The last story on the COUNTRY BOY series. The above Phil Kunz photos are just a sample of some of the boats Mike Wiener had for the Country Boy Race Team. This story features all the boats that Mike Wiener used for his COUNTRY BOY team.
Ash wood frame used as template for Porsche’s original 356 model
The original frame of the Porsche 356. The frame was used as a template for future metal bodies. A time-consuming process of trial and error, the steps were repeated over and over again until the doors, hoods, roof, and fenders fit the wooden model perfectly.
Photo By Heritage and Porsche Museum
Building a hydroplane myself makes one appreciate the skills involved when I see an article like this. The idea of hammering aluminum sheets to form body panels reminds me when I see aluminum cowlings on an old school hydro (before fiberglass came to be). That’s the reason why I am sharing this story that was recently published from the Woodworking Network.
The first Porsche 356 were manufactured by hand. A massive framework of ash wood served as inspiration for the iconic form.
Opened by Helmut Pfeifhofer in 1982, Porsche Automuseum in Gmünd is home to the original model, a massive framework of ash wood that served as inspiration for the first-ever 356 sports car, which was manufactured by hand 75 years ago – also in Gmünd, Austria.
This piece of history was referred to as “Holzklopfmodell” or, in German, hammered wooden frame, but the frame itself was never hammered. Rather, it served as a model for the vehicles that began rolling off the production line at the Porsche factory in Gmünd, Austria, in 1948. A total of 52 type 356/2 vehicles were produced, of which there were 44 Coupé and eight Cabriolet. There were also an additional eight to ten, later designated as superlight (SL), vehicle bodies. These were, however, not completed until 1951/52 by the racing department in Stuttgart.
75 years ago, Porsche was a manufacturing company based on the division of labor, with series production still in the distant future. While the steel chassis could be produced comparably quickly, the external bodywork process proved to be arduous, as the aluminum sheets had to be shaped using hammers and then repeatedly held up to the wooden frame for comparison.
A time-consuming process of trial and error, the steps were repeated over and over again until the doors, hoods, roof, and fenders fit the wooden model perfectly. It took a specialist at least 90 hours to perfectly form the 356’s unmistakable outer skin. Then – and only then – was it ready to be nailed, riveted, and bolted to the inner structure. For this reason, Porsche engaged specialists such as Kastenhofer, Keibl, and Tatra in Vienna, and Beutler in Thun, Switzerland, to help with the manufacture of the bodywork.
John Siracusa’s COUNTRY BOY
John Siracusa was one of four brothers in the Siracusa family that campaigned hydros out of the New Orleans Power Boat Association. They were known as the Possum Navy. This family has lots of great racing history between them all, but this story only features the hydros that John Siracusa campaigned under the COUNTRY BOY name throughout the entire 1960s to the mid 1970s.
This is the 2nd in a 3-part series of hydros campaigning under the popular COUNTRY BOY name.
Media From The Past
I rebuilt our entire section on old media from the past.
This section also includes a NEW area of the website featuring newspaper articles from Dayton and St Pete. Many thanks to Phil Kunz. He made it a point to buy/collect newspapers from when he was at these races.
Race Boat Programs
I have an appreciation for boat racing that is turned into artwork and Race Programs had many fine examples of this work. I took all the Race Program covers we had (almost 300 of them) and put them into a flip book. The covers are arranged within the book in chronological order from oldest to newest.
George Walther’s Country Boy
Phil Kunz is doing 3 stories on the boats that campaigned under the COUNTRY BOY name.
The first CB story is on George Walther and his sons. The other stories will be the Wiener family’s Country Boy and the Siracusa family’s Country Boy.
The Walther’s boats campaigned under the name COUNTRY BOY and wow, did they have a lot of hydros. The boat racing bug started with Dad (George) as a young lad in the outboard class and then he moved up to the limited inboard classes. Eventually his son’s Skip and Salt took over driving as they became old enough to drive and the family did well. The Walther’s family last moved up to the unlimited class and ran a few of the big boats. The Unlimited hydros were not running under the CB name (as you could sell the boat’s naming rights to help support the cause). A real neat story and we think you will be amazed at the number of Country Boy hulls that they campaigned.
ANDIAMO – the boats raced by Tony Lamontia
Tony Lamontia raced from 1949 through the late 1980s. All his boats were named ANDIAMO. The Ron Jones built hydro (above) was the last boat he raced and his son Mark purchased it and it has been fully restored and now campaigns on the vintage circuit. Mark put together a wonderful webpage documenting his father’s racing days.
