Mag Americans Day

As a follow-up to last weeks post re: magnesium American Racing Torque-Thrusts, here are some other examples of great 911's on Americans.

This first one is Jason Kim's 67 911S. The image is from one of my favorite blogger/photographers Maurice van den Tillaard aka "Dutchman Photos". (http://www.dutchman-photos.com/blog/)

The following images are period racing shots of some of my favorite early 911's that I have swiped from the web. Enjoy!

Whatzit???

My buddy Dale Oakes from Euroclassics in Dayton Ohio was out at SEMA this year and snapped these photos for me.  Looks like a cool little custom Karmann Ghia doesn't it?  Well, look a little closer. Do you see it?

The interior should be the big giveaway. Pretty cool look for an old Boxter eh?

Road America 1958

Road America 1958 from Roger Johnson on Vimeo.

My Fellow Americans!

In this age of economic uncertainty I have decided to invest in MAGNESIUM. 20 years ago I started wheeling and dealing in vintage American Racing Torque-Thrusts for domestic cars (hot-rod's, etc) to help finance the Cal-Look VW that I was building. I would scour junkyards and swap meets all over the country for old wheels. Then one day I discovered that American also made Torque-Thrusts for Porsche's and VW's. Waaaa?


I immediately searched out a set of aluminum Porsche bolt pattern 15x7's for my own VW and had the fronts narrowed to 4". Later I located several more sets and tricked them out for others in the VW hobby. Then I got my 911.I found a set of first generation magnesium TT's that had been purchased for an SCCA race Speedster back in '68. It took nearly a year, but I eventually got them for myself.

Since then, magnesium has become a bit of an addiction...

These are all specifically Porsche fitment. Nothing about this wheel is the same as the magnesium torque-thrusts made for American cars. Obviously the bolt circle is different, but so is the offset, the shape of the spokes and the design of the center. This particular style was available in 15x5", 15x5.5" and 15x6". American also made a 15x7" and 15x8" mag that was very similar to the magnesium Corvette D-spoke. (5-ear center caps and similar shape, but slightly different offset)

This style of Torque-Thrust was also called a "D-Spoke" because it was designed to fit over the caliper of a disk brake. Note the way the spoke has a bit of an arch or "claw" shape to allow it to wrap around the caliper. Normal Torque-Thrusts had a spoke which ran straight from the hub to the rim.

This is a really cool wheel. A friend found it in an old tire store, NOS.  This is what I call a "Third Generation" magnesium wheel. The first of these wheels did not have the webbing on the side of the spoke and the back of the spoke was hollow. The second generation grew radial webbing on the back of the spoke to strengthen it. Third generation wheels sprouted the webs on the sides of the spokes. Note the uber-rare center caps. I have only seen a couple sets of these.