Harald bought this 1958 1600 Normal Speedster from the Parts Manager at Beverly Hills Porsche in 1960. The car had been club raced and the engine was apart. Harald rebuilt the engine himself in the dealership shop, before he took possession of the car. The rod journals had been chromed because the car experienced oil starvation in long hard turns. When Harald had the car running, he pretty quickly snapped the crankshaft in half at a POC time trial. This was the motivation to upgrade the engine to full 1600SC specs, but with an 1800 cc hi-compression kit from Ray Litz in Altadena, CA . That engine also featured an SC counter-balanced, polished crank. Shot-peened and heat treated connecting rods, extra light push rods, high lift cam shaft, ported heads, sodium filled exhaust valves, larger venturies and jets in the Solex carburetors. A CD Ignition and Burch Exhaust system. It also had special crankcase oil baffles to keep the oil in the sump and not all out in the port side valve cover and push rod tubes when the car was flying around the RIR hi-banked sweeper turn #9. Harald had also upgraded to a set of 550 Spyder big drum brakes (bought new from Vasek Polak Porsche in Redondo Beach, CA), which were found to be prone to warpage when subjected to Von K braking abuse. Harald changed them out to a set of ventilated 911S discs all around (bought used from Roger Burch of Pasadena CA), which solved that problem nicely.
Harald heard of a 904 four-cam engine that Johnny Thomas (the parts man at Jack McAfee Porsche - VW Motors in Burbank ) had lovingly built. Harald talked him into selling it and it went into the Speedster. Its dry sump oil system required a remote oil tank and a front mounted oil cooler. A surplus aircraft parts dealer in Burbank proved to be an excellent source for these parts, and they were added to the Speedster, with all Aeroquip plumbing parts and hoses.
To put more rubber on the ground, Harald got Eric Caldwell in Pasadena to provide Goodyear racing slicks in exchange for having his store name lettered on the Speedster. Of course, new wider wheels were necessary to fit the wide slicks. Harald went to Centerline in San Diego for a set of newly introduced extremely light Centerline monocoque wheels, 8” and 10” wide. Since they were solid disk wheels, Harald had to improve front brake cooling by adding two large diameter duct tubes that scooped ram air from under the car directly onto the front disk brakes. Of course, the wider wheels also required the rear fenders to be flared.
This was my set up after I bought Von K's Speedster. I had a 1970 Chevy El Camino as my tow vehicle, and pulled the Speedster with a tow bar.
2 comments:
Correction for your posting. I bought this speedster, brand new, from Vasek Polak in early 1959. I had driven from LA to Atlanta, Ga in 54 hours to visit my mother & sisters for Christmas 1958. I had a 1958 Corvette, Black on Black on Black with removable hardtop, 283 ci V8 with Duntov Cam & solid lifters, 3 two barrel carburetors, heavy duty brakes & suspension & positraction. My back was killing me after taking this trip & returning to SoCal. I was talking to my friend Vasek Polak and he said that he had a race prepped 1brand new 1958 Speedster for sale, The buyer backed out as he could not pass the SCCA physical test. He had been racing an Austin Healey Sprite and wanted to move uo to F Production with the Speedster. However he had one leg 4 inches shorter than the other and failed the physical yes. I told Vasek I was going to sell my 1958 Corvette immediately for $3,500, which is what Vasek wanted for the Speedster. I put an ad in the LA Times and sold it the next day. I called ask & told him I was coming down after work to get the Speedster. I was the Parts Manager at Competition Motors, 1730 N. Highland. Ave, Hollywood, CA. My best friend & a counterman there, Phil Pausmer, drove down to Vasek's & I bought the Speedster. I ran several SCCA Driver's training sessions at Willow Springs, Hourglass Field & Riverside. The Speedster was faster & handled better than the reigning F Production Champion's Speedster, Ed Barker. I could go faster on straightaways, but Ed would out drive me on turns, due to my driving .nexperience . Same thing when we switched cars, only Ed had to come into the pits to back off the brakes after a few laps. I was running Frendo Competion brakes. At Hourglass I overreved the engine trying to pass the driving instructor's Elva. Trailered it back uo to Competition Motors to rebuild the motor. I was getting married on July 23, 1960 and SOLD the Speedster to Harold von K for $3500. The same as I paid Vasek. Harold & Erhard Zedelmeir finished rebuilding the engine. I'm Bill Walters, retired Porsche Cars North America, Reno,Nv. Parts Sales, Purchasing & Inventory Manager. PS: Do you know the VIN number of this 1958 Speedster? Do you recall who you sold it to? Do you know who owns it now?
Hello and welcome Bill!
I gladly defer to your version of the truth about the history of the Von K speedster! You would know much better than I, and what you describe does mess well with my faulty recollection.. A Vasek Polak 58 Speedster that you bought, and then sold to Harald, which he later sold to me. Now if we could only figure out who I sold it to! Maybe someday we will know. In any case, I am so happy that you found this blog, and we are communicating. Please come back and share more of your memories.
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