A Brief Recap

In my last post I recounted a story of a dedicated Porsche enthusiast who spent several seasons observing his fellow race-mates and noting what they did to their cars while they regularly handed him his hat at the end of each hillclimb that he contested.

This man took his licks, made some notes, and then methodically installed the right combination of parts into his 356 Speedster to make it a powerhouse that would compete with the best in his racing class, year after year. And win!

The Man

Jesse R. Holshouser, Jr. was nicknamed "Jess." He had been born in in 1921, lived in Pipersville, Maryland, and was married to a high school teacher. Jess commuted to the RCA Missile and Surface Radar Division in Moorestown, New Jersey, where he worked as an electrical engineer. They had no children.

Jess was active in the Pennsylvania Reisentoter Chapter of the Porsche Club of America and competed in his 1960 Super Coupe in gymkhanas that were sponsored by the Sports Car Club of America, the umbrella organization for amateur sports car competition.

Jess had a SCCA Solo 1 license when he applied for his competition license with the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association. Jess would need this competition license in order to take the next step—compete in PHA-sponsored hillclimb competitions. He got the license.

But he also needed a good hillclimb car, and he'd been watching to see what the winners were driving.

His Car

Holshouser decided that a Porsche 356 Speedster was just the ticket for what he wanted to accomplish. Holshouser was familiar with the brand and liked the product: small, light, handled well, easy to maintain and, if necessary, rebuild. There were lots of service shops for a car like this, as famed New York distributor Max Hoffman had taken the time to set up dealer networks and independent service providers to support the Porsche brand for the U.S. sports car community.

Max Hoffman was a Holocaust refugee who became a successful New York auto dealer, introducing Porsche and other European brands to the American public.

Porsches were expensive, but they were rugged, and they won races.

As already mentioned in the previous blog post, Holshouser bought his Speedster from Bob Holbert of Holbert's Garages in Warrington, Pennsylvania in 1966. Bob was a well-known racer in his own right, but he was raising a son named Al who would one day dominate the world of prototype racing in his Porsche 962. But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here...

Holbert's Garage 1966. *image courtesy Wikimedia*

Bob's son Al had been using the white Speedster while at Lehigh University, and as the story goes, Al got too many speeding tickets, so the father took it back and put it up for sale after replacing the engine that had mysteriously developed a "knock" in it. Hmm... could it be that someone over-revved the engine?

Didn't matter. Holshouser now had his hillclimb car. He had compiled a list of mods that needed to be done in order to make the little car fly, and Holshouser flow-charted his tasks to help focus on the steps to make it ready as soon as possible.

This was just the beginning of refining Holshouser’s Speedster, which took several seasons to do so.

The Winning Combination

Holshouser had been competing in gymkhanas since 1964 in his Coupe, but by July of 1966 his Speedster, which in stock form was over 200 lbs lighter than the Coupe, was ready enough to try it out. Over three seasons, Holshouser would compete in 16 gymkhana events in his Speedster, earning two firsts, two second place finishes, three thirds, and five fifth place finishes in either E-Production or Overall.

It was time to hit the slopes.

Holshouser had started with gymkhanas to get a feel for the car and kept at it while he added features to make it quicker. Removing the windshield and the interior also added lightness. Headlights, taillights, you name it —gotta go!

Note that the windshield has been removed for lightness and a plexiglass screen has been fitted in its place.

Holshouser installed a limited-slip differential and built two transaxles, a "short box" for sprints that would top out at 85 mph, and a "long box" that would go after courses with long straights. With this transaxle the Speedster could top 100 mph at 7000 rpm!

Holshouser didn't just step into the winner's circle when he began to hillclimb in 1968. The regulars in his class, EP-1, all piloted Speedsters and regularly ate Holshouser's lunch for the first several seasons. But by 1972, his fourth season of hillclimb competition, Holshouser was hitting his stride.

And stride he did. Holshouser was now a top-ranked competitor who struck fear into the hearts of spectators, pushing them back from the fences with his balls-out style of drifting through the corners for that extra tenth and a win for the day.

Here's one entry from his diary:

On practice run 1, squirrel was sitting in road on a sweeper. I gigged and missed him.

On same turn, run 2, I was a little out of shape & the corner worker ran.

On run 3, I was OK, but the worker ran anyway.

The 1970s decade was his time to shine in the Pennsylvania sun.

*Note that all of the contenders had plexiglass mini-screens instead of windshields*

The PHA annual yearbooks with the year-end rankings tell it all:

1972 - 4th

1973 - 1st

1974 - 2nd

1975 - 4th

1976 - 2nd

1977 - 3rd

1980 - 1st

The records kept by the PHA became scarce for the 1980s decade as the SCCA took over recording hillclimb results. Entries in Holshouser's diary show that he entered in only a handful of events, mostly at Weatherly and Giants Despair. Three wins out of five events—not too shabby! But not a complete season either.

Holshouser would eventually relocate to Raleigh, North Carolina, close to where I found the tired Speedster in an old storage shed. While in North Carolina, Holshouser contested the annual Chimney Rock hillclimb in April for three successive years: 1987, 1988, and 1990. In those three years Holshouser logged virtually the same elapsed time on the hill—2 minutes-25 seconds—and earned a sixth place finish each time. Talk about consistent!

Declining health and a couple of serious mishaps—a tree here, a blown engine there—forced Holshouser into retirement in 1990.

But with a record of over 40 hillclimb events, a slew of wins, scores of top-five achievements, and a decade of dominance, Holshouser could hang up his gloves with no shame.

It just goes to show that there's nothing quite like driving a Speedster!

Summing it up

There's an old expression that's been woven into stories, plays, movies, and even songs. It goes something like this:

"With you and me together, there's nothing we can't do!"

For Jess Holshouser, his providential pair-up was with this tubby-looking 356 Speedster, the little car that could. Fate and good fortune just clicked for Holshouser and his Speedster.

But when you think about it, isn't there a magical combination for each of us to discover, something that speaks to our inner cores when we find it, a pairing that seems to shine a light on our path?

I certainly hope that this is true. I've built my life around this belief. For me, it has turned into a hobby of messing with old cars and then writing about them.

My wish is that you have found whatever it is in our great cosmos that clicks with YOU.

=rds

A Man and His Speedster

Search Posts