Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Z to Porsche and Back Again: The Unconventional Journey of “Porsche Al”

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From Z to Porsche and Back Again: The Unconventional Journey of “Porsche Al” · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Grand Touring Motorsports started as a social group of car enthusiasts,
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but we've expanded into all sorts of motorsports disciplines, and we
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want to share our stories with you.
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Years of racing, wrenching, and motorsports experience brings
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together a top notch collection of knowledge and information
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through our podcast, Brake Fix.
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Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here.
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In this episode, we bring you an unconventional origin story, one that
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begins with a Z, ends with a Z, and has a whole mess of Porsche in the middle.
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And to explain how this sandwich was made is none other than one
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of GTM's original cast, one of our first year members, Portia Al.
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Welcome to Break Fix.
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Hey, Eric.
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Thank you for the invite.
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We know you have a really great story about how you got the nickname Portia Al,
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but there's a story that leads up to that.
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Early on when I was a little bit younger, my uncle had a shop.
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That shop was downtown somewhere in Baltimore.
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I would go down to the shop from time to time, just hanging out.
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And one of my friends there, his name is Jason, we call him Big J.
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You know, I wasn't a big race guy or big on, uh, race cars like that.
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And I didn't even really know.
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Uh, I had a car, my first car that I paid for.
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I hated the damn thing.
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In the meantime, while I was coming down the shop.
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Got one of those times I was driving somewhere, going too fast, I got
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in an accident, so I bought a Z.
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280, 1975.
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During that time, I'm going back and forth to the shop.
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So my uncle had to go to Kuwait, he had to go to, uh, down to Fort Hood.
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So my, my buddy Jason took over the shop and ran it for him for a while.
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So in that time, going down to the shop quite a bit, he was
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like, Oh, we should do some work.
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Okay, what do we need to do?
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So I changed the cam.
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which was a nightmare for somebody who, who really looked
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at the cameras, the easy job.
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So I installed it, not correct the first time.
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And what does that really mean?
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I didn't set the timing correctly.
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Prior to that, I had installed a headers, bigger throttle body, and
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I forgot to add, I did put on a Centerforce clutch and a light flywheel.
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And when I say I did everything, I was doing everything to the car.
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Every week I put on a new car.
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And so the car incrementally just got better and better and better.
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But back to that cam.
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So I installed the cam.
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And of course, like I said, I did not install it in the right.
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Set up the first time or the second time.
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Uh, maybe the third time.
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And with, if you're not familiar with that, that particular type of Z.
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It has a side tensioner.
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And every time you take that cam gear off, if you do not put a chop
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down in there, the spring pops out, it drops down to the bottom.
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And I will tell you, in one day, trying to get it configured properly,
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I took the front of the engine apart three times, all right?
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It was a nightmare.
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But every time I turned it a tooth, turned it a tooth, turned it a tooth,
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I finally got it tuned properly.
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You could tell the first two or three times I started, you knew it wasn't
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right because of the way it sounded.
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But the last time, I got it started properly.
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I mean, got it, got it set up prop.
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Started and you knew right away the way that it was firing.
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I put it back together.
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I take it for a quick test drive J Knew a guy who had been racing z's for a
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long time and they used to call him a z man And he had what was called a triple
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weber carburetors And so he said al let's take a ride and see if he had him
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for sale because at the time I had to I mentioned that I had the big throttle
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body which really to me wasn't really giving me that much, uh, performance.
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I went over to the guy's house and his house was like a mechanic shop, right?
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He was single.
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He had parts everywhere.
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He was a nice guy, but he had parts everywhere.
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It's like going to visit Mountain Man Dan then.
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I gotcha.
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I understand.
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We would talk to him.
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Jason, uh, did the introduction and asked if he had the, uh, carbs.
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He said yes.
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He said how much he wanted was 500 at the time.
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I had 500 in my pocket, which they couldn't believe and I
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literally took those cars down to the shop and put them right on.
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I didn't clean them.
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I did nothing, but they were, I just popped them right on.
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The car started right up.
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And ran phenomenally.
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And again, I would tell you that I wasn't a racer.
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Uh, the guys down the shop, uh, Tree, Mike, and another guy who's
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named, uh, escapes me right now.
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But Jay was kind of like the big dog on the block.
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Jay had a RX 7, the, uh.
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13b.
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He was all tricked out.
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Another one of his friends had a Mazda, and Mike had a Mustang.
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5.
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0 had been tricked out.
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So it was at like, uh, 85, I think.
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These guys were astonished that in maybe two or three months, I completely rebuilt
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and the car was race ready and Jay asked me, Oh, why don't you race these guys?
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And I was like, well, I'm not really a racer.
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So, so we go up to the light and from the light to the shop
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doors was about a quarter mile.
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All right.
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I can see where this is going.
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So I need to back up a little bit because I will tell you that.
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The name Big Jase, he had that name for a reason.
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He was very cocky.
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If he wasn't the guy with the biggest, fastest car, then he
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wasn't, he would take his shit apart.
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But that's who he was, right?
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Now, I didn't know some of this stuff early on, right?
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I mean, you know he's brash.
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You know he's always Got a lot of mouth, got a lot to say when it comes to cars.
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So he asked me to go out.
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We're lined up at the light.
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Just before the light turns, I stomp on it.
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I launch on the Mustang and, uh, the Mazda.
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By the time we get in front of the shop, I've got the Mustang by two cars.
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Cars screaming.
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And I was like, okay.
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To me, I'm like, yeah, is, okay, is it fast?
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Ha ha ha!
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Is what I'm saying, right?
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Because I'm, I'm like, well, I'm newbie to this, right?
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Later on that night, let me just say this, they used to race
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on Nolan Parkway and Wabash.
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In between the police rotations, when they would change shifts, they
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would, they would be road racing.
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And you would go up and there'd be hundreds of people out on that strip.
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Jay asked me to meet him up there and I was like, all right.
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I took my nephew, I'm sorry, my cousin, who was probably 10 or 11 at the time.
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There were all kinds of motorcycles, cars, trucks.
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Everything you can think of were racing and people were making money.
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So I got there probably about between 11 and 11.
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30.
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And one of Jason's friends had been watching me build a car.
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But if you go down to the shop, I will be coming after work.
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There's so many people, I don't know who's who.
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So there's so many people coming back and forth.
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When you're working on the car, sometimes you pay attention.
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I mean, I was in a safe environment, but sometimes you
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don't, you just continue to work.
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All the other stuff is noise, right?
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And unless you're getting help, it's just noise.
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So I'm saying, say there was somebody watching me build
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the car unbeknownst to me.
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So he says, Hey, I want to race your car tonight.
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I'll give you 500.
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And you know, I look at Jay, I'm like, what do you think?
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He's like, yeah, let him.
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Okay.
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I said, okay.
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So he takes the car, he races an M3 BMW, quarter mile.
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He takes off and blows the.
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The M three away.
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They start arguing.
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I get my 500 up front.
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I get my 500 up front.
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And I will say these guys bet 5000.
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Whoa, right.
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And so became a big deal.
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Because There became an argument about who left first and it was a whole, it
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was a whole thing, but I was like, I don't know, I got my car, I got my, took
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my cousin, and we went home, because I had my money, I was no, I wasn't a part
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of that, but you know, that was my kind of introduction to racing and to Z.
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So J once my car one at Northern Parkway at the races.
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He went the next day and took his Car part.
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And so he had on his, on his Mazda, he had every imaginable part.
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Headers, exhaust.
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He had the big throttle body carburetor that was proper for that year.
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He took it all apart and sold it.
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And then he sold the car.
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He said, if I'm not the big dog, I'm not it.
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The next time he and I really had a good conversation about cars, he was driving
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a Chevelle, big body Chevelle, where he had taken the motor apart, put it all back
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together, And completely redid the thing.
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Now, I was not even in a class with that big boy V8.
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You know, but he was, he was doing something different at the time.
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So for me, for Z's, right, is a natural thing.
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I, I, so how did I get to a Porsche?
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We, we fast forward some years.
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Big J is now, unbeknownst to me, collecting Porsches.
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And so one day, uh, I go by his house, and in the back of his yard, he has four.
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And I was like, what are you doing with all the 9 11s?
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And so at the same time, he was about to move to Atlanta.
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So I was like, well, what are you, what are you doing with all the portions, man?
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I don't understand.
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I'm like, I'm parting these out, and I'm taking three with me.
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I was like, okay.
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So you got four, you know, part out one, put it all in, you're going to
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toe, make a couple trips and tone down.
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He's like, yeah, you know, my story was, you know, you need an advocate for you.
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Somebody that's going to keep you motivated.
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So you need to let me get one of those forces.
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You don't need three, right?
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You don't.
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Absolutely.
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And so he took, he Literally took all three down there, made the trips,
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two trips, got everything down, and for six months we had a conversation.
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And we still talk to this day, but for six months, on and off, it was, Hey, Jay, what
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are you doing with that extra Porsche?
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Jay, what are you going to do with that extra Porsche?
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Oh, Al, somebody's going to buy it from me.
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I said, Jay, that's not what you want.
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You still need an advocate.
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And the whole time, when he was collecting Porsches, he worked.
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And drove for Porsche, um, modifications shop on route one, uh,
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TPC turbo performance center, right?
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He drove for them and for three or four or five years that he drove as a,
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cause he was not only was a mechanic, but he was also a big rig certified.
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So he had a CDL.
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So he used to drive for them to track, but the whole time he drove.
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They never shared any information.
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Interesting.
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Ever.
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Not once.
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And he complained about that shot more than anything, so
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finally he got frustrated.
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Once he, you know, he had enough parts, figured he'd figure it out.
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What was amazing was, that in the three or four years that he worked for them,
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I met you, and I got more information from you, more information out of
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you and Shane, and then I met Ted.
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Ted into being a turd, but more information on YouTube than he
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got in the whole four years.
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Wow.
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And so, you know, he was, he was upset about it, right?
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Because people, he felt like they wouldn't share with him.
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And I started sharing because you guys share with me.
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Yeah.
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And when we met and you said, Hey, you know, I don't even remember how
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we even got on the subject of cars.
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And you brought it up and said, Hey, I got this 77, nine 11 target.
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And I'm like, Oh, well I come from, um, you know, uh, let's call it a vintage
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Porsche family with the nine 11s.
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We had nine 14 and stuff like that.
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And so, you know, we got, we, we started to bond over that.
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And so it was good to find somebody else that wasn't like, Hey, I drive a three
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30, I BMW, like, you know, I don't know.
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So it's cool to, you know, Oh, I got a vintage Porsche.
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You know, it's, it's pretty nice.
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Right.
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And so, uh, I don't know if Brad knows, early on in our conversation, Eric would
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say, Hey, Al, I have this parts for you.
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Don't worry.
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You're going to come and get it.
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It's true.
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It's true.
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He still does that to me now.
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I mean, he'll call me and say, I just got you something.
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Right.
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You know what I do now?
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I just leave the parts in the garage with yellows.
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Post it notes that just say Brad and then when he comes over they're just
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sitting there taunting him So I don't have to even say anything anymore.
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The best part was one time I left my car there at his house and I got there.
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He was doing some work on it And there was like a 300 stress bar
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across the, the engine department.
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It was like, what the hell is that?
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It was like, Merry Christmas.
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Right.
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I, how do you like that?
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Right.
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So sort of somewhere in there.
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So, uh, Jay had heard my conversations, right.
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And one day, one Saturday morning, he showed up at the house.
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With the car in tow.
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Wow.
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And put it in the backyard.
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And now eight years later.
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So wait, let's pause there a second.
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I never saw it in its original configuration.
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I saw it after you got it painted.
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So what was the condition of the, the Targa?
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So the Targa was in, it was in great shape.
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It was white.
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I pretty much just replaced the carpet on the interior.
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What you saw other than being white was the way that I got it.
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Now, I will say that there was no transmission and there was no engine.
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And I was good with that.
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So, you know, over time you can source, uh, enough stuff, right?
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And trust me.
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So you sourced a motor for it.
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What did you end up with in the beginning?
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It was a 3L.
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That was a great motor.
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I will tell you that I made some mistakes with that, but I
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rebuilt that in the driveway.
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I was not really comfortable with my ability, so I never
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really took it anywhere.
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But I would take the car out, and there's a, there's a few roads around my
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house that I would call my test track.
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We all have one of those.
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And in the middle of the night, I would take it.
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and burn around the neighborhood and I mean it would fly.
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There was, there was a couple of times that I took it down to, I can't remember
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the name of the shop that moved to a 100.
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They did a dyno and tune on it.
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I never really felt comfortable with my work so I never took it
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anywhere and I always thought something was wrong with it.
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And that being said, you think something's wrong with it enough times,
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something's gonna be wrong with it.
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Transitioning from a late 70s or Nissan for most people that recognize it as
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a Nissan Z car to a Porsche, right?
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From an inline six to a flat six.
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You're still dealing with six cylinder.
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Did you find the transition easy because they're both carbureted motors or were
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they just so drastically different that you knew how to turn wrenches?
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You just got to figure it out at that point.
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Turning a wrench was the easy part.
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Working on the motor, that portion part was a little bit more difficult to me.
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Never having seen one apart, never really kind of grasping.
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It wasn't till we, or maybe Shane and I had some conversations about
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the motor, became more familiar.
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And anytime, the more you do anything, the more you become familiar.
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But I never really felt A level of confidence for me
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in dealing with that car.
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The Z car is, to me, was more straightforward.
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Just, just in how to.
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The Porsche, everything had to be done a specific way.
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When I was looking or doing searches, I could always find something on the Z.
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You could barely find anything on Porsche.
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That group, so because it's a, to me, an older group, They don't share
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the same as the younger demographic.
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They don't share, they're not posting stuff out on YouTube.
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If I wanted something for the Z, I could go on YouTube and have it in five seconds.
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Porsche?
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Not so much.
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So I had a hard time.
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So how long did it take before the Porsche tax kicked in?
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Yeah, so right away.
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And so, you gotta know that when I go, I go all in.
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And so, it was Christmas.
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And I bought 3, 000 worth of carburetors, and then headers, and then, you know,
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this thing, and it was always, you know, I need new brakes, I need, you know, if
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I'm going to do it, and I'm looking at, if I'm going to stop, what do I need to do?
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If I'm going to do this, now.
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I would tell you the Porsche is so not like the Z, in parts of parts, but
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not really when you talk about, when you talk about Porsche parts, right?
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Because the cost is, I want to say maybe 10 times or 20 times the amount.
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So the last motor I had in the Porsche was a 3.
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6, which I got from you.
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When that motor went bad, and I don't know if you guys know, Uh,
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the story about why the motor died.
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I don't know if I ever told you that.
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It's your opportunity to tell it.
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Last year or year before the motor died, going into, uh, the one, the fall.
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And so I parked it is when I noticed that there was something wrong.
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And so you gave me a Tony, I think it's translog.
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So I take it to him early January, maybe late December.
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He takes it apart.
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He finds a piston ring.
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Down on the inside, there was no, nothing broken on the motor.
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There was an extra piston ring placed on the inside of the motor.
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Over time, that piston ring started getting chewed up.
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And over time, you know what happens, right?
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You get metal fibers that you looked up in the crank.
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Number, I think, three and two position on the crank was worn completely out.
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So that knock that I was hearing, which I thought was somewhere else,
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I was like, how the hell can I have an issue when it's a new bill?
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So I will say that's thanks to my friend Ted.
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Right.
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I won't throw him under the bus by putting his last name out there, but yeah.
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But that motor had some previous, we'll call them curses or hexes on
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it too, because what did it eat?
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A rag or something, a shop towel, and another time something else happened,
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there was, there was always something always a little bit off about it.
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Really surprised me because I did drive the car and it ran
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well until it just didn't.
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That's the story, right?
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For eight years, I have a folder that, uh, you, so you talk about the Porsche tax
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that somewhere around, I don't, I don't want to say, cause my wife is outside
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the door, we'll just leave it there.
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You're better off, but I, you know, that, that portion of
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tax was hot when I listed it.
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And I had a couple of folks reach out and some, I wasn't sure if they were scammers
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trying to get my personal information and I had been through that, Ooh, you know, I
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need my financier to call and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, that, that
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sounds like a bunch of crap, just like it is like those old Nigerian Prince emails
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we used to get back in the old days.
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Exactly.
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And so, but once the guy from Germany reached out and he,
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you know, he gave me a deposit.
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A 5, 000.
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I knew that he was serious about buying the car and everything went well.
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I gave him more parts.
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I was just, you know, when you're done, and I know that you heard me say
19:04
this, but when you're done, I was done.
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I was like, here, just take it all.
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I don't even care anymore.
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Yeah.
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But it opened the door for the Z, right?
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So for the listeners out there, as you kind of put in the story
19:16
together here, Al had his 911, which started with a three liter.
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So a 77 Targa and ended up with a three six twin spark
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in it for about eight years.
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And then he just recently sold it.
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So a lot of this is really new information, especially to the members out
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there that, you know, been listening to the stories of Porsche Al over the years.
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He's now hung his Porsche hat on the hat rack.
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And has gone back to his roots.
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But before we talk about the new car, I actually want to step back in time and
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do a little comparison between the old car and the nine 11 for just a moment,
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if you don't mind, Al and you've got some other interesting cars in your
19:49
resume, you, you picked up another car, which we'll, we'll probably talk about
19:52
towards the tail end of the segment.
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The nine 11 was silver.
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Was the Datsun silver too?
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No, the Datsun was like a brown something.
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Okay, that's 70s color, okay.
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Right, right, but I ended up getting that painted a burgundy.
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Almost like a cranberry gray.
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And I did, uh, like with the Porsche, I did a lot to that car.
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It was a tragic ending.
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Yeah, you know, I've never heard the end to the Z, like what happened to it.
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Yeah, I had a Z and cool stuff happened.
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Then I got a 911.
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It's like, wait, wait a minute.
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What happened in between?
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Did you drive a Chevette?
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I mean, no, no, no, no, no.
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So now the car is complete, right?
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I had it painted.
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The guy who painted the car, he put seven coats of paint on the car, right?
20:37
With a clear on top.
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So it was phenomenal.
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It was, uh, one of those days, you know, when you shouldn't drive your car out.
20:44
And I'll say that.
20:45
I guess I'll just put it out there.
20:47
So, I needed a damn cheap part.
20:49
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
20:53
And I went to the store to get a cheap part in a snow storm.
20:56
Oh yeah.
20:57
Right, and so me and the car ended up in a pole.
21:00
Oh no.
21:01
Right, and so I, I hit a pole at the door jam.
21:06
The car wrapped around the pole.
21:08
Right.
21:08
I don't know how I didn't get hurt.
21:09
I ended up taking that motor.
21:12
So the car survived.
21:13
It ran perfect.
21:15
But, you know, you got a 14, two foot deep hole dent in the car.
21:23
So I ended up later on, I end up sourcing.
21:27
Another 280Z.
21:30
It was a 280, but I can't remember the year that changed the body style.
21:34
Yeah, that was a 2 plus 2.
21:36
It started to look a lot like the 300ZX versus your car was the same chassis body
21:41
as a 240, 260, just with a bigger engine.
21:44
Right.
21:45
And so this one had a digital dash.
21:48
It was only okay.
21:49
And so I took the motor and transmission out and shoehorned it.
21:54
I tell you, when you take that motor, I don't know if you've ever seen it,
21:58
motor and transmission together on the Z, it looks like a Draxler motor, right?
22:03
It's very, like you said, very long.
22:05
So I shoehorned it out and put it into another car and I
22:08
pretty much got rid of that car.
22:10
That was just before I joined the military.
22:12
So I drove that car for about three or four years, and then when I went into
22:19
service, I parked it at my uncle's house.
22:22
When I came home from the service, it had been there from 94 to 99, right?
22:28
It was at his house.
22:29
And the year I came home, it got towed because he moved it from The
22:35
house to the road or somewhere and I asked them where the car go, right?
22:41
Where's my car?
22:42
Cause you said it was okay, but ultimately the car got towed
22:47
away and I never saw it again.
22:49
Wow.
22:50
So for a few years I had nothing until just before we met is
22:54
when I picked up the Porsche.
22:57
When you compare your experience with the Z, your first one, the 75, against
23:04
the Porsche, which gave you the better driving experience between the two?
23:08
Oh, I can't really quantify it as the Porsche, right?
23:13
Because I've never, in eight years, I've never got any real time in it.
23:16
So, you know, which is to me was tragic because I, I love that car was small when
23:22
I do when I look at the car sometimes when I was on the highway, because
23:25
there was a couple times I did drive, I even driven had driven into your house.
23:28
So, but, but when I looked on the highway is small.
23:32
I can only say that I got the best driving experience from the Z.
23:36
I remember making jokes to you a couple times how I had a better driving
23:40
experience with the Volkswagen Jetta
23:46
that I had because it runs.
23:49
You know, I never really have any issues.
23:52
with the Jetta versus what I did with the Porsche.
23:55
I mentioned earlier that I had the car dynoed, right?
23:58
So, I wish I could remember the name of the place that did the dyno.
24:01
He used the new system where they take the wheels off the car.
24:06
And so, he gave me the sheet and was like, Oh, there's
24:09
something's wrong with the car.
24:10
The, it's not necessarily the car, maybe it's the clutch, right?
24:14
And the clutch, because of this, up.
24:17
What he said was identify any issues you had in your
24:21
transmission clutch system, right?
24:23
The way that transitions.
24:25
I said, okay, so I'm driving home and me and my son were
24:31
about a block from the house.
24:33
And I hear this, the fork broke.
24:36
The fork broke.
24:37
I was like, I just got the car back.
24:42
And I would say that with the Porsche, it was always something.
24:44
It like, it was like it did not like being in my house.
24:47
It loved being a garage queen.
24:49
I would say this to folks.
24:52
Look, but don't touch.
24:53
Ooh, come and rub me, but don't get inside of me.
24:57
She was, she was very temperamental, right?
24:59
And, and I'm just, today, I would say I'm glad she's gone.
25:03
I need something that I can, as a, as a car guy, I had gas on my
25:08
chest, the truck just doesn't do it.
25:10
So, you know, I have that, I have that Ford F 150.
25:13
It just doesn't give me the satisfaction when you want to go just,
25:17
say, a little over the speed limit.
25:19
You don't get the same experience.
25:21
In the big four door F 150, right?
25:25
Yeah, which motor sounded better?
25:28
The Datsun straight six or the flat six of the Porsche?
25:31
Hands down the Porsche.
25:32
Hands down.
25:33
Hands down.
25:34
Unfortunately.
25:34
It was a couple of things though that made, to me made
25:37
it have a great experience with the Porsche as far as sound.
25:40
Even though the the Z that I had had a side draft by Weber's.
25:44
So with the same, same setup.
25:48
Each car, each car had.
25:49
a carburetor per cylinder.
25:51
The Porsche had it and the Z.
25:54
But just the from the configuration with the down draft versus side draft
25:59
gave the engine motor a better sound.
26:01
There's a lot of rumors about who designed that car if actually Nissan
26:06
designed it in the first place.
26:07
There's there's rumors that a certain West German company actually designed that,
26:12
you know, the look and shape of the car.
26:14
And I mean, they're very attractive cars, especially the early Z
26:16
cars are very good looking cars.
26:18
They are very European looking.
26:19
They didn't look like anything else that had come out of Japan at that time.
26:23
So I wonder what drew you to the Porsche and not another Z car after
26:29
having been through two of them.
26:31
That was real easy.
26:32
When I saw Jason with the car and I got a chance to look at it, I had.
26:38
No experience with Porsche before.
26:40
You hear it, to me it was always outside, it was always for somebody else.
26:44
It wasn't until he and I talked and I was at his house and I got a chance to really
26:49
look at the car and have some experience because of him that I was drawn to it.
26:54
But, that evil mistress that was your 911 has driven you back into
26:58
the arms of yet another Nissan.
27:00
How about that, right?
27:02
Look, some days you just got to go home.
27:05
You just end up home.
27:06
How do you get there?
27:07
Just, it's like, you know, that penny you dropped on the carpet, right?
27:11
You haven't seen it for years.
27:13
One day you're moving all the furniture around.
27:16
There's that penny.
27:17
Comes right back to you.
27:18
That's what to me, the Z is, right?
27:21
It's just natural.
27:22
The 350 Z in this case, when it debuted in the early 2000s, what did you think of it?
27:27
You got one in one period, right?
27:31
I wasn't ready.
27:32
Right?
27:32
Early 2000, I wasn't ready because of family situation.
27:37
Prior to the new one coming out, I had a 300.
27:42
Onion continues to be unpacked here.
27:45
I didn't know you had a 300.
27:47
Right.
27:48
So I had a 300 before, yeah, just before I got married.
27:51
So wait, which, which 300?
27:53
The one that looks like the old ones or the newer style rounded one?
27:57
The new style rounded one.
27:58
Okay.
27:59
So the 90s version.
28:00
Okay.
28:01
Right.
28:01
Yeah.
28:02
It was a great car.
28:03
The reason why I got rid of it is once I got married and have kids.
28:08
It's time for that car to go.
28:09
What are you going to do with a two door coupe?
28:11
Yeah, exactly.
28:12
Right.
28:12
So, family first.
28:14
And once you get your come ups a little bit, right, things start
28:18
turning, you know, you can afford a little bit more is where I am now.
28:21
So, I went back home to the Z.
28:24
Before we talk about your Z, what do you think about the current one, the 370?
28:28
There's a rumor that the 400 is coming as well.
28:31
So, sometimes it becomes too much noise.
28:33
For me to keep up with all the changes and all the, so the whole
28:37
time when I was looking and dealing with the Porsche, all I kept saying
28:43
was, I need something to drive.
28:45
I need a Z.
28:46
And so you had put me in touch with Racer Run, right?
28:50
To buy his ZA couple of times.
28:52
I wanted to get something that was relatively old that I could
28:55
to buy and put it on a track.
28:57
I can't look at the new stuff.
28:58
I went that way.
29:01
Before, but you know, I just want to get gas off my chest, right?
29:05
Get some speed behind my wheel.
29:06
So right now I, do you know that the Z, I don't know if we're ready to go down this
29:10
path, but the Z is in the shop right now.
29:12
I'm getting the roll cage put on.
29:13
I've been ordering parts.
29:15
I'm trying to pump my brakes a little bit.
29:17
You're in at 110%.
29:19
But actually it brings up a good little segue.
29:21
Brad and I did an earlier episode where we talked about good starter track cars.
29:26
And we, we decided that the 350z ended up on the honorable mention
29:30
list, mostly because it's often forgotten as a good starter track car.
29:35
And I'm not trying to downplay it.
29:37
It's an excellent track car period.
29:39
Very forgiving chassis, great power.
29:41
It's just a really all around good car, but most people overlook them
29:45
and they probably figure, Hey, they're either stance bro cars or
29:48
they're too expensive to get into.
29:50
Now you were really fortunate to find another one at a
29:53
really, really good price.
29:54
Do you feel as though you're a bit of a pioneer?
29:57
I mean, you're the only Z guy in our group, but on the same token,
30:01
you were talking about sharing of information and things like that.
30:04
Do you find it easy enough to find parts for the Z and build it out?
30:08
Or has that been a challenge much like it was with the Porsche?
30:11
Oh, it's nothing like the Porsche.
30:13
Their parts are available and cheap, right?
30:17
And not only that, but I mentioned there are plenty of YouTube videos.
30:22
So as I was stripping the parts away and not quite sure how I wanted to
30:26
mount something or how I wanted to do something, There's somebody out there
30:30
who posted a video on how to when I mentioned earlier when I looked at Uh
30:34
looking to buy a new three six motor for the porsche Even having the one
30:39
that I had rebuilt tony at translog said that he could not do it for twenty
30:45
thousand dollars So when I looked at sourcing one off of ebay that was rebuilt
30:50
They were starting price was 25, 000.
30:53
I'm going to change here now to the Z the Z motor rebuilt is a thousand dollars.
31:02
I wanted to say when I bought the header system and exhaust system for the.
31:07
For the Porsche, I was close to 1, 000.
31:10
I got a whole system, headers all the way back for, I think, 400.
31:17
The headers were probably a little bit more expensive.
31:20
Maybe I paid 175, but the rest of the system was like 300.
31:25
And then I got a bypass pipe that they don't include that piece, which is where
31:29
their catalytic converters would go.
31:31
So they sell a bypass pipe.
31:33
Those were like 80, but everything else was like 300.
31:36
Parts are very available.
31:38
We got to see a glimpse of your car.
31:40
If people, if listeners are out there and they go back to our website and search.
31:44
Dino day, 2020.
31:46
We actually got a glimpse of your Z in the earlier stages before you started
31:49
modding it and things like that.
31:50
Cause I know you wanted to get a baseline and you talked about dino in
31:52
cars, all of your cars at this point.
31:55
So I think you got some baseline numbers.
31:57
Are you going to have auto fab after they're done doing the cage and whatnot?
32:00
Are you going to have them rerun it on the rollers just to see if the
32:04
enhancements you've made have actually made an improvement to your numbers?
32:08
You know what?
32:08
I'm not ready yet.
32:09
I think so.
32:10
Because the last time.
32:11
When they did the dyno, there was something off about the harmonic balancer.
32:15
So they couldn't get an accurate reading.
32:17
They had to do it like three or four times just to get it to set right.
32:21
So it can pick up.
32:22
So I already have a replacement harmonic balancer.
32:28
So what other mods have you already done to this car?
32:30
And it hasn't even turned a lap on the track yet.
32:32
Other than the exhaust system, the headers.
32:35
I haven't done anything else.
32:36
Does it sound good with the exhaust on it?
32:38
Oh my God.
32:39
It does.
32:42
It does.
32:44
You'll have to see.
32:45
You'll see.
32:46
You bought this car to build specifically to go to the track, to
32:49
go road racing with the rest of us.
32:51
Where's your first event going to be?
32:52
Do you have a, you have a goal date to bring the car out and debut it?
32:56
Yeah.
32:56
So I think there's, um, there's an event.
32:58
Looked on driving.
32:59
Yeah.
32:59
I think I'm coming out to that event.
33:01
That's, uh, sometime in the end of August.
33:03
The one at Summit Point or the one at Pit Race?
33:05
Okay.
33:05
Thanks.
33:06
So, I didn't see the one at Summer Point.
33:08
The one I saw was with the cookout at Pit Race.
33:11
That's a good plan.
33:12
Come to Summer Bash.
33:14
So that's the, that's the, that's the plan.
33:15
I'm excited, right?
33:17
It will be my first time at the track in that capacity.
33:21
Meaning, in the race car, ready to go.
33:24
You know, so I'm trying to make sure I have, I'm sure you probably get
33:27
tired of my, what do I need to replace questions, but I'm trying to make
33:31
sure that I have everything in place.
33:36
And so for the listeners, unlike the episode we did, where we talked about
33:39
what I wish I knew as a newbie coming to the sport, Al's dealing with a
33:44
car that at this point is already 17 years old, it's got a lot of things
33:48
that do need to be replaced, you know, bushings, motor mounts, the
33:52
exhaust was rotted out, actually, his catalytic converters were completely
33:54
shot, which is robbing him of power.
33:56
There's a lot, you know, brake pads need to be done, fluids need to be
33:59
gone through the car has about 160.
34:03
So you really have to go over it differently.
34:06
It's a different conversation because he's building something specifically for going
34:09
to the track versus, Hey, I've got a, a really nice, you know, 2015 GTI, how about
34:15
I go to the track for the first time?
34:17
So little bit different conversation for the people that
34:19
have been following along with.
34:21
So Al, you're kind of in the middle and I know you being 110 percent of what you do,
34:26
you're going to be out in stage 12 land like I am, and they probably be a full on
34:30
time trials car by the end of next season.
34:33
But there, and there's not anything wrong with that, but I'm really excited to have
34:36
you come out and join the rest of us.
34:38
Having a unique car because you don't see a lot of Z's outside of Drift events
34:42
and drag racing and, and, and some of the, what we call the stance bro events.
34:46
It's gonna be really cool and really unique.
34:48
And with that exhaust note of that VQ engine, we're gonna know where
34:51
you are at at any given time.
34:54
So let me ask you, why, why do you think that is that the Z isn't
34:57
being used for the racing the way, the way that you do racing?
35:02
And this is all hearsay, that they're kind of fragile.
35:04
Transmission wise, when I was looking at buying my track car,
35:08
I was interested in the Zs.
35:10
Obviously, I didn't go that way, uh, one reason is because I don't fit.
35:13
But another reason is because I didn't have a surplus of funds
35:17
to throw into replacing parts over and over and over again.
35:21
Now, going down the rabbit hole as I have, and I've had to replace
35:24
many axles, a 60 axle is different than a 500 or 600 transmission.
35:29
And that's just what I've heard.
35:31
And then the VQs, they're pretty reliable.
35:35
The head gaskets go every once in a while.
35:37
I really can't answer as to why they're not bigger in the, in the racing world.
35:42
They're, they're really big in the drift world.
35:44
Maybe it's just, it's just the culture of the car.
35:46
A lot of people that are into that car aren't into road racing.
35:51
They're more into drifting and things like that.
35:53
To Brad's point, it's probably the same reason that you don't see a lot of Supras.
35:57
And that's also because those cars are a lot more rare.
35:59
And I'm speculating because I have to go read the GCR, which
36:02
is the global competition rules.
36:03
I'm not sure that the Z classes well, and that's why you may not see it because
36:08
it doesn't really fit into a lot of.
36:10
Series.
36:11
And so that's, that's where you end up with the whole discussion of buy
36:14
what you see it around the paddock.
36:15
Especially if you're going racing racing, because you're either trying to do a
36:19
spec series where you, it's a Miata E36, E46, spec Boxster, spec C5, you know,
36:25
stuff like that, where there's a plethora of those cars and they just make them
36:28
fit in the mold and you call it a day.
36:30
And that's what a lot of proper road racing and club racing is.
36:34
But the Z much like a 24 valve VR six.
36:39
Or even the 1.
36:40
8 turbo Volkswagens.
36:41
And I know we're Volkswagen fans around here.
36:43
I'm using them as an example.
36:45
They don't class.
36:46
Well, SCCA does not have a class for them in the GCR, which means
36:50
they're a car that people would shy away from competition wise.
36:53
They'll go to something else like a Honda because it places an ITS
36:57
or it places an ITA, you know, the older Mark two Volkswagens in ITB and
37:01
the, and, and so on down the line.
37:03
So it's easy to go down the list and just.
37:04
Pick something that qualifies and you can go racing now, because you're
37:08
starting out in high performance driver's education, instead of straight on club
37:13
racing, you can do whatever you want.
37:15
They don't really care.
37:16
You're you're there to learn.
37:17
You're there to go fast and do what you want to do.
37:18
And if you have ambitions to go on to something else, you do hit a point
37:22
where you come to an impasse and you say, well, do I want to go club racing
37:26
or do I want to go to time trials?
37:28
I have a feeling.
37:29
That you may like time trials better than club racing, knowing how you
37:32
like to take care of your cars.
37:34
It's, it's not full contact, like some of the other disciplines are,
37:38
and you're racing against the clock, you're racing against yourself.
37:41
In time trials, the classing system is also very different because it's not
37:46
based on the car must fit this mold.
37:48
It's based actually on a, like a penalty system, where you're running
37:52
this mod and these tires and this and that, and you can mix and match stuff.
37:56
So.
37:57
I went to this event on Hoosiers and it bumped me up a class.
38:00
Well, I'm not going to run Hoosiers anymore.
38:02
I'm going to run Nittos.
38:03
That brings me up into a class where I feel I'm more competitive
38:06
in or whatever it might be.
38:07
So you got to jockey around with some parts, but everything you're doing
38:10
right now, especially, you know, with the halfback cage or the hill climb
38:13
cage, you're gearing yourself towards either doing time trials or hill climb.
38:18
Once you graduate away from high performance driving.
38:22
Okay.
38:22
Again, that's why I said you're a bit of a pioneer.
38:25
And I mean, you got the team behind you to support you anyway.
38:28
So you need people to come turn wrenches.
38:29
We're all excited.
38:30
Something new to work on.
38:31
And we're always willing to help.
38:32
You're at the tip of the spear on this thing.
38:34
You're going to have to let us know, well, this was a waste of money, right?
38:37
And that's where we got to with the Volkswagen's.
38:39
Now we have the build sheets and it's go down the list.
38:42
This is what you need to buy, depending on what you're trying to build.
38:44
And so the same might be true of the Z.
38:47
And, you know, we'll try to see if we can find somebody out there to also get
38:51
you better direction, but I've only come across a handful of these cars, and I know
38:55
one of our other members who's up in New York, who now has a Viper, started in a Z.
39:00
And again, I sat right seat in that car for many, many events.
39:04
And I can tell you firsthand, it's, it's an awesome ride.
39:07
I have heard the same rumor Brad has had about the transmissions and stuff.
39:10
I hear there's a beefier one you can get, and then you kind
39:13
of don't worry about it again.
39:14
At this stage of the game, you're dealing with a 17 year old car.
39:18
Stuff's going to go and you know how it is, right?
39:21
When you're doing this and you're really dedicated and it's not your
39:24
daily driver, it's like, send it.
39:26
If it blows up, then you know what's broken and then you fix it.
39:29
Lather, rinse, repeat.
39:30
And if your car does well, that may inspire me to try and wedge
39:35
myself into one or get a G35 cause they're a little bit bigger.
39:38
Right.
39:38
To be truthfully honest, my sister and I, when we put the original article
39:42
together that I was referencing earlier, the 350z came up with the list.
39:46
Cause we both liked the way they look.
39:47
The way they sound.
39:48
I've ridden in 'em, they drive great, they got plenty of power and we're always like,
39:52
why have we overlooked the Z for so long?
39:54
Now they're really affordable.
39:56
It would make sense.
39:57
It'd be a great rear wheel drive car to pick up and have similar power to.
40:01
You know what I have in the GTI.
40:03
And so it would be a very easy transition.
40:06
So yeah, I, again, as Brad is saying, I'm, I'm looking to you at the moment
40:09
to say, where do we go from here?
40:11
Right.
40:12
And so, you know, I have to rely on you guys because someone who's new coming
40:16
into the field There's going to be a learning curve And so as I get, I will
40:21
share, but there are things about racing, you know, I'm waiting for you to sit
40:25
side saddle, hey Al, do this, do this, do this, no, no, no, not like that.
40:32
And so, uh, it's going to be exciting.
40:35
I hope to get, and you asked the question about.
40:39
I hope to get at least two or three events this year.
40:42
What that means, I don't really know, but I know that I'm
40:47
positioning myself to be ready.
40:50
What Brad doesn't know is that I got a trailer and ordered a trailer and got it.
40:55
Got it sourced, it's ready to be picked up, and I'm trying
40:58
to figure that out right now.
41:00
If I'm going to drive to Georgia, I'm kind of on the fence on the
41:02
drive, not because I can't drive, but I don't know what's happening
41:07
down there from a mind perspective.
41:10
And Eric mentioned earlier that the car's in the shop getting the cage done.
41:15
Again, I just want to be in the best position in August,
41:19
trying to have everything.
41:20
The minimal set of things that I need so I can bring a car out and drive.
41:24
I think you've done the right thing.
41:25
You took care of all the problems with the car because of its age and
41:29
then you focused entirely on safety and that's really the way to do it.
41:33
Because as I've said before, never modify a car past your ability
41:38
to drive it because you continue to slide the bar to the right.
41:41
And it makes it more and more difficult for you to find the limit.
41:44
And, and, you know, we were debating break pads the other day and I said,
41:46
well, you got this, this, and this, I would really tell you in the future,
41:50
you're going to want Hawks right now.
41:53
You're going to want a set of EBCs because you want to
41:55
experience break fade at the track.
41:57
You want to know what it's like to encounter that particular use case.
42:01
And then we'll go from there.
42:02
But if you just throw on a set of DTC seventies.
42:06
They're going to run you all day.
42:07
You're like, Oh, my brakes are fantastic, but you never really
42:10
learn how to stop the car.
42:11
Right.
42:12
And so it's important and I'm not, I'm not trying to put you in a
42:15
precarious position in any way, but again, you need to learn to out drive
42:19
the car and then you can mod it.
42:20
And you got to do your mods tastefully and slowly at that point so that the
42:24
car and you grow together in the next step and airing on the side of safety.
42:30
Some people are like, ah, the heck with it.
42:32
I'll just buy a turnkey race car.
42:34
You know, LMP2, Legere, and they go to town and that's whatever,
42:38
that's fine, good for them.
42:40
But, you know, if you want to really do it the right way and have a love
42:43
relationship with the Z and, you know, not the relationship you had
42:46
with, with the 9 11, then you're really going about it the right way.
42:50
Yeah, you mentioned a love relationship with the Z.
42:53
You know, early on I mentioned that I, you know, as I do kind of replace parts.
42:58
I start noticing things, right?
43:00
And I asked myself, and I even asked you, Hey, do you think
43:03
I should do this right now?
43:04
Right?
43:04
And maybe, maybe not because when I look at the car and the age of the
43:08
car, that's a well, if I'm going to drive, if it's going to go to the track
43:11
without going so far overboard, because It becomes a, a touchy subject, right?
43:17
When you start buying, because I see that the valve covers need to be replaced.
43:21
Well, if I replace the valve covers because of who I am, I'm
43:24
going to replace the spark plugs.
43:25
If I replace the spark plugs, I'm going to replace the ignition coils.
43:29
If I replace it, so it becomes this, this cycle, right?
43:34
Then you end up with, okay, I went in to replace this and here's my budget.
43:39
And I went over my budget by, I don't know, another thousand dollars, because
43:43
the natural evolution, because you see these things, you think about how long
43:47
it's been, and I might as well replace that, and I might as well replace that.
43:50
It's like, okay, I'm never going to put the car back together
43:53
and be ready for anything.
43:54
I'll say it again, if I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, run it till
43:59
it breaks, and you'll know it's broken.
44:03
You know, said that line to me, and I didn't know where he got it from, was.
44:07
Carol said that line to me the other day when I was replacing
44:11
or putting on the hood latches.
44:14
He says, run it till it breaks.
44:15
And he knows, you know, his nose broke.
44:17
I was like, okay.
44:18
So he got that from you?
44:19
Probably.
44:20
I don't know.
44:22
I've got a lot of those sayings, unfortunately.
44:24
I need to write them down.
44:25
Okay.
44:26
Okay.
44:26
As we wrap things up here, let's talk about your other, because
44:30
you bought two cars at once.
44:31
You bought the Z and you picked up something else as well.
44:33
You want to talk about that?
44:35
Uh, well, I guess I can, right?
44:37
It's not a, it's not a surprise.
44:39
You know, I had a gas on my chest, and a Z wasn't ready.
44:42
Maybe it was more about me losing the Porsche.
44:46
Regardless of how things went, I did feel some type of way.
44:51
I bought my garage, right?
44:53
I, there was a love hate relationship.
44:56
And so I needed something to take that place.
44:59
Although, I picked the Z up, it wasn't quite ready.
45:03
It's not like I can drive it anywhere.
45:05
So I bought a 2017 Jaguar F Type.
45:09
Supercharged V6.
45:10
And it is a beast.
45:12
It is gorgeous.
45:15
And she loves to be driven.
45:16
I don't have any issues with her.
45:18
She's got a wide in the rear.
45:20
She's got a great stance.
45:21
Everything works, and I get that gas off my chest.
45:25
And it's good.
45:27
So, so during, during this time when, you know, most of us are wound
45:33
really tight from being home a lot.
45:35
The one thing I'll do in the middle of the night is get in the car about
45:39
eight, and I will drive for an hour in any direction and see how far I can
45:44
go, and then turn around and come home.
45:46
So one time I made it up to, almost to New Jersey Turnpike.
45:50
I've been down to Crystal City, but I didn't go, I went through D.
45:54
C.
45:55
I went the D.
45:55
C.
45:56
way, in the D.
45:57
C.
45:57
You know, and so I just take these drives.
46:00
I'm not gonna say I can't take the family and the kids anymore,
46:02
cause that's really not what it is.
46:04
It's just that I need to be out of the house for a minute.
46:09
Right?
46:10
And that's what I do.
46:11
I take the car, and so I will say that the Jag, the paddle shifters, is phenomenal.
46:18
And so, I'm not sure if you really know that you can switch to manual mode.
46:24
When you switch to manual mode, also comes up where you can, there's another
46:28
lever, which takes it into dynamic mode.
46:30
Once it goes into dynamic mode, it's race ready.
46:34
Everything changes.
46:35
The performance, the handling, you know what I'm going to do, Eric?
46:39
And next time you come by here or I come out there, I'm going to drive the car.
46:43
I'm going to let you take it for a ride.
46:46
I hear it.
46:46
I see a test drive article coming.
46:48
Sign me up.
46:49
Let me, let me come by.
46:50
I don't even want to drive it.
46:51
I just want to get in it.
46:52
So I'll let you take it.
46:54
I'll show you the basics, how to put it in, in that mode and let you take it out.
47:00
There's another test drive article coming.
47:02
It's great.
47:03
Right.
47:03
So, um, you let me know and we can do that soon or as soon as you like.
47:07
Right.
47:08
Yeah.
47:08
Very cool.
47:09
That's another car.
47:10
You know, we don't.
47:11
Get a lot of Jags and an F Type is a great sports car, you know, a
47:15
little bit more Boulevard GT sports car, but still a great looking car.
47:20
You know, one of the newer Jags, it's got all the modern stuff in it that
47:23
you're not plagued with all the classic British problems and whatever, but
47:27
what, what a, what a great choice.
47:28
And we actually talked about the F Type on an earlier episode
47:31
where we, V8 convertibles because there's a convertible version.
47:35
So I just wanted to highlight for everybody.
47:36
Yeah, that yours is a coupe and that that midnight blue with
47:40
the over the camel interior.
47:42
I mean, just gorgeous car.
47:43
Really, really stunning hashtag jelly on that one as well.
47:48
So good job, but regardless of all these car changes.
47:53
For everybody that's listening out there, he earned the nickname
47:56
Portia Al because we had three Al's in the club at one point, Maserati
48:00
Al, Portia Al, and Focus Al.
48:03
But you're the only Al that stands and we're still gonna call you Portia Al.
48:07
I'm good with it.
48:08
Look, I'm still here.
48:09
I'm just glad that there's that camaraderie, that you guys get together.
48:15
You know, one of the things that surprised me about you early on,
48:18
we had a lot of things in common.
48:20
We looked up wise names.
48:23
Right?
48:23
Cars, transformers.
48:25
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
48:28
So there's a lot of stuff to geek out about, right?
48:32
I'm glad to be a part of the group and I'm also ecstatic about the possibility
48:38
to see your dad's car come alive.
48:40
Cause I said all along I don't care what anybody else said
48:45
and you were trying to sell it.
48:46
I don't want to.
48:46
I don't want to.
48:47
I was like, Eric, don't sell it.
48:50
Fix it.
48:51
Don't sell it.
48:53
Fix it.
48:54
Put it together.
48:55
Put it together.
48:56
And I'm glad that that's where you're going with that.
48:58
I am.
48:59
I am ecstatic to see the result of You're you and your sister
49:04
and everybody's time on that car.
49:06
Yeah.
49:07
So if anybody's interested in what Al is talking about, if you go on Instagram
49:11
and look for hashtag GTM project 914, I've been slowly posting the build
49:17
pictures as I've been going along, resurrecting a 1974 wide body Porsche 914.
49:23
It's an interesting build.
49:25
You know, we're modernizing it tastefully.
49:28
We're returning it to a 1.
49:29
8 liter, but you know, it's still a VW motor at the end of
49:32
the day, but yeah, you're right.
49:34
And so, you know, I'm, I'm glad there's been a lot of people pushing me to get
49:38
that car out of storage and work on it.
49:40
You're not the only one race around the same thing.
49:42
A lot, Matt, there's a lot of folks that remember that car when
49:45
it was running and they're like, you need to do something about it.
49:48
You need to get it back on the road.
49:49
And so we're getting very close.
49:51
It's going to make a trip to auto fab.
49:53
Probably soon after your, your Z leaves there to get some work done and then
49:57
we're going to continue the build.
49:58
So it's going to be pretty cool.
49:59
Good.
49:59
Good.
50:00
Good.
50:00
I'm glad to hear.
50:01
On that note, I think it's time to end.
50:03
All right, sir.
50:03
Well, thanks for inviting me on and I talk to you soon.
50:07
Very good.
50:07
Thank you much.
50:09
Thanks.
50:09
All right, Brad.
50:10
All right, man.
50:15
If you like what you heard and want to learn more about GTM,
50:17
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50:20
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50:21
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50:22
You can also find us on Instagram at GrandTouringMotorsports.
50:25
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50:36
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50:37
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50:38
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50:40
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50:44
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