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I am the "old man" that the first guy on this thread talked to at the San Clemente office of the Calif. DMV and I had written two previous very detailed replies to his recollection of our conversation but they did not take and so I am reluctant to go to all of that effort again until I know that this works.
I would like to correct a few things however:
I was 62 years old at the time that we met at the DMV (not 65 -75!)
My dad was not a racer.
I grew up in Burbank not LA.
Dr. William Eschrich bought Dean's car and initially stored it under a tarp between his Doctor's office (a converted house - but not his home) and his shop in the rear of the lot.
Doc had been racing an Offy powered Simca bodied sports car in So. Calif. Sports car Races with my dad as crew from 54 and was a "middle of the pack" runner.
We had seen Johnnie Von Neumann (Porsche dealer in Hollywood from whom Dean bought his Spyder) with his new Porsche Spyder doing quite well and even better when Ken Miles took over the driving chores.
After the Dean accident Doc ended up with the entire car. Doc purchased a Lotus IX rolling chassis from Jay Chamberlain (Lotus Dealer in Burbank) after test driving Jay's IX at a Palm Springs race.
My dad and doc put the 550 engine into the front of the Lotus. At that time my dad was going to go into business for himself (aircraft valves and seals) and during the break between jobs he drove the family around the US in the summer of 56. While in Florida my dad designed a tuned exhaust system for the "Potus" (not "Pooper" - that was a Porsche powered Cooper F1 car raced at Torry Pines by Pete Lovely) now that the engine sat up front and there was room to fit such a system. My dad mailed the sketch to Doc from Florida and buy the time we got back home Doc had the system made, installed and one race (Paramount Ranch) under his belt. The next race was at Santa Barbara and Dean's mechanic (who survived the wreck) was there (on crutches) and provided larger carburator main jets required because of the new exhaust system. This did not make him very popular with the Von Neumann camp because he worked for them and the "Potus" ran really well after the change.
Doc Eschrich was not killed in the car. A friend of his, Dr. Troy McHenry, with another Spyder that had some of Doc's Porsche parts on it, was killed at Pomona, Ca. in late 56 in the same race that was the Potus's last. Doc Eschrich was racing with Richie Ginter for the lead when they both spun off the track in some gravel. The State of Calif. was conctructing the Golden State freeway right through his medical practice and he had to set aside his racing until he got relocated further down Olive Ave. When he wanted to start up racing again my dad told him that to rebuild the Potus the way it was would render the car obsolete and my dad draw him a sketch of a new car where the driver was more reclined and along the lines of the very low and compact "Pooper". Doc was not up for starting over and the Potus chassis was raised up into the rafters (with the engine on a floor stand) and that was the end of that.
Doc's boys were now old enough to go on outings so he converter an old Seal trainer's bus to carry motorcycles, in place of the water tank, to the dessert.
Doc was I great Doctor and Mechanic. He reattached peoples fingers and made and maintained a large variety of vehicles from motorcycles, boats, cars, trucks, buses, mini bikes. Doc died of natural causes in Nov. of 89 and my dad in Jan. of 90.
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