Dwayne

While I was transporting the historic Holbert 928 from 928 International in California to Ed's shop in Danbury, Conn., Ed came up with the idea of stopping by the Holbert family Porsche Dealership in Warrington, PA where the car spent some time before and after the Bonneville Salt Flats run in August of 1986. Since I had about 3 hours of schedule to work with, why not?! It was a fantastic experience!! I took a few pics of the visit and, with Ed's permission, have posted below.

I first pulled up in front of the dealership to get some pics of the car with the Holbert sign in the background. I arrived at 3:30pm on Tuesday, Nov. 10th. I went inside the dealership and looked up Larry Holbert - Al's brother. Larry and I talked for a few minutes about the car and what happened to it after it went to IMSA. Larry lost track of the car after that but was surprised to find out it made its way into private ownership. He thought Porsche had taken the position the car would never be sold to a private party. Larry was pretty busy so he took me to the repair shop floor to meet Tom and Rich. I also noticed a 1985 5-Speed on the rack in the shop being worked on. Tom and Rich had both seen and worked on the 928 back in the day and could not wait to get outside to see the car. Here's Tom and Rich checking out the car.


Tom shared stories about the car like how they replaced the control arm bushings with poly bushings and after the Bonneville event, Al would complain about the bushings squeaking. Tom would lube them up only to have them squeaking again a couple of days later. Tom still has the original rear seats to this car. Tom and Rich both talked about the fully belly pan that was installed for the Bonneville run and described it as looking like a giant Cookie Sheet. They commented that Al Holbert wanted to make sure there were minimal air currents underneath the car.


After a few minutes, Larry came out to see the car as well. Everyone was circling, inspecting, poking and proding the famous 928.


Here's a shot of Tom, Larry Holbert, and Rich in a classic pose with the Holbert 928 and dealership in the background.


A few minutes after Larry came out, some of the salesmen on the floor came out carrying a laptop that was playing the YouTube video of Al's Bonneville Run. They gathered around and watched and commented on the video while standing right in front of the very car that made the run!


Rich commented how they did a quick and dirty paint job on the car to get it ready for the run. He said they simply masked off everything and shot the outside of the car - he pointed out on the video that you could still see the white door jambs when Al was getting into the car. Having the car and the video playing with Al really brought back memories for this crowd!


Others at the dealership came out to see and take pictures of the famous car.


Tom and Larry wanted me to pull the car to the rear of the building to the Body shop to meet the gentleman that worked on the car after the IMSA crash. So I pulled it around and met Greg, the body man that did the work.


Tom joked with Greg that this was being brought to the shop for him to work on AGAIN! Oh, by the way, we need it by FRIDAY! Everyone had a laugh!


Here's a classic pose of the body shop crew in front of the Holber 928. Greg is the gentleman 2nd in from the left. When I explained what Ed's plans were for reconstructing the car and taking it back to Bonneville in 2012 for a 25th anniv. run, they all thought that was VERY COOL!


Back out front, I got a shot of the Holbert Record breaking 928 Lettering on the quarter panel with the next generation 928, Panamera, in the background all under the PORSCHE banner - Cool!


Here's a shot out front with other Porsche models looking on at the Holbert 928 with respect!


I had to get a shot back inside the dealership with Larry next to the Bonneville flats event poster. His dealership is lined with pictures of the Holbert family racing events including their father Bob Holbert and Al Holbert.


Here's the final shot of the Holbert 928 leaving the parking lot on its way to get repaired with the Panamera looking on after it.


All in all, it was a memorable experience that I will not forget! Everyone was very interested in seeing the car and hearing about the plans for Bonneville in 2012. But most enjoyable was listening to the folks talk about the car's history and the things they remembered when it was back at the dealership early in its life.

THANKS again to Ed for making this memory possible and best wishes for the work ahead in reconstructing this important piece of not only Porshe history but automotive history. THANKS for reading!

Mike B

Thanks for the pics and great dialogue Dwayne!

Rick Carter

Way cool, thanks for posting!

Mike Frye

Sir Dwayne,

Nicely done. What a great story. I wish I could have made the time to meet up with you.

Thanks for posting all of this and for making the trip.

heinrich

Very well done and a great idea Dwayne, thank you for sharing!

Slantnose!

Very cool.

MGW-Fla

Very Cool, Thanks for sharing Dwayne! I bet those at the dealership were equally thankful that you brought the car by for them to see.

Cosmo Kramer

Just awesome, thank-you very much for posting! I bet they were pretty surprised to see you!

DR

Dwayne,

This is very cool and I am sure it will be a great lifetime memory.

Thanks for sharing!!

Bertrand Daoust

Thank you Dwayne for sharing that with all of us.

Seeing the video with Al's brother and everybody in front of "the" car should have been realy something!

Great pictures and dialogue as always.
Many thanks again.

Tony

That/this story is probably one of the neatest things to come across this board! And its been wonderfully archived with pictures and comments...and the story isn't even close to being over yet!
Thanks for taking the time and resources to do this Dwyane...and ED, he has the hard work ahead of him!!

What what the consensus of the body shop guys on the state of the car for repair?

You know , i bet having a connection with Larry up there now I'm sure this can get some coverage from Porsche when the time comes. I'm not sure what influence Larry Holbert may have but perhaps he can dig up some more archival stuff that Porsche has in Germany on the car, the run and what it took to get there.

linderpat

This is a great story for us shark enthusiats. Thank you Dwayne for the documentation of this historic car.
Again I toss out the idea of an OCIC in 2012 in connection with the anniversary run/resurection at the Salt Flats (we may need to rename this car Lazarus!).
I'll help if there are a couple of other volunteers. PM me and we'll get a seperate thread going if the interest is there.

31-TL-ZS

Nice story Sir Dwayne!

James Bailey

Yes...." Larry lost track of the car after that but was surprised to find out it made its way into private ownership. He thought Porsche had taken the position the car would never be sold to a private party. ..... " Porsche donated the car to a school with the understanding that it was to be taken apart as a learning tool and never registered as a car. How "ownership" transfered from the school is something of a mystery. That Kibort was able to register it was a big surprise as well ! Great story about the visit , first I had heard of the cookie sheet undertray !

JWise

Wouldn't the 25th anniversary of the record run be in 2011, not 2012? (the record run was in August 1986)