I was talking to my remarkable friend Leonard Stolk at classic Porsche racing parts suppliers Twin Spark Racing in Amsterdam on Tuesday, just before he left to take his Winter Trial rally car out for a good blast to blow out some cobwebs, and get the 2.7 RS engine in the back of the spritely silver and orange 1970 911T up to temperature.
For me, a good blast would be from here to Oxford via the back roads. For Leonard it was driving from Amsterdam to Germany, just for fun and one meeting that could have been done via conference call. But that is not the Twin Spark way!
Catching up with Leonard’s son Daan on Twitter later that day, Daan tweeted something about sharing a significant moment with a certain Mr. Jurgen Barth in his 911. Needless to say, I had to know more. Leonard takes up the story:
“We were blasting by the Unna highway exit and from the corner of my eye I see this dark blue 997 4S convertible enter the highway. I look to the right as we pass it and in the driver seat is this moon shaped, grey bearded face with thin rimmed glasses. Unmistakeably the father of the SCRS. As we continue at full chat and exit onto the next highway, he passes on the left, hesitates, looks over to see what on earth this mean-sounding silver orange T is all about, I look to the left and wave, into an astonished face of this Porsche legend.”
Leonard, you would win Porsche fluke of the year for this, if your other Porsche flukes of the year weren’t even more unbelievable! It’s been a joy to share many happy times with the Dutch crew this year: I can’t wait to see what Lady Luck rolls your way in 2010.
