[xrad]

Today was spent with several 'car guys' at the remembrance of my friend's father , Lynn Yakel, who passed several weeks ago. Lynn was an engineer and had worked on some of the space rockets of the 60's-70's. Some of you California guys might recall speed records out on the salt with cars and motorcycles designed by Lynn Yakel. Some of the projects he worked on included the design Larsen-Cummins’ streamliner in the 80’s which ran over 300mph. Other projects done with people such as Skip Hendrich, Don Vesco, Dennis Manning and on various Indianapolis cars through the years.



Lynn was also considered the worlds foremost expert on the mercedes 300SL. He had owned multiple examples and has a very large surplus of original parts. Dream Car garage is presently rebuilding one such car for BASF/Mercedes using parts and significant amount of advice from Lyco engineering, the company my friend now runs.



When he was younger, Lynn created one of the first chopped and channeled hot rods, a 32 coupe. We saw many pictures of this car at the gathering. This is a true hotrod conversion and the original is sought by many enthusiasts. Unfortunately, the original car seems lost to time. Lynn's son and I have spent much time in the SL shop working on my Porsche 968. It is really the only other non Mercedes car he will allow into the work area because he likes the lines.



Anyway, he had a slightly ornery personality according to many, but the times I spent with him, he was always generous with advice and alowing me to use his home and private shop to work on my car. Hope he finds the equivalent of the 'ring' in the afterlife!

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