Hammer Down: At 88, He Still Drives His 1968 Porsche 911

All through the 50s I loved cars and I went from hot rods into sports cars because I understood about handling all of a sudden. In the 60s I was buying Porsches and selling Porsches and I had maybe four at a time. In 1967 they had the National Porsche Parade in Washington and we had just joined the club at that time. We worked the whole week, took the week off from working. There was a raffle for 1967 soft win to Targa which had just come out that year and I remember the number was 276 and that was the number that the lady from the German embassy pulled the final night of the banquet and won the car so that was kind of neat. I'm Dan Rousey and I drive a 1968 911. I met this guy in Pennsylvania and he had he had run the cannonball in 72 and I thought gee if you ever run another one of those if you need someone if you need a driver or you know assistant or a co-driver please let me know and one day out of the blue I'm at work and he called and said you want to go on the cannonball and I said yeah. I had a secret clearance at Navy Department at the time. I thought I was going to lose and I probably would have if I'd been locked up but I wasn't locked up luckily and but I did run the we ran the 75 cannonball cross country from New York City to Redondo Beach, California. All of the four cannonball runs that car and driver did at Brock Yates were responsible for it. I believe we have the best Porsche time. Our time was 38 39. Here we are on top of this roof of the Red Ball or Davis Garage in downtown middle of downtown Manhattan. We had to get an average speed of 80 to beat the 35 53 record that Brock Yates had set the year a couple years before and uh and I think we could have done that if we hadn't stopped so many times and it was uh it was it's more interesting to talk about than do. The moon is coming out the road is dry eight route 81 is beautiful lots of trucks nothing else just us and the trucks and uh according to truck drivers we've got the hammer down. The car we used in the cannonball was Leo's car. Leo Lynch was a was the owner and he had a 73 911s targa that was very nice but he had bought one of the IROC the international race of champions. Those cars had an engine it was a three liter rsr engine very very much like the 73 rsr that 2.8 high butterfly or fly butterfly injection and very very powerful engine. The 911 I bought the 68 911 I bought I bought because it was you know rust free very straight car a very original car and it's burgundy and it's black. Since I've had it I've bought a vintage race motor which is all prepared for vintage racing it's a two 2.2 liter and it's got s 911s crank and nitrided rods and all the s stuff it's 10.3 to 3 to 1 compression. It's really a really strong engine that's that's still streetable and the suspension has been done I did have bill stains but I've got conies on it now which are supposed to be softer and more compliant. Bigger torsion bars front and back and the brakes are brakes are done they're still standard brakes I haven't upgraded those yet. The transmission is fine it seems to have short gears in it I think it may have a airport gearbox or a 912 box or something but anyway very short and it's a fun car to drive. Tires new tires are fairly fairly sticky tires they're not the highest highest performance they're so real close tre roll bar in it and good seat belts repros of the repa seat belts r-e-p-a the old seat belts from the 60s that were german made the 68 had reflectors on front and back that was part of the federal crap still looking at things to do but more more carefully more toward keeping the car more stock now I think in case someone if I sell it or if it gets sold it would go to somebody who wants to restore it it would be easier easy to restore the way it is now and the interior is very original and you know it's very it's presentable car there's a lot of what is it feedback and and spirit I think it's a spirit that's missing in the in the later heavier cars that isolate all that from the the road feel and the sense of driving the fast driving or quick driving tried to count them I'm I know I'm over 40 but I haven't I'm not sure that some of them are kind of fuzzy but I've had some really good ones of those I was able to buy a lot of these cars way back when they weren't worth anything in fact I had a 550 spider but it had a push rod motor but it was still a very nice little car I remember having someone say why did you buy that and they didn't they didn't add the last part of that which was dumbass and I'm sure they thought that but anyway it was a car that's you know multi-million dollar car now but I paid like I think it was eleven hundred dollars for the car and a little flip little flip trailer and I made a huge profit when I sold it to my friend Dick Hyland I sold it to him I think with fourteen hundred I really took advantage of him I would really enjoy driving a speedster I really love those but this car I'm learning to love it more and the more I drive it the more I like it and the more the more I feel akin to it I turned 88 this year and unfortunately I can't stop that I can't put a stop on it but it keeps going I wish I could pull it back and pull it back or stop it but I can't but in my mind I'm still young and still think think young and try to act young but it's hard mobility is getting harder but but I'm very lucky that I do have my good eyesight and pretty much most of my hearing except my wife says maybe not I have selective hearing