Dwayne

Hello all,
I have not posted on this forum before - I usually hang out on the 928 forum (Dwayne) - but Ed (Obehave) thought there may be folks here that knew or followed Al Holbert and his Porsche racing events and might be interested in this brief story. The 928 that Al drove in the speed record event at Bonneville in 1986 was being raced by Mark Kibort and was recently involved in a race accident. Ed (Obehave) has taken ownership of the car and is planning on reconstructing the car in preparation for a 25th anniv. event at Bonneville. I provided transportation of the 928 from 928 Intl in Anaheim, CA to Danbury, CT last week. At the end of the journey, Ed made an appointment for me to stop by the Holbert Porsche dealership in Warrington, PA so those that knew and worked on the car at Al's family dealership could see the car again. Here's a short recap (with pics) of the visit (cross posted from the 928 forum)....

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 full 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!

earlyapex

I'm glad to see the car is going to get rebuilt.

early_grayce

Great post! Thanks for sharing.

carreracoupe997

Great Story...Thanks for taking the time.

Larry Herman

Holberts is 20 minutes from me. I know both Larry and Rich Christine (and I knew both Al and Bob). When you get it done, if you plan to stop by Holberts on your way back West how about some advance notice so a few of us can swing by? Beers are on me across at Houlihans.

Mahler9th

That's nice to know...

I have known Mark for years and have been on track with him driving that car a few times (though he preferred mixed-marque, SCCA racing versus all-Porsche events with the PRC). It is a shame what happened to him as he loved that car, but is is great to hear about this new plan for the chassis.

My interest in cars/racing/Porsches started when Al Holbert was running the Lowenbrau car. I took a several hour drive out to Holbert's once in the 80's just to see a limited edition car (944 Turbo S). I couldn't drive the car, but thought it was a really cool place. Like many, I was bummed out big time when Al Holbert passed on. It is cool that someone out there is a big enough fan of Porsches and Holbert to take this on.

jrgordonsenior

Thanks for sharing that bit of history. Truly great story and I hope that car is ready for Bonneville....

ricster

Where in Connecticut is the car?

Dwayne

The car is being worked on at Danbury, CT. Ed (Obehave) here on Rennlist is the owner and in charge of the project.

Lemming

Great story, thanks for sharing.

John H

NIce write up and great photos. I commend you and Ed for your work on restoring part of history.

M758

Mark, Ed & Dwayne,
Thank you!

I just spent a time reading the threads surrounding the crash, discussions on the future of the car and transport. Very good story to see.

While it was sad to see the car pretty much destroyed it does prove that this car is in my mind of the most important 928's in the USA. What makes it special is its history. That includes Holbert's run, but not just that. Its interesting path from record car to IMSA car to shop tool to weekend racer to the unquie trip accross the nation. All this ADDs to the history and I believe makes it more valuable now than ever before. The fact that the car was not put in a muesum back in 1986 is really good news since there I could never had traveled an experineced what it did. I am happy to see that it wil not be chopped up, but restored. I do hope that Ed can gather not just the parts to the car, but records all the history of it. Photos, stories etc shoulld all be maintined with the car as it is those things that make it more than bunch of sheetmetal and aluminum. I do agree Excellence should do an article on this cars crash and transport to the east coast. There was already a story on it and I think what has occured is very unique and rare. Then once the car is restored and run back at the salt flats it probably deserves a book.

Very nice guys!

RedlineMan

Hey;

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad I'm not the only one that believes in saving cars rather than just dumping them and moving on. Granted, it takes money that might possibly be "more efficiently spent" (a debateable point), and it takes the talent to do the work (which is often harder to find than the money), but there is more to life than expediency, and building new cars is far more expensive than people think. They only find this out when it is too late, when they have the price of three cars in one.

People get all hinky when they look at wrecked cars. Doesn't phase me a bit. I always have told them, They were Built Once, and they Can be Built Again! Keep us posted, if you would.

M758

Yeah I don't think this repair will be "cost effective" if it were Mark K would have kept it. From what I saw the repair will be long, intensive and expensive process. However ther is only one "Al Holbert World Record 928". So that makes it worth it. In the end what Ed will have is not just a repaired 928, but a restored legend. You can't really put a price on that.

This is of course not to say Mark should not have raced the car. He bought the car TO RACE IT years ago. He so with lots of personal joy and sucess. Enough that its time as Marks Race car brings it own special history. True Mark would come here talking about how his 928 was the greatest racing platform in the world, but that strangely gives the car more history. Provenance I gues you would call it. Not sure any 928 in the USA or even the world has it like this car.

Bryan Watts

Could always just graft the VINs off of this car onto another 928.