Brian Smith's recollections about the brit car scene in the 70's got me to
reminiscing about my days in the late 70's as a 356 nut, mostly while in
graduate school at the University of Iowa. There was the Porsche Club of
America (PCA) and this upstart group called the 356 Registry. I went to
some PCA stuff, but the 356 Registry was more my cup-o-tea. There were lots
of parts vendors. At the time I had a '55 Speedster and a '53 Coupe as a
parts car. One year I rented a Sawzall and cut the front clip off the parts
car (broke a ton of blades as I recall), put the top down on the Speedster,
pulled the right side seat and stuffed the clip (sliced into two pieces) in
there. I then proceeded to drive from drive from Iowa City to a swap meet
at PB Tweeks in Indianapolis where I traded the Tweeks folks the clip for
something I needed (I no longer recall just what). No cash changed hands.
I'm sure I got my fair share of weird looks on the interstate. (I could
also tell you about driving my VW Squareback from Iowa City to Dothan, AL to
tow the parts car back home, all in one long weekend. Or how the spare
bedroom in my mobile home was my "workshop". But those are other stories.)
At 356 Registry meets, the concours was broken up into two groups. The
hardcore-clean-everything-with-qtips guys and the hose-it-down-and-drive-it
guys. (As you might imagine, I was definitely in the latter group.)
Accordingly, they had separate sets of rules. I think the drivers' cars
were only judged on externals, interior, and maybe a peek under the trunk
and engine lids, where the full-out guys were subject to all the poking and
prodding possible underneath as well. I suspect this two-tier concours
judging is what some people contributing to this thread are pining for. It
makes a lot of sense to me.
I suspect one reason you see so many fewer parts vendors these days is that
there is just a lot less raw material around to be scavenged and sold.
Everything has pretty much been dismantled or squirreled away already. Most
of what I see for sale on eBay seems to be by professional parts guys or
mechanics, not by obsessed folks wanting to trade a front clip for some
other stuff. I haven't been to a brit car meet in awhile (maybe five to
seven years), but I don't recall them being nearly the swap meet
free-for-all the 356 scene was back in the 70's -- and because of price
differences, I suspect there were always more Triumphs and MGs sold in the
US than Porsches.
--
Skip Montanaro (skip@pobox.com - http://www.mojam.com/)
"Excellant Written and Communications Skills required" - seen on chi.jobs
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