908 in Rancho Santa Fe?

[Kim Crosser]

A week or so ago I passed (in the opposite direction, of course) what looked like an original Porsche 908 on Via De La Valle near Del Mar. He was coming from the direction of Rancho Santa Fe. The car was white (or cream) with light blue areas.

Is there a collector in RSF with a 908? Are there 908 kit cars, or was that likely to be a real one? Anyone know the provenance of that particular car?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Tim Comeau]

The only 908 I'm aware of was owned by Said Marouf and I haven't seen it in a while.......
Was it a spyder, coupe, longtail?
It might have been a 910?

[Kim Crosser]

It has been a few weeks now, but (after searching through on-line pictures) it was a spyder and looked like a 908/3 or 908 Kurzheck -
flat/vertical sides, open center cockpit - I am embarrassed that I don't recall whether it had the vertical fins of the 908/3 or the spoilers of the Kurzheck, but the pictures of the fins on the 908/3 seem taller than what I remember, so a Kurzheck is possible. (The sides of the car were definitely vertical/flat, so I am pretty sure it wasn't a 910.)

I did find one link claiming that 908/3 chassis #17 was owned by Mark Leonard of La Jolla, in case that rings any bells. Another link says he ran it at Laguna Seca Historics in 2000.

The funniest part was following another link and winding up on an online post of a November 1998 Windblown Witness article by Wayne Baker that mentions Mark Leonard.

Ok - real-time update. Searches on Mark Leonard leads to "Grand Prix Classics" in La Jolla, which leads to:
http://www.grandprixclassics.com/cars_sold.htm
- and, voila, under Porsche is a pale blue 908/3! That is the car I saw on Via De La Valle.

Ok, enough of stream-of-consciousness Porsche fun - back to work.

[Jad]

That! was driving on the streets or was it on a trailer or something

[Kim Crosser]

He was driving westbound on Via De La Valle going past the Polo Grounds, near El Camino Real.

Yeah - you don't see many full race cars (with NO windshield - just that little deflector) on the street. It sure caught my eye.

I was going the other way with my wife in the car and we were due somewhere, otherwise I would have turned around and followed a bit.