Now My Uncle Is Gone

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Quadratrückseite
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Post by Quadratrückseite » Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:15 pm

RussellK wrote:It was strange in that photo that I recognized him but hadn't put it together. And who is the person at the elbow? That person looks familiar too. Definitely a resemblance around the eyes to you Colin.
I was thinking that as well.
"The bus is the real talisman. It's the thing that runs through all of this history. It's not a thing anybody owns or controls. No matter how peeved you get with people, the bus always makes your heart jump. Everybody was attached to it."
- Ken Kesey

Steve
1978 Country Homes Camper conversion - "Gus"

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calivw78
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Post by calivw78 » Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:49 am

Hey Colin, sorry about the news. I can only imagine the conversations. Good memories live on.
Peace, Troy
www.calivw78.com
-----------------
'74 Deluxe Westy (Vandejo)
'78 Transporter (Buster)

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Post by Amskeptic » Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:23 am

calivw78 wrote:Hey Colin, sorry about the news. I can only imagine the conversations. Good memories live on.
I don't know if I can get this out with half the joy with which I heard it, but Derek was doing the eulogy at the church, and we all were leaking around the eyes looking at this gorgeous kid valiantly trying to share his thoughts about how his larger-than-life dad succumbed to a wheelchair existence, when he mentioned that Alma had always chided Phil for driving like a maniac. "Phil! When you come back in your next life, you are going to be a little man forced to sit in the passenger seat of a car driven by a slow big fat woman!" Derek looked up with a perfect perplexed pause, "it happened in this lifetime."
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Post by RSorak 71Westy » Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:37 am

Wow, Colin to have had a living legend as an uncle.....I'm blown completely away by this news. No wonder you are such a gear head!
Love ya even more now
Rick in Mwemphis
Take care,
Rick
Stock 1600 w/dual Solex 34's and header. mildly ported heads and EMPI elephant's feet. SVDA W/pertronix. 73 Thing has been sold. BTW I am a pro wrench have been fixing cars for living for over 30 yrs.

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Post by Amskeptic » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:38 am

RSorak 71Westy wrote:Wow, Colin to have had a living legend as an uncle.....I'm blown completely away by this news. No wonder you are such a gear head!
Love ya even more now
Rick in Mwemphis
Phil and I shared a greater trust in the mechanical universe than the human universe. A 1958 Ferrari with grabbing drum brakes and a cracked windscreen at 170 mph in the rain was so much more predictable to him than the people he grew up with. And I find a windy day with an old VW bus with half-seized ball joints and a wandering center pin on a hairpin decline holding a camera while trying to find the Diet Coke can holder, I find that more directionally stable by far than where I came from.
Colin :cyclopsani:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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hippiewannabe
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Re: Now My Uncle Is Gone

Post by hippiewannabe » Mon Oct 29, 2018 12:57 pm

You Tube somehow knew I would enjoy this after viewing a tutorial on electric cooling fans. A very nice tribute to Phil Hill from Jay Leno, wrapped around a session on a car he restored.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5e-E2BQVBY
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And most people fucking hate poetry.

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Re: Now My Uncle Is Gone

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Oct 29, 2018 7:04 pm

hippiewannabe wrote:
Mon Oct 29, 2018 12:57 pm
You Tube somehow knew I would enjoy this after viewing a tutorial on electric cooling fans. A very nice tribute to Phil Hill from Jay Leno, wrapped around a session on a car he restored.

Thanks for posting this, Don. I of course boiled over halfway through . . .
"retiring, modest, unassuming, shy," oy vey. Phil did not suffer fools gladly. If he was being "retiring, modest, unassuming, shy," it was because he could not stand you.

The reason Jay Leno was enjoying a nice drive thirty years after buying the car was because although yes, the car is a gorgeous example of excellent engineering and high quality, it was *re-Built* by Phil in his garage on 20th Street and Phil did not allow a single mechanical flaw to get by.

Jay recounted that Phil was gentle with cars and did not break them, but how about his own Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3? He *broke the differential* in it. Mercedes was so startled that they demanded he ship his old one back to the factory. I have been in a car with Phil when he was in a hurry, you better believe he knew how to extract every ounce of metallurgical performance, that is how he kicked my ass one night in the 1917 Packard Twin-Six while I was driving the aforementioned Mercedes 6.3. How did he do that? I still don't know.


So, when you drive one of my VWs in 2046 after I am long gone, I best not hear any blathering bullshit about my manners and you best clean up the engine before the cameras arrive . . . :cyclopsani:
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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hippiewannabe
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Re: Now My Uncle Is Gone

Post by hippiewannabe » Mon Oct 29, 2018 8:50 pm

Remember all judgments are relative. Leno is a stand-up comedian and television host, so by definition is an extroverted alpha type. He lives in a world populated by loud, obnoxious, arrogant blowhards. So a normal-ish guy with quiet self-confidence may be mistakenly described as shy. He meant it as a compliment, like everything else he said about him.
Truth is like poetry.
And most people fucking hate poetry.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Now My Uncle Is Gone

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Oct 30, 2018 9:19 pm

hippiewannabe wrote:
Mon Oct 29, 2018 8:50 pm
Remember all judgments are relative. Leno is a stand-up comedian and television host, so by definition is an extroverted alpha type. He lives in a world populated by loud, obnoxious, arrogant blowhards. So a normal-ish guy with quiet self-confidence may be mistakenly described as shy. He meant it as a compliment, like everything else he said about him.
Points all well-taken. Sometimes i miss Phil terribly.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Now My Uncle Is Gone

Post by airkooledchris » Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:28 pm

Thank you for posting this, even if Jay didn't really get to know the real Phil, his admiration of the man and what he could do with these machines both as a mechanic and a driver was warming.
1979 California Transporter

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