The Ex Dick Barbour Automotion Roadster

The "Automotion Roadster" started life as a stock 1960 Porsche 356 Roadster Super 90 (#88078), Royal Blue (6012), southern California car. In the mid 60’s the car was purchased by Dieter Vongehr, the owner and operator of a well known Porsche shop in San Diego, Dieter’s Foreign Car Service.

When Dieter bought the car it was still a street stock car in the original Royal Blue color. During his ownership the car broke a rod and destroyed the original Super 90 case (800831), he replaced it with a 356 C engine.

In February 1967 Dieter had the Roadster at Riverside Raceway to participate in a time trial. He had been doing some track days with the car and had purchased a roll bar for the car, but had not found time to install it. He was driving on a set of recapped Goodyear Blue Streak tires and a friend offered to let him swap wheels and tires so Dieter could try a ‘real’ set of Blue Streaks.

Dieter was surprised with how much better the new tires worked and kept increasing his speed with each run. Carrying a passenger with him, he pushed a bit too much and the car got sideways between turn 6 and 7, spun into the infield and rolled. The Roadster windshield frame did not collapse and saved both driver and passenger from injury.

Photos by Dieter Vongehr

Dieter’s insurance company had not included an exclusion in the policy for track use, and they ended up totaling the car and paying him off. Dieter in turn bought the car back from the insurance company as a total.

During the mid 60’s Dieter and Dick Barbour started a business in San Diego called ‘Automotion’. They supplied the Southern California racing community with a wide variety of racing, rallying and driving equipment as well as race car building and preparation.

After Dieter got the car back from the insurance company, Dick bought it with plans to build it into a race car. The May 1967 issue of the San Diego Region SCCA magazine ‘Gridlines’ states, “Dick Barbour and Dennis Sherman are setting up Dick’s Porsche for racing. Dick says he’s sure he can make it go as fast as Alan Johnson’s car. 'That isn’t saying I can drive it as fast as Johnson, though', Dick adds.”

By March 1968 Dick appeared to be well on his way to a bright future in Porsche racing, he was featured on the cover of Gridlines racing the now silver #6 Roadster. Inside the magazine he was listed as the early season points leader in the SCCA ‘E Production’ class.

At the time Barbour was still racing with only a ‘regional’ SCCA license, but the April issue of Gridlines reported, “Dick Barbour drove a fine race Saturday in the Automotion Porsche to a sixth overall, fourth in EP finish. After getting a special waiver and his National license (he was one regional race short), he drove to a fine third in class and fourth overall Sunday.” This issue also featured a nice racing photo of Barbour driving the car.

San Diego Stadium

Photo by Dieter Vongehr

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