This was a good magazine... Don't know when it stopped...
I used to buy parts for my 1975 914 from this business. The time in 1990, when my clutch cable broke in the drive through line at the Burger King near Valencia, I bought a replacement cable (they were in the Valley) and fixed the car in the parking lot of the Burger King the next day.
Some people helped me push the car into a parking spot.
I called work & someone came and picked me up (not too far).
I borrowed a vehicle from work and stopped at Performance Products on my way home (Work was the Ford Concept Center California, near Magic Mountain). The commute was about 65 miles on the 405/5, each way. The 405 goes right through the middle of the Valley.
Performance Products sold a stock type of clutch cable or a heavy duty (I think they called it the "Terry" cable) version. I bought the heavy duty version (it's still on the car...).
I remember the thickness of the cable was dramatically thicker on the heavy duty cable.
This article was written by a guy named Pat Braden.
Later, when I worked at Hyundai, Pat worked there at the same time in the Technical Training Material Development Department.
For several years, I had no idea he was such an expert on Alfa Romeos. It turned out that he wrote several books on Alfa Romeos including one that is the "bible" for the twin cam engine.
Pat unexpectedly died & several people helped his widow clean out and get rid of all the cars and car related stuff that he had left behind.
There were many non-running cars & mountains of stuff.
One time, I was going to buy a Duetto at a repair shop near the house. The price was right and the car looked good. In a rare fit of rational thought, I decided to ask Pat to take a look at the car & give his expert opinion. He agreed and we went to look at it together.
Pat pointed out all the things that were not correct about the car, the biggest of which was that the RF corner of the car was replaced.
You could see, from below and the engine bay, where the corner was cut out and replaced (probably from a junk yard car).
Pat said the job was done well enough and functionally, it should be OK.
But after Pat pointed out all the many faults, I decided not to buy it...
I wish I had used the same level of good judgement when I bought my other cars. Actually, the other cars turned out OK, but if I had to do it again, I probably would do things a little bit differently...
I've seen these cars at car shows and it's a little jewel of a car. Very attractive...
This was a "concept" car made in the early 1950's, I think. Considering the time, it's fantastically futuristic. It still looks futuristic!
Pat Braden wrote this article also. Besides Alfa Romeos, Pat left behind several German cars...
This article and car is a surprise. I've never seen one and didn't know that Al Holbert even built such a car...
This is from the early days of BMW's M GmbH. Some would say this is from the "pure" period of the M division...
Probably around the time of this magazine, I went to visit this business, called "OTTO's Porsche Service, Sales, Racing, Restorations and Repair."
It was located in a gritty part of Venice.
I remember driving up and thinking this place is a mess.
There were cars, parts and stuff all over in a very dirty, disorganized space. The buildings looked like they were ready to fall down.
I wanted to inquire about having my car converted from carbs back to the original fuel injection. (back then, I had to smog the car every two years and the only was was to find a friend who can help)
I just wanted to talk to someone but after the initial impression, I ended up just driving away...
Didn't know that Rinspeed did a modified Bugatti EB110...
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