Stripper pole 356?

I love the funny stuff that comes up when you do an EBAY search. Here is one I saw today. The ad read:
“School Girl Adult Costume Stripper Pole Dance 356”

What any of those things has to do with a 356 is beyond me, but it was funny.

—Adam

Filed under: Uncategorized

Barn Find, not mine, but a good one!

This is a barn find that I wrote about a couple of years ago, that never got published.

Here is the story:

All cars have a story, but then most people who have been into cars for 60 years have a story also. Raymond Milo is no exception, his car story began in 1946 but his life story began long before that and is equally interesting.
Many people can tell you stories about how they made it through World War II, but most men can’t say they made it through WWII in a dress. Raymond is no cross-dresser; he dressed as a girl in order to survive. You see, his father held a high rank in the guerilla movement that was fighting the Nazis. The Gestapo placed a price on young Raymond’s head, since he was the only male child of the family. Well, Momma Milo had something to say about that, and dressed her only son as a daughter, thereby saving his life.

After the war Raymond spent some time in France studying at The Sorbonne, but felt the call to go try his hand in America. He enrolled at the University of Illinois and his love affair with cars began.
“I saw my first race in 1946, and was hooked,” remembers Raymond. “While at U of I, I raced with extremely modest success a Morgan and an Elva.”
He raced after college but quickly learned that you either have it in you, or you don’t.
“Upon graduation, I got a job at Douglas Aerospace division, and continued
to race in Cal Club which regrettably joined the SCCA,” explains the racer. “Lotus 20FJ, Barabham BT21, Morgan, Cobra 289….and by mid-sixties I realized that I not only lucked money and talent, but also a desire to race.”
He then moved from racing fast cars to just enjoying them. This hobby quickly turned to a small moneymaker. Raymond recalls,
“I was involved through my fried Lou Spenser on the periphery of
Shelby’s organization, and had a very favorable price for 289 cars,
and other Shelby’s products. The aerospace engineer’s salary was
about 10 grand a year, so I supplemented my need for fast cars (in
California you are what you drive) by buying Shelby’s factory cars at
the end of season for 2 grand a piece, and selling them for 3,5-3,75K
to college kids with wealthy parents. By 66 Shelby had sold to Ford,
but I discovered that I had a talent to find a slightly used super car,
drive it for less then a year, and find someone willing to pay me
more then what I paid for the car.”
Once he had the knack for finding and selling cars, Raymond moved beyond Fords. Mr. Milo is able to recall the history of his life based on what he was driving at the time.
“I went through my Ferrari phase (TDF, SWB Berlinetta, both Cal. Spyders, and several 275’s). I was a good friend with Chick Vanerfriff (Hollywood Sports Car, Ferrari dealer), knew Otto Zipper well (he even talked me into buying a
Miura—-which was a horrible car to drive-so graciously he took it
back). In 66 I had a brief interlude with Porsches: an early 911
(with triple Solexes which I finally got to run right after taking it
to Roger Bursh in Pasadena), then an early 911S w/sunroof (great
car), found out that a 911R was not very drivable in SoCal, and went
back to Ferrari. Those were much simpler times; my Hollywood Hills
house cost me 37.5K or $115 a month including taxes and insurance. I
was able to buy for 6 grand an almost brand new 275GTB4, which no one
wanted….because it had alloy body….and at the time there was one
shop, maybe two that would work on alloy body. That was followed by
three Daytonas (brand new $16,250 European delivery). I knew Chinetti
well, and he introduced me to Dott. Manicardi and Ing. Florini
(customer racing). I left Douglas (long story) in 69, got married in
73 (I think) and went on my honey moon to pick up a very special
Daytona (#16495), which was built for me as a copy of Tour de France
Daytona….in which we spent our honeymoon. I also got an early used
but practically new 6.3 AMG which was by far the very best 4 door
sedan ever. You could cruise from Paris to Monte Carlo all day long at
220km on the clock in perfect comfort. In 75 (yes, it was a long
honeymoon) we came back to LA, by 78 I was divorced (local custom you
know) and lost my beloved Daytona. By 82 I was back on my feet, and
am ashamed to say went through Several Silver Spirits and
Spurs—–which were brand new—and the worst cars I ever drove.”
Since then Raymond Milo has done cars and even contributes articles for publications like Sports Car Market Magazine. It was while getting ready to fly to the East Coast for a party that the phone rang and Porsches once again entered his life, Porsches 356s that is.
“Just as I was getting ready to fly to Lynchburg, VA. to attend the Memorial
Day party at my friend Mark Smith’s mansion, my friend Archie Oglesby
called to tell me that he has just moved from Greenville to Lynchburg and
was getting ready to open his dealership/restoration place near by. He also
told me that someone has pointed him to a hoard of 10 barn Porsches, that
he could buy. Archie’s specialty are British cars, and I usually dable in
obscure French and Italian cars, and my big ‘expertise’ in Porsches is
microscopic. (Yes, I bought a few important cars few years back, like
America Roadster, 904, Carrera Abarth, a 911R…..not to mention two
Denzels….yes I know they are Austrians….but I am really quite ignorant
when it comes to 356s). But Archie mentioned a speedster, a pre A coupe,
and before he finished I said “let’s buy them”. The next morning I wired my
half, and we owned the 10 barn cars, and a truckload of parts.”
The story behind how the cars became available is a sad one.
“The story told to Archie goes something like this: A Porsche mechanic started buying the cars in the late sixties/early seventies to restore them when he
retires,” tells Raymond. “He also bought new and old parts that in his judgment were needed. In December of last year the mechanic retired. In January of this year his roof sprang a leak, and being handy he took a step ladder and climbed up. You can imagine the rest…”
Enter Archie and Raymond. The cars were pretty much what the guys expected, but there were a few surprises. Milo tells it,
“Archie bought the cars from the widow. When I arrived to Classic Car Emporium in Madison Heights, on sunny Thursday morning the place was freshly redone and looked absolutely immaculate….two E-types with Pebble quality nut and bolt do…..and ten barn Porsches. The contrast between the immaculate place, freshly painted and gilded for impending opening, two perfect E-types and the bunch of barn 356s with a lone 912. By nature I do not look at details, and I have already described my ‘expertise’ in Porsches…..we have all seen the barn cars……but these were unique. Each one had in its trunk a perfect rats nest…neatly built from some kind of mattress stuffing. Some were really big, some were small….but each car had one in the middle of the trunk. I
was overwhelmed.”
It was also an eye-opening day in terms of cars seen for the first time.
“For the first time in my life I saw a Karmann coupe, standing next to a 356A Cab. with factory ‘hard top only’ option….they looked almost identical.”
Another first for Raymond was a good old fashioned barn cleaning.
“Saturday was the big day; we were going to the barn to retrieve the parts,” describes Raymond. “It was my first, since there are no barns in
Southern California. The parts armada consisted of my rent a car, Archie’s
wife’s SUV and you guessed it an 18″ U-Haul truck. For the better part of a
long afternoon the five of us (Archie was smart, and brought two young
burly friends) toiled in worm humid mosquito infested meadow, bringing
boxes and boxes, floor pans and windshields, spare wheels and
longitudinals, crankcases and God knows what else. Dust and spider webs,
few snake skins, periodical visits by large menacing wasps, not so
periodical visits by hungry mosquitoes and finally the barn was empty. The
sun was setting, we were all dirty, tired and hungry but elated. The truck
was almost full to the roof, Brenda’s SUV had at least half a dozen
windshields, plus some other small boxes. The trunk of my rent-a rice
burner had some small boxes, and I drove in the back of the convoy to
Archie’s place. I honestly can’t tell you what we had….boxes of Blaupunkt and Telefunken radios, floor pans, wheels all of them with dates…some 16″…some parts were in Stoddard’s boxes….some looked very used.”
From here the barn party moved to the actual party. Remember the party that Raymond was getting ready for?
“We barely made it to Mark Smiths palatial estate for a very elegant and exquisitely catered party,” recalls Raymond. “After a few glasses of
Champaign a funny thought occurred to me; it goes something like this: the
dog is chasing a car; what does the dog do, when he catches it? What I mean
to say is that neither Archie nor I can tell the difference between a
speedster pan and a 912’s. Archie is one of those people who can look at
an intake manifold with triple SU’s and tell at the glance if it is for an
150S or an early E-type. I, being an intellectual with zero knowledge of
parts, on a good day can tell the difference between sand cast Webers and a
Spanish die cast reproduction….in short I hope you get our dilemma.”
Since neither man was really sure what they had and what they were missing they did the best thing to do under the circumstances, picked a price for someone to take the whole lot. Milo explains,
“We both buy and sell cars for a living….we know that sold individually…the
ten cars will bring more money. We also believe that there are parts needed
to rebuild each and every car….but which parts go to which car is the
question….that at this moment we don’t even want to contemplate. So, at
least for the time being, we are trying to sell everything as a lot.”
Someone will get these cars and really know what they are looking at, then the real money will be made. An interesting car aficionado who just happened to be at the right place at the right time to take a journey into our world of the Porsche 356.

—Adam

Filed under: Uncategorized

Porsche as art

I am a firm believer in always trying to bring together the things you love. Like getting your wife to go for a ride in your Porsche. Or in my case making a career out of messing with Porsches. A lot of artists take their love of Porsches and make art with the P-Car in mind. Sometimes it gets a little weird, but it is still art, right? You be the judge.

—Adam

Filed under: Uncategorized

Cold Cold Rain….

Some days doing what I do is not glamorous. Loading a very rusty C Coupe in the cold cold rain. At least the driver was cool, he lives in the same part of Atlanta I used to live in, Decatur. We shared the joke,
“Decatur is Greater!!!”

—Adam

Filed under: Uncategorized

Worst 911S EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

This one is a long long story, that involves slimy Canadian junk yard owners, agro US Border Patrol agents, lots of rust, and a tax free sandwich.
The article was printed in the S Registry mag a few months back.

There are two questions that I am often asked, concerning what I do for a living. They are:
1. What is it you do?
2. How do you find all the cars that you come up with?

Neither question has a quick and easy answer. But I try to explain to people that what I like most about what I do is finding long lost cars and getting them into the hands of people who will bring them back to their former glory, or at the very least harvest the parts so another Porsche can live. This is not all of what I do, but since it’s the best part, I most identify with the role of Porsche hunter. I go where the story takes me, to bring to light lost Porsches, so that they may rise again.

This is exactly the kind of faerie tale story that led me to 1970 911S VIN#9111310090. This poor car was probably wrecked in the 70s, and left to rot in a Canadian junkyard. The car was a great source for parts, or a very ambitious restoration. But once you saw that it had sport seats, Fuchs, and all the S specific stuff was intact, down to the oil cooler, this was a car that needed to be saved. It was probably a cool car in the early 70s; the Bahama yellow paintwork was very period.
The deal started out pretty regular. The seller had bought out the junkyard and was very surprised that I wanted to pay so much for the car, $3000. We agreed on the price and then his greed drove the stakes higher. We finally agreed on a price of $4600, and he had to bring the car to me on the US side of the border. I had never brought a car over the border before, but I had heard lots of horror stories. The seller assured me it was very easy, that he did it all the time. I said, ok, if it’s so easy to get a car over the border I will meet you in the US of A, and pay you for the car.
This is where the story gets a lot uglier. The seller told me to meet him at the border in the Duty Free parking lot, which is right before you cross over into Canada. We met on Memorial Day, so traffic over the border was very heavy. When the seller was close he told me to meet him right on the other side of the gateways. Here is where it gets a little scary. I do a U-turn out of the Duty Free area, and the next thing I know I am boxed in by Border Patrol police cars, ordering me out of my car. I quickly comply and am shepherded into the little Police Station. Most of the Border Patrol guys were pretty laid back, but one guy must have been waiting all day for some action. You could kind of tell he took the job a little too seriously. While most of the guys were wearing normal uniforms, polo shirts with embroidered badges. This one real serious guy looked like he was a SWAT team member, sporting a very different uniform with the combat vest and military pants, all the way down to his jack boots. He was sure he had caught a big fish trying to, in his words, “smuggle a car over the border”, since I didn’t have a customs broker. I was in serious trouble, he tells me, and he has me on tape buying things in the Duty Free area, another serious violation. He says he is going to search my truck, and he better not find anything. Up to this point I am being very quiet and cooperative, but even my patience was running thin. I ask him,
“ Am I still in the United States?”
He tells me, “Yes”
“According to my ID, I am a citizen of the US?” I ask through grated teeth.
He tells me, “Yes”
“Do you see a smuggled car on my trailer?” I ask.
“No” says the guard.
“So, how am I smuggling a car I don’t have?”

At this point I guess I was raising my voice because there was quite a crowd of police now, including the guy’s supervisor. He quickly gets to the bottom of my cross border crime spree and determines that since I don’t have the car and have not paid for the car, I have done nothing wrong. He is about to send me on my way. But the 1st policeman jumps in saying they still have me on the Duty Free violation, I am on camera going in and buying items. The supervisor is getting really bored now and asks me what I bought in the Duty Free area, I tell him I bought a sandwich, which I ate, but if you give me a couple of hours I can re-produce it. At this point he laughs, along with everyone but the SWAT looking guy, and I am quietly sent on my way.
I quickly high tail it out of there and stop at a Wal-Mart parking lot down the road. The Canadian seller calls me and says I need to meet him at the border. I tell him no way, he has to meet me at Wal-Mart.
To make a long story short, we go back and forth screaming at each other and he finally decides that yes I will take my toys and go home, and he meets me down the road. As it turns out, all of this trouble stems from his scheme to meet me in the Duty Free area, so I will have to pay the $150 duty to bring the car in. His greed got the best of him again. Although he agreed to bring me the car in the US, he had a plan to get out of the duty. But all he really did was cause me a lot of stress and he paid the duty anyway.
In the end I got what was probably the worst S ever. Nothing had been picked from the car, since it sat for so long, so it was complete. I harvested the sport seats and the Fuchs, and the car was sold to a racer in Miami who wanted all the S components, which is probably best. I guess this car could have been restored, but the cost and trouble would not be worth it, even for a matching #s S. The final irony of the car was only noticed once we got it back to the shop. The car had been Ziebart protected and rust proofed. I don’t think even the mighty Ziebart process could hold back Mother Nature when she comes in the form of 30 years of Canadian winter. Now that’s funny!

Look for more great Porsche 911 stories in the issues to come. For me, there is never a dull moment when the hunt is on.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Typ 356 Northeast swap meet

I made it out to a fun swap a few weeks back. Our club president, Bill Collins, held it at his house. A good time was had by all. I bought a few parts and sold a few parts. Thanks to Ralph Hadley for bringing his camera and snapping these pics.

This is what the smaller swap meets are all about, getting out and meeting people. There was even one very pretty baby there, I think her name was Ava Wright (see last pic).

Filed under: Uncategorized

1959 A Coupe on EBAY

I just put a running 59 coupe project up on EBAY. Check it out:

Filed under: Uncategorized

Porsche wrecks

Here is a collection of wrecks from years past.

My man Rolf sent over a few shots of a 356 climbing a tree.

—Adam

Filed under: Uncategorized

300lb Gorilla and the VW Bug

While traveling to pick up an A Coupe today in the sunny and green Northeast Big John and I came upon a very strange sight, a 50 foot Gorilla holding a a VW Bug very high in the air. We came over a hill and at first I thought I was seeing a 356 being held by a big monkey who was almost taunting me to take it down, which I would have, had it been a 356. But since it is a bug, we just stopped to take a picture.

We then picked up the A Coupe, ate at Subway, and made it on home. Another day in the life of the Unobtanium crew.

—Adam

Filed under: Uncategorized

Abarth … Replica?

Wow. Just wow. Sorry Karl.

See it here on ebay. — Matt

Filed under: Uncategorized