By Steve Limbert, republished with permission from the July 2015 issue of Fourteener Motoring Magazine

Aircooled Racing was established in 1976, after I became painfully aware that if I wanted to continue to road race a Porsche I needed more money than my job back then provided. From 1972 until 1976 I had campaigned a Speedster in E/P in the northeast division of the SCCA. In late 1976 I all but totalled that Speedster up in New Hampshire at the then Bryar track.

Even back then the cost to repair the Speedster was not within my means,  Humm, what to do? I had read an article in Panorama back in 1973 (which I still have) on race preparing a 914 based on the Ritchie Ginther building of a 914 for E/P in the SCCA. I acquired a 914 chassis that had been a theft recovery from an insurance company and began to build the car basically as Ginther described. After almost a year of nonstop work the car was ready to test.

In trying to build a 914, 4-cylinder, which made sense because of the engine and transaxle location, I was going to need a pile of new special race parts. So instead of buying one fuel cell from the then new ATL Company I contacted them about becoming a dealer. That was the salesman in me. I quickly sold the two extra cells and began selling ATL fuel cells. My relationship with the great folks at ATL continues to this day.

As a side note, in working with ATL I developed the Porsche 911 bolt-in fuel cell that required no drilling into the chassis. We used the existing mounting points and added one additional non-invasive bracket. That bracket insured a secure cell. That cell is still a big seller for us and ATL.

Soon Air-Cooled Racing was able to represent other hard core parts such as helmets, uniforms, seats and many other things fellow racers needed. While I needed to make a reasonable profit, my regular job continued to do well, thus allowing me to sell to racers at very competitive prices. Later we developed fiberglass parts for the entire 914, that included different fender sizes, hood, deck, engine lid, bumpers, top, etc. Of late we are producing the 911RS engine shroud in various colors and natural raw glass. Today we offer a complete line of OEM parts not only for Porsche cars but for most other German exports. Yes, that does include radiators, but we still like the older aircooled models.

Along the way I learned about rebuilding the type 4 VW engine from various others that included the likes of John Zeitler (formula SV), Dema Elgin (cams and engine internals), & of course my old friend Walter ‘Les’ Handly (also the original Ginther article was most helpful).

Folks have said it’s the people that you meet in the sport, that go on to become true friends, that’s the most important aspect of racing. I could not agree more. Several years ago Dema and his wife met me in Germany to tour the Porsche factory and the old museum. We also made an obligatory stop in Munich during Oktoberfest, “fur zwei grosse Bier”.

Les Handly over many years became my best friend, not only in racing but also in life. I was deeply saddened at his passing a couple of years ago. He was a great diagnostician and on the track a fierce competitor, as I soon learned when I ran my 914-4 in E/P. I learned much from him and still miss him!

Recently I purchased #78, ‘Les’s’ 914, from his estate. That 914 was the first 914 brought into the U.S. by Jo Hoppen to show the dealers on the east coast the actual car. It became a race car in 1972 and ‘Les’ acquired it in late 1973. Prior to his passing it had competed in some 295 races, going to the runoffs more than 20 times.

Since rust was invented by the ‘Brits,’ but perfected by the Germans, we soon became involved in repairs of several old race cars as well as trying to keep streetable 914’s and 911’s in more than drivable condition. Show us a 356 with no rust, that hasn’t already been repaired, and we will buy the first beer.

We also have become close to a local body shop that does very good paint and body work at a most reasonable cost. Not only have we had race cars done at his facility but also street cars for myself (356/911/914) and other customers’ Porsches.

After switching to the 6-cylinder engine the E/P SCCA car moved  into GT2 and that proved to very challenging to say the least. Here we ran against almost factory-backed entries and just making it to the SCCA Runoffs became a grind. We did win the Northeast division title several years in GT2, but that was more because of luck than my driving skills.

At the runoffs we finished in the top half most times but the cost kept escalating. I began saving my money instead of pouring it into the SCCA cars chasing those trophies. After several years I was able to purchase the Bruce Jenning 1969 911S that ran some 15 times at Sebring and many other early endurance races. So now I was getting into the vintage arena and it proved to be fun.

I found the Max Moritz 914-6 GT that first ran in Europe later competing in the 24 hours of Daytona in 1971, where it finished second in class after leading until a slight brake problem dropped it into second spot. Since I could not afford to campaign both in the vintage venues, I sold #77 Jennings 911 and purchased #19.

As most 914 guys know the Conda green #19 was the first of only 12 or 13 factory produced 914-6 GTs that were built. It was equipped with a twin plug 906 engine and 908 front brakes. When I bought the car I received all of the proper documentation listing its history racing in Europe and later in the US. To date, I have only run the car at special events. Later we built a “Repli-Kar” of the #18 914 that also ran at Daytona in 1971. I have campaigned #18 at various vintage races and plan also to equip it with a proper twin plug 2.0 liter engine in the very near future.

Life is much too short not to enjoy one’s childhood. There is no telling what I will do once I grow up.