Concept
modifying cars
Modifying cars means changing parts of a car to make it look better or go faster. People often do this to personalize their vehicles or improve how they drive.
Term
air-cooled prices
Air-cooled prices are the prices of older Porsche cars that have engines cooled by air instead of water. These cars are becoming more valuable because many people want to buy them.
Concept
budget for modifications
When you want to change or improve your car, it's important to decide how much money you can spend first. This way, you won't spend too much and can choose the best changes for your budget.
Car
Porsche 911 GT3
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a special version of the Porsche 911 that is built for racing but can also be driven on the road. It's faster and has better handling than regular 911s.
Term
modified cars
Modified cars are cars that have been changed from how they were originally made. People often do this to make them faster or look different.
Term
entry level cars
Entry level cars are the cheapest models that a car brand offers, usually for people buying their first car. Porsche doesn't have any cheap options, which makes it hard for younger people to buy them.
Term
Panorama
Panorama is a magazine for Porsche fans that talks about their cars and events. It shows pictures of expensive Porsche cars and the people who own them.
Car
Porsche 914
The Porsche 914 is a small sports car made by Porsche that was popular in the 1970s. It's known for being light and fun to drive, which makes it a favorite among car lovers.
Term
four-wheel drift
Four-wheel drift is when all four wheels of a car slide while turning. It can help the driver control the car better during sharp turns.
Car
Audi 100
The Audi 100 LS is a car made by Audi in the 1970s. It was known for being well-designed and helped Audi become a well-known car brand.
Car
Porsche 935
The Porsche 935 is a special racing version of the Porsche 911 that was designed for high-speed racing. It has a unique shape and is very powerful, making it popular in competitions.
LIVE
Welcome to Porsche Patter with Bracken Helms, the show where we hear Bracken and his distinguished
guests from the Porsche community patter on about Porsches and all things automotive.
Porsche Patter is sponsored by Circuits Explore.
Circuits Explore creates authentic automotive apparel made for life-minded automotive enthusiasts.
The links for Circuits Explore are in the shown notes.
Okay, let's get to it.
Dwight Mitchell, part five.
Alright, happy new year.
I was actually supposed to release this on New Year's because New Year's came on a Thursday
and always releases on Thursday, but usually it's because I'm not busy on Thursday, but
obviously there's a lot going on on New Year's trying to entertain the family and not have
them kill me for doing podcast stuff.
But anyway, in this one we talk about advice he may have for someone that wants to modify
their car, thoughts on Porsche today, thoughts on the rising air cool prices, best drive,
whether he had mentors, fears or apprehensions along the way.
Alright, here's Dwight Mitchell, part five.
Advice for someone that wants to modify their car.
Well, first thing, set a budget.
If you don't set a budget, you can spend a million dollars.
So decide how much am I willing to spend or what is your financial condition allowing you to do?
Look at the price of a GT3 and people go and buy one every year.
The fact that factory is coming out with so many modified cars.
A lot of cars you can buy, particularly Porsche and GT3.
There isn't much that an average person can do because they're built by the race shop.
They are race cars, they just detune them a little bit for the street.
Suspension joints is not a rubber bushing in the car anywhere, stuff like that.
So thoughts on Porsche today?
They're expensive. There is no entry level cars.
And the makeup as a Porsche for the America is pretty much a good example of that.
If you pick up a Panorama and look at the advertisements, they're all geared toward high dollar people.
That's who own the cars.
When we bought our first Porsche, it was an expense, but young people were buying them.
Now, people who are older businessmen,
you just look at the pictures in Panorama of the age group of the people that appear in the pictures in Panorama.
They are far older because they've got the money to buy the new cars.
I'll get that off my soapbox now.
And if you read Panorama in excellence, there's constantly hours you need an entry level Porsche.
Have you ever read a triple zero?
No.
So Pete Stout, who was the editor for excellence, and then he went to Panorama.
And now he's developed his own magazine.
I mean, they're nice. They're like this thick and they're...
I want to write that down or take a picture of the cover or something like that.
Yeah, I can send you one.
I'm a fan of Pete Stout.
I've never met him, but I'm a fan of his.
My favorite journalist was Leon Mandel.
He wrote Perot and Tracks sometimes.
And who's the guy that used to be the head of the car and driver that passed away?
Annabelle, he's head of the Cannonball Baker race.
Brock Yates?
Brock Yates.
I loved him.
I was a subscriber to Car and Driver when he used to be a sports paragraph.
I subscribed to the first issue of racer.
And next to this was called Porsche.
That first came out.
Porsche made him change it.
I got written up some time.
There's a fellow that wrote for the SCCA magazine named Bill Mitchell.
I think he's passed away.
And my name was on the cover of the SCCA magazine when you're called Mitchell on Mitchell.
I still got a copy of the magazine.
I had a funny experience.
My mother's already had a skin cancer sufferer.
Anyway, one of my skin cancer patients somehow accepted a breeze curse came up in Porsche.
One of their nurses said, bring one of the magazines.
I want to read one of the magazines.
I put a copy, an article that Dave Coleman had written on me in excellence.
And they wanted me to autograph it.
And I had to go around and autograph for a bunch of people in the office.
And they put it on the wall in the office.
That's cool.
And B.F. Goodrich did an ad.
I was a feature picture.
I don't remember to use my name, but I think they did, but anyway.
Thoughts on air cooled or the rise of air cooled prices.
Like I say, if I had kept the 914 that I had externally stock, even it was some of the stuff underneath, but kept it original.
That car be worth a ton of money.
And I think a lot of it is because you have more money, people buying Porsches.
And some of them are enthusiast car people say like the car that's light and goes fast.
I think it's wonderful.
I missed the boat for sure.
If you had a redo in life, what would it be?
I don't think I changed a thing.
Honestly, I married a wonderful woman.
Married her 60 for 66 years.
Gorgeous woman.
And you know the expression trophy wife.
I decided to get out of the trophy wife right up front when I was young.
She was my trophy wife when she was 18 years old.
And she still was a beautiful woman in her 70s.
She saw me to death and she made my life what it was.
And she helped me when I was racing.
She helped me with the business.
She had a great sense of humor.
Even the bad experiences that I had in the insurance business,
I learned a lot was financially successful.
I dealt primarily in large commercial insurance accounts.
I never lost a client to a competitor.
Never once.
And I was recruited by YA Tittle.
He was bald then he was called the bald eagle and he had a big nose.
And he was very recognizable of all the people playing football in those days.
He walked down the street.
I would go with him to New York.
You could not walk down the street with that man.
He would just get attacked by fans.
It was a very good relationship.
Except that I had a client who was also a racer.
And I ran into him at lunch one day and he looked up at me and he said,
Pete White, how are you doing?
Are you still selling worthless paper?
Still selling worthless paper.
This man who I respected, who was a good racer, was a good businessman.
If what he thought I did was selling worthless paper,
that was one of the things that drove me out of the business.
When this thing came along,
we were talking about getting this crazy idea to open a Porsche business.
That comment stayed with me all my life.
Which I remember right now, obviously, was a turning point in my life.
Next question, your honor.
Any fears or apprehensions?
Here are the bugs.
I don't like bugs.
Ask me again.
Well, I was just going to ask if there was any fears or apprehension throughout your life.
I would say so.
I refuse to lie.
I will not lie to the my ownness, so to speak.
Heights.
At Garrison's shop, I had a letter fall out from under me.
When I was in the insurance business,
I had to go into large building so under construction.
Best drive?
Let me tell you the worst one.
And Millage is responsible for this as well, as was Garrison.
When we were having problems with the 914 going fast,
Millage asked me, would you practice before the race?
I was angry with the practice session, everybody.
I said, no, no, no.
You should be practicing on the street, going around corners,
hanging them out, drifting corners.
You should be doing that.
I mean, only one is to get better, but I didn't know I had to do it.
Anyway, 101, be short freeway.
That was the first big freeway built in San Francisco Bay Area.
Anyway, there was this exit from off the field,
and it was a double S bend, one lane wide, double S bend,
and an ice blend on both sides of it.
And I'm going down, it's supposed to the 25.
I looked down at the speedometer, it's 45 or 50.
So I'm going to try to drift that corner.
Full four-wheel drift and a front-wheel drive Audi 100 LS.
And it went around the first quarter,
and there's trees and stuff all around it.
You couldn't see around the corner.
I didn't think anything about it.
Anyway, I got about halfway around the corner,
and there was a lineup of about five cars behind a street sweeper,
going about five or 10 miles an hour.
I was going to kill the guy that I was going to hit.
I mean, I was going to obliterate him.
So I said, well, let's go for the ice plant.
I got in the ice plant.
I made it completely around all five of these cars
and the street sweeper.
And the only thing that I did is I knocked off the hookup.
The guy in the car was a Volkswagen,
and I could see his eyes and his rear view mirror.
They were that big.
He knew he was dead.
This idiot was coming at about 45, 50 miles an hour,
and I managed to survive it.
You said ice plant?
Ice plant.
It's a very slippery growth.
It's very sturdy.
It's green.
Contractors will use this in the medians of the tracks,
at least they used to.
That's why it was there.
Ice plant was a typical thing of potential big hooks.
Okay.
What about a best drive?
Well, I'm fortunate that the good Lord gave me ability to drive cars fast,
and they were ones that were very, very satisfying.
Even if it wasn't that fast,
the technique involved in it made it very satisfying.
Really, it was probably in the speech,
you're winning that race.
The baller is that I remember the most,
it was that race, winning at Tesla goodness second,
going to the 10-2 flat out,
but I had some at serious point that we're very good.
We're coming from the back.
As far as over the street is concerned,
I think I've only had one or maybe two feeding tickets in my life.
I never drove cars fast.
Probably the most satisfying one was what used to be US Highway 40
through the Feather River Canyon.
My parents used to go there.
They built dams.
It went through several towns like Quincy and so forth.
But to get to this resort where we went,
you had to do this.
There was a guest there that showed up in a $300 sale,
a real one, and he was bragging about how fast it took him
from driving from one of the towns beginning of this runway
to the resort.
He knew I was the car guy,
and he said it was bragging on himself how fast he made it.
The next year, I went up.
I said, I'm going to see how fast I can make it there.
I went faster than he did on that drive,
and I didn't hit anything.
It wasn't very difficult.
It was before he started doing any racing or anything like that.
That was probably my most satisfying accomplishment
as a street driver.
If you hadn't asked the question,
I don't know if I would have even thought of it.
What gets you excited?
We did something you weren't really supposed to win as an underdog.
When I started from the back of the pack,
I probably didn't really think I could win.
I damn near won the regional.
I was one more lap than I would have passed him.
I probably shouldn't have done as good as I did than I did.
The other one was winning the national championship
with that messed up quad on my leg
and driving against the odds, so to speak.
Okay, yes, I got one.
When I was in the insurance business,
there was a lady there that was just gorgeous, sexy, and so forth.
Anyway, there was a contractor that was a racer,
and he was a total absolute jerk.
I hated the guy.
And Lai said, I want you to go out and get that business.
And I searched for him and said,
okay, Lai, I'll make you a deal.
If I bring that account in,
I want you to get me a weekend with,
I can't figure a name right now.
He goes, okay, of course I knew he was BSing me,
but anyway, I got the account.
And I was pretty proud of that, that I went
and I got this guy who I didn't like, who liked me.
And so I said, okay, Lai, pay up.
Lai Lai, he didn't, of course.
And he told the girl what the bet was all about.
Well, I didn't know that he told this girl.
And I was going upstairs in the opposite,
took out what laid me in.
He says, you wouldn't believe what Lai told me.
So she told me the story about Lai saying
that she was going to be my prize.
She almost said she would be, Lai said,
no, I'm married.
I can't do that. You're a beautiful woman.
And we'd be getting very good friends.
And we'd flirt with each other,
but we both knew it was hands off.
But getting him to say, okay, in pain,
it's a company that worked for a lot of money.
I was very proud of that,
particularly something I didn't really want to do.
Next question, Don.
Mentors?
Village.
I was going to Laguna State and doing a session.
Turn three was also in our car.
It was a turn flat too, but it wasn't, it was easier.
Anyway, I'm walking, going into the track in the car,
and I saw John driving around and I watched him
go around turn two and turn three to flat
in this very fast form of the B car.
It was in the cloth line, full position.
I said, if he can do that, I can do that.
And in Riverside, he would tell me turn one was flat,
turn two, if you were really, really good,
you could turn it flat in the 935.
Well, I wouldn't get a Riverside.
John told me he was riding the same car
and he was trying to go around turn two flat out
and work contact lenses.
And he said, point, this is the honest to God truth.
He said, I squeezed my eyes so hard,
I popped the lenses out of my eye as I entered turn two.
And John was not one to tell a lie.
It had to be true.
He, he's somehow squeezed his eyes so hard
that he popped the lenses right out.
He made it through the corner, but of course,
he slowed down so far.
Yeah.
That's why I say Millage.
He was a very good teacher
and one that would compete against him.
Quick story.
There was a lot across Golden Gatefields
and we were both driving his car
and I was doing something like car.
And so he would drive it and I drove it.
He'd turn in the car each one faster
than the last time.
So John would be faster, I beat him.
He beat me, I beat him.
Anyway, they had something during a certain time of the day,
all the official runs would go
and you could practice in somebody else's car
or take somebody out in the car
as you'd be in the instructor.
So this one kid walked up, it was both of us,
and John is down, crouched down,
checking the driver's tire pressure.
It is 914.6.
And this kid walked up and he said,
hey John, since this is just a practice run,
can I go for a ride with you?
And I was standing right behind John.
John looked at the guy, looked up at me,
looked at the guy, looked up at me,
looked up at the guy and he said,
I'm not out to go faster, I'm out for blood.
He says no, he says Dwight and I are going for blood.
And he ended up with the fastest time.
One time John had a go-kart, he reached go-karts too.
And it was my birthday
and my wife wanted to throw me
a surprise birthday party.
So John says, let's go down this go-kart track
and it was just practice sessions,
but it was on a race track.
So we went out and he turned to time
and I turned to time, I'd go faster, he'd go faster than me.
Anyway, we finally got down to the point,
we were only using stopwatches, so it wouldn't be accurate.
And we got down to the point,
we both had exactly the same time to accuracy as stopwatch.
We were pushing the car really hard
and I turned to the first corner and the steering arm broke.
It didn't hit anything, anything, it just broke.
So that took us over and we looked at each other
and we realized we both had the same time.
I'd down to the stopwatch time and we go,
well that sucks.
But so he was my mentor and a very, very good one.
Thank you.
Thank you.
About this episode
Dwight Mitchell shares his insights on modifying Porsches, the current state of the brand, and the rising prices of air-cooled models. He emphasizes the importance of setting a budget for modifications and reflects on how the demographic of Porsche owners has shifted over the years. Dwight recounts personal anecdotes about his racing experiences, mentors, and the satisfaction of driving. He also discusses the impact of his wife on his life and career, revealing a blend of humor and nostalgia throughout the conversation.
Original notes
Dwight Mitchell is known in Porsche circles for his dominance in PCA AX and as a 5 time SCCA Champion. 2 ASP Solo 2 National titles. 2 Class SPI Pro Solo Championships.
In this episode we talk about:
-Advice for someone that wants to modify their car.
-Thoughts on Porsche today.
-Fears or apprehensions.
-Best/worst drive.
-Mentors.
Send questions and suggestions to [email protected]
https://www.circuitsixfour.com/
https://www.instagram.com/circuit6four/https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox
Porsche Patter
Bracken Helmes
0:00
19:06