Golden Gate Park, Speedway Meadow, 2008

At this point I started to draw a focus on what a daunting task a collection of needy cars can be, not so much marvelling at my own current and no doubt future plight, but more for those who operate a fleet of classic cars in the most abstract of manner – doing so without being responsible for anything but the costs of their cars.

For those of us who enjoy the knowledge of the intricacies of how a car works, what each part is named, it’s essential coexistence with neighboring parts, what it is made from and how it was manufactured, we are often empowered to release that information one piece at a time to those who need to know – normally on a “I really need to know” basis.

There is no snobbery in knowing this information, having learned it from willing teachers some time in the past, the opportunity to share this knowledge is normally borne out of necessity rather than drive to become an educator. After all, why retain this information if it cant be used for the greater good of the car hobby?

As a Porsche specialist business we know many avid collectors, some are clinically obsessed, others idly fascinated, but all are so interesting. In most cases their fleet is a beloved burden, a constant mouth to feed on the monthly balance sheet. Where to house these cars?, who to pay? Where to repair these cars?, who to pay? How to modify these cars?, who to pay?…..I sometimes wonder if the task of making all those choices is equally as fulfilling as actually affecting all those decisions.

For the techno ignoramus car enthusiast obsessed, there can be hours, days, perhaps months of collecting, collating, comparing information, opinion, fact, part-truths, straight-up deceptions and well meaning novices polluting the relatively small puddle of facts that surround simple old classic cars.

For the techno genius car enthusiast obsessed there can be hours, days, perhaps months of obsessing over the right combination of intake port diameters, valve seat angles, anti-reversion tricks and exhaust system scavenge potential. Books to read, experts to consult, leaps of technical faith to be made in the act of progressing the car hobby, one car at a time.

As long as there is a classic car hobby, it is clear it will cater for all tastes and all budgets. Even within the Porsche marque as our most familiar one example we find a massive diversity of interests and personal net worth. The 914 enthusiasts faithful to the inextricable association with VW in the 70′s, the 356 veterans who still believe the last true Porsche was an air cooled 4 cylinder car, the modern Twin Turbo power crazy tuners, ad infinitum so many niche Porsche car hobbyists.

Getting back on topic…. 

As car hobbyists we can not escape the one inevitable factor – our classic cars are only as good as the level to which we maintain them – however that be executed.

If you have a spare moment today, apply it to your own fleet, it wont be wasted. Whether or not it is deliberately separating fact from fiction, writing a storage rent check, or identifying which crankcase gasket set you need to order for the weekend go ahead and make an effort to do one extra thing to maintain your classic car today

I was watching TV last night, Holmes on Homes, a HGTV production where a well meaning General Contractor (Mr Holmes) responds to write-in pleas from viewers to come and “remediate” their horror building experience. I gather from watching just one episode that the general mantra is to come onto a site and start by identifying all the sub-standard work completed by the now displaced contractors. Phrases like tear-it-out, do-it-over, are interspersed with – “cant believe they did that”…….. “no way that’s to code” etc.

For us in the Porsche tuning industry, there is no “code” except perhaps the one of honor and integrity. There really is no scrutiny of whether anyone works to best practices and there certainly is no assurance that the expert advice you are receiving is from an expert that really values an outcome that will serve you well. Sometimes (too often) the result is like the brand new roof they tore off the cottage last night on TV, poor workmanship, gaps, leaks and the basis of guaranteed internal damage if left without remediation….

I have suffered the same exasperation as Ultruistic Contractor Mr Holmes many times. It is tough to talk to clients about the need to spend their money to fix work they believe they have already paid for elsewhere.

At the very heart of a 915 transmission is the pinion roller bearing 999.110.146.00. This $200 bearing controls the location of the pinion shaft and with that, much of the life and efficiency of the final drive gear-set.

It’s long been understood that with high mileage and hard use, the fit of the bearing into the case is lost and the once round hole is shagged into an ellipse by the bearing loads, heat, pounding, driveline shock etc, etc. A downward spiral of wear leads to damaged parts, normally accompanied by excess transmission noise as the first indicator.

Over the past 15 years I have seen some pretty miserable attempts to bodge the fit of the pinion roller bearing. The photo of the one above is somewhat typical, but in this case there seems to been a real application of effort, mathematical, almost scientific approach to a matrix of punch marks and bruises intended to push a little material support back around the bearing. Sadly, this is much like emergency caulking on a leaking roof, the wrong idea, at the wrong time and precursor to doing again and doing it properly before it’s right

At WEVO we created the 915 Race Case program about 10 years ago. By developing a steel insert for the final drive housing, we restore the fit and location of the pinion roller bearing to the exact intended position. We define the shaft spacing exactly at 76.00mm and we restore the case face to both flat and perpendicular to the pinion shaft. This work is not cheap, but at around $1000, less than 10%, actually closer to 7.5% of the total price of a proper high performance 915 rebuild. With internal parts so expensive the 915 Race Case upgrades are cheap insurance against accelerated wear of bearings, gears and synchronizers. Upgraded transmission cases run cooler by virtue of less friction and correspondingly deliver more power.

The best of the 915 rebuilders in the USA and around the globe are using the WEVO Race Case upgraded transmission housings, we have delivered some 120 upgraded final drive housings in the last 10 years. Builders like Gordon Ledbetter, Jerry Woods, Rothsports, Auto Associates, 901 Shop and many others all choose WEVO Race Case upgraded parts for serious transmission repairs and race preparations.

WEVO Race Case upgrades are also available for 930 final drive housings and both 915 and 930 maincase castings.

I have been on some epic road trips in my time. I love the sense of crossing vast or significant distances at a steady and incremental pace. I especially love a road trip with a utility purpose – which in my case will have been towing a boat or car for one reason or another.

In the past I have owned two VW vans from new, in 1988 we bought a VW transporter, I can’t find any photos of that rig on the road. It was widely traveled in and when it finally retired from service in 2005, there were 11 different nations recorded in the fuel log book

Epic road trips for “the Slab” as the ’88 Transporter was nicknamed, included a tear in 1989 from London to Lake Como for a European Championship sailing regatta, then another from London to Lidkoping on Lake Vanern in Sweden for the same Championship the next year. There is something mystical about crossing a foreign landscape, particularly when your rig and its cargo are so grossly juxtaposed to your time of day and location. When you are towing a trailer with a disassembled 8m catamaran that looks as much like a crashed sailplane as a fit sailboat, you get plenty of stares. I still vividly remember watching the strange combination of the blunt boxy late afternoon shadow of the Slab trailed by the amorphous shadow of the boat as this was cast onto the grassy roadside of fields in Eastern France, clearly our strange package was traversing the nation, being 600km from the English Channel and 800km for the Mediterranean……

In 2002 we bought a VW Eurovan, logical successor to the Slab – albeit this time with better passenger amenities and double the horsepower…. 

Our first major road trip in the Eurovan was to the 2002 Porsche Parade in Boise Idaho. Memorable as it was the first time my parents had visited us in the USA and the whole experience of crossing the 2600m passes in the Sierra’s and the high deserts of Nevada was not exactly what they expected. This photo is typical of the “trip with a purpose” car loaded on the trailer, definitely still heading somewhere, not arriving. 
For maximum seat time, my solo trip from San Carlos CA to Hesperia CA (845 miles) and back in 16 hours to collect my Dean Jefferies Kyote dune buggy is somewhat of a marathon, but also the day I discovered the Airline Highway, CA Hwy 46, one of the most enjoyable drives in central California, but perhaps not at night with a trailer.  

In 2007 my brother Brett bought the latest incarnation of the fabled VW Van, this time the T5 with the lusty 128Kw 5 cylinder turbo diesel. Yesterday we set out on a road trip, 3400km, ASAP Perth to Geelong in Victoria for the Australian F18 Championships where Brett is debuting the new Windrush “EDGE” F18 design. This time, 3 drivers, Brett, Josh and I – practically traffic and “law” free roads means that a decent legal average can be maintained.

For me the highlight will be my stint last night when I took the wheel at Norseman in central southern Western Australia and with the accurate aid of the GPS set the cruise control to 105 km/hr. I didn’t touch the pedals for 723 km !! The cruise stayed locked on, passing only two trucks and two cars was easy in the moonless night dark. I doubt I have ever towed anything in a vehicle that has over 700km range while towing, let alone stayed locked onto purpose for so long without interruption. To put that into perspective, that would be like pulling out of my driveway in San Carlos, CA and driving almost to San Diego, CA without touching the pedals. Or for the Europeans, Set off from London and drive to Magny Cours without using the foot controls……Australia is a vast country and nights like this are a reminder, Western Australia, considerable larger than Texas, took 15 hours to traverse West coast to the East border.

As I finish this up, we are 22 hrs and 34 minutes into the trip and have covered 2215 km.  That’s a 98.15 km/hr green flag average, not bad for VW van.