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Thread: Wester Motors

  1. #1

    Wester Motors

    I have always enjoyed visiting the Monterey Peninsula and for several years made the annual pilgrimage to the Historics at Laguna Seca.

    An affinity for the natural beauty of the area, the incredible weekends of the Historics/Pebble and some knowledge of the history of SCRAMP and the early sports car racing scene on the Peninsula all contributed to my interest in Wester Motors, the Porsche-VW dealer serving the Monterey Peninsula area.

    Don Wester, the proprietor of Wester Motors, had a weekend hobby. His days in the cockpit of so many Porsche race cars provided many with wonderful memories of how sports car racing used to be. His cars included Carrera GT Speedster, RSK and RS61, His mounts at the endurance races at Sebring and Daytona included 904 and 906.

    When a rather lumpy looking SWB 911S recently became available its connection to Wester made me buy it. I was interested to learn that the car had been originally delivered at Wester Motors at their old dealership on Del Monte Avenue in Monterey. The first owner as recorded in the Warranty Booklet was Don Wester himself, who personally took delivery on Nov. 6, 1966.

    Here is a fine image of Don Wester in his RS61 leading the Lotus 23 of Graham Hill through a turn at the Northwest GP at Pacific Raceway in Kent, Washington at the 1963 URRRC event. The second image shows Wester at his home track, going through Turn 7 in his RSK at Laguna Seca in October 1962.

    I know of two other board members whose early 911 came from Wester Motors: Kenikh and LKreg. Are there others?
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    Last edited by Flunder; 08-11-2012 at 09:58 AM.
    Early 911S Registry
    Looking for engine 960 168
    Looking for gear box 103 165

  2. #2
    Senior Member Varooom's Avatar
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    I purchased my '66 912 from the SF area 6 years ago. From what I was told (and my reciepts history) my car was from Wester. I still have the frame and plates.







    Steve Var.
    ___________
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  3. #3
    Steve:

    That is a great looking SWB.

    That makes four Wester dealership cars - all SWB.

    The Dave Friedman photo of Don Wester in his 904 shows him running 6th overall at the Riverside USRRC event April 25-26, 1964
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    Last edited by Flunder; 02-17-2012 at 12:54 PM.
    Early 911S Registry
    Looking for engine 960 168
    Looking for gear box 103 165

  4. #4
    Moderator Chuck Miller's Avatar
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    Thumbs up

    From the '73 Parade results booklet...........

    Cheers
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    Chuck Miller
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    Peter Kane

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  6. #6
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    Don Wester's 73 RS

    I shot this image when Don's RS was parked on dealer plates parked in front of his early dealership on Del Monte. You may notice the trim - it was one of the prototypes. It was G.P.White with blue trim. Lovely car. It reappeared at the Monterey Historics not long after he passed away. People kept asking if it was a new Porsche model. I wish I had taken a lot more images and knew more about it.

    Wester's used to have some special cars. It was always a treat to go there. Penske used it as a prep shop for his Can Am effort and it was quite something to see a 917 sitting there. [Actually, the entire peninsula was a treat as the teams used a wide variety of the local garages for their cars and it was great fun checking out which cars were where and being able to get a good look at them.] Wester even owned one of the ex-IROC Carreras. I remember passing on buying a 1960 Super 90 GT in 1973. It was pristine and quite exciting. I had just moved up to San Francisco & couldn't see subjecting it to that parking. [In those days you would see all kinds of exotica in the city parked on the streets with all the attendant "city car" dents and dings.]
    John Rice
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  7. #7

    Wester Motors

    Hi John;

    That is an extremely interesting RS that you captured on film at the Monterey Parade back in '73.

    As a special friend of the factory, Don Wester was a favored son on the list of eligible clients to receive the good stuff. Surely his proto RS is hard evidence of his place of honor near the top of the "special friends" pecking order.

    Here is another wonderfully evocative image of Don at Laguna in his RS61. To my eye this image portrays sports car racing of the early 60s in a most powerful manner. Only snow-drift catch fencing separates competitor and spectator while corner workers and photographers relax in close proximity to the racing line. A chrome Raydyot never looked better. You can almost smell the Castrol R.

    You can see that Don Wester's race livery was Light Yellow with Black nose spear and that his race number was always 60.
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    Last edited by Flunder; 09-12-2014 at 12:29 PM.
    Early 911S Registry
    Looking for engine 960 168
    Looking for gear box 103 165

  8. #8
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    memories fade......... errrrr

    Gents,

    I was looking at the other thread which showed the 73 Monterey Parade. Chuck blew up that image of the White/RED RS and... well... I think my bias toward White/Blue has fogged my memory. The Wester RS I shot has got to be the one and same as featured in the Parade images. Look carefully at the blow up of the dealer plate.

    [Since noting is simple... I might add... It is POSSIBLE that it is the other prototype with the early lettering - I thought there were more than 2 of these but I noted the earlier post about only 2 of them- and my memory was actually correct. Don COULD have let someone put his personal dealer plates on a special car. In those days it would have been extremely unlikely to see an RS with legal California registration and they were pretty lax about use of dealer plates. I also took note of the two PCA style badges on the rear grille and I am fairly certain one of them is for Monterey Bay Region PCA, which again leads me to conclude it is Don's RS, and thus..... white/red. You may have noted it was not entered in the Parade autocross by Don, but he regularly let trusted associates use some of his cars. I believe the entrant was a sales rep for Wester at that time. Again, anything is possible but I am doubting my memory of this as white/blue.]
    Best
    John Rice

  9. #9
    Senior Member MoparBoy72's Avatar
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    Is there an antenna in the B&W photo?
    -Andrew
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  10. #10

    Memories from Monterey

    I have contacted one or two folks who used to have a personal connection to the Wester Motors dealership and to Don Wester.

    A particularly delightful memory of the good times at Wester was provided by another board member and I hope that he does not mind that we can all share in the good feelings this gave to me:

    "I started working there in 1971. Don had a bunch of very special cars in the day. All 911S' heavily optioned, sport seats and either silver or blue metallic. He also had one of the light green IROC cars that he commuted to Carmel Valley with. A dark green Mercedes Benz 300SEL 6.3 was also a favorite commuter. This was a great time to work at the dealership. Although retired from racing several cars were built for autocrossing and sponsored by the dealership. Fun times."

    Both the 904 and 906 raced by Wester sported ARE mags and Talbots...
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    Last edited by Flunder; 02-14-2012 at 03:03 PM.
    Early 911S Registry
    Looking for engine 960 168
    Looking for gear box 103 165

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