Category Archives: Inspiration

Fantastic Petrolicious Video

Originally I was going to post this video with a comment about the Rush to Gold Bridge, our mixed gravel and tarmac event. It seemed fitting, since this Porsche 356 is driven in places your pickup truck probably doesn’t go. But as I watched the video, and listened to Matt talk about his car, his passion for ownership, and his passion for driving, I was instantly brought back to each of our events this year. I could have been standing in the parking lot at any one of our hotels, hanging out with some of the best car-nut people, following a day of twisty road adventures. We had a fantastic year of exploring new roads, new regions and making some of the best new friends. Videos like this remind me how lucky we are.

So with that, I suggest you grab a coffee and enjoy the newest Petrolicious video. You’ll love it for the car, you’ll love it for the visuals, you’ll be surprised at where he takes the darned thing. Perhaps, like me, you’ll be transported back to B.C., Colorado, Oregon or Ontario and the great group of friends you met while on one of our adventures…

#Drive4Adventure
#drivetastefully

-Dave

Link to Petrolicious and the “Against the Grain” video

356Video

2015 Thanksgiving Run Photos

Well, it was a touch damp this morning. Okay, okay, it was rather wet. But still! 49 cars braved the weather and met in North Vancouver for the start of the CCA Thanksgiving Run. Following our slightly damp drive to Squamish, we stopped at the base of the Sea to Sky Gondola. We found the coffee shop not only featured fantastic Galileo Coffee, but a warm and dry spot to hang out as well!

With coffee finished, and the draw prizes all pulled, we figured we were done…but there was the small matter of push-starting a couple cars for their departure. Oh, and the Hagerty Spring Thaw…

“Hagerty Spring Thaw?”, I can hear you asking, yup! We put all the draw tags back in the hat, added the names and cars of anyone how hadn’t filled out a draw tag, and then pulled a lucky winner out of the hat. Ian Steward will have car number 1 reserved for his entry, no rushing to the mail required!

Here’s a small gallery from today:

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The Porsche from the Winter of 53

This morning, while recovering from Jet-Lag, I figured a little catch-up around the internet would be a great idea. Following the jump, you’ll see a fantastic video about the daily use of a ’53 Porsche 356. True, snow and classics might not be for everyone, but the owner sure makes some valid arguments about driving the car year round. While you may not be ready to order a set of European studs for your classic, the video is at the very least inspiration for all of us who feel locking up a classic is a crime. Take the time to view (4.5min), and then head out for a quick evening spin in your classic.

-Dave

Video created by Will Rogge (http://www.willroegge.com/blog/), and originally featured on Speedhunters.com

1903 Peerless Driven Back to its Roots

Photo: ConceptCarz.com

When Malcolm Barber, CEO of Bonhams, first caught sight of what was to be his 1903 Peerless Model F (16HP, Twin Cylinder, Rear Entrance Tonneau) just over twenty years ago, he thought he had found something unusual. He found the car in a Hawaiian collection, and discovered it had previously been part of the Denver Colorado Transport Museum collection, but as to who had originally owned the car and the story of its past remained a mystery.

Nearly twenty years later Malcolm received a call out of the blue from the Silver Times newspaper in Lake City, Colorado in collaboration with the Horseless Carriage Club of America who told him that his 1903 Peerless had been the Hinsdale County’s first motorcar and invited him to attend a summer tour organised by the Club. The aim being to reunite the Peerless with the family who bought it originally.

Photo: ConceptCarz.com

The car was shipped from London to New Jersey by container, couriered from New Jersey to Denver and then driven by Malcolm from Gunnison (west of Denver) to Lake City, a mining town 9,000ft high in the Rockies. So, 108 years after its first drive, the car still made it up the steep, precarious roads to the town. Waiting for the car to arrive was the 102yr old granddaughter of the original owner, the mining engineer at the Lucky Strike mine, who had not seen the car since 1952, when the family sold it. She said she always remembered the car and was astonished to see it again.

As the Peerless was a local celebrity at the time, numerous postcards taken in 1903 were sold in the local shop. Thomas Beam bought the Peerless for a pricey $2,300. They were considered one the three ‘P’s of American manufacturing: the Peerless, Packard and Pierce Arrow, the US’s best early motorcar manufacturers.

Still going strong, the Peerless, now back in the UK, will be making its 20th run from London to Brighton on November 7th. Malcolm comments: “When you have had a lifelong love affairs with cars, to own one of the great originals like this is an enormous privilege. You realise you are driving automotive history and that the car is never going to be yours, you are merely its keeper for a time. Taking it back to the scenes in which it first saw the road in the breathtaking settings of Colorado, that has to be one of the highlights of my life.”

Need another Porsche, Jerry?

Porsche Tractor

By Nigel Matthews

When Porsche introduced the Cayenne SUV in 2002, a number of Porsche purists and even automotive journalists felt that the company was making a big mistake entering the luxury high-street SUV market.

If they had done their homework, they would have known that this was not Porsche’s first four-wheeler capable of tackling muddy fields. Dr. Ferdinand Porsche built three prototype-tractors in 1934.

The success of these well-built and typically Porsche “over-engineered” machines led to the production of a range of tractors fitted with one- to-four-cylinder engines.

The one-cylinder model was called the Junior, the two-cylinder the Standard, the three-cylinder the Super and the four-cylinder the Master.

There was a model suited to every farmer’s needs. Porsche partnered with the tractor manufacturer Allgaier Brothers; they built 35,000 Porsche tractors until Mannesmann (now owned by Vodafone in a $185 billion US takeover in 2000) took control of building the Porsche tractor in 1956. Mannesmann continued production until 1963 at which time a total of 125,000 units had been built.

A Porsche "Coffee Train" tractor's smooth lines were not for aerodynamics, but to prevent damage to the coffee plants. Photo: PorscheTractors.com

Approximately 1,000 made their way to North America. One beautifully restored, 1959 one-cylinder, 82-cc. Junior, producing 14 h.p, was offered for sale at RM Auctions annual Monterey event. The estimated sale price was $16,000 to $20,000 US. The hammer fell at $28,600 and included the 10-per-cent buyer’s premium.

The new owner has a magnificent example in a condition better than the day it came off the production line. The air-cooled diesel engines were cooled by a fan-duct system that was driven by the crankshaft-driven generator.

If you have ever worked on a type one Beetle or a Porsche 356, this will sound very familiar.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is a huge Porsche collector and attended the 59th annual Pebble Beach Concours, bringing two Porsche racing cars; he achieved a second-in-class win with his 1970 Porsche 908/03 race car. The (slightly slower) one-cylinder Porsche model 108 Junior would make a nice addition to his or any other serious Porsche collection.