To Tell A STORY OF AIRCOOLED BUSINESS
Or
How my engine got lost in a workshop in Swabia
When my slategray 65 got home after the extended summer holiday and thousands of miles on the roof rack, she felt tired and was really happy to get the cooler autumn breeze around its air filter. I told my love, well, it seems we might need some rework on the engine to surely make the next 100thousand of miles. Over the winter I looked for alternatives and possible shop recommendations. It turned out, the waiting line for a rework was about one year, so the next season was a sure miss.
While turning newspapers, online offers, telephone calls, I got a note from a friend, who told me, that a senior Porsche sales guy, formerly living in Düsseldorf, had retired and now lives back in his hometown in the black forest. He was already in his 80ies and he knew of him selling the rest of his collected cars, his left over spare parts, and, he had an early 65 engine in his shelf.
As I had a meeting in Strassbourg the following days, I could reroute and had a very pleasant meeting with the old gentleman. A car guy from former times, testing your knowledge, checking how deep is the water on the buyers side. He finally showed me his left over 616/36 engine, euro heater, june 65 built , intended for being used with one of his 356.
It was a key-turn ready complete unit, with engine tins, correct Solex carbs, linkages, Knecht airfilters, euro heat exchangers, muffler. Plug & play.
The engine looked clean, the solex carbs fresh, no dirt of extensive usage, supposed to have clocked about 900 km. The negociations turned out with fairly no possibillity to deal on the price, but rather on getting some add-on parts out of his shelf.
Some 30 km of this location is a known aircooled workshop, at that time nearby newly built on the green lawn, in the outskirt of a small Swabian town, not far from Stuttgart. We knew the owners, the children, the workshop, as the ESR rally had a visit there, and we were all happy and in good mood to stay over for some hours, getting served some refreshments. So my first approach was, to give them a call and ask them, if they could do a hot swap with the engines: I come with my 65, bring the “plug&play” engine 2 hours later and they do have one week time to get the engines swapped, set up the carbs and get the slategray rolling again.
Of course and happily they agreed to the deal.
The day came, the 22nd of June, action day. All went smooth and nicely, sunny weather, not too hot, everything as easy as wished might be. The 29th I picked up my slategray in decent running condition, but as it turned out later, the Solex P40II had not been reworked, so the central shaft had some play, which made it nearly impossible to set them up correctly. Nevertheless, it ran, the engine had perfect pressure …so off we drove in the sunset.
It was agreed, that the tired “hot swopped” engine would come into storage, as there was plenty of space and to lift the engine on the roof rack was not an option. So the complete unit, with all the components attached, was put again on a euro palette and safely stored.
The next spring, Corona already made its way. I had telephoned before in order to ask, if everything was ok, if I should take my old engine unit out of storage, if they do need the space. I met them at the Stuttgart fair, where they had a booth, talking, exchanging nice words, compliments to the choice of cars. Also there: are any troubles, no, all fine, we do have your number to call you, if anything would happen.
Due to Corona there had been all the registrations, the lockdowns, the prohibition to drive privately around, so there had been merely not the right time to pick up the engine. Stay safe at home, had been the motto of these times.
I cleaned up, sorted all the stuff out, like we all did, made space for the unit to be picked up.
This Monday I gave them an early morning call, that I would drop by Tuesday morning in order to finally pick up the engine. It is a three hour drive to their place.
The secretary was some kind of strange and the owner of the workshop said he can not remember, but finally admitted: yes, true, ya….I´ll look for it. I called back 20 minutes later and reported the engine number to them:”…just in case….”. I do not get a return phone call the complete afternoon and at 1730 I thought, well, and rang through.
I got the shop owner on the phone, who said: “I cannot find your engine… we do have a 912 engine in the storage, but this is not yours, with different carbs and else.” My reply was quite amused, the storage is not that large, the engine unit not that small, to get lost in between some sheet metal. “I ll give sou a call tomorrow, let me check again!”
The next morning at 0900 the expected call came, but still, nothing to be found anywhere in the workshop. He would call the lady in charge, “…..she is in maternity holiday, but she knows everything about it…..we did reorganize the storage …”…Again, a complete engine unit does not disappear, unless…….?
Wednesday I gave him time to think over it, to ask everyone involved, to work out on a solution plan. Today, after my 2nd morning coffee, I gave him a call. Again the irrated secretary and on the line: a slightly nervous and aggressive shop owner, who started right away with frontal attack: it is not his fault, he is not to blame, he was always against it, to store the engine!!!! The mechanics told him, that I had picked up the engine!!!
I am now trying to make a profit out of the situation! He is not the one to be sued.!!
“what do you want now?”
I expected this reaction, as it was obvious from Monday, that anything had been in total disorder. The engine has disappeared out of the storage.
I urged him to find a way, any way, as he knows the whole week about the situation. I told him, that I expect him to make any suggestion, how to compensate about the loss. The easiest would be just to find the engine.
How to find a solution now? The shop owner was in such denial, that he could not think solution orientated, he was in complete regression of facts and lost in his “static behaviour mechanism”.
What would you suggest now to do?
Bring in lawyers, go to court….?
Go check on site, search in the storage?
How would you value the “lost engine”, complete, running, but tired.
With all engine tins, Weber carbs, heat exchangers, muffler…
This was the engine that came with the car…is there any evaluation of value loss for the car?
Remember the story which took place in Switzerland….the guy in Aachen,
The mass betrayal, fake cars, swap of engines, parts, certifications of well knows race drivers…
br
haul
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Originally Posted by popowitz
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