RARE CARS THAT SLIPPED THROUGH MY HANDS DEPARTMENT
In 1966-7, my middle school friends and I would walk up University Avenue in Palo Alto towards downtown to view the Friday 8pm movie at the Varsity Theater. On the north side of the street in a driveway, there was a small sportscar under a thick brown canvas cover. After talking about the mysterious car for weeks, one night, we unfastened the rope to see what was there. It was a faded red Porsche speedster, less engine, with black electrical tape home made numbers on the doors E/M. On the tail where the 1600 or 1600 Super emblem should be was no emblem, but unfaded paint showing Carrera. I wanted a car project. I went to the parts man at the local Porsche dealer and asked, "how much is an engine?" He said to get the right engine, I had to get the serial number from the front trunk. So, one night, late, when no lights were on at the house, we went back to get the serial #. Got it. About that time, I rang the doorbell and asked the owner of the car if he wanted to sell it. He said yes, $300, but it had no engine. I told my dad I wanted to buy this car with no engine. He told me I better find out what an engine cost. I went to the Porsche dealer and gave them the VIN and the parts man said come back in a week and he would try to find a (new) engine. I came back a few days later and he told me there were engines out there, but he was still trying to locate the RIGHT ENGINE (1600GS). A week later, I visited the dealer and he found a new 1600GS engine for $3500. It turns out, they only made 147 1600 Carrera Speedsters. I ended up buying a 59 Bugeye Sprite with my $300. 57 Carrera Speedsters with the RIGHT ENGINE are now going for $920,000.