When Aircooledwonders and Studio 88 Photography heard that The Garage was doing a metal shaping course and that the annual George Classic Car Show was in the same week, we immediately knew another road trip was in order. So on Friday the 13th of February 2015, Mike Schmucker and I packed #59 (Porsche 356 B) with some camera equipment and a few other essentials and hit the open road. The drive down to George was uneventful and #59 was eating up the miles without any problems. Even the strong Karoo winds were no match for this classic race car and after only 12 hours we completed our first leg of 1 200 km.
Saturday morning started less than ideal with some rain, but nothing that a true car enthusiast could not handle. The George Classic Car Show lived up to its reputation with close to a 1000 classic cars proudly displayed. It is always refreshing to see cars that you haven’t seen before and meet new people that share the same interest.
On Sunday we visited Knysna to do a photo shoot that included a Ruby Red Convertible D and some railway lines. After a hard day’s work at the office we headed home to catch low tide, so that we could harvest some mussels for a lemon grass pot. In my books a perfect end to a great weekend.
Monday we visited the Transport Museum in George. This is probably one of the best Museums in the country and by far my favourite. After a trip down memory lane, we tackled the second leg of the trip to Cape Town. Just after Mosselbay we were forced to take an alternative route due to a veld fire and poor visibility on the N2. We enjoyed the open road, but finally ended up on a gravel road and decided to turn around to save some time, seeing that it was close to sunset and we still had 400 km to travel. Right at this point we noticed a scratching noise from the left front wheel. After taking the wheel off, we discovered that one of the springs that hold the brake shoes together had broken. We bent a new hook and without too much hassle we were on the road again.
Cape Town is known as the city that sleeps (Slaapstad), but this proved to be the opposite for us. We had barely filled #59 up with petrol before heading out to our first photo shoot. The Woodstock Man Cave was our location for this shoot. Thanks to Milo and Nicci, we had the perfect garage scene.
Wednesday turned out to be more of the same, yet completely different. On the menu was a photo shoot with two very special South African Porsches. One being the ex Sarel van der Merwe 9-hour Speedster and the other a Convertible D with a very interesting history. It is days like these that I live for. Two beautiful cars and the ocean as the background. What more can you ask for?
Thursday morning we met with our friends at Crossley&Webb. This must be the leading classic car establishment in South Africa, run by true car enthusiasts. Everything about this place reflects bespoke quality.
Friday started with a scenic drive up to Stellenbosch for the start of my metal shaping course with Barry Ashmole. Barry is a master at shaping metal and I feel privileged to have him as mentor. The next three days were spent with a hammer in the one hand and a sheet of metal in the other hand.
A faulty generator kept us an extra day in Cape Town, fortunately nothing that a Beetle generator could not replace. After more than a week on the road, we finally headed back to home sweet home, but not before a last adventure in the Great Karoo. As we slowed down for one of the “stop and go” roadwork points, we noticed the familiar scratching sound of a brake shoe spring. On closer investigation we saw that it was the very same spring that broke previously. We tried to bend a new hook like we did a week before, but without any success. It kept breaking and the spring only got shorter. We just started looking for a piece of wire to extend the spring, when a bakkie stopped with some of the road working crew on it. We told them our problem and with lady luck on our side, the driver pulled out a spring that he had picked up the previous day next to the road. After a good laugh we fitted the new “Porsche” part and once more we were on the road, one step closer to home. We completed the 1 500 km in 17 hours. Not bad for a 55 year old car.
