Cars We Love & Who We Are #75
Karen Moyers does not fit the mold, but, then again, maybe she does. My predominantly male adult school class, “Collectible automobiles as a passion” has for years attracted a broad spectrum of “Car Guys.” They display passions spanning the spectrum of collectible car enthusiasm. At first blush, it might seem counter intuitive that Karen, a pert bright eyed senior of retirement age, has been a respected class member for years. Any confusion disappears upon seeing how Karen leavens the class with her quick wit, infectious laugh and abiding love for driving Sally, her 1963 356B Porsche Super 90.
Meet Karen and Sally.
Karen and Sally, A Five-Decade Love Affair
Karen and Sally her 1963 356B Porsche Super 90
Mature and youthful, ready for fun on the open road while possessing a long history of black top adventures: for both Karen and Sally the description fits like a driving glove. Karen bestowed her 1963 356B Porsche Super 90 with the moniker “Sally” twenty years back after seeing Disney’s animated film “Cars.” Smitten with the animated Porsche’s persona, Karen appropriated the female lead’s name for her Porsche 356 automotive alter ego.
Karen’s relationship with Sally dates back to Karen’s marriage to her late husband Bill Moyers. Bill passed in 2015. Bill a Porsche executive and motoring enthusiast had originally purchased the Porsche in 1971. With Karen’s marriage to Bill in 1984 she gained a great husband and fellow motoring enthusiast. The Porsche provided just one more shared passion about which they could bond.
With Sally’s condition being all original save for a repaint in the 1970s, Karen, self confessed as “not the mechanical type,” marvels at how reliable Sally has been. This seems to reflect the more than 60-year old observations of Car and Driver in its October 1963 Review when it wrote “Porsche’s excitement is as much intellectual as visceral; the pride and pleasure of ownership comes not only from its characteristic comfort, controllability and roadability, but also its freedom from temperament. Its dependability can be taken for granted…It’s that kind of car.”
As to specifics, Sally features a lightweight design (roughly 2000 lbs.) matched with a high-revving 1.6-liter air-cooled 4-cylinder flat-four boxster engine. It puts out 90 horsepower and 89 lb.-ft. of torque. Car and Driver clocked its 0 – 60 mph time at 12.8 seconds. Its top speed peaks at roughly 100 mph.
A recent road test published on the Jalopnik website 60-years after the Car and Driver article sums up the 356 Super 90 experience pretty well. It appears to have aged well, like a fine wine. The Jalopnik reviewer states, “It’s pure joy. Unfiltered driving engagement and pleasure beamed straight into my brain. I spend a lot of time laughing and talking encouragingly to the little Super 90. It feels like a partnership or a conversation in a way that even old 911s can’t match with their extra weight and more modern suspension. With a curb weight of just over 2,000 lbs, you don’t feel like you’re trying to cheat physics.” Not unlike Sally, Karen has a life born into a car culture that produced years of driving pleasure.
Karen smiles in reflecting on the influences of her childhood in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They begin with her grandfather who owned an Atlantic gas station in nearby Quakertown. She says, “I remember being too young to be of any real help but loved being with my grandfather and feeling very comfortable in that automotive environment.”
Building on her gas station experiences her father introduced his young daughter to the classic car meet at Hershey. Karen fondly recalls saying, “My dad had an MGB. Every time Hershey had their meet, he would take me. I had my introduction to the meet when I was eight years old.” By her teens Karen had been comfortable driving her father’s manual equipped MGB and then later a Triumph TR4. Interestingly while Karen enjoyed full mastery of three-pedal driving, after marrying Bill most of her motoring experience did not involve a steering wheel.
Karen and Bill over their decades of marriage more often than not, hit the road on a Harley motorcycle; their newest Harley having been a late 20th century Softail Springer. Sitting astride their Harley with Karen reclined against the sissy bar they logged over 100,000 miles together. Let’s be clear. Short day trips do not produce that kind of mileage. Karen’s and Bill’s travels across North America included up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway taking full advantage of the delights offered by the “Tail of the Dragon,” Sturgis, multiple trips to Florida and Daytona, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but none better than when they decided they should drive to Wawa, Canada. Why Wawa? Why not Wawa? With all that said, for them, the capper would be exploring the southwest and Route 66 in Sally.
Karen, Bill and Sally on Route 66
Touring the Mother Road had been on their radar for oh so long. And, now, life’s uncertainties had elevated it to the top of the list. Bill’s health had experienced serious challenges. His latest compromised condition included vision problems.
Without a second thought they knew this was something they always wanted to do. Karen says, “We were going to do this trip. We were going to drive. We were not going to let his health stop us. We had never let his cardiac problems bother us in any of our quests. We always believed
Roue 66 Arizona
that’s the way you should live your life.” In this case Bill’s failing vision would necessitate Karen taking on the responsibility of all the driving; ultimately all 6,503 miles of it. “So be it, I took comfort knowing I would have a great navigator,” recalls Karen. In late summer of 2008 Karen, Bill and Sally set out for what would be the best trip of their shared life.
“Sally performed flawlessly,” Karen recalls. The couple did take what turned out to be the needless precaution of working through the Porsche Club of America to make a list of people to call along the travel route if there had been a problem.
After that experience Karen says, “That journey sealed a bond between Sally and me. I gained a greater feel and respect for her. She earned it over those thousands of miles traveled in conditions ranging from cloudless skies with a blazing sun to snow blanketed mountain passes.”
Karen goes on to explain how she developed her feel for Sally. She says, “I really don’t know that much about the engine or things like that,but with miles and miles of experience behind the wheel you kind of know when something’s not right, no matter how slight because your ear picks up an unfamiliar, thus troubling, noise; or you perceive a vibration that seems annoyingly foreign and thus demands your attention. In considering the subsequent 18 years since that Route 66 trip, Karen reflects on Sally’s place in her life saying, “She’s like part of 
me. She provides a strength, a foundation that archives happy memories while promising opportunities for more to come.
Memories indeed populate our lives, few if any more powerful than those generated by the loss of a dearly beloved spouse. Karen shares a poignant recollection from the days after Bill’s passing. It was a rough period and she was talking to a good friend of Bill’s. Karen says, “He suggested that to help me through this difficult time I should get a picture of Bill and whenever I was taking Sally for a ride place his photo in the passenger seat. It helped. It absolutely helped.”
When asked what she would write if she could send a note to Sally Karen simply states, “Thank you so much.”
