I understand the sentiment behind automotive purism: the feeling that classic cars shouldn’t be modified at all, and kept in their original “as-is” condition. These are also known as “concours” (or “concourse”) cars, and there’s a whole breed of people who inhabit this world: owners, judges, nitpickers and so on.
It’s a specialty niche, and as I said, I get it. (The Gun Thing has a similar niche — you know, the guys who won’t touch a gun unless all the serial numbers match, and hardly if ever actually, you know, shoot them.)
But I also like the other kind of car guy, the kind that says, “Yeah, that’s okay; but really, times have moved on and we can improve on the original and make them more fun, more driveable, more reliable…” You get the picture.
Here’s an example of the latter, in which Jay Leno talks to the guy behind the “Outlaw 356” ethos, whose company (Emory Motorsports) takes old Porsche 356s and rebuilds these rather underpowered beauties into rip-snorting performance models.
I want one.
I wouldn’t mind one of the “pure” 356s either, mind you; but the Outlaw models… these are just excellent.
As Longtime Readers know, I’m not a Porsche fan, because they’re ugly. But if I were ever in a position to get just one Porsche, the 356 (pure or resto-modded) is probably the only one I’d consider.
And just for the hell of it, this is Jay’s favorite car in his entire garage. And it’s been “sympathetically” restored.
I want one like that, too.
I am of the camp that period correct modifications are acceptable. Putting a Chevy engine in a Ford chaise is not acceptable.
Number one son is a budding mechanic. He bought a 1992 BMW 5 series that does not run. He’s also bought an American engine to replace the BMW engine. And also planning on turning it into a stick instead of an automatic.
It seems like an interesting project to me, and there are many worse ways he could be spending his time and money.
What are your thoughts?
Unfortunately, that has nightmare written all over it. It might have been more feasible using pieces and parts from early-70s cars and engines, but not 90s. All the connections and fitments on the BMW are in Metric sizes and all the same on the American engine are SAE. That’s just the starting point of the problems. Even a 92 BMW has enough electronics that need to talk to the engine management system to present serious problems. … and then he wants to make it exponentially more difficult by adding a change in the transmission architecture?
He should at least start by using a BMW engine and transmission set. There are plenty available.
And there are plenty of you tube videos that go into the problems and difficulties of doing a Automatic / Manual conversion using the same brand components, never mind one with different systems and design approaches.
Nightmares can be interesting too. I suspect it’s not going to run for a while but there are many worse things to do with your money than spend it on a project car.
About 5 years ago our Porsche club region implemented a “Werks” class in our annual Concours. Lots of Regions are doing this and it’s even spilled over into the Parade ( the annual National event ). Thats the class for the more casual Concours entrant. The car with the best ” Story”. The daily driver that’s been to it’s share of track days, Autocrosses and Rally’s and yet has been cleaned up and maintained by the owners for this event. Just be prepared to explain ( and document ) the story behind the car and how it’s been enjoyed ( and just how you removed several years of Tire rubber and cone marks from the finish ).
There’s a lot to be said about attending a concours event. Sure, there are the guys who arrive at the event with their low milage Garage queens that were just driven to the event from the climate controlled trailer parked down the street in a car that’s actually better ( and cleaner ) than new. They are ones with tweezers removing the grass from the tires from when they drove onto the display area.
But there are also plenty of entrants who just want to spend the day hanging out talking about cars all day. But there are also entrants who spent all day yesterday washing and cleaning their daily driver.
The older I get the more I enjoy participating in a concours event. I don’t even need to win anything, although its nice when that happens.
….. and if you really want one of Rod’s creations, he brought one to our Newport R.I. Concours event (held as part of Jay Leno’s Motorweek in Newport ). It was for sale for the price of a moderate condo overlooking the water.
I would like a classic from the 50’s or 60’s but with modern running gear. The first family car I remember was a 1955 Ford Fairlane. The first car I drove and got laid in was a 1960 Ford Fairlane. Unlike you, I’ve never longed for manual transmissions and at this point in my life, reaching over with my left hand to put my truck in gear manually would be a non starter. Another thing I never enjoyed, though I did as a poor young airman, was working on cars. It seemed like I was constantly working on my cars replacing things that seemed to only last 10K miles.
Twenty years ago, when I had a 1970 Ford Ranger, the first thing I did was upgrade the distributor so I didn’t have to have points. Had I kept it, new shifter bushings were on the list, and I was going to install some sort of after market air conditioner in it so it would be comfortable in Southern California in the Summer.
I have an irrational desire for one of those stupid-expensive original Broncos or Scouts with upgraded powertrain, brakes and *air conditioning*. You’re not nuts.
Nothing irrational about that, although I have to say that earlier cars — American trucks especially — had seriously hard rides. My first and last ride in a Chevy Apache (’57 or ’58, I think) almost turned my kidneys to jelly.
The first truck I ever bought was my son in laws 2019 Chevy Silverado which I got about a year ago. I was surprised at how smooth and comfortable the ride is.