5/28/2000
Unlike Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Chris
Kristopherson, my heroes haven’t always been cowboys. Truth be told; they were many years ago,
when, as a small child from a rural Niagara County hamlet “Cowboys and Indians”
were what was “HOT”. A majority of our entertainment revolved around Western
movies, television and books.
Our small hamlet was close to Harrison Radiator, a
General Motors subsidiary and many of the residents who weren’t involved in
agriculture worked there. As a result, GM vehicles were very prevalent. (The
kids whose Fathers didn’t work at Harrison’s thought the GM workers were given
new cars every three years as a part of the compensation package!)
Hot Rods were also an intrinsic part of our small
culture. Ford’s and their Flathead V-8’s were king until 1955 when Chevrolet
introduced the 265 cu. in. V-8. That changed everything and finally gave Ford
some real competition. I never really thought much about “foreign” cars until
the Fall of 1955 (I think) when in the local Barber shop waiting for a haircut
(ah! those were the days!), I overheard one of the “ Hot-Rodders” telling about
a race he’d seen the previous weekend in Watkins Glen NY. He told glowing tales
of Jaguars, Porsches, Maseratis, Alfas, Mercedes Benz and something I’d never
heard of before, front disc brakes. I started paying more attention to Sports
Cars and Sport Car racing. I enjoyed stories and articles about the large
powerful racing cars being beaten or at least given a race of it by smaller
lighter cars with less powerful engines and less weight. Often these little
cars were Porsches. That is when my Heroes were no longer Cowboys. I followed
racing (and still do) and have been a Porsche fan since the 50’s. When the 911
was introduced, I was hooked. That car was the embodiment of all my dreams.
After College and brief careers with an insurance company and a restaurant, I
changed careers and began repairing imported autos, something I’d done ‘on the
side’ for many years. Racing still held my interest, and the Porsches of the
70’s and 80’s were particularly fascinating; 911, 934, 904, 908, 935, 936, 917
et. Al. Were all magic numbers for me. I longed for the day I would have my own
Porsche, but alas, some tool(s), payroll or tax obligation always seemed to
deplete my ‘Dream Fund’
During those years I began to hear and read the names
Garretson, Anderson, Barbour, Fitzpatrick, Woods, Rahal and Newman. These men
were becoming racing’s second “dream team”. I watched their races and their
progress as a team and in later years, their individual exploits with great
interest. I was never really sure who some of these men were or where their
life choices took them after IMSA, but they remained heroes to me. Imagine my
joy when I signed up to participate in the Woods & Anderson 911 Engine
overhaul class and found out I would actually be meeting two of my heroes.
‘Anderson’ is Bruce Anderson a man whose name and reputation is familiar to all
of us through his technical articles in Panorama and Excellence, a man who has
forgotten more about Porsches than I’ll ever know. Woods is Jerry Woods, the
1977 IMSA mechanic of the year, a man whose knowledge and performance with
Porsche engines is legendary. As it turns out Jerry Woods is one of the brightest
most technically resourceful men I have ever met. I was unaware before
participating in their seminar held at
Jerry Wood’s enterprises in Campbell, CA, that these two men were part of the
Porsche glory days I’d been so interested in many years ago.
I have
met heroes before and been disappointed, this was not to be one of those times.
Bruce and Jerry hosted a wonderful class. It was very well presented and
intelligently executed. I have been a professional auto technician for 28 years
and to my joy, I still learned new techniques and procedures each day of their
course. It was worth much more than the tuition I paid. At least twice during
each of the four days I found myself thinking ‘that was worth the whole ticket
by itself’. I returned to Rochester enlightened, refreshed with newly found
zeal, confidence and enthusiasm for my job in general and Porsches in
particular.
Imagine all that and getting to meet two of my heroes
as well!
If anyone has the interest to find out how your 911
engine was designed, assembled, evolved and modified over it’s life, I can
highly recommend this experience to you. I would be happy to discuss any aspect
of the class in more detail should any of you so desire. I strongly recommend
this experience to any of the ‘air-cooled’ among us who would like to see how
it all goes together the right way.
Kurt
Hertel, ASE Master L1
272 Densmore
Rd.
Rochester, NY 14609
Craig Autometrics, Inc.
10 Winthrop St.
Rochester, NY 14607