sludgo Rides Shotgun with gear-ku: A Practical Look

BaT member gear-ku is a real old-timer who joined the site back in December 2007! He was genuinely surprised when I tracked him down and asked if I could Ride Shotgun with him for the third installment of this series. Told him we could go anywhere he wanted to go. He said his activity on the site had slowed, but he still visited regularly. I told him I missed his haiku and he gave an easy laugh. Shrugged his shoulders and told me to hop in. I didn’t hesitate and a conversation about all things ensued, ranging from engine fires to the makings of a good nightclub backline to the joy of finding your Forever Car. Hope you enjoy the ride!

-sludgo

Hi gear-ku! It’s always the same first question with me…what got you into cars?

Well, my dad was an engineering inspector for Pratt & Whitney and also a gearhead, and when I was a kid he bought a couple fun cars like a Jeepster that he got at Dixie Auto Body in Fort Pierce for fifty bucks. He restored it for my older brother and sisters to drive to high school and painted it in the school colors—green and white. It got painted a second time too—red and white—after my brother sort of burned it up on the beach. But, think about it—those were the days when you could go to the junkyard and get a running car for fifty bucks! That was the first car I ever worked on; I was literally put on a creeper and given googles, a bandanna to put over my face, a wire brush to start scraping. It was the four-cylinder and not the six-cylinder, with three-on-the-tree of course. The starter was a manual solenoid on the transmission hump that you had to reach down and push. t’s what I learned to drive in. They were pretty rudimentary. Brooks Stevens gave them a little flavor but they ain’t much as a car!

I had a go-kart back then, too. One of those little Monza Juniors that I won from a drawing at the soapbox derby. I blew the motor up in it and built different versions of it a couple of times—an early education of what not to do.

I guess I was a little different as a kid. I started subscribing to Road & Track when I was nine—still have 1964-72 in binders—and so my interests were more about British cars. Then the birth of Formula One was happening in the UK and I became enamored with manufacturers like Lotus and with stories like Brabham building his own car and winning. I also got Competition Press (i.e. Autoweek ), read all of Denise McLuggage’s stuff, Paul Frère, Henry Manney, all of them were motorsport sages. And at the time my brother and his friends and my older sisters’ boyfriends were all building these really janky jalopies. Occasionally they got killed in them, too. One of the ones my brother built was just insane—a wrecked ’50s Chrysler Windsor that had a baby Hemi relocated behind the front seats! Used the fenders and everything but it was like this mid-engined thing out of Mad Max. Thankfully, it was never completed.

First car of your own?

My first personal car was a ’65 K-code Mustang fastback. Not a GT. Just a fastback with the good trim but not the super-deluxe like the GT got. It had been prepared for A-Sedan racing by a young guy out at Pratt & Whitney. I’d already found a ’63 Cobra that wasn’t far away but they wanted three thousand bucks for and all I had was fifteen-hundred and my dad wouldn’t loan me the rest which in retrospect was probably a good thing! So the Mustang was my first and, you know, I drove it like any sixteen year-old would—kind of stupid. Then it got stolen and with the insurance money I bought an Austin-Healey 3000 BJ8—a ’67. Blue with black coves. Low miles but that’s because it was 1972 and the car was only five years old. One of my best road trips ever was with that car, up the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenendoah Valley. Unfortunately, the exhaust system on those Healeys drops down right next to the footwell where the accelerator is, so I improvised with a small cooler and hand towels soaking in a bag of ice—wrap the go pedal foot every 20 miles or so. Ah, but the scenery!

Why the turn to German cars?

As it happened, a friend of mine got a BMW 2002 from his dad and on the first ride it felt like an epiphany. Then another childhood friend showed up one day to drag me down to Fort Lauderdale in a ’67 911S soft window targa—Aubergine with a Parchment interior! And remember again that this was 1972 or 1973, so the car was six years old and you could buy one like it for three thousand bucks! Honestly to experience those cars when you were used to a big Healey or American muscle it was just like, oh my god.

After that I just developed this fascination with German cars. Love BMWs. My first was a ’67 2000CS which features polarizing “styling by Braun” design cues, but I love the look. There’s a nice picture of my wife next to our 2800 CS and our 2000CS at an event ages ago. The E9s are wonderful highway cars, true GTs, and the four-cylinder cars are as well, in a way. I also acquired a ’72 3.0CSL which served as a track car for a long time. The guy who sold it to me hunted it down and after 28 years it’s back in his possession. Lovely full circle between enthusiasts.

Has it been German cars ever since?

It’s funny how that worked out, because back in 1981 I had a brand-new Rabbit that I bought in North Carolina when my wife was in grad school, but then the recession came along and it got repossessed. Remember 17% loans? Well, I needed to get to work somehow and while riding the bus I spotted a ’66 Mustang coupe with a For Sale sign on it. It had a vinyl roof and was in about five shades of primer and one day I just got off the bus and asked the old guy who selling it how much he wanted. Ended up paying just $225 bucks for it, but that car took us to work in Miami and moved us to West Palm and never missed a beat until ’85 or ’86 when I decided to restore it. Started doing it in the driveway, but then gave it to a shop in Coconut Creek who really screwed it up. They ended up giving me the money for the car plus a big chunk of what I’d already spent on it, and not long after that we were at the wooden boat festival in Mount Dora and there was a ’69 2800CS parked in this guy’s yard next to a Bavaria, both of them for sale. I had more than enough money from the Mustang to buy either one of them, so I bought the 2800CS and brought it home.

So, of them all, what’s been your favorite?

We bought a 356 notch and a Volkswagen Bus the same year—they are two cars we always wanted to have. The notch was an oddball in 356 circles, but special to me. Found it in a used car lot. Stopped and drove it and got a little money cut off of the price. It was a daily driver for several years, then I stripped it, painted it and stored it for a decade, meanwhile accumulating a bunch of trick components. Took about a year to put it back together. When we finished it we did a Cavallino Classic with it and I got second! It’s a hot rod—I don’t like the word “outlaw”—and when I pulled into the lot it was loud and flashy and all the judges thought it was pretty cool. It’s got a big motor and GT brakes and GT suspension components, and recently I put on Rudge replica wheels. It still looks pretty good considering that the paint is 25 years old. It’s noisy inside and there’s not a lot of luggage space, but it’s fun to drive. I have to fold myself to get in and out, but once I’m in there I’m good! Great event car.

When I first joined the 356 Registry, notches were definitely the redheaded stepchild and I used to joke that even if I had a cabrio I’d probably leave the hardtop on, but now I have a ’59 Convertible D—essentially a Speedster with a slightly taller windshield and roll-up windows. When we got it, the first thing I did was put the top up and found out that it’s pretty tight in there! So even with all the events we’ve taken it to, that top has never gone back up. I’ve been caught in rain and just said screw it and drove faster! Found out that worked pretty well in the big Healey, but not so much in the Porsche. We’d always get soaked, but I didn’t care. I don’t know how to describe it—I’ve always loved my little 356 notchback, but having an open version of it has been really swell. Really enjoyable.

But your question was about my favorite, and that’s probably the Bus. It’s our forever car. I would never sell it. We call it the Forever Car because you can live in it. It’s the desert island car. You can sleep in it. Has a sunroof. Brings smiles everywhere you go. Very rarely are people jerks around you or cut you off in traffic; most people will smile and wave at you. But you have to be careful when you drive one, otherwise you’ll end up getting the “bus hunch”! And remember: you’re literally riding in the “crumple zone.”

What’s the one you’d like to have back?

My Volvo 1800ES, although I’ve gotta say , lovely as the Swedish Nomad is, it drove like a truck. You couldn’t put power steering on them back then. It’s kind of a pokey little thing. Mine was pristine—a genuine 27,000 mile completely original time capsule. But if I still had it I’d probably do something like a Honda 2000 swap and put electric power steering in it. I’d also probably change the rear end.

There’s another choice that was more of a woulda-shoulda. There was a gas station/garage in Lake Park on North Lake Boulevard, and the guy was a local sports car racer and he had two 904 Porsches on a trailer for sale with spare engines and spare wheels and this was, like, 1973. Not sure what the story around the sale was but the price was $6,500. Even with a decent job that wasn’t gonna happen. I tried to get a loan with the fantasy of keeping one and selling the other. Nope. Hey, it’s good to dream, right?

The lottery-win car?

I’ve always wanted a ’67 330 GTC Ferrari, but every time that I’d get an annuity or something that I could cash in they’d be out of my reach, and now they’re six or seven hundred grand and I can’t justify that for a car. What’s sad is that it’s one of the most useful front-engined V12 Ferraris. I love the Lusso, but just to use as a car—you couldn’t. So it would either be a 330 GTC or a 300SL roadster—a roadster because I’ve driven the gullwing and it’s claustrophobic for me.

The poverty pick?

I love the little Kei cars. At the cheaper end of the spectrum are things like the Honda Beat and the Suzuki Cappuccino and the Escargot which is a goofy little minivan. I like the Nissan Pao too. All of them are reminiscent of ’50’s and ’60’s European cars, the econoboxes.

Best drive ever?

I’ve had so many. The Pacific Coast Highway. The Blue Ridge Parkway and surrounding roads. Natchez Trace.Colorado, New Mexico. And all the trips up to Canada. The roads in British Columbia and Alberta are just fabulous. Same with Ontario. You get up into the lakes district and it’s just really special. We did the Maple Mille there five years ago, and that’s a wonderful tour. You’re driving through the color and it’s sooo pretty. And we were just out in Durango, the Million-Dollar Highway, and the ride to Telluride was spectacular.

I also got to drive Pike’s Peak before they paved it. It was the late ’80s and we were out there on a business trip. I had been up Pike’s Peak several times before, either by the train from Manitou Falls or had hiked it. This time I got to drive up it fast in a Ford EXP Turbo. Not only was I impressed with the car—my time was somewhere around 18-19 minutes—but it was a lot of fun!

Worst drive ever?

Well, we recently took our Mercedes W111, a ’70 3.5 sunroof coupe, out for some exercise. Just as we were approaching our shop, smoke started streaming out from under the hood, and when I hit the brakes I didn’t have any! We rolled past the entrance because I was going too fast for the turn, but I grabbed the handbrake and got us stopped about a hundred feet further down the road. I ran back to the shop and got a bottle and by the time I came back, there were flames licking out of the side of the hood! Only burned a couple of minutes and was extinguished in moments, but the engine bay and front clip are a mess. Still working on the insurance estimate Gah.

Dream drive?

I’ve been fascinated by the Trento Bondone hillclimb in Northern Italy for 30 or 40 years. My fantasy was always to have the skill and the car to do that because it is one of the hairiest hillclimbs you ever want to see. European hillclimbing is way different in that they don’t mess around. Kind of like when you go to Goodwood. Now that’s historic racing. I’ve raced historic and vintage before and it’s usually more of a parade. I mean, a handful of us might want to drive as fast as we can, but nobody wants to prang their multi-million-dollar toy. In the UK and Europe that’s not the way it’s done—they flog their historic cars. It’s some of the most exciting door-to-door racing you are ever going to watch.

Now tell me about gear-ku’s haikus.

Ha! Well the haikus were all off the top of my head. Usually I’d look at the car and a story would crash into my brain. I was posting under @RDH as a serious Porsche and Mercedes and British contributor, so I started doing the haiku posts under @gear-ku as an additional handle. I think one of the first ones I did was for an Audi ur-Quattro. It was about what it’s like to see and hear one of those doing a winter rally, and it just came out. I didn’t re-edit it or anything. It just flowed and I was happy with it and posted it and was astonished to see how quickly people responded to it and it was like, “cool! Let’s see what tomorrow brings!” But after about a year or two of doing them I just sort of ran out of juice. It wasn’t writer’s block so much as doing them didn’t affect me in the same way anymore. Plus, I also got busy doing other stuff so this logging in every day like I did wasn’t happening anymore. I mean, for a while I was starting every morning on Bring a Trailer.

What’s your Bring a Trailer discovery story?

I got on the website because Randy and his business partner and his dad had a table at Monterey—had to be in 2007—and we pulled into the paddock and I saw a bunch of Porsches that were parked all around there, and literally pulled over nearby. Started shooting the bull and that’s when I found out about the site. It was really early on.

Any fun events ahead?

In just a couple of weeks the Ocean Reef Club does a vintage weekend with vintage boats, aircraft, and cars. Then after the beginning of the year we’ve got a Porsche group that does a private rally up in the middle of the state called the Gator Crawl. The vintage BMW club joins us on that. There’s a string of shows that start happening here in the wintertime because the weather is perfect. There’s Wheels Across the Pond and Hundred Years of Cars at the Pine School and then Cavallino, which is coming up in January. Then, of course, there’s cars & coffees and other local gatherings, but honestly I’m not much of a fan of fuzzy dice and fins and dinner trays hanging in passenger windows.

Beyond all of that, there’s a lot of Volkswagen stuff going on and they always have just a great crowd of people. There’s an event coming up here in Fort Pierce that I did once with my T34. Then there’s the Bug Jam, which is a big Florida statewide thing. Have never been to No Dough VW show, but need to. Then there’s the Bully-Brigade, which is an all Volkswagen split-window gathering. Often 80 to 100 split-window buses in one place!

Alright, last question, Le Mans or Grand Prix?

You left out Winning! And the truth is, any of those are fine movies. They all have the same basic story, but I guess for me it would be Grand Prix. I really enjoyed the scenes of Monza because we never got to see those races. That era was already over by the time that movie was being made. And I liked that it had an intermission with that heroic theme music, the same jaunty kind of march as a war movie of that period! Frankenheimer is a master of car chases—we had an Audi S8 exactly like the one he used in Ronin. Le Mans though? A similar kind of thing of course, but it sure beats the hell out of Ford vs. Ferrari. I didn’t like it because they treated Ken Miles as if he was just brought to the party. Are you kidding? He was already a major force in Southern California sports car racing! And their treatment of Ford, portraying them as so underhanded with the Le Mans finish? It’s questionable as to whether or not it was team orders or just a mistake, but the guys who ran that program all had a vision of what was going to happen. They were all on the same page. I don’t think there was anywhere near the strife that was portrayed in the movie. And certainly no fistfight between Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles!

Thanks for letting me ride shotgun, gearku! Don’t make yourself a stranger!

Been my pleasure, sludge! Drive ’em!