Speedster
Racing in the 60s - Part I
This is one
of a series of articles written by Pat Tobin which appeared in
'356 Talk' . It is reproduced with the kind permission of the
Author.
Buying the
Speedster and tow car
So after earning
my SCCA National Competition license in the stock Convertible
D at Riverside in 63, we began looking for a Speedster. Luck
more than smiled on us. Uncle Bob Kirby had a stock 58 Speedster
with some body damage on the rear and the engine in a basket.
Perfect. $800 brought it home. But we also needed a tow car,
which would double as the family driver. For the first time since
1957 our daily driver would not be a Porsche. Alan Johnson was
about to sell his 58 Ford wagon, stick shift. This Ranch Wagon
had an interesting history. Originally it was owned by Clyde
Freeman, Hamms Beer distributor for the Pasadena area. The sky-blue
wagon had been emblazoned on the sides, "From The Land of
Sky Blue Waters." But on weekends it went racing, towing
Clyde's 4-cam Spyder. After later towing Alan's Speedster to
the track for a few seasons, it was ours for $600. For all three
owners the Ranch Wagon worked during the week and then tugged
Porsches to the races! There's a mutt with a pedigree by association.
Later, it took my daughter Janice to college for a couple of
years. And would you believe I still have it? If you knew me
better, you would believe it.
I've always
wanted a yellow Speedster!
After laboring
fruitlessly on the body damage of the Speedster for several weekends
in a friend's shop, I re-discovered what I had known all along:
I could build an engine with my eyes closed but couldn't knock
out a dent if my life depended on it. So we took a deep breath
and put it into the shop of the father of a guy in the Porsche
parts business. The car was blue; I wanted a light color, but
not white. Alan Johnson opined, "A Porsche looks good in
any color except yellow." I had liked the cream color of
the Conv. D, so picked out a representative chip which was met
with a notable lack of enthusiasm on the part of the shop owner
who was touting the new Corvette yellow. When I went to pick
up the car it was - you guessed it - Corvette yellow. Since Alan
is the one who had referred me to that particular body shop,
I told him that if he didn't like the color to take it up with
his friend. I checked the several holes I asked them to fill,
such has where a radio had been mounted in the dash. The holes
were backed up by - are you ready for this - masking tape! When
I complained, the man who did the work said he couldn't weld
on a metal backing because the body was aluminum! How I wish
he had been right! Made them do that part over. Oh well, it was
cheap, and the car was basically the shape of a Speedster. I
decided that it was not inappropriate for a yellow driver to
have a yellow car.
The engine
transpant operation
Once again I
switched engines, selling the Conv. D with the rebuilt normal
engine which came with the Speedster. The Super engine from the
60 Coupe was rebuilt by Al Cadrobbi and me into our racing engine,
version I. I also switched transmissions, gaining the improved
716 from the 59. My Christmas present from Rita was a set of
.040" overs from Mahle. The only other piston available
at the time was by M & C, who specialized in custom pistons
for motorcycles. The original barrels were bored to fit the 40-overs
and cut to set the compression at about 10.0:1. We had to run
on commercially available pump fuel, but that was not a problem;
Chevron "White Pump" was plenty good in those days
and Chevron brought a tank truck of it to SCCA races and gassed
up the competitors free.
Some sort
of crank?
At the time,
a roller crank from a pre-'58 356 Super was considered a necessity.
I was told it had to do with the roller big ends surviving momentary
loss of oil pressure. But by the time I was setting up, the S-90
slosh valve was available, as were extended push-rod tubes and
the larger oil pump. (I won't mention the baffle of sheet aluminum
I installed in the case, which, fatigued from vibration, broke
off and lay loose in the sump until the next time I split the
case, which was far from every race in those days!) Also, I had
the main bearing shells grooved in the center so that there would
be a constant, rather than pulsing supply of oil into the crank
to the rod bearings. Being stubborn in my convictions, I decided
to have a go with a plain crank. I went with a friend, also setting
up a racing Speedster, to pick up his rebuilt roller crank. In
response to inquiry, I replied that I was going to go racing
with a plain crank. "Oh," said the rebuilder, "then
you're not ready to run up front." That stung. I believe
that I was the first in this area to run up front (a year later)
with a plain crank. Then I just didn't hear any more about the
rollers.
Choosing a
cam for racing
Any profile on
the original cam was legal, and but choices were few. I chose
Racer Brown; most others used Iskenderian. Carbs on 356A cars
had to be Zenith with the original throttle body diameter; any
other mods were OK. Heads and manifolds were ported, probably
doing more harm than good in some cases. Conventional racing
practice was to run valves with the skinnier 8 mm stems from
pre-A cars; again I remained conservative and stayed with the
newer 10 mm stems. Stronger valve springs were used, and much
attention was given to correct length push rods, rocker geometry
etc. Or it should have been. I ran long alloy (short steel end)
push rods for quite some time, wrong for iron cylinders, which
probably kept the valves from seating firmly when the engine
was good and hot. Lightened the flywheel and changed to the 200
mm clutch. But that was about it for engine mods. The strongest
E-Production Porsches were putting 100 hp on the road, measured
in second gear on Roger Bursch's Clayton chassis dyno.
A basic chassis
Not much was
allowed on the chassis in those days. I installed the sturdier,
roller-bearing spindles from the '59. Wheels were limited to
the original width of 4.5", so there were no fender flares.
Most of us ran stock wheels - not a wise move, but we had no
choice. On the new Goodyear Blue Streaks, I cracked several wheels,
right across the "spoke" area. Never had one let go
at speed, but it was always a worry. And the wheels weren't that
old - only 6 or 7 years, same as the cars. Hurts, doesn't it,
to think of racing Speedsters that young? We didn't have to worry
about rust and a lot of today's other geriatric problems. And
even a running stock Speedster could be picked up for about $3,000;
they didn't cost much more than that new! Eat your hearts out,
Baby Boomers!But to be fair, the Speedster was considered the
bottom, not the top of the 356A line. They were the "entry
level" Porsche and no one who could afford another model
would be caught dead in one with that ugly top and side curtains!
So what if they did look neat with the top down; remember, in
those days 99.5% of 356s were only-car daily drivers! The Speedster
allowed the young couple with a VW to get into a Porsche a couple
of years sooner. Period. I don't know of anyone who bought one
because they preferred it to the civilized 356s.
Setting up
for racing
Back to setting
up for racing in 63: Disc brakes were not yet allowed, partly
because they didn't yet exist! GT (60 mm wide) front drum brakes
were OK, but I didn't have a set until I got out of racing! All
shoes were re-lined with "Fren-do" (not "Ferodo,"
although I don't know what the difference is). This stuff was
great - for street as well as competition. The stock linings
were rock-hard and squealed like mad after they acquired a glaze
in street driving (probably still do, for any of you who still
have them). The Fren-do was softer, no squeal, a better bite,
and high fade resistance. I discussed with Al Cadrobbi the lesser
life that could be expected from the Fren-do in street driving.
"Yeah," he said, "the original stuff lasts 100,000
miles and the Fren-do only goes 50,000!" We changed the
rear wheel cylinders to VW 17mm dia (from the Porsche 19mm);
that was our improved braking differential. Which reminds me
- when (if) I get back to the Speedster this summer, I must see
if I remembered to go back to 19s when we put the car back on
the street. If not, I doubt that I will find them for under $10,
which is what we used to pay for the complete cylinder with all
parts.
Discs or drums?
A couple of years
later, when disc brakes became legal on the A cars, Bob Kirby
installed them on "Fred." He opined, "I don't
think they stop any better than the GT brakes, but they're more
even - when I stomp on them I don't have to wonder which way
the car is going to lurch." I came up with an idea that
made the drum brakes a lot more liveable. Noting the axial vent
holes around the faces of Spyder and GT Carrera 60mm front drums,
I wondered if recently-liberated lining material, having no convenient
exit on the stock A drums with no forced ventilation, might swirl
around, becoming trapped in batches between shoe and drum when
the brakes were applied, resulting in a flaky and unpredictable
alteration of coefficient of friction from one application to
the next.
A useful modification
My solution was
to provide vent holes, but not axially (parallel to the axle,
or spindle). From the inside of the drums at the "corner"
where the iron drum band meets the alloy drum face, I drilled
1/4" holes outward at 45 degrees. I made a template to position
the holes so that each of the ten peeks out through one wheel
opening, between "spokes." My reasoning was that the
centrifugal force of air within the angled holes would induce
outward air flow, providing circulation and taking the lining
powder with it. From that day forward I had perfectly even braking
on the track and later on the street. Further, when restored
to street use, the brakes no longer had the tendency to "oval."
I don't know if my vent holes had anything to do with that or
not.
Other Changes
Of course, the
front torsion bar anchor was altered so that the car could be
made level after de-cambering a conservative 1-1/2 degrees. We
were not yet into re-machining the uprights for front camber.
External oil coolers were not yet allowed, so there was no body
butchery to accommodate them. We bought a new ZF limited slip
from Vasek for $150 (racer's price); after a few races I ordered
gear sets for the 59 716 trans through Competition Motors, the
Porsche dealer in Hollywood. Cost plus 10% to racers. Even though
the 58 gearshift was shorter and stiffer by virtue of its more
rearward mounting, we added a short-shift adapter. Steering wheel?
This will get a laugh out of you younger tigers - we just run
what we brung. Not only was it the skinny original A wheel, it
wasn't even the smaller diameter Speedster wheel! For a reason
unknown to me this Speedster had the huge coupe wheel. I was
used to it, and those things just weren't that important. I did
remove the horn ring.
Ready to race
Of course there
was the roll bar, cut-down windshield, mirrors on the fenders
etc. I installed a direct-reading oil pressure gauge. Most of
the guys used the accessory VDO electric, but it was so sluggish
that you could be out of oil pressure for five seconds and not
know it. Especially with the plain-bearing crank, I wanted the
news on a timely basis if it was sucking bubbles in the turns.
Never happened. I reinforced the driver's seat. Even at that
tender age the wooden frame would come un-glued when presented
with keeping an energetic driver in place during high cornering
forces. And that's about it. Simple, compared with what became
legal (therefore mandatory for front-runners) within just the
next few years. Upgrades were made to the car during my short
racing career - Forgedtrue pistons became available with a high-compression
crown and "Step-Seal" upper ring. I changed cams a
time or two. But never blew an engine.
Pert I of
Racing in the 60s was reproduced with the kind permission of
the author, Pat Tobin (tobinp@ix.netcom.com)
Pat is a major
contributor to '356 Talk' (356talk@356registry.org)
and a leading
supporter of the 356 Registry (http://www.mejor.com/356registry)
To read the other articles in
the series simply click on the links below - part IV should be
available soon
