Slipstream - May 2012

Cliff’s Ramblings: Mentors
By Cliff Blackshear
This September
will
mark my
40th year working
professionally on
Porsches at the
dealer level. It
is a benchmark
that I have thought about for some
time. Wondering if I should go
for 50 years. I so enjoy what I do.
It is just something I am pondering.
What I do has never stopped
being stimulating. Porsche owners,
Porsche technicians, and Porsche
engineers are such interesting
people. The cars are amazing.
I have been thinking about all the
people that have influenced and
helped me be a better technician.
Decided to tell stories here and in
future issues about people I have
known that had an impact on me
and how I behave as a Porsche
workshop repair professional.
Neil Storgard hired me at Green
Oaks Porsche+Audi in 1972. He
was the service manager. I cannot
find any information on Neil now.
He drove a Cortina at the time and
lamented that racing was not as
cool in the 70s as it was 10-20 years
prior. He simply encouraged me
to do what I liked doing. I liked
him immensely and his enthusiasm
was infectious. I found myself
always looking to him for advice.
Ed Mayo was the lead Porsche
tech at Green Oaks at the time
when Neil hired me, and I was in
awe of Ed’s talents. He took me for
a ride in a 356 Super 90 one day
and executed a beautiful heel/toe
downshift to first gear while cranking
in huge steering input to take a
90 degree right turn. At that time,
he had no idea I had spent a lot of
my early drivers license time in a
356 practicing just such maneuvers.
I washed brake parts from a 356
for him my first day there. Then
adjusted the valves on a Karmann
Ghia that had been traded in. That
first day in a Porsche dealership as
a new hire for repairs, on all that
came in, was magical to me. It was
precisely what I wanted to do.
In 1974 I was young and felt
adventurous. My wife of two years
was on the same page with me.
We had no children and were not
ready for children at that time. We
wanted to experience mountain
life. I applied for and took a job
in Boulder, Colorado at a dealer
that was new and considered to be
something of an experiment. It
was a small town but it was packed
with educated people and a large
college. Boulder cannot grow due
to greenbelt boundaries north and
south of city limits, foothills too
rugged for expansion to the west,
and industry to the east. Our dealer
started in an old Pep Boys building
downtown on Pearl Street. It was so
fun and amazing to just be there.
Our first child was born in Boulder
on May 29, 1975. It was snowing
while the sun was shining, moments
after her birth. A moment permanently
burned into my memory.
I went there and had recently
trained on CIS 911s. The 914s
were selling like hotcakes as
well as the new 911s. Had training
on Bosch injection for
914s and that was about it.
Suddenly I had to learn how
to make the cars work in an
environment with crazy altitude
changes. Set the car for 5400
feet in Boulder and owner drives
home where it is 7000 feet. Or
drives home to 5000 feet. Most of
these cars had carburetors - dual
downdraft 3-barrels. Plus CIS cars
were being sold at a rapid pace
and we were learning them on
the fly. Then there were the 914s.
MPC injection and AFC injection.
I could write a novel here.
Turns out, lots of people from
round the world loved the Boulder
area. It had a climate much
like the homeland of Europe, so
the city enticed many to move
to that location. Adolf Stammler
owned the dealership. Wolfgang
Dahlem was his service manager
and my immediate boss.
Wolfie was very German and
became a dear friend. He and his
wife had moved to Colorado from
Egypt. He told me stories of being
an aircraft mechanic there, working
on Egyptian MIGs. He indicated
that the build quality of the planes
was just awful. Rivets that stuck out
1mm high on wing surfaces, etc.
Wolfgang loved diving in the
Red Sea when living in Egypt.
He made an underwater camera
setup himself. Used a pressure
cooker and mounted the camera
inside. Showed me many pictures
from his adventurous dives. Also
talked a lot about driving in the
desert in a DKW and stumbling
upon many mummified wrapped
bodies. Sand shifted around and
they simply were uncovered on the
desert floor. He passed away some
years ago. I miss him immensely.
Many foreigners came through
and worked there during my 9-½
years in Colorado. Germans, Austrians,
Brits, and one from Australia;
it was interesting to say the least.
Oh yeah, and one Japanese guy
there who was quite talented.
Another person that stood out
for me was from Manitou Springs
Colorado, Lynn Henningsen.
He was pushing 40 years old at
that time and seemed ancient to
me. He taught me everything I
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