The Porschewagen

Pete Lovely and Seattle’s Dean Johnson, one of the area’s first foreign car dealers, both wanted to race a Porsche-engined car. Andy Leffler, George Keck, Ralph Ormsbee, and Del Fanning all pitched in with their skills and produced a “Special” that used 2-1/2-inch chrome-moly tubing with a rough bolted down Spyder body on top of it. It was shorter than a VW and looked vaguely Porsche-like, but used a gearbox turned back to front. Pete and a friend drove it down to San Francisco and finished second in the small-bore Golden Gate Park race and also ran in the main event. They brought it back home and several local drivers, including the Hudson brothers, drove it with some success.  Ormsbee later flipped it at the Fort Lawton Hill Climb. The car’s remains are lost forever.