In 1951 an unknown Canadian was beaten in a hill climb by a rich Austrian by the name of Max Hoffman. Hoffman would go on to become part of the Porsche legend and amass a great fortune. Marshall S. Green would remain impoverished his entire life, own the first Porsche in Canada, patent 13 inventions for others, drink too much, become national model airplane champion, and raise one son in an unconventional manner. He would die alone in 1982. Two months later his great friend—also Canadian, model airplane champion, heavy drinker, unsung sports hero, brilliant mathematician, and sports car enthusiast—Sam Stallard would also die alone and impoverished, he as well having raised one son in an unconventional manner. This movie is dedicated to these two fathers by their sons. Cheers, dads. You are not forgotten after all!
Below is a photoshop mockup representing the two identical 1955 356 Porsche Continental Carreras that have been envisioned and articulated by Eric Green and will be finished by the legendary QC and DK, then driven across the county as a conceptual art piece documented by Animal Media in honor of our fathers.
The actual car on November 15th 2017 in Ventura, California
The color of the bodies will be quantum green, which is a metalized custom version of the 1954 Porsche color radium green. The cars will have full 911 disk brakes, rack and pinion steering, and be powered by air-cooled 142 h.p. horizontally opposed 4s, similar to the 2-liter Carrera engine, sounding like a racing 1960 718 Porsche Spyder.
Rockport, Maine, probably 1962, maybe 1963. Note I’m doing the James Dean cool wave although I won’t see JD do it for at least 12 years.
1963 (the year the lovely unrivaled Cleopatra VW bug was born) father and son in Middletown, Ohio for just the one year away from the north country:
And in Sackets Harbor, New York where my dad met Sam Stallard. He had loan of a boat called the Cruel Stepmother and my mother and I bailed madly the entire time to keep her floating. A real delight.
And Marshall reading a Road and Track (1958?) on at the Appleton’s Queen Anne in the glassed-in front porch room. I so remember the smell of that room.
Thinking of early Road and Track, Jim Sitz gave me kind permission to post this photo. As an artist, it may well be my favorite racing photo of all time. As a racing fan, it might be my favorite photo of all time. It is of course Fangio in a Ferrari at Sebring in the year I was born. The mind-bender is that Jim was only 17 years old when he took the photo. Phil Hill had convinced him to leave California and take the trip. How cool is that?
The author liked Jim’s photo so much, he copied the sky in his latest drawing titled: Mirrored Landscape for Edward Hopper. This is a detail. For entire image go to Behance.net.
https://www.behance.net/user/?username=EricGreen
Great picture of your father & you.
Thanks! Check out the one of you.
I found your blog when I was searching Google for Sam Stallard. I am from England and I know of Sam Stallard because when I was researching a racing cyclist from my area called Percy Stallard (no relation) I found that my local archives has a letter from Sam Stallard in Quebec to Percy. It appears they were friends and Sam visited England some time in the early 1960s. I wondered how Percy Stallard met him. I understand Sam was a skier so perhaps they met when Percy came to Canada when racing?
Just so you know, I sent your words above to Sam’s son as soon as you wrote. Cheers! I loved Sam since I first met him at the age of two. Have some great photos of him racing his bike. He was my father’s only friend besides Jack Luck who died much too young.
Hi Marshall, thanks for sending my message to Sam’s son. It seems he knew the English cyclist Percy Stallard through their mutual interest of bike racing. Sorry to hear that he died impoverished and that your father’s other friend died too young.