Todd Stevens at the wheel of his Porsche

Todd Gets A New Car

Todd Stevens of Birmingham, AL had a dream. He wanted to own a Porsche in his lifetime. This would be a very ordinary dream for most guys his age, but Todd, now 21 years old, has had to overcome overwhelming adversity to make his dream a reality. Todd was diagnosed with leukemia at age 16. Since then he has been fighting this disease with courage and the support of his family and friends.

Todd had spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital since his diagnosis. All throughout this time he was dreaming of owning his very own Porsche automobile. He dreamed, planned and hoped that one day he might accomplish his goal. His parents, Richard and Gail Stevens, noticed how enthusiastic he was about making this dream come true. Finally, one day, his mother told him that they could make it happen and Todd's search for the perfect car began. He was in Boston for 8 months during this time for a bone marrow transplant and often filled the days searching for THE CAR on multiple websites and in magazines.

"The Car" at Saab Tire and Auto

The search was a success when the family found a 2000 Porsche 911 Carerra Cabriolet in the Birmingham, AL area a couple of months ago. However, the five-year-old sports car needed a little help to become the car of Todd's dreams. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens asked several friends and colleagues who they could trust to make the needed repairs on their's new car. Saab Tire and Automotive said a highly regarded friend. The Stevens took the advice and brought the car in for service. The 911 received a set of 4 new Kumho Ecsta ASX Ultra High Performance tires (225/40WR18 on the front and 265/35WR18 on the rear), a 4-wheel alignment and balance of the new tires. Also, the  wheels were professionally refinished to remove some road rash incurred by the car's previous owner. Gail said the family received excellent from Saab Tire and Automotive and she would definitely come back for all of her future service needs on the Porsche.

Leaving Saab Tire and Auto

Todd, not yet well enough to drive the car, continued to recover from chemo and radiation treatments and along with a broken leg he suffered while in the hospital. He spent time in a wheel chair and relearning to walk on his own, but the whole time he remained determined to learn to drive as a special faithful friend encouraged him and taught him.

Todd finally drove his mother in his car for the first time on Mother's Day, May 8th, 2005. As a gift to his mother, he put the top down and drove her to church.

Pictures courtesy of Jack Criswell, AdPix.biz

Porsche 930 Reborn
by Scott Watson
((story and photos courtesy of Porsche Panorama magazine)

Once in a while, a wonderful thing happens to someone who deserves something great and unexpected in his or her life. Exactly that transpired over several weeks last September in Alabama Region. A recent form of reality television crept into our world and we embarked on the Zuffenhausen version of "Pimp My Ride." Here's the story.

Founding member Bill Mitchell, proprietor of Eurasian Auto Service in Birmingham, is the owner of a 1980 Euro 930. It's been his daily driver since 1985 and Bill has beefed up the motor significantly over the past few years. Mechanically, it is a beast and will run with virtually anything on the road. However, the esthetics of the car could only be described as tired. Actually, exhausted is more accurate, the paint faded as badly as a'72 Chevy on blocks in the boonies. The oak green factory paint looked like someone had emptied a case of Johnson's baby powder all over it, with special attention to the roof and trunk, and then baked it in a ceramic kiln at 1000 degrees. The interior was not much better. If you threw inside a hundred pounds of bananas, ten chimpanzees and locked the doors for a couple of weeks, you might be able to achieve the same effect.

Now Bill is manic about customer cars. He's usually so busy with them that there just hasn't been time for him to pay any attention to his own iron over the years. Actually, he's so manic that I have been told to get my foot off the bumper of my own 980 while it's in his shop. "It's your car most of the time, but when it's in my shop, keep your feet off the car." Yes, sir!

Enter Tom Egan, the outgoing registrar for our region and soon to be chief driving instructor. Tom led this transformation effort and assembled a team of club volunteers, professionals and financial contributors that were charged with the rehabilitation and associated expenses of Bill's 930.

First, Bill had to be separated from his car for at least two weeks. Tom contacted Bills bride, Jane, and told her what we were planning. Jane had Bill drop his 930 off at her mother's home so they could "clean up" their garage over a couple of weekends. We worried that Bill might trundle over to Mom's and discover his ride was absent, but Jane kept him appropriately diverted for the entire two weeks and our activities remained secret.

We thought we'd have the car long enough to make the rehab program work. Tom Egan had contacted various vendors that have known Bill for years to solicit their help. Mike Watkins of Watkins Autobody is the leader in high line body and paint work in Alabama, so getting his help, attention and use of his shop was a huge boost. Charlie Saab of Saab Tire worked with Tire Rack and secured some new rubber for our effort. And Tory Herring, proprietor of Leadership Partners got with BBS and worked out a deal to put some stellar BBS products on the 930.

Egan made off with Bill's 930 on a Friday afternoon and drove it to Watkins' shop. Our mission that evening was to scatter the car. Baggies and boxes were assigned to receive the removed parts. I am not the most mechanically inclined person and it has been my experience that taking something apart is somewhat less daunting than putting it back together. I had faith that the 930 would rise like the Phoenix from its woeful state into a thing of beauty because our team was comprised of some very adept individuals. Egan is a gearhead dating back to his high school days. A sales professional by day, he's capable of rebuilds, motor swaps, electrical, suspension and about anything else an educated wrench can do to a car. Our aces in the hole were Mike Nail and Casey Hooper. Both are technicians that work alongside Bill at Eurasian Auto. Both are young, smart and innovative. Rounding out the dream team were Rick Teer, our club CDI, and John Morgan, a sales pro at Birmingham's only Porsche dealership. They too are seasoned wrenchmen. I felt like a kid learning to swim in a small pool surrounded by lifeguards.

Let the games begin! Mirrors off. Lights off. Window frames out. Trunk and deck lids off. Door lock assemblies removed. Doors off. Antenna off. Fuel door off. Bumpers off. At this point in the disassembly, we came across dirt. Enough dirt and agricultural products removed from the back of Bill's car to start our own botanical garden. To benefit the rookies that attend our driver education events, Bill has demonstrated countless times just what it means to get a car loose on the skid pad. Bill always gets his car into a gyroscopic spin that takes him into unpaved territory. The shop floor looked like an archeological dig rather than the site of an automotive restoration. Seats out. Carpet out. Headliner out. Console out. Shifter out. Steering wheel off. Glass out. Wheels off. Brakes removed. All rubber gaskets and trim off and in the trash. Rocker panels off. The 930 looked like a victim of a chop shop at this point. Just as we had planned.

Now it was time for the Watkins crew to take over and apply their craft to the paint and the bodywork. Brett Seagraves was the lead dog in this undertaking. His crew included Gary Shelly, Nathan Barnes and Matt Collins. There were several occasions where the Watkins crew worked into the wee hours of the morning with the knowledge that we had a short time line. They took the car down to the metal. Their work was meticulous, right down to applying a perfect rough rock guard surface on the splitter beneath the front bumper.

Given the hideous greenlike appearance of Bill's 930, the decision to repaint the car the original oak green struck me as, well, stupid. Why not go with something different? Was I wrong! The paint looked stunning and unique. I wondered if a similar color would look good on my own 930.

There were a couple of assembly items that we did not want to fool with. Specifically, the headliner and the carpeting. Egan had the foresight to recruit Jack Helvin to install the new carpet kit and a "professional" to put the headliner in. Jack's skill made the carpet installation seamless and we were only too happy to stay the heck out of his way. We elected to go from green to black on the broadloom and that was a good decision. The door panels were sent off for redying and came back looking like new. The black window frames were sent off for a fresh powder coating under the watchful eye of Rick Teer.

The Saturday of the surprise party arrived. The car was still scattered but the team was ready to reassemble. Tom had prepaid a buckaroo to install the headliner. "Man, I've got some bills I need to pay, could you get me the money in advance?" Tom was happy to accommodate with the caveat that he had better be there to install the headliner first thing Saturday morning.

At 6'5" and 245 pounds, Tom's message should have been pretty clear to this guy. We were expecting to see him at 0900 on Saturday morning. He called at 0930 and said he was on his way. So the boys started putting the 930 back together. Bumpers, doors, locks, deck lid, trunk, mirrors, new GT wing and so on. We couldn't begin to finish the interior or replace the glass until the headliner was in. At 10:30 we still hadn't seen or heard from Mr. Reliable and he wasn't returning calls. We were sensing that the headliner dude was going to be a no show. A hit squad was forming.

I asked Mike Nail if he knew anyone who could come and install the headliner on a moment's notice. On a Saturday. Mike remembered a fellow that had his shop next to Eurasian a number of years back. Frank Peek had moved his business to Leeds, Alabama, on the outskirts of Birmingham. Mike got a number and made a cell call. Mike told Frank of our dilemma and he said he'd be joining us shortly. Frank did a beautiful job with the headliner as we stood waiting to get the seats and glass into the car. It was 2 p.m.

The glass guy had arrived at 11:00 thinking that the no-show-dude would have finished his headliner work. So he had been waiting for over three hours to get the melted sand into place, the last piece of the 930 puzzle other than a good cleaning and detail. As we got started on the glass, someone asked him how many 911s he had done over the course of his career. "None," was the shattering reply. But he stuck to his craft and got all the panes in. It was 5:30. The car got a quick shine and vacuum and Tom was on the road to his house with the nearly complete 930. We didn't have time to install the rocker panels but if the car was just sitting still, they hung nicely on their mounts and no one would be any the wiser. It was 6 p.m.

Now, at this point, Bill and Jane are preparing to join a few of us at the Egans' home for dinner and to check out the new deck that Tom had built. They were to arrive at 7. Tom had Adrianne deliver a message to Jane to delay their arrival until 7:30 which bought us an extra hour. We needed it!

Guests began to arrive and assemble in the Egans' backyard. They were directed to a parking area away from the front of the house so Bill would not suspect anything was afoot. Tom parked the Turbo in the backyard. To a person, guests were marveling at how great the car looked. And it did. No one could believe it was Bill's trusty steed.

Adrianne, some friends and family had been working all day to transform their backyard into party central. Lots of large tables with checkered flag table cloths and model cars as centerpieces. It was 7:15. The 80-90 guests now had to be quiet so Bill wouldn't hear them as he came in. When the Mitchells arrived, we made some small talk in the foyer and slowly made our way up to the kitchen. The new deck was just off the kitchen door and we shuffled Bill outside.

It was dark for a moment, but the lights came up and a triple decibel "Surprise!" greeted Bill. He had a look on his face like a frat kid who had consumed too much at a party and whose buddies stuck him on a bus to Tijuana. What the ...? Bill has since told us that his first thought was "What knucklehead parked their car in the Egans' backyard?" But in a few seconds he recognized the Barber Motosports Park and PCA founding member decals in the window exactly where they were on his car. As people began to congratulate him and compliment his car, he got it. It was his ride and it had gone from an ugly duckling to an eagle in two weeks.

Bill is not exactly a verbally challenged human being. Any planned five-minute visit to Eurasian Auto commonly turns into an hour of conversation with Bill carrying the bulk of the load. It was a treat for us to see him speechless. He also found himself in need of a few Kleenex as well, which we found gratifying.

Mission accomplished! Our friend and club co-patriarch had been shown our affection and appreciation of him and all his work for PCA in Alabama. If you run into Bill, ask him about his car and prepare to pull up a chair for a while. His speechless problem has since dissipated.

Corvette Museum Wants Birmingham Vette

Sean Hussey trusts his 600 horsepower Vintage 1965 Corvette Stingray race car to Saab Tire and Automotive. He says for years Charlie has been working on all of the family and collector cars.

Great customers like Sean are always a pleasure to work for. With this in mind, and since this IS a very special occasion, we thought you might want to see what the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky wants to see. The museum has extended an invitation to Sean for his car to be displayed for one year. You might want to check out their web site by visiting (www.corvettemuseum.com).

A race car since 1967, the Corvette won the 1972 and 1978 national championships for B/P in the NCCC (National Council of Corvette Clubs) race series. Later, during the 1980's, the car was raced in the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Solo 1 class. Finally, in the 1990's and onward through 2003, the Corvette was raced in the Vintage Road Racing Series at tracks such as Sebring and Road Atlanta.

I'm retiring it he said with a smile. I wanted Charlie to help me make it street legal before it headed to the Museum.

Saab Tire and Automotive performed some major mechanical, electrical and exhaust services to the car as well as put on a four brand new Yokohama AVS Sports and American Racing Alloy Wheels that were precision balanced.

Sean and I want the 20,000 members of the Corvette Museum to see it right and that includes Zora Arkus-Duntov's original autograph. He is the of the Corvette of course, said Charlie Saab. You can see his autograph on the cover of the glove box in front of the passenger's seat.

Rich Grehalva, a Birmingham based Porshe Club of America Club Racer stands proudly with Dan Carroll of Saab Tire and Automotive. We had his Cookie Cutter Porsche wheels cleaned, sandblasted, primed and painted yellow to match the trim on his Porsche 944. We provided a set of 225/50R15 Hoosier R3503 heat cycled racing rubber and aligned the car.

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