Little Car, Big Heart

Remember this forlorn car body in pre-paint stage that I showed you a couple of posts back? Well, several things have transpired since that time!

We prepped the car. We painted the car. We stickered the car. And we took it to a show!

But actually, a lot more went into bringing this old tub back to street-fighting form: a minor engine overhaul, new brakes all around, new treads mounted on refreshed wheels, and a test drive or two to fine-tune the old steed.

But wait! There's quite a history to this Speedster. Read on…

The Right Driver

In 1958, Porsche Speedster 84382 was imported by Porsche's New York dealer, Max Hoffman, for a customer in New Jersey. Not liking its Fjord Green color, the new owner had the car repainted Ivory, but then sold it to someone who would use it as a daily driver in Warrington, PA, until he traded it to Holbert's Garages in Warrington for a new 356 Coupe in 1964.

For the next year or two, Bob Holbert's son, Al, drove the Speedster to high school and then on to Lehigh University. At some point Al's father took it back; it was reported by some of Al's friends that the young man got too many speeding tickets. Can’t blame the future Porsche racing star for speeding; after all, it was a Speedster, right?

Soon after, in 1966 one Jess Holshouser, an electrical engineer and Porsche club racing enthusiast, walked into Holbert's dealership and said: "I want that little white Speedster."

Holbert's Garage 1966. Note the little white Speedster amidst the British cars!

And thus began the racing saga of Speedster 84382.

Effort

Holshouser belonged to the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association (PHA) and was also a member of the Reisentoter Region of the Porsche Club of America (PCA). Holshouser owned a 1960 Porsche Super-90 coupe, a nifty sports car that allowed him to participate in SCCA-sanctioned gymkhanas and Solo 1 events in 1964. A gymkhana is time-trial racing between cones and in parking lots, an excellent way to learn how a certain car handles.

For his first two seasons, 1964 and 1965, Holshouser placed between 5th and 14th. In 1966, however, Holshouser got the hang of things and was consistently challenging for podium spots.

But Holshouser wanted to do more than that, and hillclimbing was his next target. Which is why he bought the Speedster in 1966.

Being an engineer, Holshouser methodically flow-charted what to do to get his Speedster ready for hillclimbing. He lined up a good mechanic and shop, listed what preparations he had to make, and even time-lined his tasks to be ready for competition in the 1967 season.

Holshouser then got his PHA Senior Competition license. And he recruited a small crew of volunteers to help him.

Holshouser located the area hillclimbs that he could reasonably drive to and participate in. Gymkhanas would also help him learn how to handle the Speedster as he prepped it for hillclimbing, so Holshouser entered it in several events for 1968.

JH’s map of hillclimbs; this is just a selection of them—there were over a dozen in PA alone!

And he rigged up a bar to flat-tow the Speedster behind his Mercury station wagon.

84382 In Tow. Note the Glasspar top, which came stock in white. JH would later paint it black, then remove it to add lightness. *Always thinking about how to go faster…*

Then he went racing.

Results

Racing doesn't give instant gratification. Racing doesn't often reward its participants. And racing isn't cheap. All of these knock out the unprepared and the Johnny-come-latelies.

Holshouser wasn't one of them. He was methodical, selecting the hills that his clubmates raced on, scouting out the courses before running them.

Weatherly event cover in 1979. By this time the SCCA was co-sanctioning all amateur competitve events.

But Holshouser went one big step further.

He developed a method of recording his comments on track conditions as he raced up the hill. After his run, he would debrief himself from the tape and write notes down on a diagram of the course that he had drawn.

Weatherly: JH’s Diagram. Note his post-race self-evaluation at the bottom. And, the comment at Turn 5: *“All runs 4 wheels off the ground - RPM went up while airborne.”* Wild stuff, or what?

After the day's events were through, Holshouser would record what each of the top drivers' times were and note where he had placed. Finally, he would write down what he had to do to improve his driving time.

Persistance

By the end of the 1968 season he was swerving between the cones at gymkhanas in his now-prepared Speedster, and in it he was winning. Holshouser placed 1st in his coupe twice, but garnered two 2nds, one 3rd, and five 5th place finishes in his Speedster.

He was improving!

An Enduring Record

In May of 1968, Holshouser was ready to hillclimb. He would be competing with his PHA peers in E-Production on the hills of Pennsylvania, but he also challenged Mt. Equinox in Vermont and Chimney Rock in North Carolina. Names like Giant's Despair, Duryea, Rose Valley, Tuscarora, and others were places on his event map and milestones in his runs.

This cockpit view shows the array of instrumentation that JH had to deal with. Not much compared to what modern racers face, but still, pretty complicated!

Holshouser's record of competitions is incomplete due to the SCCA not keeping very good hillclimb event records in the 1980's. However, we do know that Jess entered his Speedster in events from 1968 until he retired from competition in 1990 due to health concerns. We have his records—entry receipts, notes, race results!

Holshouser's salad years were in the 1970's, when his methodical preparation finally paid off. And despite incomplete official records for some seasons, we know that, between 1968 and 1990, Holshouser logged in at least 40 events.

And dogged persistence worked. In PHA hillclimbing events for E-Production, Holshouser was ranked 1st in 1973, 2nd in 1974, 4th in 1975, 2nd in 1976, 3rd in 1977, and 1st again in 1980.

Lifting inside front wheel at Duryea. At some point one faces a sharp right corner, and this might be that corner!

And then, for some reason, the trail went cold until 1988. Holshouser showed up at the annual event in Chimney Rock, only to miss a shift, hit a tree, and blow up his transaxle. And engine too!

Again in 1990, after a move and some repairs to his Speedster, Holshouser tried again to compete. But after DNF's in three straight events, it was time for Holshouser to hang up his keys.

Despite setbacks in his last years, Holshouser could retire with honor; he had competed long and hard with his trusty car and achieved remarkable results.

His Speedster was the little car that could!

JH at starting line. Big Merc in the background.

******************************** ****** ********************************

Many thanks go out to Ron Mann, historian of the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association, for sharing PHA results records and his personal impressions of many of the racers from that golden era of hillclimb events.

The holidays approach, and with it we all need to focus on family, joy, and peace. Let us all hope that people in the world around us can also find those moments as well.

Unless something big worth announcing comes up at my end, I’m taking a brief respite, but I’ll greet you all in the New Year with new stories about speedsters.

Until then,

go drive that speedster!

=rds

The Little Car That Could

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