With his new-found friends, he was making while working at the Texaco station in Minneapolis, Dave had the opportunity to work on a 1965 Corvette being set up for drag racing. 

Numerous hours and monumental effort were needed to prepare this car to race well. The owner appreciated Dave’s work so much that he painted Dave’s name on the hood. The owner was a decade older than Dave, and after racing for awhile, he put the Corvette into storage, which ultimately ended up with a collector in Wisconsin. 
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Fast forward to 2017, when Dave and his wife Janet attended a car show... low and behold… there was “his” car on display with the original livery they had used when prepping the car for racing, including his name painted on the hood!

Back to the Texaco station... during the period when the Corvette was being finished before it raced;  Dave was asked by the owner of the car, if he could make the trip to the competition in Indiana. He in turn asked the owner of the Texaco station for time off and was told “no!”  Well, you can imagine how that turned out, especially since Dave had other plans… just starting his engineering college career at the University of Minnesota. 
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Dave had recently traded his 1957 Chevy Convertible for a 1957 two-door hardtop (he had to piece together), and was drag racing with it as well as driving it to and from school.  He quickly realized paying for parking every day was taking a toll on his wallet. He had noticed a Shell full-service gas station just down the road… He quickly applied, was accepted, and again went for 3rd shift evening duties, knowing that he could get a lot of work done on his own car (and his friends) during those hours. 

Not missing a beat Dave accepted the job with two conditions; that he would be able to park his car at the station while he was at the Univerisity of Minnesota Mechanical Engineering school and that the owner let him take time off to go racing with his friends. Thus, started his strong affection with Shell.  
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Back to 2017…  After 42 years of working in engineering at the TORO Company, Dave and his wife decided it was time for him to retire into the life he had when he was a teen. He began by acquiring and working on his favorite, a 1957 Chevrolet Coupe … a new-found California barn find.  

Back to 2017…  After 42 years of working in engineering at the TORO Company, Dave and his wife decided it was time for him to retire into the life he had when he was a teen. He began by acquiring and working on his favorite, a 1957 Chevrolet Coupe … a new-found California barn find.  
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They purchased a 2,400 square-foot garage buildout to be finished at the Medina, Minnesota, AutoMotorPlex, where they knew they would be surrounded by other like-minded automotive enthusiasts. Then for a Christmas gift, Janet bought Dave (from Brinkman’s Auctions) a period-correct Shell gas pump, (from the time he worked at  the station). This beautiful gas pump became the central theme as they decorated their new garage condo

On the French Island of Corsica, August 9, 1970... an 11-year-old boy shopping with his dad, hands his dad a motorsport magazine he wants to buy instead of his usual comics…  “Are you sure?” his dad asks in disbelief. “Yes Dad, pleeeaaaase!” 

On the cover was a Gulf blue and orange Porsche 917 charging through the rain during the “24 Hours of Le Mans” with the title Porsche, finally! That was the beginning of how I got hooked on and connected to motorsport and Porsche!

The following year was the launch of the not yet iconic movie Le Mans with the unforgettable Steve McQueen. This movie made a great impression on my young mind! Now, as a testimony to that incredible era, it can be watched as an unbelievable project, and technical performance.

Five years later I was backpacking, traveling on a train, going to Le Mans to watch the race, and camp under the pine trees of the Dunlop Esses…. octane, cars, and pine trees! The passion was imbedded in me.

In 2010, after 25 years of traveling around the globe, my wife Veronique and I landed in Minneapolis, where we quickly got involved in the early days of the Medina, Minnesota, AutoMotorPlex by purchasing a car condo there. One of my dreams could finally come true; a couple of Porsches in a “Gulf Dream Garage.” A definitive place “all about cars” in which to do some work and meet other people (with their garage condos) sharing the same passion.

My wife and I had very specific ideas about decor. Our contractor ended up at the paint shop with a 1:43 scale model of a Gulf Porsche trying to match colors off their computer.  We had very specific requirements; no colors other than gulf blue and orange, and asphalt grey were tolerated!  By the end of the project, he was teasing us with the fact that having worked with (us) French people, there was now “nothing he couldn’t do!”

Porsche and Steve McQueen posters were obvious selections. Then, while visiting the annual “Porsche LA Lit & Toy Show” in Los Angeles with our friend Bill Groschen, we found a dozen, old, hand-drawn Porsche engineering drawings, displayed on the small table of a retired Porsche engineer. We were not too sure how he procured these… maybe through “the back door”, but they were real, and covered mainly Porsche road and racing cars from 1952 to 1971, before computer and CAD systems took over.