By Dick Wisler
Curt Paluzzi asked me to write my memories of early Porsches and other small cars of the 50’s and 60’s era when I first became enthused with the wonderful world of imported sport cars.
I first became aware of the uniqueness of these little wonders in the early 1950’s. My neighbor had acquired maybe the first near 1949 Volkswagen in the U.S. when Studebaker had finished testing and examining it in expectation of producing a midsize four door sedan in conjunction with Porsche. It would feature a V6 rear engine with unique styling and torsion bar suspension. The project was shelved when Studebaker fell into financial troubles.
I had the pleasure of driving this rare VW for most of one summer in 1954 while I was laid off at Studebaker. The 26-hp bug was vastly underpowered without an accelerator pump in the carb and the crash box tranny made it more difficult to attain any velocity. But the thing turned pretty good. (We didn’t know the terminology called cornering until years later).
About this time in the mid-fifties my VW friend took me to see my first Porsche, a hidden away 1955, 1500 Normal coupe, owned by a little old man out west of South Bend. The pancake flat body reminded me of a flying saucer. He took us for a short mild ride. I rode in the back over the thumping engine. It certainly was like riding in a space vehicle.
I was drafted into the navy for two years in late 1955 and although I spent seven months in San Francisco I didn’t pay much attention to the influx of British sports cars in town, mainly because they were driven by the gay population who usually were attempting to pick up us sailors. I did see a new Karmann Ghia coupe in Hawaii while in port on liberty. It was sharp.
When I returned to civilian life in 57, I was surprised to find many of my car buddies driving British sport cars. In fact my best buddy, Dick Colver, who was temporarily living at my folks home with me, had just acquired a 1951 XK120 Jaguar coupe. This machine really impressed me much more than the other guy’s MGs and Triumphs. Ironically, I drove the black beauty to work at my new job in Elkhart for some weeks in the fall while Dick drove my California beater on his muddy job site at the Robert Young RR yards in Elkhart. He soon bought his own ++!! beater and I came back down to earth. Wedge Rafferty acquired the first Porsche in our gang; a 1957 1500cc Continental Super coupe. He kept us mystified about the roller bearing crank and the necessity of the high idle revs. He could always keep the common guy in awe.
I inaugurated my entry into foreign cars with a 444 Volvo fast back sedan. I liked that it resembled a 1940’s Ford sedan, about 7/8 size. For two years I enjoyed the spunk and handling of this sturdy sedan and even got into some rallying with the South Bend Region. But in the spring of 1959, when my friend Denny Schue brought a new bug-eyed Sprite to my house from Hoosier International Motors (where he was a sales guy) I was hooked into a real sports car… well almost a whole car… weighing in at 1595 lbs. and listing at $1795.00. It was the ideal entry vehicle and was the only new car I ever owned. For three years I was transfixed by this mighty mite. The first two years I drove the Sprite all summer everywhere and also cross-country to Colorado and Florida in the winter. I also started autocrossing with the South Bend Region and joined the club. The third year, 1961 I went to drivers school to gain an SCCA competition (racing) license and ran enough races to get my National racing ticket.
Luckily, Curt Thews was looking for someone with a national license to drive his new 356 Porsche roadster that two different SBR drivers had driven in a few regional races the year before. Since I had just sold my Sprite (!) I was conveniently ready to move up to a better class… and expense free to boot! In the two weeks before the first race, I worried a bit about my lack of experience driving a rear engine car, except for the little time in the early VW many years before. No worry… the Porsche handled as neutral as the Sprite and was a joy to race. However after two seasons of mild success in the F Production category, Curt decided to switch to the H Modified class where he could use his creative genius to build his own race car.
Curt Thews and his brother Russ had built an H Modified race car in the fifties when they were working at Studebaker and before they started the first Volkswagen and later Porsche dealership in the Michiana area. The hand-built Crosley-powered car was named the “Sample Street Special” for the old home that the Thews family resided in on Sample Street, where most of the car was built. It resembled a Lotus 7, before there was a 7. No compound body curves for an easier body build. However the car was outdated in the two-year build time and only competed in a few SCCA events.
Curt’s idea for a new car was based on an old DKW Junior passenger car frame and two crated 1500 Porsche Carrera engines he had acquired. Curt’s long time plan was to use these oddball components to construct a two-cylinder Porsche-powered H Modified race car. So, as some of you are thinking even yet today, that idea will never fly: out of balance or what? But don’t tell a stubborn German it can’t work; he’ll try all the harder.
The car was first assembled with the full Carrera engine to run the annual Bellefontaine, Ohio hill climb. We were able to take the overall win and set the hillclimb record against a formidable field. We first campaigned in the HM class at the Waterford Hills track near Detroit in the H Modified International meet in 1965. We started in the slowest unproven class, and worked up to the fastest class for the feature race on Sunday. We chased the pole sitter around for a second place finish out of the 50-car entry for the weekend. Not a bad start for a new home built.
However since we were carrying the full 4-cylinder engine block with two pistons and rods removed, we were carrying about 200 lbs. more than most of the 800 to 900 lb. competitors. Curt had the plans and some of the machine work done for a pure 2-cylinder but gave up racing after two seasons, running the full block with limited success.
The highlight for me driving the “Thews Special” was running both engines at Lynndale Farms. It was a nice little 2-mile track about 3 miles west of Milwaukee that was active for a few years in the mid sixties. We ran the inaugural weekend with the H engine on Saturday and switched over to the 4-cylinder for the FM race on Sunday. The F Modified race on Sunday was part of the opening day feature race with maybe 8 to 10,000 paying fans in attendance.
Newly retired Stirling Moss was the paid-for grand marshal and the newly introduced Shelby Cobra made a few parade laps. The ensuing half hour delay on the grid was probably the reason our very efficient hand brake was left on for the standing start. By the time I noticed it halfway into the first lap the rear brakes were gone. We struggled on through half of the 100 mile race before retiring with other maladies. The shame was, I think that I could have taken the 3rd place class trophy. I had practiced faster than the older gent in a Porsche 550 Spyder that got the award presented by Stirling with a picture to follow. Curt was the keeper of the trophies we won in those years. I would have loved to keep that one.
During the 60’s I also co-drove two different 356 Porsches in the Badger 200: a preliminary production category race at Road America on Saturday before the Can-Am race on Sunday. Kind of a big deal for us amateurs. We ran Bert Olsen’s street coupe in the first race and was able to pass 25 faster cars in the first laps with our borrowed Michelin street tires in the driving rain and we finished 5th in class.
We suffered mechanical problems and didn’t do well the next year in the old yellow ex-Runeman 356 Porsche roadster that Bert now owned. The next year he installed the full Carrera engine in the yellow car. At C Production points races in Cendiv this attempt was foiled by mechanical problems also.
I remember standing behind the pits in one of the last 500-mile races in the late 60’s and watching a young Roger Penske working to pull an upset with his tiny RS Porsche Spyder against the big Chevy V8-powered cars. He almost did it. I thought then that this young guy might get somewhere in racing!
I now own a 914 2.0-liter track car and a Classic-made 1955’s type Porsche Speedster replicar. My best friend down here in Florida is a Porsche driving instructor at Sebring.
Dick Wisler
