50 YEARS AGO AT SEBRING, CALIFORNIA PRIVATEERS USED 550-0070 TO TAKE ON BARON HUSCHKE VON HANSTEINrS FAC- TORY -AND NEARLY BEATTHEM SrORYBYWALEDGAR PHOTOSBYJlAllSrrZANDCOURTESYOF THE EDOARrn~BRCHM

L )hn Edgar had an idea. His and film John von Newnann race me. It Edwsi&a was niow a r&ng program. egendary MG "88" Special was an impressive performance. Only Chassis number 552-00M arrived in ~OftetlCaniedhotshoeJaick Pete Lovely3 hornsbuilt "PorscheWagen" $mfor Jack McAfee to debut the Edgar- dcAfee to American road- came closs to it in class. Edgar wibessxl entered Spyder at Sanfa Barbara's 1955 racing victorias and, by 1955, the 550's speed winon MmialDay at Labor Day sportscar races. Unfamiliar Edgar saw no reason why Santa Barbara and at Torrey Pins tn July. 4th the SwakMBWlfty, Mfee managed JN1CAtest wldnY get Weagain in the la?- He studied his footage again and agaln. rw better than fourth. But the car felt right, & and gm-dest Under 15KI-c~mmhins. Won over by ttre 550's superior handling, e~enin the Elfip d a man as camparaWty That car w&s 's new 550 Spyder. he hesitated no further and ordered one large as McAfee, so the driver-engineer In April of 1%5, Edgar had gone. to thrwgh John rn Neurmnn's Cornpew began ta ready #0070 for a Torrey Pines Mintw Fdd outsi& Bakersfield to watch Mason Vm Street in Hd . John sk-hr endurn in October. On September 30, movie idol James Dean was killed in his own 550, bringing national notice to Porsche's new-to- America 550 Spyder. Thus, all eyes were on McAfee as he drove #0070 to Torrey's starting grid, complete with a David and Goliath touch of irony: he wore his - logo helmet left from piloting Edgar's Maranello cars. The question was whether the switch from beefy Italian red to svelte German silver would pay off for owner Edgar and driver McAfee, For his part, McAfee thought so. In June at Le Mans in 1955, 550s had finished 1-2-3 in class in the French 24-hour epic, convincing McAfee he could do well in Torrey's sig- nificantly shorter quarter-day race. Above-550-0070's first race under Edgar, own 550, but leaving three other 550s in McAfee made no secret of the fact he at Santa Barbara,inSeptember, 1955. the dust. Glendale's winner was that shy liked the agile Porsche better than Edgar's innovator from Seattle, young Pete Lovely, muscle-bound , and did all he Below--McAfee at the start of the Torrey who'd stepped up from his PorscheWagen could to trade on the Spyder's merits. On Pines race in October, 1955--getting up to the hottest of home-mades, a pushrod the plus side, McAfee had shaped his on the curb to get by his opponents... Porsche-powered Cooper streamliner style in dirt-track racing. He loved to throw later known as "The Pooper" despite Pete a car into corners, slide it, then hook up for Opposite, above-Pete Lovely in his Lovely's aversion to the tag. the next straight, odd behavior to nearly PorscheCooper Streamliner, also known Around this time, the Porsche scene all of his non-dirt-bred sporty car rivals. as the "Pooper" to Lovely's dismay. in Los Angeles gained a sizeable new The 550's torsion-bar suspension and lad- facility, with von Neumann opening sales der frame was, in essence, perfect for the Opposite, far right---McAfee in his Ferrari- and service bays for Porsches and Ws driving technique favored by McAfee. logo helmet, ready to race 550-0070. on Highland Avenue in Hollywood. More On the minus side and unlike well-sup- new 550s were arriving from . ported customer Ferraris he'd driven for than softer, rubber. And he'd stringently Sports-car chat in America now seemed Edgar, the Porsche came bare bones - pace himself for the long haul. to revolve mostly around what the works with no spares, no tools, and no tech man- At Torrey Pines, McAfee would drive Spyders, under team boss uals for its puzzling four-cam air-cooled 550-0070 the full six hours solo, without Baron Huschke von Hanstein, would do engine. McAfee relied only on his hot-rod the driver change so many preferred. The at Sebring in March of 1956. ingenuity to finesse the 550 Spyder. Key result: McAfee won his F Modified class Before then, however, another West to his method was to keep the 550's stan- and came fourth overall behind a C-Type Coast enduro loomed -again at Torrey dard, softer shocks instead of replacing Jaguar, a Mercedes 300SL, and a factory- Pines, scheduled for two weeks into the them with stiffer race options, well-suited prepped Austin-Healey 100s. Next was new year. McAfee hatched an efficiency to McAfee's winning rules of slide. For the the airport circuit at Glendale, California plot: he would again drive Edgar's 550 same reason he went with harder, rather and a third-in-class behind von Neumann's solo, but this time non-stop. For Torrey's estimated 410 miles, McAfee fitted an tus, provided they would not accept any tical to what a regular Volkswagen Bug auxiliary fuel tank in #0070. With care, cash prize money. Edgar promptly added had. So I put a Volkswagen fixture in there luck, and enough gas at the end, he might the major international Florida classic to because it had the reserve tube in it that just win Saturday's six-hour race outright. his race calendar for McAfee's next stood up in the tank. Otherwise -with the The race began with a Le Mans-style endurance drive in #0070. regular Porsche setup -when you were start, with the racers dashing across the First, however, was February's Palm out of gas, you were just out of gas!" track and leaping into their cars. McAfee Springs race. McAfee would run two Giggling, McAfee marvels over such accelerated and steered to the side, get- races in two totally different machines. unrefined technology back then: "In a reg- ting #00701sleft wheels up on the curb to Besides the 550 Porsche, he would pilot ular WV Bug in those days, that's what you pass the others before the first turn. While Edgar's 3.5-liter 857 S Ferrari, expressly had sticking out of the dash. You turned most of the larger cars dropped out early air-freighted in from Italy to put away this little handle down, let it fill up with gas, on, McAfee's race was never interrupted. Tony Parravano's 4.9-liter Ferrari 410 and that was your reserve. So I drilled a Among the seven who went the distance Speciale and the rest of the big-bore hole in the Spyder's dash and stuck that without a driver change, "Big Jack" was field. While McAfee felt small might be baby in, and that's how we went to Sebring." the only one not to pit. His strategy worked. better, big appeared to be best. The Off track as well as on, Jack McAfee's 550-0070 finished first in Class F and press fell all over itself extolling Edgar's stamina at the wheel was legendary. He took a decisive second overall, three and tail-finned "Mystery Ferrari." #0070 was made the California-Florida road trip in just a half laps behind the winning factory- barely mentioned before the race. two days, along with his mechanics Joe supported Jaguar D-Type with more than Palm Springs' Under 1500-cc Modified Landaker and Rolf Wutherich. Still not twice the Porsche's engine displacement. race on Sunday, February 26th featured healed after riding shotgun with James The one other 550 to finish did so in third among its 33 starters seven 550s - with Dean in Dean's fatal crash, Wutherich was overall, with Jean Pierre Kunstle at the Ferrari ace driving a Porsche one of only a few in America who really helm to bring it in a full lap behind Jack Spyder for the first time. The 550s of Jean knew Porsche's four-cam motor well. McAfee. , newly signed to drive Pierre Kunstle and Ken Miles diced for the Joe Landaker, also new on the Edgar John von Neumann's Spyder, had flipped win, finishing barely five seconds apart - team, had come to it through Joe's pal, his Porsche in morning practice, destroy- with Kunstle as the victor. Two minutes , after Landaker - like Jack ing both the team's car and plans for a back was McAfee in #0070, Sebring on McAfee before him -quit Parravano, the Mileslvon Neumann co-drive. his mind and obviously not willing to push idiosyncratic owner whose habit was to Miles, in that team's spare 550, was hard enough to challenge the leading intrude upon his own mechanics' expert- ready for Sunday's Under 1500-cc main, 550s. Phil Hill's Spyder debut ended with ise. A wiry, road-loving ex-trucker turned beating Lovely's Pooper and McAfee's a bent shift fork. In the Over 1500-cc Main, race-car mechanic, Landaker could work #0070 to the flag. McAfee's third qualified Jack McAfee leaned on Edgar's 857 S as around the clock for days on end. Still, the him to join the Torrey Pines main, but hard as he could to finish runner-up, fail- team lacked a member. Edgar elected not to enter the car, saving ing to catch winner Carroll Shelby's Jack McAfee, then among the most tal- it for the coming races at Palm Springs. speedier 4.9-liter 410. ented in American sports-car racing, had Miles followed 's With Sebring just three weeks away, the successfully done two Torrey Pines six- and Ernie McAfee's (no relation to Jack) scramble to get ready began. One major hour races solo in #0070. But for Sebring's Ferrari to the finish. concern was fuel. McAfee wanted some- twelve, an entire half-day, help was vital. After Torrey Pines -the venue's last thing to ensure #0070 wouldn't be starved McAfee's co-driver choice became the race before being bulldozed into a golf for fuel while on track during the 12-hour intense young racer endorsed by John course -Jack McAfee made repairs to race. This was a real concern at Sebring, Edgar as one of the best Under 1500-cc #00701sdifferential while preparing the where the laps were long at a bit over five competitors in the country - Pete Lovely. car for Palm Springs. Then, on the eve of miles. To run dry conceivably far from the In fact, he was the defending champion the desert spa event, the Club pits would be insufferable. Invention was in SCCA's F Modified Class. Although of America announced its member driv- crucial. Says McAfee today: "When I went Lovely had never raced a 550 Spyder, ers would be allowed to compete in the to the bottom of the tank and pulled out he'd beaten Jack with his Pooper. An offer upcoming professional Sebring 12-Hour the fixture there, where the gas ran into to drive with McAfee in the Edgar 550 at and still retain "amateur" SCCA driver sta- the gas line, I found the fixture was iden- Sebring thrilled Lovely. He set out in his

NOVEMBER 2006 excellence 97 Above, left-LingeICrawford factory 550 in the World Sports Car Championship. To the pits at Sebring in 1956, probably during race there was to be in "The Show." practice. The car would DNF in the 12-hour Chugging through Sebring's paddock race due to a failed wheel spindle. in his Bug, what Lovely saw amounted to the finest racing drivers on earth. He and Above, right-McAfee in 550-0070 races McAfee, viewed as the class underdogs, around a corner in 1956's Sebring sports- were here to compete against the Porsche 3 f car contest in this Porsche Werkfoto. factory's best-prepared 550s and most tal- ented, seasoned pilots. "These were the Left- in 550-0081, a car he 'big guys,"' says McAfee. "Pete and I were pushed to its limits in order to beat #0070. two kids from California with just a stock 550, and here come the Germans with Left, below-Huschke von Hanstein (in their factory car, which you know is loaded glasses) reportedly told von Trips to beat with a lot more horsepower." Drawing on I McAfee or blow #0081's engine up ... success at Le Mans the previous year, the works Spyder was a winning race car Left, bottom-Pete Lovely in 550-0070, asked to go only half the number of hours a key to Edgar's success at Sebring. in Florida as in France. "When I got down to Sebring," McAfee VW Beetle from Seattle, where his home remembers, "Pete was already there, and and Volkswagen dealership were, driving it was the first time we'd together met any the 1,200 miles south to Los Angeles to representatives of the Porsche factory. skirt late winter weather in middle America Number one was Baron Huschke von - lC1 before heading east another 2,500 miles. Hanstein -who was in charge of all rac- 1956's Florida International Twelve-Hour ing at Porsche - and he brought with him Grand Prix of Endurance on Sebring's two FIA drivers, Hans Herrmann, who World War II militarv airfield was set for used to drive for Mercedes and at that

-c-.G-z -- Saturdav, March 24:~riticized bv certain time was champion of . The other driver was Count , an internationally known hotshoe." McAfee was no newcomer to world- class driving, though. He'd already raced Internationale de I'Automobile appointed against von Hanstein, as well as co- Sebring to constitute the sole U.S. event driven with Herrmann in a 2.0-liter Maserati - in 1956 to count for point awards towards at the Nurburgring's 1,000-kilometer race

98 excellence NOVEMBER 2006 back in 1953. Now McAfee was the tal- by the national and international press. blue 550's left front spindle broke on lap ented American Porsche star Herrmann Interviews would be recorded, phono- 109, retiring Crawford and Linge. would challenge on U.S. soil. The con- graph records made. And one California By now the race-leading Ferrari test would be between Edgar's privateer teenager, destined to be a well-known of FangioICastellotti was 42 minutes 550-0070 and Porsche's 550-0081, a racing photographer and historian, had ahead of the fastest #41 Porsche, which newer, lighter works-team Spyder with a come to document the Edgar team with was two minutes in front of the Edgar 550. stronger frame, bigger brakes, and other his brand-new Hasselblad camera. Sundown was still an hour away. Lovely modifications that the earlier-production Because Jim Sitz was there then, we recalls driving #0070 at Sebring, compar- 550-0070 simply didn't have. have his pictures now. ing the Spyder to a Volkswagen Beetle. Drivers for the second factory-prepped At 10:OO in the morning, 58 drivers ran "In those days," says Lovely, "Wand 550 Spyder would be Weissach-born to their waiting cars. John Fitch's Corvette Porsche were pretty closely related in their and Ed Crawford - an tires smoked, the field followed, and the handling characteristics, so I knew that American frontrunner from Chicago. Both 12-hour race was on. McAfee drove the when you were starting around a turn in a had raced 550s at Sebring's 12-hour in first stint in Edgar's #43, bettering the fac- Beetle and the back-end starts to get 1955. These and other prominent drivers tory's #41 Herrmannlvon Trips Spyder for funny, you put your foot in the gas. That entered were enough to put McAfee and a couple of laps, then led the Porsches squats it back down again and you just Lovely in awe of the lineup. Three-time again shortly into the second hour. The go sailing around the corner." Lovely had and reining world champion Juan Manuel factory-prepped blue #42 550 Spyder of the technique mastered, but he lacked Fangio would drive a factory Ferrari with CrawfordILinge was the quickest of the experience racing after dark. . From the U.S. were Porsches until the end of the third hour, "The pit area had a two-by-four post Phil Hill, , John Fitch, when the lead went back to #41, then every once in a while," recalls McAfee. Jim Kimberly, Carroll Shelby, Paul O'Shea, once more to McAfee's #43. "And they'd strung a lighting wire along Dr. Dick Thompson, Ed Hugus, and lndy Halfway into the fourth hour, on lap 54, them and you had one bulb in each pit. 500 winners Troy Ruttman and Bob Jack McAfee pitted. While Rolf and Joe When I took the car for the second time Sweikert. From across the Atlantic came checked and fueled #0070, Lovely took and started driving into the dark, in my , Desmond Titterington, his seat and led the works-entry Porsches mind I couldn't turn the car back over to and Duncan Hamilton along with Musso, for the next two hours and 20 minutes. Lovely again because he had never Gendebien, Taruffi, Behra, Moss, Maglioli, McAfee took over driving on lap 89, or the driven at night around there. You could Peter Collins, , , top of the seventh hour. The factory #41 get lost very easily." and as well as Porfirio Spyder briefly got ahead before McAfee At 7:08 pm, the factory's #41 Spyder Rubirosa and Alfonso de Portago. It was reclaimed the Porsche lead on lap 93, pitted and McAfee took the Porsche feasibly the most incongruous and aston- holding that position until lap 102, when lead again. Says McAfee: "All of a sud- ishing list of cars and drivers ever to come the factory's #41 led the Porsches once den -out of the dark - comes the fac- together in America. more. #42 dropped to seven minutes tory car and it could be only one person Sebring would be reported extensively behind the leading #41 Porsche when the with the sound of that engine." The

NOVEMBER 2006 excellence 99 intrepid von Trips was at the wheel. "I made McAfee an offer: "If anytime you "I always believed it was the Edgar car never heard an engine running higher need anything, just let me know." -which is what it turned out to be," con- rpm. It must have been nine thousand. McAfee's request came quickly: "I can tinues Maher. "I have some invoices that Normally you ran eighty-two, maybe think of something right now - sell me show around the late 1970s a body was eighty-five, that was tops." Fearing he'd that car." von Hanstein called Germany made for it by a New Zealand guy in San blow the engine if he revved past red- and the sale was approved - a nice Francisco. He got to a point where it was line, McAfee held to eight grand. touch in telling, even though it's commonly mostly finished. Then it went on to the guy "Theirs was going nine -or better," known that, back then, Porsche's factory I bought it from in Santa Rosa, but I sus- says McAfee today. "It sounded like ten, race cars came to America on a one-way pect there was someone in the middle of but I doubt that. Of course, the factory ticket. John Edgar handed Huschke a that. It would appear that it had a Chevy car had a premier engine. We had no check at Sebring's victory banquet, and engine. The picture I have shows the back parts, we really didn't know how to work returned to California owning not one, but of the chassis gone. That would indicate on the engine yet, and I was being very two Porsche 550 Spyders. something strange was put into it. Or, conservative." Playing it that way paid While #0070 sat idle for the rest of the someone saw the four-cam engine and off. Among the 24 cars to finish, the sev- year, Jack McAfee drove the newly-pur- just cut the chassis rails and took it away." enth-overall Edgar privateer 550 earned chased #0081 ex-works Spyder to win Next to enter this 550 Spyder's web second in class and second on Sebring's 1956's SCCA Class F Modified national was Werner Schoch of Beromuenster, Index of Performance behind the IOP's title. Then, in January of 1957, Ruth Levy Switzerland. "I had a hell of a time buying first-place Herrmannlvon Trips 550. started driving old #0070 for Edgar and the car," remembers Schoch, a one-time Not surprisingly, the FangiolCastellotti continued with its next owner, Stan California resident acting as purchasing was overall race winner Sugarman (see Excellence September, agent for Danish Porsche enthusiast Peter - 12 full laps ahead of the factory 550 2005). The second-tier 550 Spyder would Iversen. "Maher suddenly decided he Spyder. Remarkably, Edgar's 550 ran the go on to a less than wonderful life, even- wanted to restore the car himself, and he entire distance without so much as a tually winding up Down Under after an had no knowledge for a restoration of this brake adjustment or tire change! Jack Australian restorer by the name of John kind." Even with the car shipped to new McAfee and other weary yet still wired Maher discovered it near Santa Rosa, owner Iversen's shop, Porsche Special- participants later gathered in one of California in the 1990s. varksted, in Svenstrup, Denmark, it still Sebring's vast hangers. "We went up a goat track with a big wasn't irrefutably the ex-John Edgar car "We had a Coke," recalls McAfee. trailer," recalls Maher. "The car was in an McAfee and Lovely drove at Sebring. "Then Huschke comes over to me and old barn and all the parts were laid out on In September of 2005, 1 heard from says, 'Jack, that was your race.' I said, a wooden porch. It was very hot and dry Jack McAfee - with whom I've kept in 'What do you mean?' And Huschke said, there - must have been 120'. The owner touch over the past 55 years. My old 'Hans Herrmann couldn't catch you. I put just stood and watched us work. Then he friend was excited. I asked what was up. von Trips in with this information - 'Catch took us out to a restaurant that was part He'd just finished a call from Denmark McAfee, or blow the engine up.' Think of of a winery. Dick Smothers, the television and said this: "When Peter lversen my position. I come over here with the comedian, was at our table. We had a talked about his 550 and that it had a factory car and two internationally known great night until about three in the morn- hole in the dash, and that he wondered drivers, and get beat! How could I explain ing and were very sick when we went to what it was, immediately, I said, 'Bingo!' that?"' McAfee says von Hanstein then pick up the car the next day." That is the car!" It was the hole Jack

100 excellence NOVEMBER 2006 Opposite-An amazing Jim Sitz photo that shows McAfee leading a car at Sebring at dusk during the 1956 12-hour race.

Above, top--Index of Performancewinners Wolfgang von Trips (in helmet) and Hans Herrmann at the end of the race. I Abov-50-0070 in San Francisco during an early restoration attempt in the 1990s.

Right450-0070 in 2005 after a complete restoration by Peter Iverson. .

RigM450-0070 as it is today, with its I Sebring number but without its headrest.

McAfee cut in the Spyder's dash in 1956 to accommodate a VW fuel reserve pet- cock - at last serving to verify this 550 as the former John Edgar 550-0070. 1 called lversen right away. "This Spyder," says Iverson, "was my biggest project, a lot of work." He told me he'd spent more than 3,000 hours restoring the car, and recently had raced it "for show" at the Nurburgring - where Derek Bell had admired "seeing the small silver car on track." 550-0070 was again in its best element - racing. lversen has added a final numeric touch to the Spyder he so meticulously brought back to life -this after Aussie John Maher told me, "the Porsche hier- archy saw Peter's car a few months ago and said they had never seen a 550 so beautiful." Blending history with splen- dor, Porsche 550-0070 again wears its Sebring race number - 43. 1

NOVEMBER 2006 excellence 101