George Keck's Porsche "RSKeck" -- Later History   (4)

George sent me these photos & info on his very interesting modified Porsche Spyder.

From George:   "Yet more for the RSKeck grist mill.  The following was received from "SK" Smith... after a contact by Frank Fitch...  providing more of RSKeck (ex-550A Chassis 0104) past.  The following establishes Nade's body work was removed and replaced with a Horribellus FG body in '65 ... and then on to one possibly of PLYWOOD??  a few years later. Maybe more will be flushed out by the below chapter of this never ending saga." 
 
 

S.K. Smith at Stockton, 1965

From S.K. Smith:   "Early in 1963 I received a phone call from a good friend of mine who lived in Tacoma, WA by the name of Lee Landis. He told me the car was for sale in Tacoma as a roller. No engine or transmission. For the life of me I can't remember the price. I told him to put a deposit on it and I'd mail him the balance. A couple of weeks later he, (Lee), delivered it to me in Medford OR. Where I was living at the time. I was a Honda M.C. Dealer at the time. Lee purchased #104 from an insurance adjuster in Tacoma named Marv Law. I have no other info on him.

Some time in the next year I understood the motor had blown up and the engine & trans- mission had been shipped to Vasek Polack for a repair estimate. I then found out the repair cost was $2800.00. Well this was way over my budget by a long way - what to do??? It was probably a year and I began watching the Yenko Corvairs on the East Coast. They seemed to be peppy enough. My business was across the street from the Chevrolet dealer and I got to measuring and discovered I could put a Corvair engine in #104. Now what about a transaxle?

A speedster transaxle was way too low geared with an extra 50+ horsepower and a 1000 less RPM's so I fit a Porsche Coupe transaxle with the lower gear ratios in it. I had to remove the center out of the torsion bar housing so the engine would clear. I installed coil over shocks and stub axles on the transaxle and rotated the unit 180 degrees to change the axle pivot.

Oh! I got ahead of myself, I purchased a new Corvair crate motor complete from Chev- rolet (140 HP model) and then installed different ratio pulleys, headers, Isky cam and 409 oil pump.

This put #104 into D modified (2 to 3 litre class). I got it running in late 1964 and decided I would compete in nothing but national races for 1965 as I wanted to make the run offs at Daytona in the fall. The car worked great and as I remember no DNF's except Kent in June of '65. On the 1st lap of the main event, at the dog leg corner I got nudged and spun up the rocky hill on my head. I wiped out the body. What to do now???? Another national coming up in 3 weeks - Vacaville?"
 
 
S.K. Smith at Salt Lake City, 1965

"Before I left Kent after rolling over I contacted my friend Frank Fitch to have a Horribellus body shot (fiberglass) for me ASAP. The following weekend I drove to Portland from Medford and picked up a new body. In the following 2 weeks I removed the remains of the old body and installed and painted the new body. WHAT A JOB - Day and night working but got it done in time - nobody knew it was the same car and #104 definitely lighter, handled better and more muscle with updated body style.

Also, as I recall, I placed 1st in D Modified SCCA Western Division and to my knowledge I was the only modified car from the NW or Oregon Region SCCA to finish in the modified event at the run-offs at Riverside (???) that year. I did finish 3rd in class.

After this fast paced year I parked it in the garage for about a year and then sold it to a Bruce Larson in Medford. A couple of years later I checked with him and he had never used the car and then sold it to somebody in the Plywood business who wanted to put a plywood body on #104??

That's the last I heard. I would sure like to know where it's been all these years.  A Porsche ( know it all ) here in Portland claims he saw the car in Phoenix years ago.

I am sending along a couple of pictures of # 104.  If you notice the roll bar, it was the same one for both body's. You can see how much distance between the 2 bodies the new one being much lower."
 
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