I am envious, Moose. That is the sort of Porsche that I yearn to drive, but I
could never afford one when we didn’t need the room for small people.
I had a lovely little Alfa Romeo GT 1600 Junior with two twin Dellorto carbs,
similar to the Weber setups you describe. The bodywork was not good and I
broke the engine after changing the exhaust valves, dismal failure with the
camshaft adjustment – it had been so easy with an old pushrod engine in an
Austin Cambridge.
I like the look of that Camaro, but I do have an almost religious aversion to
US cars, as I might have mentioned over the years :-)
Chris
C M I Barker | Gamlingay
> On 2 Mar 2020, at 00:04, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On 3/1/2020 2:20 PM, ChrisB wrote:
>> It’s a very pretty Porsche, Jim! I’ve never driven one, but I think I’d
>> prefer one from the 70s if I had a choice.
>
> I had a '71 911T, 2.2L. for several years, starting in maybe '74. It was both
> fun and surprisingly practical. I drove it to work, the supermarket, and so
> on. It was perfectly happy in traffic. It had a very "grabby", instant
> clutch, to which I adapted a finely honed left foot. When it needed
> replacement, Horst, my German mechanic, pointed out that something had been
> installed backwards, and afterwards, the clutch was quite nice.
>
> The small jump seats worked for my kids. Flop the backs down and six grocery
> bags fit nicely. Most of its performance was attributable to light weight,
> not prodigious power or outstanding handling. Fortunately, I'd spent many
> hours avoiding going to church and driving around back roads like a madman in
> my dad's '56 VW. That prepared me well for the rear end eccentricities of
> these early Porsches.
>
> The were not luxurious cars. I drove our German Division second in command to
> a dinner one night. He asked me why anyone would drive such a noisy,
> uncomfortable car. He, or course, drove a Mercedes; I've been on the Autobahn
> @ 140 mph with him driving.
>
> The Porsches of those years were really very simple cars. SOHC flat six with
> mechanical tappets that required regular adjustment. Horst would go on about
> how he had adjusted them to a 'loose' or 'tight' gap and ask me to listen to
> the engine after he tuned it. I would nod and agree. :-)
>
> Carburation was basically six 2" single barrels that were stuck together in
> threes and shared float chambers (Webers, then copies.). Adjusting them
> absolutely required a Unisyn to get them balanced, and was mildly
> entertaining. At that, though, no worse than the twin SUs common on fours in
> Europe at the time. Fortunately not required often. About the most
> sophisticated thing about them was the dry sump oil system. It was both for
> ground clearance and to avoid oil pressure on the pistons in hard turns. Like
> VWs, it was not only air cooled, but also oil cooled, with an oil radiator as
> part of the return system. Slightly later models moved the oil cooler up
> front.
>
> Build quality was wonderful. Where wiring went through bulkheads, there was a
> double sided female, multi contact plug and the wiring on each side plugged
> into them. Never seen anything like it. Having later needed to fix burnt
> wires in a harness that went through the firewall of an Audi 500CS Turbo
> Quattro, I really missed the Porsche design.
>
> I imagine today's 911s are almost entirely different cars, other than being
> small and noisy, :-) I have no interest in one today. The Maserati
> convertible and Mercedes AMG GT convertible are pretty attractive, though.
>
> OTOH, I drive a 24 year old convertible that actually has a trunk. 3.4L,
> DOHC, 24 valve V6 in a chopped top American coupe. Body flexes and handling
> is limited, but I sure like it. :-)
>
> When it reaches 25 years, I'm thinking of having it "restored".
>
> Last year, we rented a Camaro convertible to drive around Southern Utah.
> <https://www.olyendomike.com/Utah-White-Pocket-AZ-2019/i-z2Sgw2H/A> The only
> way to see that country, IMO. And Chevy has a MUCH smarter way of handling
> drop top and trunk space than the Europeans. You may note the back "seat"
> full of luggage. With the top down, only one modest suitcase fits in the
> trunk. But with it up, it all fits. And we did have rainy days.
>
> Open Air Moose
>
> --
> What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
> --
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