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Reply to "Speedster driving with the top up. What's it like and how is the visibility?"

Great thread, gentlemen. To recap, then:

1. A/C in a Beck absolutely will "keep up" with a Florida Summer.

2. Get a high-bow top with a zip-out rear window for air flow.

3. Get or fashion lexan/plexi side curtains for better visibility.

4. Convex mirrors, please.

5. Consider a scooped floor pan as well (applies to long torso guys).

To all this I will add just one thing for @Benjamin's edification: You will drive it as much as you really want to drive it. That means you need to understand that, to drive it in "less than ideal" weather or road conditions you will need to really want to drive it. To really want to drive it, you will need to come to terms with the fact that it will never behave in any significant way like a normal modern vehicle. This will be true even if you run a Subaru 2.5 engine with fuel injection. And it will be true to the nth power if you opt for an air-cooled, carbureted power plant. To really want to drive it, you will need to really want to learn how to properly start it when hot. You will need to really want to hear it rev past 4,000 rpm on the highway. You will need to really want to enjoy all the sounds and feelings that go with driving a vehicle that is designed and built like something from the Eisenhower administration. You will need to really want to sort out the little bugs and gremlins that will accompany it on delivery—true even with a Beck, which is built to a quality standard far beyond most kits, and beyond even what Porsche could muster back when it built cars that looked like it. There will be issues, and you're going to need to really want to patiently sort through them, one by one, over a period of months.

Most people who buy these really believe that they really want all these things. But in reality what they really want is a feeling, a look, a fantasy that these cars—any car—can't really deliver. They know they will look cool in it, just as you will, and their heart tricks them into thinking that will feel cool. But what it feels like is imminent death; like driving a child's pedal car straight into the mud pit of a monster truck rally. It feels like flop sweat and panic.

It feels wrong and dangerous and foolhardy and cramped and uncomfortable and loud and loud and so loud what was I thinking?

This is the feeling you must cultivate. And transcend.

Every man on this board who really drives their PCCA conveyance has learned, sometimes over long years, to really want to feel those feelings of helpless surrender. To revel in the knowledge that they have no On Star monitoring them, no air bags or ABS protecting them. No 12-speaker Bose Sound System or infotainment system to carry their concentration off, nor backup cameras or built-in satellite navigation to guide them. No special right to any lane or parking spot. Only raw wit and driving skill separating them from The Great Divide.

Cultivate a love for that. A desire for that. Then you will really want to drive the Speedster.

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