Sure, Porsches can get the ‘hot rod’ treatment!

Car collectors may say automotive perfection is in the eye of the car owner. If this is true, then consider the quote: “A hot rod is an old car that has been stripped down and then had its brakes and suspension upgraded and a hot engine fitted. Porsche guys (and gals) do that — they just don’t call their cars hot rods. They call them outlaws,” says the recent article “Rolling Sculpture” in Porsche Panorama (by Old Cars columnist Ken Gross; photos by Michael Alan Ross). It may cost as much as half a million to have it done, but the revisions can make a Porsche “flat run away and hide from many contemporary Porsches.” Unless you are like art professor David Keens who, back in 1975, re-manifested a used ’72. An perfectionist, he spent a good share of his annual income remaking the car in his image because “a stock car never looked right to me.”

Hood louvres, flowing fenders, etc., were employed as Keens turned the car into his own piece of sculpture. Lightweight GTS seats were custom made. A 3.2-liter short-stroke and twin-plug six was topped with an induction system from Germany. Exterior paint was rich and creamy, he says. Still, he tends to call it a hot rod instead of an outlaw becasue “that’s really what I’ve done.” Exactly as he wanted.

As such, the car seems to have become a conveyor of his dreams, wishes, and hopes. Not that an old and preserved car couldn’t do this to other folks. But not like this one. Not to someone like artist David Keens. And perhaps not even to soon-tobe 16-year-old Francis Farnam, also featured in the issue, as she races to complete her EV conversion on a 914 (story by John Chuldenko).

Porsche Club of America 9689 Gerwig Lane, Suite 4C/D Columbia, MD 21046 www.pca.org 410-381-0924