September 30, 2025 • 39 mins
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What happens when a kid rebuilds a rare British Berkeley B.95 for £15 and grows up in the shadow of Silverstone Circuit?
Dirk Dekker's childhood was unlike most—living near the legendary Silverstone meant rubbing shoulders with F1 royalty. But the story of how a teenage Dirk actually met Jim Clark? That's something you need to hear in his own words.
From that £15 Berkeley to becoming a Porsche 911 track instructor at Watkins Glen, Dirk's automotive journey spans continents, careers, and some of the most iconic racetracks in the world.
In this episode, Dirk reveals:
- The truth about rebuilding a rare 1958 Berkeley B.95 as a teenager
- What Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, and Graham Hill were really like in person
- How growing up at Silverstone shapes your relationship with cars forever
- The unexpected path from helicopter pilot to professional driving instructor
- Why teaching at Watkins Glen for over 25 years never gets old
- What it takes to master the Porsche 911 on track
But there's one story Dirk tells about meeting his heroes that might make you rethink everything about the "good old days" of racing. Listen to find out what happened when legend met reality.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
Welcome back to all the cars I've loved before, your
authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia, where our
guests are unique.
Each auto has an era, and everycar tells a story.
So you know it's time to plugin, get little grease under the
nails, and slip on that favoritecar theme, t-shirt, hat, or
(00:26):
jacket.
And uh my favorite part of theshow before we get dug and our
guests in here is to one of myfavorite parts.
Let's welcome back our listenersfrom all over the short track we
call Earth.
So over the past week, we knowby the magic of our podcast
platform engineering analytics,who's listening and where they
come from.
(00:47):
So welcome back to listenersfrom countries such as
Switzerland, Italy, Sweden.
And Doug, this I'm so excitedwith this.
We had an entrant from a countrywe've never had before.
Welcome to our listeners in thecountry of Seychelles, which is
an island republic in thewestern Indian Ocean comprising
(01:07):
about 115 islands with lushtropical vegetation, beautiful
beaches, and a wide variety ofmarine life, situated between
latitudes 4 and 11, I think,minutes in longitudes of 46 and
56 east.
The major islands are locatedabout a thousand miles east of
Kenya, about 700 miles northeastof Madagascar.
(01:28):
So that'll give you an idea ofthe general region.
The capital of Victoria issituated on the island of, I
don't know if I'm saying that'sright, but Mahe or Mahe.
So, Doug, have you heard of thenation of Seychelles?
I have not.
And if not, you've heard aboutit now.
And if and if you're listeningand you want me to do any
commercials for the Office ofTourism, I'm here.
(01:50):
You can underwrite the show.
Feel free, reach out.
Uh, we also want to welcome backour listeners in the cities of
uh Augusta, Georgia, a littlecloser to home.
Wake Forest, North Carolina,Minneapolis, Minnesota, and
Hamilton, Ontario.
Welcome.
And it I know we have repeatlisteners and all those, so it's
(02:10):
just wonderful to have you back.
Feel free to drop us a line, letus know how things are going in
your neck of the woods.
And let's speak of, let's bringin our co-host, co-host with
almost, he's got all theoptions.
And you know, he came in lastplace for the Piston Cup, five
years running, so you've got tolove the consistency.
He's Doug.
Welcome.
How are you doing, partner?
What's the weather up here?
(02:31):
I'm doing great.
Great to be back here with youas always.
Indeed, indeed.
So what's uh what's happening inyour world?
I see for the first time in along time, I think you need to
get more another car themet-shirt because you're actually
wearing something with a collar,which is kind of amazing and
inspiring.
I didn't know you owned a shirtwith a collar.
It's usually in a Mazda t-shirt,or we've got uh one one of the
(02:54):
one of our friends sends us at-shirt, Tom Young t-shirt,
Fisher Brothers t-shirt.
What's with the collar?
Uh had to go to work today.
It's it's been one of thosedays.
I know.
I had to leave the house.
We'll just say that.
You know, in Florida where I am,I'm on I'm not too far from the
water.
But what you're wearing would beconsidered a tuxedo.
(03:15):
It doesn't get a whole lot moreformal than what you're wearing.
So I've seen you in a tuxedot-shirt.
I know.
SPEAKER_02 (03:22):
Maybe I need one of those.
SPEAKER_01 (03:23):
Never, yeah.
That's about as dressed up as Ilike to get, especially when
it's humid.
The weather's turning here,which is wonderful.
But um, hey, you know, what canyou do about the humidity?
Not a whole lot.
So, hey, if you like what you'rehearing, please follow and tell
a friend.
Tell a family, member,co-worker, a friend, tell an
(03:44):
enemy, because you know what wedo?
This show brings people togetherall over the world.
Check us out at carsloved.com.
Again, carsloved.com.
We also have a link tree, andDoug has it memorized.
It is L-I-N-K-T-R.e slashCarsLoved.
(04:04):
Yeah, we like to think of thatas our digital switchboard.
You can get you all of oursocial media presences,
websites, where we are,podcasts, podcast, yeah.
And while you're there, yes,while you're there, please leave
a review.
Let us know what you think, andwe'll read you.
We like to read them out on theair, the especially fun ones.
(04:25):
So thanks for everybody who'sleft a review, and please do
leave a review uh if if you makeit to our space.
All right.
So uh with no further ado, I'mgonna toss it back over to Doug,
and I want to know how today'svery fun guest ended up in your
virtual garage.
SPEAKER_02 (04:44):
Well, we seem to have this wonderful thing in
Maryland, especially on theEastern Shore.
There are more car lovers than Iever would have imagined.
So my newly rediscovered friendfrom high school, James McCrae,
who's passed several people overto us, has passed this nice
(05:04):
gentleman, Dirk Decker, over,who is a Porsche phile to say
the least.
He's heavily involved in thePorsche Club uh high performance
driving events, which is reallyan educational, very
safety-oriented event.
I've actually gone to one about15 years ago in my 9-11.
And uh let's just say it rainedall day and it was not fun for
(05:26):
me, but I know the instructorsand Dirk might have been one of
them.
They were serious 100% of thetime.
SPEAKER_01 (05:34):
Well, fantastic.
Dirk, welcome to our show.
So pleased to have you.
Oh, thank you.
So uh, yeah, so Dirk actually,you teach racing.
Is that fair to say?
SPEAKER_00 (05:46):
Uh yes, it's a basis of racing.
We start off with uh undercontrol circumstances, and uh as
people develop, it's aninitiation into racing world.
Uh, what we do is theeducational part of it, where we
teach from uh how car handling,high performance handling, um, a
(06:06):
lot of safety issues, and uhwe've controlled to a degree
that passing is with signalsonly, and we do pass in corners
with advanced groups, but uhonly with a signal.
So you're not competing for acorner.
There's no official timing.
You can time yourself, butyou're not it's not uh and start
(06:27):
a race, end of race.
It's uh no, it's for 20 minutes,30 minutes, whatever, and you
just uh uh that might be one ofthe coolest hobbies that we've
had on here.
SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
So I mean that that that is pretty well, and I want
to ask you what kind of studentwas Doug was Doug when he was
there with you?
SPEAKER_00 (06:44):
Uh I don't recall him.
SPEAKER_01 (06:48):
Speaks volumes, didn't mean to put you on the
spot.
I was hoping hoping you wouldmalign him in front of our
listenership.
That was really what we wasgoing to do.
SPEAKER_02 (06:57):
Christian, what I what I will say is I heard
somebody say, Hey, do you seethat see that black 9-11 the guy
spunted around like I don't knowhow many times in the rain?
I'm like, that was I'm like,that was me.
He's like, oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (07:10):
But not on purpose.
He wasn't trying to trying tomake a statement.
I do remember when you werethere.
You said it was harder than itlooks.
And Dirk, you probably get thata lot.
SPEAKER_00 (07:21):
Oh, yeah.
Well, I started instructing backin 1998 with a Porsche Club.
And um, the Potomac region is myregion, uh, Northern Virginia,
um, central Maryland, and so on.
And uh Summit Point is our uhour home track.
Uh, we do go to Watkins Glen, wego to uh VIR, we used to go to
(07:43):
Mid-Ohio, I've been up withPorsche clubs up to Canada a
couple of times to Mossport anduh Montreblant.
Um, I mean to Lime Rock.
Um and I've done I haven't donesome of the Southern uh tracks,
unfortunately, but it's uh verycontrolled.
And uh no, I've since 1998 uh wedo maybe most of our events are
(08:06):
three-day events Friday,Saturday, and Sunday.
And through time, I don't knowhow many thousand students.
Oh wow.
So no uh I've been a loss.
And I've also done someinstructing for some other
groups occasionally uh go for uhFriday at the track for Summit
(08:26):
Point Group, but uh and othergroups, Audi BMW and so on.
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Oh, I see.
So so when you say track, isthere a track laid out?
Do you sort of commandeer a lota huge parking lot or these sort
of drive labels with ahead?
SPEAKER_00 (08:42):
These is like Watkins Glen.
We're going, I'm going to in twoweeks' time.
Uh these are professional or uhcertainly SECA type amateur, but
uh run professionally.
Um, they are laid out usuallymile and a half to three miles
long, something like that.
Ten to twenty corners,depending, and um with uh
(09:08):
barricades and uh gravel pitsand tower walls.
Um and uh no a very uhstructured event with no um fire
ambulance, everything elseavailable just in case.
SPEAKER_02 (09:26):
This is not like Florida, Christian.
This is serious.
SPEAKER_01 (09:30):
There are actual rules and laws, yeah.
Man, Dirk is on top of it, thatI can tell for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (09:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I was chief instructor fora while, so uh and now I'm
safety chair and look aftersafety aspects and so on.
SPEAKER_02 (09:45):
Yep, and I remember they were pretty serious about
that.
Number one thing, tire pressureand making sure the bolts lug
nuts were tight was the firstthing.
SPEAKER_00 (09:53):
Yeah, battery is tight.
We do a thorough check uh twoweeks or so beforehand on a lift
and um at a dealer or a uh uh ashop, and then uh every day at
the track uh we'd have a quicklook through brake pads and lug
nuts and uh any leaks, uhequipment, you know, brake
(10:14):
fluid, things like that.
So we're no a quick check overjust to make sure.
SPEAKER_02 (10:19):
Yep, nope, all about safety.
And uh I I did want to ask uhtwo things.
So how often do you have tochange tires or buy new tires
for your car?
SPEAKER_00 (10:32):
Uh I used to get through about two sets a year.
Okay.
Eight tires.
Um no, they're they areconsumables.
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (10:45):
Yep, they do they do wear out and they're fun.
And uh do you um do you tow yourcars to the track?
I noticed you have a we're gonnatalk about your cars, but I
notice you do have a cayenne,which could be used for towing.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:01):
Um I used to tow my 914.
Okay.
Um my uh 911.
Uh originally I had the littletrailer I pulled behind it with
tires and a big toolbox, alittle two-wheel Arbor freight
trailer hooked up the back of ituh by a 911, and I'd drive it up
to Watkins Glen or Mid-Ohio ornowhere.
(11:23):
But 914-6 uh was not astreetcar.
Um so then I had a trailer and Ihad an old Durango that I pulled
it with.
SPEAKER_02 (11:32):
Yep, yep.
Yeah, it's a it's a it's a bigcommitment beyond tires, right?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Toolbox, x extra wheels, extraparts.
SPEAKER_00 (11:42):
Yep, yeah.
And then if you're have uh 110octane fuel.
Okay.
Now it's I believe it'ssomething around 15, 16 bucks a
gallon.
Oh wow.
So it can get uh pretty high.
And you get through about fourgallons a session.
(12:09):
Oh wow.
Okay.
That's on pump gas or onwhatever kind of gas.
About four gallons of ahalf-hour session as a as a
approximate.
So you're definitely burning afew brake pads and uh rodents
and other.
SPEAKER_01 (12:27):
I see.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm just kind of uh looking atthe Watkins Glen schedule here.
So is that kind of an open trackwhen y'all have the events
there?
SPEAKER_00 (12:36):
Uh no, we have uh our event is actually Mother's
Day weekend three days, Friday,Saturday, Sunday.
We usually drive up on Thursdayevenings, and uh um we rent the
whole track, including withflagging corner workers, the
emergency personnel, everythingelse, and uh control.
And we supply uh the grid umchecking people as we go on to
(13:00):
track and so on.
And we supply the instructorsand no, it is a Porsche club,
but we have Corvettes, we haveAlpha Romeo sometimes, we have
um core uh virtually anything,VWs, uh GTIs, um Hondas, uh uh
(13:20):
anything except SUVs.
SPEAKER_02 (13:23):
Yep, yep.
I think uh I think when I went,somebody came with his
girlfriend and they had a rentedHyundai and they let her drive
on the track in the rentedHyundai.
SPEAKER_00 (13:33):
Yeah, as long as it's checked, as long as it's
got been checked, then uh nope.
SPEAKER_02 (13:38):
Yeah, just Hyundai sedan.
SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
Yep, is what it was.
SPEAKER_01 (13:42):
No SUVs allowed.
This looks like so much fun.
Let me let me brainstorm how Ican get out of work and join you
up there.
But boy, that soundsinteresting.
All right, now while I'm doingthat, I'm gonna hand you over to
Doug here, who's gonna put youin his uh his old time machine,
take you 88 miles an hour, andwe're we'll flash back Dirk to
(14:03):
where it all started for you.
So, what was your first car?
And if we could go even a littlefurther back, could we talk
about your mom a little bit?
Because she had a really neatcar.
SPEAKER_00 (14:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, she had a uh MGTC, I thinkit would have been maybe a T D
back in uh 1950s.
I remember it, I was four yearsold, five years old, or
something like that.
And I remember do I do rememberdriving around in that uh little
thing uh around uh in Hong Kongit was.
Um boy.
(14:34):
Yeah.
Then they had a Citroen, um, alight 15 uh traction.
Um and I that's um I learned todrive on that basically when I
was about 11 years old inparking lots and on the back
roads around Hong Kong.
So I was driving from a youngage.
SPEAKER_01 (14:51):
I see that.
Yeah, that resonates with meright now.
Uh my youngest of my threeteenage sons is just about to
get his learner's permit.
So we're gonna be doing the samething.
We're gonna be looking for big,nice, empty parking lots to take
dad's old beat-up SUV, noteveryday driver, but one that he
can tear up and just sort ofknock into light poles and that
(15:14):
sort of thing.
Yeah, but sorry, Doug, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02 (15:17):
Yeah, yeah, I I think that's a lot of fun, and
uh yeah, I can't yeah, goodluck, good luck with that,
Christian.
Well, you've gotten two kids uhinto cars and they haven't died,
so we're in good shape.
SPEAKER_00 (15:31):
Well, I can I can put in the plug for the uh Tar
Rack uh Street Survival that uhwe uh a lot of the clubs, uh
Corvette Club, BMW Club, umHarvard foundation for it.
And uh we rent a big parking lotor something like that and set
it up with cones and do uhexercises for you have to have a
(15:52):
driver's license, a permit, andsome road experience and um
teach uh slalom, brakingexercises, skid pad, and then uh
um a lot of safety issues, anduh it's an excellent program for
kids.
I can highly recommend it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:11):
Thank you.
Can they bring their own car?
SPEAKER_00 (16:14):
Yes, you bring your own car.
They will allow for that, theywill allow SUVs, pickup trucks.
Uh they want you to drivewhatever you normally drive.
Okay, wonderful.
Whatever your parents let youdrive.
SPEAKER_02 (16:25):
Yep, no, I'm thinking about my uh daughter
who's almost 18, been driving ayear.
Uh she's got a CRV, but she justdrives around.
She hasn't driven in badweather.
She probably fingers crossed,hasn't had any emergencies.
SPEAKER_01 (16:43):
I love that though.
So let's let's get some of thatinformation if we can from Dirk
and maybe put those links on theshow notes because I'd like to
learn more, and I'm sure ouraudience would like to learn
more, especially for the for theyoung driver.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (16:57):
We will.
We will.
Absolutely.
So Christian wanted to hearabout your mom's car, and I want
to hear about your first car,which is yet another car I had
not heard of.
SPEAKER_00 (17:08):
I'd be surprised if you had.
Um, they made three-wheelers inthe UK at that time, and still,
I don't know, uh, three-wheelerscome under a motorcycle license
(17:29):
taxation.
So it's a lot cheaper.
So a lot of three-wheelers,Robin Reliant, you might have
seen on various programs.
But uh, and there's a little umthree-wheeler with uh not mine,
but the ones I started with,with a three-cylinder two-stroke
motor, 400cc or so.
And mine was a four uhfour-wheel version, front-wheel
(17:52):
drive with a Royal Enfield uh650, 700cc motor.
Uh front-wheel drive did have areverse gear in it, um, regular
gear shifts, uh, great slidinggear shifts, uh four forward,
one reverse, and uh probablyweighed not much more than 800
pounds fully up with fuel toengine everything.
SPEAKER_01 (18:16):
Yeah, these were little, these were little, and
and and as we were talkingduring the pre-show here, oh
tiny, yeah, and so founded in uhthe mid-50s, 56, I think, and
then only yeah, only lasted fora few years, four or five years,
and then kind of went wentbankrupt, but they're such
sharp-looking little cars.
SPEAKER_00 (18:37):
Yeah, they were great little cars, they are
tiny.
I mean, it was two seats.
I believe they did make afour-seat, but I never saw one
of those.
Uh, mine had a removablehardtop, I didn't have a rag top
for it.
Um, front-wheel drive, red orunning gear, I believe, and um
it was just a little blast uh todrive.
Um, it was very economical asfar as uh.
SPEAKER_02 (19:04):
Oh, so how did you acquire this car?
I think there's a maybeinteresting story, maybe
infamous story.
SPEAKER_00 (19:11):
Well, my uh girlfriend at a time in Scotland
had uh her brother had thisthing in pieces in a shed.
Um completely stripped out, justthe body and then all the bits
and pieces.
And uh uh I remember I saw itand I said, hmm.
So he sold it to me forsomething like, I don't know, at
(19:32):
that time 15 pounds sterling,which was probably about, I
don't know, 50 bucks something,um, something like that, in
pieces.
Uh shipped it down to where Iwas working on a farm.
I was uh studying agriculture, Iwas working on a farm down near
Edinburgh, and he was working inEdinburgh, probably so he helped
me, did actually did most of thework, put it all back together
(19:55):
again.
And I drove it for a year ortwo, had some problems with the
engines, um tended to losecranks uh lose conrods and put
them outside of a crank case.
So eventually I sold it, and uh,I believe some I've found some
pictures online of um uh a laterowner when it was in pretty poor
(20:19):
state, and then uh anotherpicture when it was um fully
restored.
And it's the same one becausethe registration is the same.
The registration was stayed witha car.
So I don't know if they're no.
SPEAKER_02 (20:33):
I don't have any pictures I can show you
immediately, but uh but butthat's how you were able to find
the car so easily, right?
Just remembering those numbers,right?
SPEAKER_00 (20:42):
And yeah, yep, yeah.
The license tag was WSP11.
Okay, easily remembered.
SPEAKER_02 (20:49):
Right, and it and it stays for the car with the car
forever.
Yeah, even if you lose theplate, they'll get you a
replacement plate for it.
Gotcha, gotcha.
And is is that unique to uh theUnited Kingdom?
SPEAKER_00 (21:02):
I believe I don't know, honestly.
Uh I believe it is.
Um, if you have a custom plate,no, a vanity plate, then you can
keep that.
But um normally the plate, thelicense registration goes with a
car.
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
Um and no, it's and actually tells you the license
for letters uh WSP, I don't knowwhich town it came from.
Oh wow.
Each town will have its own uhcoded numbers.
SPEAKER_02 (21:30):
So that was the DMV in the equivalent, the locality.
SPEAKER_01 (21:34):
I I think that's so interesting because the plates
here, every plate I've ever hadthat wasn't a vanity plate, it's
just this kind of random,meaningless string of numbers.
So to build a little bit ofintelligence into the number
that you're seeing, I think isreally really clever.
SPEAKER_00 (21:49):
Yeah.
Yep.
So that was my first uh, and Ihad a couple of other not very
um uh Mars Oxfords and uhvarious other mini Coopers and
so on, and then uh MG Midget wasmy next sports car, um, which
was it handled well, but umdidn't have my 1100cc motor,
(22:13):
four-cylinder.
Yeah.
Uh MGB.
MGB was much as a new car, uh myfirst new car.
Okay.
And uh that lasted till I cameover here and um and then uh a
couple of runarounds andeventually uh Porsche 944.
SPEAKER_02 (22:35):
Yep.
And that and that was uh 1986,did you say that?
SPEAKER_00 (22:40):
1983 I came over, 1986 I got this um secondhand uh
um Porsche 944.
SPEAKER_02 (22:50):
Okay, nice.
And uh that's what really gotyou into Porsches, yeah.
Yep.
Okay.
But but you were already, if Iremember from the pre-show, you
were already into racing um froman early age, right?
SPEAKER_00 (23:05):
Yes, uh very lucky.
Uh I was a boarding school inEngland, um, two miles from
Silverstone racetrack, which atthat time hosted most of the
Formula One, a lot of motorcycleraces and um sedan tin tops, um
sports car races, and uh veryinteresting a friend of mine at
(23:26):
school, um uh his uncle had beena Formula One Lotus driver for a
short time, I don't think forlong.
He was a motorsport uh one ofthe editors of one of motorsport
magazines, and uh he would takethe two of us up to Silverstone
for the Grand Prix and got tomeet a gentleman called Raymond
Baxter, who was a TVcommentator, and uh he took uh
(23:51):
uh took us under his wing andtook me into a driver's
meetings.
I met Jim Clark many times,talked to Jim Clark, Graham
Hill, Jim Clark, Joe Bonnier,Sifford, um Rodriguez, all the
drivers of the 60s.
Um Jackie Stewart, I only justbriefly met, but uh so a lot of
uh and I actually was introducedinto a driver's meeting.
(24:15):
He brought me into a driver'smeeting, and I was just standing
around talking to him.
So and then I'd go to all themotorcycle, I was very big into
motorcycles and go to allmotorcycle races.
I'd hear them from school.
Uh on Saturdays, you could hearthem two miles away.
And uh I'd hear that, and earswould prick up, and I'd bicycle
(24:37):
or hitch a ride two miles to thetrack, skip in through the fence
and uh um to all the sports carraces, and I'd sort of got
really interested in a uh 904Porsche 904 Carrera, which uh
come as fairly new most days, Ithink, and uh up against the
(24:58):
Camaros and this uh V8s, it wasuh beautiful old car.
And that really attracted me tohim.
SPEAKER_01 (25:07):
Yeah, if I can hop in here, Doug, please.
So how uh how would so when youwere coming up learning how to
drive, you were obviouslydriving from from a very early
age, you said, you know, 11,getting a hold of things.
How was learning to drive thendifferent from what you see
nowadays, kids learning how todrive?
(25:27):
Do you think the way you did it,being able to sort of noodle
around a little bit earlier wasbetter?
Do you think there's more kindof a formal education now?
SPEAKER_00 (25:36):
Uh very difficult because I got all my licenses in
UK.
You had to be 17 to get a carlicense.
And most people, more than 50%,failed the driver's license
first time.
Oh, wow.
It was a very strict um youknow, they took you out in town
to park you take you on hills.
In town.
Wow.
(25:56):
Park you on hills, uh, redlights on the hill.
Uh you'd have to do a correctsequence with the handbrake, and
uh these were all stick shifts.
So we didn't uh if you passedyour test in a automatic, which
was rare in those days, um, youwere restricted to automatics.
If you passed your test in thestick shift, that's interesting.
You could drive anything.
(26:17):
Um so um no, it was difficult toget your license.
Um, and I'd been driving onfarms.
I'd lived in the country and uhhelped farmers out driving
tractors and stuff.
So no, it was uh no.
It was a apart from learning thehighway code and the the legal
aspects, which was um it wasvery, very simple for me to you
(26:41):
know uh get a license.
Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01 (26:44):
Yeah, we we've had interviewed people, I want to
say just recently, and theirfirst cars were really tractors
because they grew up like likeyou did on a farm and they were
always you know helping theirparents out or running little
errands here or there, and itwas it was a wonderful way to
learn.
SPEAKER_03 (27:00):
Yeah, yep.
Go ahead, Doug.
SPEAKER_01 (27:02):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (27:02):
No, that was uh crew and cash.
So I'm curious, um, and this isjust about your your Porsches
that you own today.
You have a 88911 Targa and youhave a 719146, being the flat
six engine, uh, that uses a racecar.
What um and we're I'm a big fanof air-cooled Porsche.
(27:27):
Of course, they're so expensivenow to buy that everybody wants
one.
What is the best thing aboutowning an air-cooled Porsche and
what is the worst thing aboutowning one?
SPEAKER_00 (27:42):
Uh worst thing is they're expensive.
Uh so if you damage it, it's uhit's gonna hurt more than it
would, you know, when I boughtmine back in I bought my 88 car
target in 1980, 98, I think itwas 10 years old.
And no, it was okay.
(28:02):
No, I'd race it, uh, take it onthe racetrack, no problem.
Um nowadays some of those carsare up in the$100,000.
SPEAKER_03 (28:11):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (28:12):
Um, so no, it's that's kind of a disadvantage in
the way because it's a rarity,but it it it's uh it puts a
price on your wallet.
Um they are very reliable, theyhandle beautifully, they're
different handling.
Um, it's advisable to learn howto handle them with a rear
(28:33):
engine weight all the back.
The advantage with that is whenyou come out of a corner and you
accelerate the waste transfer tothe back, puts weight on the
rear wheels, and gives youbetter acceleration.
Um, whereas up the rear tires alot quicker um because it
weights 60 or more percent onthe back, and you go through
(28:53):
about two set uh set of rears ortwo sets of rears, one set of
front tires normally.
Um parts are expensivegenerally.
Um brake pads and so on areconsumable, so fairly, but
anything more serious can get uhdifficult to find in some of
these older cars.
Um it's what 30 some years old.
(29:14):
Um so no bits do wear out.
SPEAKER_02 (29:20):
Yep, yep, but yeah, they're collector's items, and I
I don't know when it when ithappened, but the um even even
the water 996 when it came out,nobody liked it.
And now I think it was MagnusWalker somehow said, Hey, it's
not a bad car, and then theprices on those started going
up.
SPEAKER_00 (29:40):
Yep, they are um they're very capable.
I mean, yeah, when it first cameout, everyone you know, all the
well, when the old 356s gave wayto 911s, all the die hards were
oh no, you can't do that.
And then when you know the aircooled and 97 died out with the
996s, and everyone said, No, no,no.
They're the cayenne's andeveryone's um but no the uh the
(30:05):
air the water cooled ones arevery very capable.
Um the suspensions way moreadvanced, uh all the systems
more advanced, it's a lotheavier.
Um I don't think we're as muchfun to drive.
I think the old air-cooled onesare more you're more involved,
you're more connected.
Uh my 911 Targa doesn't havepower steering, doesn't have
(30:28):
ABS, doesn't have anything likethat.
It's just um very basic.
Um and you can feel everything,you're in it, you're involved
with it much more than the newercars.
And no artificial um nannies tohelp get you out of the problem.
You're you're on your own.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
And uh I know it's not they're not super popular,
they didn't make a ton of them,but the the 914, so 914 being a
mid-engine car, right?
Yeah, yeah, would you considerthat superior on the track?
SPEAKER_00 (31:03):
Uh in some ways, handling it's neutral.
Um it does have a tendencybecause it's uh it will spin
like a top.
Okay.
Um, but usually it will stay onthe track.
When they spin, they spin aroundthe center.
And whereas the 911, if thatspins, it'll do a wide, much
(31:24):
wider circuit.
Right.
Possibly go off track or maybehit something.
So 914s are you know much morepredictable, much more finicky,
the edge that when things havego sideways, they go sideways
enough.
So to speak.
Yep.
Very much much more quickly thanit would in a no.
(31:44):
Um and again, it's uh moreinvolvement, um, you know, being
more no tied into the car.
I think that's that's where Iget my particular uh the same
when I was flying and so on, Iwas no in involved.
SPEAKER_02 (31:59):
Yep, yep.
Not not on not on cruisecontrol, so to speak.
Yeah, yeah.
Yep.
Um, so I did want to ask yousomething new.
What is uh this is a newquestion we started asking our
listeners, our uh guests, pardonme, and listeners too, if they'd
like to be asked, on the show.
What was the most dangerous caryou've owned or been in?
SPEAKER_00 (32:21):
Uh I would have to say my ex-father-in-law's
Vartburg.
Yep.
Three-cylinder, uh, two-stroke.
Um brakes were marginal,optional, you might call them.
Um it was uh it was a fun littlecar, and it was actually
(32:44):
surprisingly uh peppy for whatit was.
I think maybe what, 1200cc,1000cc, I'm not sure.
Pretty small.
It was a little station wagontype thing.
But he drove he bought it newfrom East Germany back in the I
guess later 60s, and actuallytook it back to East Germany to
get it serviced at the uh at thefactory in East Germany.
(33:06):
Um, so that was one of my no,drove that a few times, not that
I was worried about damaging ituh or scared of my father-in-law
or ex.
Um it was just a question that'sI'm not sure if they're gonna
stop going down a hill.
SPEAKER_02 (33:23):
But but he loved the car, and uh, you know, we this
is not the first time I've heardof a wart Warberg.
Um Christian, who do who did wehave, who did we have on the
show that grew up in EastGermany and it was his first
car, and I think he owns one.
He lives on the Eastern Shore.
SPEAKER_01 (33:41):
Chris.
Chris from season one or earlyseason two, and it didn't click
until Dirk was talking about itjust now.
Yeah, he he has one or two, andhe just loved their their
gracelessness and their boxyshape.
Yep.
Uh, I think he's got I think hestill has a couple, I think.
SPEAKER_00 (34:00):
Yeah, but it looked a little bit like the uh Saab
99, I think it was the uh theboxy Saab had a Ford
three-cylinder motor in it.
But uh yeah, and then uh some ofthe spit trial spitfires I drove
were a little uh iffy on thehandling.
(34:22):
No.
The ones I'd be uh apart frommaybe on certain race cars uh on
track with students and being abit uh exciting.
SPEAKER_01 (34:33):
Can't imagine, can't imagine.
What do you think about that,Doug?
Call back to the to the ironcurtain.
SPEAKER_02 (34:40):
What do you think?
Well, you know, it'd be cool tohave a Wartberg come to a high
performance uh driving event.
SPEAKER_01 (34:46):
Oh we have to make that happen.
We have to just put putt around.
Yeah, we need it would put around.
Yeah, yeah, Berkeley and aWartberg uh for for supremacy on
the racetrack.
We need to do that, yeah, forsure.
Maybe I love it.
Yeah.
Well, as we go ahead, yeah.
(35:10):
Did you have something, Dirk orDoug?
Did you want to hold it?
SPEAKER_00 (35:12):
Oh, I just had MG midgets and MGB, um, and then
you know, got into a portion.
SPEAKER_02 (35:18):
So kind of you've kind you've kind of owned it
all.
SPEAKER_01 (35:22):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
He's been around the track, soto speak.
Yeah, I love it.
Well, um, yeah, as we guide thepodcast gently to the off-ramp
here, Dirk, I gotta ask you onequestion on the way out.
You mentioned that when you wereyounger, man, uh my my jaw was
just on the floor when you weretalking about how um, you know,
you you met people around theracetrack uh and were exposed to
(35:45):
these luminaries, these reallyinternationally famous drivers.
And it made me think youmentioned the name Jackie
Stewart.
And I think I read a book abouthim uh w when I was younger.
I just thought he was thecoolest thing.
He was honestly very successfulin many different racing
disciplines, but became an ABCsports commentator.
(36:08):
Um he was knighted, by the way,so he served Jackie Stewart.
He was he would call the raceson uh ABC's wild world of sports
for those I was little, but Iremember that.
I just thought they were sendingit.
But he became a celebrity herein a way.
He did commercials for for Fordand for Heineken.
So I have to ask you, lastquestion is what was he like in
(36:30):
person?
Do you remember?
Was he gracious?
Was he kind?
SPEAKER_00 (36:35):
I didn't really spend much time with him.
Um he was I was spent more timewith um with uh Jim Clark.
SPEAKER_03 (36:44):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (36:46):
And Graham Hill uh talking to them, spending time
with them than I did with JackieShuart.
Jackie Stuart's uh they allseemed generally very quiet.
Uh a lot of humility.
They didn't seem they'd be fun.
There'd be no standing arounddrinking beer and at the end of
the day and smoking cigarettesand you know um they seemed a
(37:08):
lot of camaraderie.
Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:11):
He seemed intense, and I would think that it's it's
really a life or death sportwhen you're going that fast.
And I just see the intensitycoming off uh come coming off of
these people in this discipline.
But yeah, what a neat memory.
What a neat memory.
Thank you for sharing.
Yeah, well, Dirk, it was greatto meet you.
(37:32):
We appreciate your taking sometime out of your day.
I'd love to have you back.
Uh you can just tell stories fordays.
We could be going here allnight, but you know, I Doug will
keep you here, but I know yougot to go eat dinner here at
some point.
SPEAKER_00 (37:45):
Talk about my air cooled flying uh engines.
SPEAKER_01 (37:49):
Well, yeah, I'd love to have you back after, you
know, maybe later in the summerafter Watkins Glenn and kind of
tell us a little bit about whathappened, and that's that's a
big name.
And yeah, replay.
Yeah, that would be great.
So again, Dirk, we had a greattime.
Thank you for making the time.
It was fantastic meeting you.
(38:09):
Well, thank you very much.
Great meeting you guys.
Indeed.
You have just heard the highrevving, low mileage, late
modeled herd, round the worldauthoritative podcast on
automotive nostalgia.
He's Doug.
Reach him at DougcarsLove.com.
I'm Christian.
Reach me at Christian atCarsLove.com.
And this was Dirk, one of thecoolest guys you'll ever meet.
(38:30):
And he will be back.
So please follow and tell afriend.
If you like what you've heard,leave a review.
We're also at carslove.com andcheck out our link tree at
L-I-N-K-T-R dot E slash CarsLoved.
He never misses a mark.
I am sure we'll see you at thenext local car show, showroom,
race trip, or concourse.
(38:51):
As always, we appreciate yourtaking a laugh with us, and we
will see you next time.
Welcome back to all the cars I've loved before, your
authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia, where our
guests are unique.
Each auto has an era, and everycar tells a story.
So you know it's time to plugin, get little grease under the
nails, and slip on that favoritecar theme, t-shirt, hat, or
(00:26):
jacket.
And uh my favorite part of theshow before we get dug and our
guests in here is to one of myfavorite parts.
Let's welcome back our listenersfrom all over the short track we
call Earth.
So over the past week, we knowby the magic of our podcast
platform engineering analytics,who's listening and where they
come from.
(00:47):
So welcome back to listenersfrom countries such as
Switzerland, Italy, Sweden.
And Doug, this I'm so excitedwith this.
We had an entrant from a countrywe've never had before.
Welcome to our listeners in thecountry of Seychelles, which is
an island republic in thewestern Indian Ocean comprising
(01:07):
about 115 islands with lushtropical vegetation, beautiful
beaches, and a wide variety ofmarine life, situated between
latitudes 4 and 11, I think,minutes in longitudes of 46 and
56 east.
The major islands are locatedabout a thousand miles east of
Kenya, about 700 miles northeastof Madagascar.
(01:28):
So that'll give you an idea ofthe general region.
The capital of Victoria issituated on the island of, I
don't know if I'm saying that'sright, but Mahe or Mahe.
So, Doug, have you heard of thenation of Seychelles?
I have not.
And if not, you've heard aboutit now.
And if and if you're listeningand you want me to do any
commercials for the Office ofTourism, I'm here.
(01:50):
You can underwrite the show.
Feel free, reach out.
Uh, we also want to welcome backour listeners in the cities of
uh Augusta, Georgia, a littlecloser to home.
Wake Forest, North Carolina,Minneapolis, Minnesota, and
Hamilton, Ontario.
Welcome.
And it I know we have repeatlisteners and all those, so it's
(02:10):
just wonderful to have you back.
Feel free to drop us a line, letus know how things are going in
your neck of the woods.
And let's speak of, let's bringin our co-host, co-host with
almost, he's got all theoptions.
And you know, he came in lastplace for the Piston Cup, five
years running, so you've got tolove the consistency.
He's Doug.
Welcome.
How are you doing, partner?
What's the weather up here?
(02:31):
I'm doing great.
Great to be back here with youas always.
Indeed, indeed.
So what's uh what's happening inyour world?
I see for the first time in along time, I think you need to
get more another car themet-shirt because you're actually
wearing something with a collar,which is kind of amazing and
inspiring.
I didn't know you owned a shirtwith a collar.
It's usually in a Mazda t-shirt,or we've got uh one one of the
(02:54):
one of our friends sends us at-shirt, Tom Young t-shirt,
Fisher Brothers t-shirt.
What's with the collar?
Uh had to go to work today.
It's it's been one of thosedays.
I know.
I had to leave the house.
We'll just say that.
You know, in Florida where I am,I'm on I'm not too far from the
water.
But what you're wearing would beconsidered a tuxedo.
(03:15):
It doesn't get a whole lot moreformal than what you're wearing.
So I've seen you in a tuxedot-shirt.
I know.
SPEAKER_02 (03:22):
Maybe I need one of those.
SPEAKER_01 (03:23):
Never, yeah.
That's about as dressed up as Ilike to get, especially when
it's humid.
The weather's turning here,which is wonderful.
But um, hey, you know, what canyou do about the humidity?
Not a whole lot.
So, hey, if you like what you'rehearing, please follow and tell
a friend.
Tell a family, member,co-worker, a friend, tell an
(03:44):
enemy, because you know what wedo?
This show brings people togetherall over the world.
Check us out at carsloved.com.
Again, carsloved.com.
We also have a link tree, andDoug has it memorized.
It is L-I-N-K-T-R.e slashCarsLoved.
(04:04):
Yeah, we like to think of thatas our digital switchboard.
You can get you all of oursocial media presences,
websites, where we are,podcasts, podcast, yeah.
And while you're there, yes,while you're there, please leave
a review.
Let us know what you think, andwe'll read you.
We like to read them out on theair, the especially fun ones.
(04:25):
So thanks for everybody who'sleft a review, and please do
leave a review uh if if you makeit to our space.
All right.
So uh with no further ado, I'mgonna toss it back over to Doug,
and I want to know how today'svery fun guest ended up in your
virtual garage.
SPEAKER_02 (04:44):
Well, we seem to have this wonderful thing in
Maryland, especially on theEastern Shore.
There are more car lovers than Iever would have imagined.
So my newly rediscovered friendfrom high school, James McCrae,
who's passed several people overto us, has passed this nice
(05:04):
gentleman, Dirk Decker, over,who is a Porsche phile to say
the least.
He's heavily involved in thePorsche Club uh high performance
driving events, which is reallyan educational, very
safety-oriented event.
I've actually gone to one about15 years ago in my 9-11.
And uh let's just say it rainedall day and it was not fun for
(05:26):
me, but I know the instructorsand Dirk might have been one of
them.
They were serious 100% of thetime.
SPEAKER_01 (05:34):
Well, fantastic.
Dirk, welcome to our show.
So pleased to have you.
Oh, thank you.
So uh, yeah, so Dirk actually,you teach racing.
Is that fair to say?
SPEAKER_00 (05:46):
Uh yes, it's a basis of racing.
We start off with uh undercontrol circumstances, and uh as
people develop, it's aninitiation into racing world.
Uh, what we do is theeducational part of it, where we
teach from uh how car handling,high performance handling, um, a
(06:06):
lot of safety issues, and uhwe've controlled to a degree
that passing is with signalsonly, and we do pass in corners
with advanced groups, but uhonly with a signal.
So you're not competing for acorner.
There's no official timing.
You can time yourself, butyou're not it's not uh and start
(06:27):
a race, end of race.
It's uh no, it's for 20 minutes,30 minutes, whatever, and you
just uh uh that might be one ofthe coolest hobbies that we've
had on here.
SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
So I mean that that that is pretty well, and I want
to ask you what kind of studentwas Doug was Doug when he was
there with you?
SPEAKER_00 (06:44):
Uh I don't recall him.
SPEAKER_01 (06:48):
Speaks volumes, didn't mean to put you on the
spot.
I was hoping hoping you wouldmalign him in front of our
listenership.
That was really what we wasgoing to do.
SPEAKER_02 (06:57):
Christian, what I what I will say is I heard
somebody say, Hey, do you seethat see that black 9-11 the guy
spunted around like I don't knowhow many times in the rain?
I'm like, that was I'm like,that was me.
He's like, oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (07:10):
But not on purpose.
He wasn't trying to trying tomake a statement.
I do remember when you werethere.
You said it was harder than itlooks.
And Dirk, you probably get thata lot.
SPEAKER_00 (07:21):
Oh, yeah.
Well, I started instructing backin 1998 with a Porsche Club.
And um, the Potomac region is myregion, uh, Northern Virginia,
um, central Maryland, and so on.
And uh Summit Point is our uhour home track.
Uh, we do go to Watkins Glen, wego to uh VIR, we used to go to
(07:43):
Mid-Ohio, I've been up withPorsche clubs up to Canada a
couple of times to Mossport anduh Montreblant.
Um, I mean to Lime Rock.
Um and I've done I haven't donesome of the Southern uh tracks,
unfortunately, but it's uh verycontrolled.
And uh no, I've since 1998 uh wedo maybe most of our events are
(08:06):
three-day events Friday,Saturday, and Sunday.
And through time, I don't knowhow many thousand students.
Oh wow.
So no uh I've been a loss.
And I've also done someinstructing for some other
groups occasionally uh go for uhFriday at the track for Summit
(08:26):
Point Group, but uh and othergroups, Audi BMW and so on.
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Oh, I see.
So so when you say track, isthere a track laid out?
Do you sort of commandeer a lota huge parking lot or these sort
of drive labels with ahead?
SPEAKER_00 (08:42):
These is like Watkins Glen.
We're going, I'm going to in twoweeks' time.
Uh these are professional or uhcertainly SECA type amateur, but
uh run professionally.
Um, they are laid out usuallymile and a half to three miles
long, something like that.
Ten to twenty corners,depending, and um with uh
(09:08):
barricades and uh gravel pitsand tower walls.
Um and uh no a very uhstructured event with no um fire
ambulance, everything elseavailable just in case.
SPEAKER_02 (09:26):
This is not like Florida, Christian.
This is serious.
SPEAKER_01 (09:30):
There are actual rules and laws, yeah.
Man, Dirk is on top of it, thatI can tell for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (09:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I was chief instructor fora while, so uh and now I'm
safety chair and look aftersafety aspects and so on.
SPEAKER_02 (09:45):
Yep, and I remember they were pretty serious about
that.
Number one thing, tire pressureand making sure the bolts lug
nuts were tight was the firstthing.
SPEAKER_00 (09:53):
Yeah, battery is tight.
We do a thorough check uh twoweeks or so beforehand on a lift
and um at a dealer or a uh uh ashop, and then uh every day at
the track uh we'd have a quicklook through brake pads and lug
nuts and uh any leaks, uhequipment, you know, brake
(10:14):
fluid, things like that.
So we're no a quick check overjust to make sure.
SPEAKER_02 (10:19):
Yep, nope, all about safety.
And uh I I did want to ask uhtwo things.
So how often do you have tochange tires or buy new tires
for your car?
SPEAKER_00 (10:32):
Uh I used to get through about two sets a year.
Okay.
Eight tires.
Um no, they're they areconsumables.
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (10:45):
Yep, they do they do wear out and they're fun.
And uh do you um do you tow yourcars to the track?
I noticed you have a we're gonnatalk about your cars, but I
notice you do have a cayenne,which could be used for towing.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (11:01):
Um I used to tow my 914.
Okay.
Um my uh 911.
Uh originally I had the littletrailer I pulled behind it with
tires and a big toolbox, alittle two-wheel Arbor freight
trailer hooked up the back of ituh by a 911, and I'd drive it up
to Watkins Glen or Mid-Ohio ornowhere.
(11:23):
But 914-6 uh was not astreetcar.
Um so then I had a trailer and Ihad an old Durango that I pulled
it with.
SPEAKER_02 (11:32):
Yep, yep.
Yeah, it's a it's a it's a bigcommitment beyond tires, right?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Toolbox, x extra wheels, extraparts.
SPEAKER_00 (11:42):
Yep, yeah.
And then if you're have uh 110octane fuel.
Okay.
Now it's I believe it'ssomething around 15, 16 bucks a
gallon.
Oh wow.
So it can get uh pretty high.
And you get through about fourgallons a session.
(12:09):
Oh wow.
Okay.
That's on pump gas or onwhatever kind of gas.
About four gallons of ahalf-hour session as a as a
approximate.
So you're definitely burning afew brake pads and uh rodents
and other.
SPEAKER_01 (12:27):
I see.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm just kind of uh looking atthe Watkins Glen schedule here.
So is that kind of an open trackwhen y'all have the events
there?
SPEAKER_00 (12:36):
Uh no, we have uh our event is actually Mother's
Day weekend three days, Friday,Saturday, Sunday.
We usually drive up on Thursdayevenings, and uh um we rent the
whole track, including withflagging corner workers, the
emergency personnel, everythingelse, and uh control.
And we supply uh the grid umchecking people as we go on to
(13:00):
track and so on.
And we supply the instructorsand no, it is a Porsche club,
but we have Corvettes, we haveAlpha Romeo sometimes, we have
um core uh virtually anything,VWs, uh GTIs, um Hondas, uh uh
(13:20):
anything except SUVs.
SPEAKER_02 (13:23):
Yep, yep.
I think uh I think when I went,somebody came with his
girlfriend and they had a rentedHyundai and they let her drive
on the track in the rentedHyundai.
SPEAKER_00 (13:33):
Yeah, as long as it's checked, as long as it's
got been checked, then uh nope.
SPEAKER_02 (13:38):
Yeah, just Hyundai sedan.
SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
Yep, is what it was.
SPEAKER_01 (13:42):
No SUVs allowed.
This looks like so much fun.
Let me let me brainstorm how Ican get out of work and join you
up there.
But boy, that soundsinteresting.
All right, now while I'm doingthat, I'm gonna hand you over to
Doug here, who's gonna put youin his uh his old time machine,
take you 88 miles an hour, andwe're we'll flash back Dirk to
(14:03):
where it all started for you.
So, what was your first car?
And if we could go even a littlefurther back, could we talk
about your mom a little bit?
Because she had a really neatcar.
SPEAKER_00 (14:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, she had a uh MGTC, I thinkit would have been maybe a T D
back in uh 1950s.
I remember it, I was four yearsold, five years old, or
something like that.
And I remember do I do rememberdriving around in that uh little
thing uh around uh in Hong Kongit was.
Um boy.
(14:34):
Yeah.
Then they had a Citroen, um, alight 15 uh traction.
Um and I that's um I learned todrive on that basically when I
was about 11 years old inparking lots and on the back
roads around Hong Kong.
So I was driving from a youngage.
SPEAKER_01 (14:51):
I see that.
Yeah, that resonates with meright now.
Uh my youngest of my threeteenage sons is just about to
get his learner's permit.
So we're gonna be doing the samething.
We're gonna be looking for big,nice, empty parking lots to take
dad's old beat-up SUV, noteveryday driver, but one that he
can tear up and just sort ofknock into light poles and that
(15:14):
sort of thing.
Yeah, but sorry, Doug, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02 (15:17):
Yeah, yeah, I I think that's a lot of fun, and
uh yeah, I can't yeah, goodluck, good luck with that,
Christian.
Well, you've gotten two kids uhinto cars and they haven't died,
so we're in good shape.
SPEAKER_00 (15:31):
Well, I can I can put in the plug for the uh Tar
Rack uh Street Survival that uhwe uh a lot of the clubs, uh
Corvette Club, BMW Club, umHarvard foundation for it.
And uh we rent a big parking lotor something like that and set
it up with cones and do uhexercises for you have to have a
(15:52):
driver's license, a permit, andsome road experience and um
teach uh slalom, brakingexercises, skid pad, and then uh
um a lot of safety issues, anduh it's an excellent program for
kids.
I can highly recommend it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:11):
Thank you.
Can they bring their own car?
SPEAKER_00 (16:14):
Yes, you bring your own car.
They will allow for that, theywill allow SUVs, pickup trucks.
Uh they want you to drivewhatever you normally drive.
Okay, wonderful.
Whatever your parents let youdrive.
SPEAKER_02 (16:25):
Yep, no, I'm thinking about my uh daughter
who's almost 18, been driving ayear.
Uh she's got a CRV, but she justdrives around.
She hasn't driven in badweather.
She probably fingers crossed,hasn't had any emergencies.
SPEAKER_01 (16:43):
I love that though.
So let's let's get some of thatinformation if we can from Dirk
and maybe put those links on theshow notes because I'd like to
learn more, and I'm sure ouraudience would like to learn
more, especially for the for theyoung driver.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (16:57):
We will.
We will.
Absolutely.
So Christian wanted to hearabout your mom's car, and I want
to hear about your first car,which is yet another car I had
not heard of.
SPEAKER_00 (17:08):
I'd be surprised if you had.
Um, they made three-wheelers inthe UK at that time, and still,
I don't know, uh, three-wheelerscome under a motorcycle license
(17:29):
taxation.
So it's a lot cheaper.
So a lot of three-wheelers,Robin Reliant, you might have
seen on various programs.
But uh, and there's a little umthree-wheeler with uh not mine,
but the ones I started with,with a three-cylinder two-stroke
motor, 400cc or so.
And mine was a four uhfour-wheel version, front-wheel
(17:52):
drive with a Royal Enfield uh650, 700cc motor.
Uh front-wheel drive did have areverse gear in it, um, regular
gear shifts, uh, great slidinggear shifts, uh four forward,
one reverse, and uh probablyweighed not much more than 800
pounds fully up with fuel toengine everything.
SPEAKER_01 (18:16):
Yeah, these were little, these were little, and
and and as we were talkingduring the pre-show here, oh
tiny, yeah, and so founded in uhthe mid-50s, 56, I think, and
then only yeah, only lasted fora few years, four or five years,
and then kind of went wentbankrupt, but they're such
sharp-looking little cars.
SPEAKER_00 (18:37):
Yeah, they were great little cars, they are
tiny.
I mean, it was two seats.
I believe they did make afour-seat, but I never saw one
of those.
Uh, mine had a removablehardtop, I didn't have a rag top
for it.
Um, front-wheel drive, red orunning gear, I believe, and um
it was just a little blast uh todrive.
Um, it was very economical asfar as uh.
SPEAKER_02 (19:04):
Oh, so how did you acquire this car?
I think there's a maybeinteresting story, maybe
infamous story.
SPEAKER_00 (19:11):
Well, my uh girlfriend at a time in Scotland
had uh her brother had thisthing in pieces in a shed.
Um completely stripped out, justthe body and then all the bits
and pieces.
And uh uh I remember I saw itand I said, hmm.
So he sold it to me forsomething like, I don't know, at
(19:32):
that time 15 pounds sterling,which was probably about, I
don't know, 50 bucks something,um, something like that, in
pieces.
Uh shipped it down to where Iwas working on a farm.
I was uh studying agriculture, Iwas working on a farm down near
Edinburgh, and he was working inEdinburgh, probably so he helped
me, did actually did most of thework, put it all back together
(19:55):
again.
And I drove it for a year ortwo, had some problems with the
engines, um tended to losecranks uh lose conrods and put
them outside of a crank case.
So eventually I sold it, and uh,I believe some I've found some
pictures online of um uh a laterowner when it was in pretty poor
(20:19):
state, and then uh anotherpicture when it was um fully
restored.
And it's the same one becausethe registration is the same.
The registration was stayed witha car.
So I don't know if they're no.
SPEAKER_02 (20:33):
I don't have any pictures I can show you
immediately, but uh but butthat's how you were able to find
the car so easily, right?
Just remembering those numbers,right?
SPEAKER_00 (20:42):
And yeah, yep, yeah.
The license tag was WSP11.
Okay, easily remembered.
SPEAKER_02 (20:49):
Right, and it and it stays for the car with the car
forever.
Yeah, even if you lose theplate, they'll get you a
replacement plate for it.
Gotcha, gotcha.
And is is that unique to uh theUnited Kingdom?
SPEAKER_00 (21:02):
I believe I don't know, honestly.
Uh I believe it is.
Um, if you have a custom plate,no, a vanity plate, then you can
keep that.
But um normally the plate, thelicense registration goes with a
car.
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
Um and no, it's and actually tells you the license
for letters uh WSP, I don't knowwhich town it came from.
Oh wow.
Each town will have its own uhcoded numbers.
SPEAKER_02 (21:30):
So that was the DMV in the equivalent, the locality.
SPEAKER_01 (21:34):
I I think that's so interesting because the plates
here, every plate I've ever hadthat wasn't a vanity plate, it's
just this kind of random,meaningless string of numbers.
So to build a little bit ofintelligence into the number
that you're seeing, I think isreally really clever.
SPEAKER_00 (21:49):
Yeah.
Yep.
So that was my first uh, and Ihad a couple of other not very
um uh Mars Oxfords and uhvarious other mini Coopers and
so on, and then uh MG Midget wasmy next sports car, um, which
was it handled well, but umdidn't have my 1100cc motor,
(22:13):
four-cylinder.
Yeah.
Uh MGB.
MGB was much as a new car, uh myfirst new car.
Okay.
And uh that lasted till I cameover here and um and then uh a
couple of runarounds andeventually uh Porsche 944.
SPEAKER_02 (22:35):
Yep.
And that and that was uh 1986,did you say that?
SPEAKER_00 (22:40):
1983 I came over, 1986 I got this um secondhand uh
um Porsche 944.
SPEAKER_02 (22:50):
Okay, nice.
And uh that's what really gotyou into Porsches, yeah.
Yep.
Okay.
But but you were already, if Iremember from the pre-show, you
were already into racing um froman early age, right?
SPEAKER_00 (23:05):
Yes, uh very lucky.
Uh I was a boarding school inEngland, um, two miles from
Silverstone racetrack, which atthat time hosted most of the
Formula One, a lot of motorcycleraces and um sedan tin tops, um
sports car races, and uh veryinteresting a friend of mine at
(23:26):
school, um uh his uncle had beena Formula One Lotus driver for a
short time, I don't think forlong.
He was a motorsport uh one ofthe editors of one of motorsport
magazines, and uh he would takethe two of us up to Silverstone
for the Grand Prix and got tomeet a gentleman called Raymond
Baxter, who was a TVcommentator, and uh he took uh
(23:51):
uh took us under his wing andtook me into a driver's
meetings.
I met Jim Clark many times,talked to Jim Clark, Graham
Hill, Jim Clark, Joe Bonnier,Sifford, um Rodriguez, all the
drivers of the 60s.
Um Jackie Stewart, I only justbriefly met, but uh so a lot of
uh and I actually was introducedinto a driver's meeting.
(24:15):
He brought me into a driver'smeeting, and I was just standing
around talking to him.
So and then I'd go to all themotorcycle, I was very big into
motorcycles and go to allmotorcycle races.
I'd hear them from school.
Uh on Saturdays, you could hearthem two miles away.
And uh I'd hear that, and earswould prick up, and I'd bicycle
(24:37):
or hitch a ride two miles to thetrack, skip in through the fence
and uh um to all the sports carraces, and I'd sort of got
really interested in a uh 904Porsche 904 Carrera, which uh
come as fairly new most days, Ithink, and uh up against the
(24:58):
Camaros and this uh V8s, it wasuh beautiful old car.
And that really attracted me tohim.
SPEAKER_01 (25:07):
Yeah, if I can hop in here, Doug, please.
So how uh how would so when youwere coming up learning how to
drive, you were obviouslydriving from from a very early
age, you said, you know, 11,getting a hold of things.
How was learning to drive thendifferent from what you see
nowadays, kids learning how todrive?
(25:27):
Do you think the way you did it,being able to sort of noodle
around a little bit earlier wasbetter?
Do you think there's more kindof a formal education now?
SPEAKER_00 (25:36):
Uh very difficult because I got all my licenses in
UK.
You had to be 17 to get a carlicense.
And most people, more than 50%,failed the driver's license
first time.
Oh, wow.
It was a very strict um youknow, they took you out in town
to park you take you on hills.
In town.
Wow.
(25:56):
Park you on hills, uh, redlights on the hill.
Uh you'd have to do a correctsequence with the handbrake, and
uh these were all stick shifts.
So we didn't uh if you passedyour test in a automatic, which
was rare in those days, um, youwere restricted to automatics.
If you passed your test in thestick shift, that's interesting.
You could drive anything.
(26:17):
Um so um no, it was difficult toget your license.
Um, and I'd been driving onfarms.
I'd lived in the country and uhhelped farmers out driving
tractors and stuff.
So no, it was uh no.
It was a apart from learning thehighway code and the the legal
aspects, which was um it wasvery, very simple for me to you
(26:41):
know uh get a license.
Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01 (26:44):
Yeah, we we've had interviewed people, I want to
say just recently, and theirfirst cars were really tractors
because they grew up like likeyou did on a farm and they were
always you know helping theirparents out or running little
errands here or there, and itwas it was a wonderful way to
learn.
SPEAKER_03 (27:00):
Yeah, yep.
Go ahead, Doug.
SPEAKER_01 (27:02):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (27:02):
No, that was uh crew and cash.
So I'm curious, um, and this isjust about your your Porsches
that you own today.
You have a 88911 Targa and youhave a 719146, being the flat
six engine, uh, that uses a racecar.
What um and we're I'm a big fanof air-cooled Porsche.
(27:27):
Of course, they're so expensivenow to buy that everybody wants
one.
What is the best thing aboutowning an air-cooled Porsche and
what is the worst thing aboutowning one?
SPEAKER_00 (27:42):
Uh worst thing is they're expensive.
Uh so if you damage it, it's uhit's gonna hurt more than it
would, you know, when I boughtmine back in I bought my 88 car
target in 1980, 98, I think itwas 10 years old.
And no, it was okay.
(28:02):
No, I'd race it, uh, take it onthe racetrack, no problem.
Um nowadays some of those carsare up in the$100,000.
SPEAKER_03 (28:11):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (28:12):
Um, so no, it's that's kind of a disadvantage in
the way because it's a rarity,but it it it's uh it puts a
price on your wallet.
Um they are very reliable, theyhandle beautifully, they're
different handling.
Um, it's advisable to learn howto handle them with a rear
(28:33):
engine weight all the back.
The advantage with that is whenyou come out of a corner and you
accelerate the waste transfer tothe back, puts weight on the
rear wheels, and gives youbetter acceleration.
Um, whereas up the rear tires alot quicker um because it
weights 60 or more percent onthe back, and you go through
(28:53):
about two set uh set of rears ortwo sets of rears, one set of
front tires normally.
Um parts are expensivegenerally.
Um brake pads and so on areconsumable, so fairly, but
anything more serious can get uhdifficult to find in some of
these older cars.
Um it's what 30 some years old.
(29:14):
Um so no bits do wear out.
SPEAKER_02 (29:20):
Yep, yep, but yeah, they're collector's items, and I
I don't know when it when ithappened, but the um even even
the water 996 when it came out,nobody liked it.
And now I think it was MagnusWalker somehow said, Hey, it's
not a bad car, and then theprices on those started going
up.
SPEAKER_00 (29:40):
Yep, they are um they're very capable.
I mean, yeah, when it first cameout, everyone you know, all the
well, when the old 356s gave wayto 911s, all the die hards were
oh no, you can't do that.
And then when you know the aircooled and 97 died out with the
996s, and everyone said, No, no,no.
They're the cayenne's andeveryone's um but no the uh the
(30:05):
air the water cooled ones arevery very capable.
Um the suspensions way moreadvanced, uh all the systems
more advanced, it's a lotheavier.
Um I don't think we're as muchfun to drive.
I think the old air-cooled onesare more you're more involved,
you're more connected.
Uh my 911 Targa doesn't havepower steering, doesn't have
(30:28):
ABS, doesn't have anything likethat.
It's just um very basic.
Um and you can feel everything,you're in it, you're involved
with it much more than the newercars.
And no artificial um nannies tohelp get you out of the problem.
You're you're on your own.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
And uh I know it's not they're not super popular,
they didn't make a ton of them,but the the 914, so 914 being a
mid-engine car, right?
Yeah, yeah, would you considerthat superior on the track?
SPEAKER_00 (31:03):
Uh in some ways, handling it's neutral.
Um it does have a tendencybecause it's uh it will spin
like a top.
Okay.
Um, but usually it will stay onthe track.
When they spin, they spin aroundthe center.
And whereas the 911, if thatspins, it'll do a wide, much
(31:24):
wider circuit.
Right.
Possibly go off track or maybehit something.
So 914s are you know much morepredictable, much more finicky,
the edge that when things havego sideways, they go sideways
enough.
So to speak.
Yep.
Very much much more quickly thanit would in a no.
(31:44):
Um and again, it's uh moreinvolvement, um, you know, being
more no tied into the car.
I think that's that's where Iget my particular uh the same
when I was flying and so on, Iwas no in involved.
SPEAKER_02 (31:59):
Yep, yep.
Not not on not on cruisecontrol, so to speak.
Yeah, yeah.
Yep.
Um, so I did want to ask yousomething new.
What is uh this is a newquestion we started asking our
listeners, our uh guests, pardonme, and listeners too, if they'd
like to be asked, on the show.
What was the most dangerous caryou've owned or been in?
SPEAKER_00 (32:21):
Uh I would have to say my ex-father-in-law's
Vartburg.
Yep.
Three-cylinder, uh, two-stroke.
Um brakes were marginal,optional, you might call them.
Um it was uh it was a fun littlecar, and it was actually
(32:44):
surprisingly uh peppy for whatit was.
I think maybe what, 1200cc,1000cc, I'm not sure.
Pretty small.
It was a little station wagontype thing.
But he drove he bought it newfrom East Germany back in the I
guess later 60s, and actuallytook it back to East Germany to
get it serviced at the uh at thefactory in East Germany.
(33:06):
Um, so that was one of my no,drove that a few times, not that
I was worried about damaging ituh or scared of my father-in-law
or ex.
Um it was just a question that'sI'm not sure if they're gonna
stop going down a hill.
SPEAKER_02 (33:23):
But but he loved the car, and uh, you know, we this
is not the first time I've heardof a wart Warberg.
Um Christian, who do who did wehave, who did we have on the
show that grew up in EastGermany and it was his first
car, and I think he owns one.
He lives on the Eastern Shore.
SPEAKER_01 (33:41):
Chris.
Chris from season one or earlyseason two, and it didn't click
until Dirk was talking about itjust now.
Yeah, he he has one or two, andhe just loved their their
gracelessness and their boxyshape.
Yep.
Uh, I think he's got I think hestill has a couple, I think.
SPEAKER_00 (34:00):
Yeah, but it looked a little bit like the uh Saab
99, I think it was the uh theboxy Saab had a Ford
three-cylinder motor in it.
But uh yeah, and then uh some ofthe spit trial spitfires I drove
were a little uh iffy on thehandling.
(34:22):
No.
The ones I'd be uh apart frommaybe on certain race cars uh on
track with students and being abit uh exciting.
SPEAKER_01 (34:33):
Can't imagine, can't imagine.
What do you think about that,Doug?
Call back to the to the ironcurtain.
SPEAKER_02 (34:40):
What do you think?
Well, you know, it'd be cool tohave a Wartberg come to a high
performance uh driving event.
SPEAKER_01 (34:46):
Oh we have to make that happen.
We have to just put putt around.
Yeah, we need it would put around.
Yeah, yeah, Berkeley and aWartberg uh for for supremacy on
the racetrack.
We need to do that, yeah, forsure.
Maybe I love it.
Yeah.
Well, as we go ahead, yeah.
(35:10):
Did you have something, Dirk orDoug?
Did you want to hold it?
SPEAKER_00 (35:12):
Oh, I just had MG midgets and MGB, um, and then
you know, got into a portion.
SPEAKER_02 (35:18):
So kind of you've kind you've kind of owned it
all.
SPEAKER_01 (35:22):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
He's been around the track, soto speak.
Yeah, I love it.
Well, um, yeah, as we guide thepodcast gently to the off-ramp
here, Dirk, I gotta ask you onequestion on the way out.
You mentioned that when you wereyounger, man, uh my my jaw was
just on the floor when you weretalking about how um, you know,
you you met people around theracetrack uh and were exposed to
(35:45):
these luminaries, these reallyinternationally famous drivers.
And it made me think youmentioned the name Jackie
Stewart.
And I think I read a book abouthim uh w when I was younger.
I just thought he was thecoolest thing.
He was honestly very successfulin many different racing
disciplines, but became an ABCsports commentator.
(36:08):
Um he was knighted, by the way,so he served Jackie Stewart.
He was he would call the raceson uh ABC's wild world of sports
for those I was little, but Iremember that.
I just thought they were sendingit.
But he became a celebrity herein a way.
He did commercials for for Fordand for Heineken.
So I have to ask you, lastquestion is what was he like in
(36:30):
person?
Do you remember?
Was he gracious?
Was he kind?
SPEAKER_00 (36:35):
I didn't really spend much time with him.
Um he was I was spent more timewith um with uh Jim Clark.
SPEAKER_03 (36:44):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (36:46):
And Graham Hill uh talking to them, spending time
with them than I did with JackieShuart.
Jackie Stuart's uh they allseemed generally very quiet.
Uh a lot of humility.
They didn't seem they'd be fun.
There'd be no standing arounddrinking beer and at the end of
the day and smoking cigarettesand you know um they seemed a
(37:08):
lot of camaraderie.
Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (37:11):
He seemed intense, and I would think that it's it's
really a life or death sportwhen you're going that fast.
And I just see the intensitycoming off uh come coming off of
these people in this discipline.
But yeah, what a neat memory.
What a neat memory.
Thank you for sharing.
Yeah, well, Dirk, it was greatto meet you.
(37:32):
We appreciate your taking sometime out of your day.
I'd love to have you back.
Uh you can just tell stories fordays.
We could be going here allnight, but you know, I Doug will
keep you here, but I know yougot to go eat dinner here at
some point.
SPEAKER_00 (37:45):
Talk about my air cooled flying uh engines.
SPEAKER_01 (37:49):
Well, yeah, I'd love to have you back after, you
know, maybe later in the summerafter Watkins Glenn and kind of
tell us a little bit about whathappened, and that's that's a
big name.
And yeah, replay.
Yeah, that would be great.
So again, Dirk, we had a greattime.
Thank you for making the time.
It was fantastic meeting you.
(38:09):
Well, thank you very much.
Great meeting you guys.
Indeed.
You have just heard the highrevving, low mileage, late
modeled herd, round the worldauthoritative podcast on
automotive nostalgia.
He's Doug.
Reach him at DougcarsLove.com.
I'm Christian.
Reach me at Christian atCarsLove.com.
And this was Dirk, one of thecoolest guys you'll ever meet.
(38:30):
And he will be back.
So please follow and tell afriend.
If you like what you've heard,leave a review.
We're also at carslove.com andcheck out our link tree at
L-I-N-K-T-R dot E slash CarsLoved.
He never misses a mark.
I am sure we'll see you at thenext local car show, showroom,
race trip, or concourse.
(38:51):
As always, we appreciate yourtaking a laugh with us, and we
will see you next time.
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