Article on ANDIAL in today's OC Register

[Carrera3.5L]

ANDIAL made the front page today of the Orange County Register with an article of their history and past exploits.

Having worked there for 5+ years and still get together with some of the employees and owners on a personal basis, I was disappointed with the article as a whole as there were ALOT of inaccurate things said. Obviously, Arnold & Dieter didn't get to proof read before it was submitted.

Here is a link to the OC Register home page and then click on "Todays Front Page" on the menu at the left and scroll to the bottom.

http://www.ocregister.com/

Even though the article was not well written/researched, still kind of cool of seeing a Porsche tuner (and one that you worked for!) on the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper.

Ralph

[Sameer]

Ralph,
I clicked on the link but cant seem to find anything on Andial

[Jack Olsen]

I'd say Andial is more than just a 'Porsche tuner,' but I agree with what you're saying, Ralph.

Here's a better link.

[Joe Bob]

Link requires a sign up....

As to inaccuracies in the press. It is a fact of life. Most people don't have enough interaction with the press to realize how screwed up they can be.

With every Woodward and Bernstein expose there are thousands of mundane articles that are just junk. I work for a public agency that issues press releases and has reporters calling for qutoes and information on a regular basis. It is amazing on how they translate that information to the absolute drivel and/or just 100% turnaround of facts.

I personally refuse to be quoted, give information or to be quoted by the press.....I have been hosed once too often by junior cub reporters trying to make a name for themselves.

I have a few friends in the fourth estate that agree with me....these guys WILL eat their young...

Just because it's in the paper doan make it true....kinda like the drivel on the Internet....%^B

[Sameer]

Jack,
Thx

[emcon5]

Full Text, login thanks to http://www.bugmenot.com/

-----------------------------------------------------------
The Morning Read: Setting the Porsche pace
ANDIAL founders earn their niche by making fast sports cars even faster.

By CHRIS KNAP
The Orange County Register

The Porsche owner on his way to becoming rich accosted the shop owner on his way to becoming famous in front of a crowd at Laguna Seca, some 27 years ago.

"Arnold," Jim Jannard charged, poking him. "You smoked in my car!"

Arnold Wagner of ANDIAL, then a little-known Orange County tuner, wasn't sure.

"I don't know; it's possible," he shrugged, hissing his S's.

"I know, because I never smoke in that car," Jannard said, "and you smoke and you drove my car!"

A thing like that, smoking in someone's pristine 930 - oh, the horror. On the other hand, there's something about a mechanic so accustomed to Turbo Porsches he doesn't think once about lighting up.

And so Jannard, who would become the billionaire CEO of Oakley and the buyer of many a Porsche, would repeatedly return to ANDIAL.

Because while Arnold might smoke in your car (at least in the old days), your car wouldn't smoke after leaving ANDIAL, not even the famously weepy Porsche flat six.

In May, the legendary builder of high-powered Porsches celebrated 30 years. The journey has been scenic, if not always smooth.

HAND TOOLS

Arnold Wagner was 10 years old at the end of World War II, when the Russians forced his family into a boxcar and deported them from a small town in East Germany.

AHNold (the Germans say it like Schwarzenegger) grew up as a refugee in Westphalia, helping children with their math in exchange for meat.

In 1959 he was working as a carpenter's apprentice in West Germany when a friend suggested he go to Canada.

He tried building cabinets with the hand tools he'd brought from Germany, but realized it was taking too long. He applied for a $250 loan to buy power tools, but the bank said no.

So he took a job with the Toronto Porsche importer, who needed a German with a noggin for numbers to organize parts for the bathtub-shaped sports cars from Stuttgart.

Arnold's command of Porsche parts became so well-known that Hermosa Beach dealer Vasek Polak hired him away in 1965, along with a meticulous mechanic named Dieter Inzenhofer.

Arnold became Polak's parts manager and Dieter his top mechanic. Alwin Springer (the Germans say Al-vin) joined Polak's team a few years later, a blunt-talking builder of race engines.

After 10 years with Vasek, Arnold and Alvin realized that to achieve the American Dream they needed a part of the business. But Polak, a legendarily shrewd businessman, didn't want partners.

So one weekend Arnold and Dieter and Alwin piled into Arnold's Pontiac and drove south to Orange County.

"We looked at the map and said, 'Where is the most money?' " Alvin recalled.

They were pleased to see more new Porsches in Newport than in Hermosa.

"There were five or six Porsche shops," Arnold recalled. "I said, this must be the place. We were gonna open up smack in the middle and kill the SOBs. We never doubted that we could do it, that we could be better than them."

HIDING HIS WATCH

ANDIAL, an anagram from the first name of the three principals, opened in 1975 in downtown Costa Mesa. (Remember to forget the "R" in Arnold.)

Just a few months later the first production Porsche boosted by an exhaust turbocharger was sent to the U.S.

It was an exciting and brutal car - four speeds, 250 horsepower, and scary handling, especially if you lifted your right foot in a corner.

To the mechanics at ANDIAL, who'd built turbos with 1,200 horsepower for the 917 racer, the street car seemed underpowered.

ANDIAL quickly became the tuner for turning up the wick on the turbo.

In 1977 an ANDIAL Porsche won a Sports Car Club of America championship.

Almost every year after that - for 20 years - an ANDIAL engine won some major race series, including six wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona.

By 1985, ANDIAL had two buildings in Santa Ana and 28 employees. A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Mario Andretti all raced with ANDIAL engines.

It was often an odd mix, Alvin hissing at Arnold to pull down his sleeve so that Andretti and cigar-chomping owner Carl Haas wouldn't see his cheap plastic wristwatch.

In 1989, Porsche asked Alwin to take over as U.S. racing boss.

Some Porsche dealers - notably Vasek Polak - fumed. The independent shop from Santa Ana was already stealing their thunder on the track. Now they'd won the lucrative factory race business, too.

Finally, after ANDIAL celebrated its 20th anniversary, Alwin acceded to the dealer's demands that he separate Porsche Motorsport. In 1977 Alwin became a full-time Porsche employee, and ANDIAL was out of professional racing.

Arnold and Dieter faced a challenge � could they make it without the racing business? They set out to re-establish ANDIAL as a builder of meticulous, powerful and absolutely street-legal supercars.

NOTHING GAUDY

How much horsepower do you need to be happy?

Prius drivers glide along peacefully with 140. Honda Accords have 240.

The 1996 Porsche 993 Twin Turbo had 408 - and for some people that was still not enough.

In 1997, an Heir to a Large Publishing Fortune had a truck drop off a new 993 Turbo at ANDIAL.

HLPF: "Make me a car out of this."

Dieter: "How much money can we spend?"

HLPF: "I don't care."

If you can't even check your oil you might want to skip this, but here's what Dieter did:

Bigger pistons. Twin spark plugs. A racing cam from the RSR; a racing turbo from the GT-1. All topped off with an intercooler from a jet helicopter.

The result was a 570-horsepower Improvised Explosive Device that accelerates like a roller coaster going down - but quietly, in air-conditioned, leather-clad comfort.

In fact, to anyone but a Porsche expert, the car appears to be stock.

"We don't like anything gaudy," Arnold shrugs.

The ANDIAL twin-turbo, featured in a Porsche magazine in 1998, was so successful it drew 20 new engine orders.

And cemented ANDIAL's reputation with hundreds of working-stiff owners.

"I have a sense of pride about it," says Rob Bowman, a 3M salesman from Costa Mesa whose 1979 SC now boasts 85 extra horsepower. "It was built by the best Porsche mechanic in America, if not the world."

Arnold just celebrated his 69th birthday, but he's in three days a week. Dieter, at 62, is still turning wrenches.

The shop's always got a race car or two up on a rack, as well as a turbo or two. The phone rings constantly with calls from the cognoscenti.

Do they ever balk when they learn that the price for 570 horsepower is $50,000?

"Sometimes," Arnold allows, "they say, how about 100 (horsepower) less?"

[Zeke]

And, to top it off, Arnold and Dieter are as friendly to the customers who bring in a car for routine service as they are to the big money.

I agree with MikeZ's comments. I think that is his longest post ever. He must know what he is talking about.

I thought that was a good read. Thanks for the heads up.