REMEMBERING BRUCE

BRUCE ANDERSON 1938 – 2013

by Betty Jo Turner

When Bruce Anderson, for decades the undisputed go-to authority on all things 911 and most things Porsche, died on February 9, the news of his passing lit the Internet in ways I had thought were limited to rock stars and heads of state. On site after site, owners who had been helped by Bruce’s gently dispensed expertise wrote poignant notes about the man who had taken the time to reply to a desperate email, whose book on 911 performance had been a new owner’s nightly reading, the guy who stopped in the middle of judging a Monterey concours to answer a question.

A third generation Californian, he joined PCA in 1964 via Golden Gate Region. He tackled the world of concours competition early in his career, winning at Pebble Beach with his 356 GS GT. That done, he confined future participation to judging and was an avid supporter of Carmel’s Concours on the Avenue during Monterey Historics week. The 911 took hold of him over the winter of 1966/1967 when he and a group of friends bought half a dozen damaged 911 engines from a shipwreck in the Azores. Nursing them to life ignited a life-long passion that led to a successful shop, many successfully prepared race cars, support of a victorious team at Le Mans and publication of articles in magazines all over the world. His book, Porsche 911 Performance Handbook, first released in 1996, is now in its third edition.

We are fortunate that Bruce chose PANORAMA when he first began to explore writing about Porsches and I probably don’t have to point out that it was a labor of love, not money. Bruce was appointed PCA’s National Technical Chairman in 1981, a position he would hold for 20 years before being kicked up the ladder as PCA’s Senior Technical Advisor. In 1983 he debuted a column in PANORAMA whose ripples are still expanding. “Ask the Technical Chairman” was a one-man effort to publish answers to members’ questions about their cars. If it had a Porsche badge on it, Bruce could help. After six years of singlehandedly providing technical support for an ever growing community of PCAers, Bruce brought in other volunteer experts to assist, but every Tech Q & A column was carefully edited by the boss. That process continued even as Bruce was fighting for his life. Technical words in the tens of thousands would be extracted from the tech pages at pca.org and Bruce would review each before we could publish.

As the years passed, Bruce became the Porsche household word on the technical intricacies of Porsche. A permanent gig with Excellence magazine expanded his reach and may have miffed some PCA folks; after all, didn’t he belong to us? On the other hand, his work for PANORAMA was a gift freely given and gratefully accepted. That Bruce had become a national treasure became clear to me in 1998 at the Monterey Historics. Porsche was the honored marque that year and we were all at a party jammed with celebrities, automotive and otherwise. Elbowing his way through the mass of people came Jerry Seinfeld, clearly a man on a mission. He reached Bruce and stopped dead. “Is this the real Bruce Anderson?” Bruce turned beet red but managed to cope.

I remember Bruce as a fan of cool jazz and a lover of cats. His furry family included a pair named Thelonius and Mingus. The month we introduced “European Windows,” the column that Michael and Andrew Cotton write for PANORAMA from England, Bruce was the person who actually got the reference to the Modern Jazz Quartet’s iconic album. I remember him as a serious wine geek, often happily smuggling virtually unobtainable bottles into banquets. I remember him at War Bonnet Tech Sessions taking random questions and delivering presentations without the first scrap of a note.

And I remember him as an utterly devoted fan of Stephanie Anderson. Theirs was a marriage of strong personalities and deep commitment. Somehow it doesn’t seem at all unusual that when they married, they did so with former Porsche CEO Peter Schutz and his wife Sheila standing up for them. In recent years, Bruce didn’t care to travel without her. And Stephanie didn’t care to leave his side.

In the end, the truth about the passing of Bruce Anderson is more profound than the loss of a great and generous contributor to the Porsche Club of America or a technical force majeure in the larger world of Porsche. As Porsche’s great R&D chief Helmuth Bott said at the time of Al Holbert’s death, “We have lost more than we can replace.”

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Homage: Bruce Anderson 1938-2013

by Christian Tahon

Flat6 Magazine

Bruce is intimately linked to the evolution of Flat 6 Magazine like a guarantor, a mentor, a big brother. At our last meeting during the Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca in 2011-we like our usual good laugh by celebrating 20 years of Flat 6 and though he had lost his little "belly" legendary thin and weakened by heart disease, there were indeed always smiling with her laughing eyes. Accompanied by Stephanie with whom he shared his life with passion for Porsche as a journalist, Bruce was one of the most popular character in the paddock, he wanted to always greet all his friends, he was happy as a fish in water, Stephanie was also happy to see him like that even if she was afraid to see the bottom draw on its strengths at this point.  When we parted he told me especially not to worry, that he was preparing a paper for me 30 years flat 6 for editing in November 2021 ...

Back to the early 90s, remember a world without internet, a world where Porsche sold in dropper, a world already in crisis and the future of the big house was increasingly uncertain, a world where we tried to create what would become a reference, but which was then only a small quality magazine say "random" and that much of the small world Porsche did not see us through the winter.  At this time the details were rare and reference books too, Jurgen Barth had already written "successful Porsche" Paul Frere's "Eternal 911" and an American journalist Bruce Anderson "Porsche 911 performance handbook."

We can say that these three books have been the foundation of our culture Porsche and we wanted to incorporate in writing those who 'made' the Porsche at the time. Jurgen was too busy with the competition department and despite an obvious sympathy for us and our work, it was difficult at the time to consider working with us. Paul Frere Marc Joly met during presentations of press was packed so as to contribute to the development of the magazine I was left more than to contact Bruce to ask him to come and join our team. technical editor for the magazine American reference "Excellence" is a common contact Grace King Mark, I managed to reach Bruce by phone for the first time. My spoken and written English is better, I suggested him to go to become our correspondent for the U.S.. A week later he received a parcel with our first editions, the following week we received our first subject.

I was not very proud to win Bruce as corresponding "official" Flat 6. He planned a week's holiday in Paris before the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1994 and took appointment was to make him meet actors from the world of Porsche France. Despite my English summary Bruce Stephanie I were on the same wavelength. Flat 6 had evolved at that time and he was always very impressed by the image quality and the number of photos published in magazines, his American publisher limited quad pictures and we are always asking for more .... We met Jean Buser who distributed at the time the "performance handbook" and he was surprised to be so popular. It was spring and I was driving a convertible 3L2, he was surprised the baby seats adapted to 911 and our Way to ride every day, what he called the "Parisian carrera cup. ". I wanted to present my friends Rocco and Ulderico Campagna. The two brothers mechanics great if any, knew by heart the work of the master. I was a little worried because I could not see myself doing technical translations.

There is Esperanto for technicians because Bruce does not speak a word of French and two not a word of English, yet they have managed to communicate for hours. they exchanged on electronic injection, the adaptation of the classic G50 before 73. Precursors of these three. Upon returning to Paris Bruce was pleased with this meeting and during all the years that followed it, he always asked me about "his" Parisian friends.  Us a real bond is tied that week punctuated by the victory of 962 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans Dauer.

It was also there 4 years later to see our win "freelance" Stephane Ortelli in the Le Mans 98. Bruce was our ambassador to the USA and we have every major meeting of the Atlantic summers Marc Joly and welcomed me like princes and presented as such. Essential member of the Porsche Club of America, Stephanie and Bruce were still there at major events. Their joy of life and the knowledge of the model range since 1948 was an expert Bruce enjoys and fears all Porschistes. Judge at Pebble Beach and the biggest competition of authenticity he knew better than anyone analyze a model, his opinion was authentic. 

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Bruce Anderson

Former Resident of Sunnyvale, CA

May 27, 1938 – February 9, 2013

San Jose Mercury News Obituary

In the early morning hours of February 9, 2013 the Porsche world lost a great friend, enthusiast, advocate and mentor.  Bruce Anderson finally lost his epic struggle with heart failure enduring thirteen months of hospitalization.  Bruce came home briefly last June and was able to serve as the Chief Porsche Judge at the Carmel Concours on the Avenue in August.  Bruce is best known as author of The Porsche 911 Performance Handbook, currently in its third edition and “The Bible” to all 911 enthusiasts.  His additional journalistic achievements include regular columns in Excellence as Technical Editor, Flat Six (France), 911 Porsche World (UK), 911 (Japan), and Christophorus. 

Bruce worked for Hewlett Packard from 1960 to 1976.  He began as a technical writer and was Publications Manager at the Santa Clara Division when he decided to focus his endeavors on his love of Porsches.  He and his partners opened a successful Porsche repair and tuning shop and later an international racing team winning the IMSA GTR, GT and GTO Championships.

Bruce is survived by his wife of 39 years, Stephanie; his brother Clark of Sonora. He was preceded in death by his loving parents:  Claire and Lillian Anderson of Willow Glen.

A Celebration of Life is planned for May 12, 2013 1:00pm to 4:00pm at Canepa Group, 4900 Scotts Valley Dr., Scotts Valley, CA 95066. 

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Bruce: Another side of or the other Bruce

by Bill Patton

Just read BJT”s farewell and tribute to our friend Bruce. She obviously nailed it, at least in terms of Bruce’s vast following in the tech world. Oddly, I knew little of Bruce from this perspective. Of course I knew he was “the word” but knew little of why. I knew he was “tech hero” to the hordes but little of why. I knew he was a prolific writer and dispenser of info but, again, little of why. You see I was, am and will forever be a tech dummy. If Bruce gave me a personal seminar on driver’s side seat adjustment I’d still be seated too far from the clutch. So, you see, I knew, loved and appreciated Bruce from a completely different perspective. Now for the coincidence. I was actually penning (ok, keying) the words below when Pano arrived. I read what BJT said about our friend and decided to continue what I was writing to conclusion.

This is it. Our friend Bruce is gone. The news reached me about two weeks late. This largely because though I am not yet reclusive I am a bit more private than I used to be. No facelook, no twitness, no openbook, no snoogle or snuggle. I have just resisted that for privacy, not to mention evade those who gather evidence. But, this incident going so long unknown by me has me reconsidering my privacy. Not so much because I’m afraid my own inevitable passing will go unnoticed but because I’d have preferred honoring Bruce and expressing my loss on a much more timely basis.

I have just Googled Bruce and found pretty much what I expected. Site after site containing page after page of tributes. It seems that everyone who ever even admired a passing Porsche knew who Bruce was and want to thank him for something he wrote, a hot tech tip he passed on to them, a discussion at a Porsche event or something he knew, they didn’t, that he shared and it worked.

Not me. I certainly had my share of air cooled 6’s and admired Bruce’s intimate and complete knowledge but never used it cuz I wrote “Dummies are Dumber about Porsches Than You Might Think and They Can’t be Cured No Matter Who Their Friends Are”.  Nope! My tribute to Bruce comes from a far different place.  It’s a fact that I met Bruce when I joined PCA in 1972, The 356 Registry and the 914-6 Club a few years later. So, it’s a fact that Porsches brought Bruce into my life but it wasn’t why we bonded and it wasn’t why he was such a great and valued friend.

As a matter of fact,  I cannot recall ever speaking or hearing one word of tech with or from Bruce in the entire time I knew him. Not even one. The closest we ever came was a brief conversation we had in 1980. I know, I know how can I remember a conversation that took place 33 years ago much less that it was actually 1980. Here is how. It was the only year I was stupid enough to enter a PCA, or any, concours, ever. Here is what happened. Bruce was judging my 57 Speedster at a PCA concours. I was standing nervously by hoping Bruce would be lenient because I was a rookie concours guy. He lifted the driver’s seat and peered underneath for whatever the hell it is that judge’s look under seats for and.....he found it. Actually them. A leaf from a nearby tree and, holy crap, a $5 bill. Both these foreign and invading objects under the seat of the car that had spent at least an hour preparing. He didn’t even look up at me (this will be a theme in my conversations with Bruce) but threw the leaf on the ground and mumbled, “This will cost you 10 points”.  He then stuffed the $5 in his shirt pocket and mumbled again, “This will cost you 20 points”. The dry sense of humor and wry smile of Bruce Anderson on display at their finest.

My only ever near tech experience with Bruce was at the 90’ Monterey Parade. Under Bruce’s chairmanship, I was conducting a tech session known as “Securing, Care and Feeding and Keeping of Sponsors”. He strode to the podium to introduce me to a huge audience of perhaps 50 attendees my fame had attracted to the event. “This is Bill Patton, (then 12 minutes of my credentials, former successes, idiosyncrasies, special skills, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.) as he stands here Bill is 100% sponsored. Jacket by Valvoline, Shirt by Pirelli, shoes by Penn, etc, etc, etc. Why even his boxer shorts are sponsored.....oops, sponsor withdrew and he is not wearing any.” This, of course, contained two jokes taking into account the title and theme of the session.

BJT hit on two areas where Bruce and I connected, bonded and, with a small cadre of other Golden Gate Region PCAers participated in activities outside the world of flat 6’s and q tip prepared cars. My primary relationship with Bruce revolved around jazz music and cats, not Porsche cars.

Betty Jo mentioned Bruce and Steph’s fondness for cats. Thelonious and Mingus were two of note who I recall quite vividly. I met them for the first time around the time that I acquired two rescue kittens. As yet unnamed, the Anderson cats inspired me to name mine Django and Tjader.

Over the years Bruce and Steph and I traded the organizing of jazz events for the cadre. Bruce once called and told me I needed to meet them at the movie theatre a few blocks from his home in Palo Alto. It was there that I heard and saw for the very first time the great Van Morrison. A few years later I got to return the favor by taking them to a club in San Francisco where the unknown Bobby McFerrin was playing one of his very first gigs. Several Monterey Festivals, many Yoshi’s and Great American Music Hall events, a few “Jazz in the Trees” events at my house, a hiring of heretofore unknown Tuck n Patti for a PCA dinner and a myriad of swapped tips and shared recordings later, we end up in the 400 square foot retail shop of KRML radio in Carmel (the radio station and venue for the movie “Play Misty For Me”) to see the virtually unknown Dianna Krall with an audience of perhaps 20 people and seated within 6 feet of the piano. The roster of jazz greats seen by this small band of bay area PCAers is staggering. Miles and Coltrane actually did walk off the stage at the UC Berkeley Greek Theatre in about 1978.

I think my favorite wry n’ dry story about Bruce occurred revolving around what I think was Miles Davis’ last concert. Miles died two weeks later. It was at the Saratoga Mountain Winery and Bruce and Stephanie and a few other couples decided to go. We secured tickets. In the meantime, I broke up with my date and got a last minute substitute. A young lady about 30 years younger than me and whereas it wasn’t a serious date I knew my friends were going to give me a hard time so I told them I wasn’t coming hoping I could avoid the gossip and sneak in without them seeing me. To my shock and astonishment when I picked up my date she had dressed in her version of Jazz attire. Hair dyed purple and green. Purple 6” heels, tight red pants, a very low cut top and a boa. OMG! I enter (actually slank, the past tense of slink) into the venue and perhaps 10 seconds later I hear my name shouted from the extreme top of the seats at the extreme end. It Is them. The cadre. So, not only am I caught but must now walk the length of the arena and climb to the top in the most conspicuous scene (almost) ever in my life. As I ascend the stairs and approach the group, Bruce, sitting at the very end of the row looks down at his feet and almost inaudibly mutters to me as I pass, “Wher’d ya get the parrot?” Nobody else heard. So the joke was private between Bruce and I,  but I am absolutely certain that those are the funniest, most ironic words ever spoken to me. Miles then appears and this being his crazy fusion and velvet period is dressed much like my date. Bruce leans to me and says, “Hey, I know, you brought her as a sacrifice to

Miles”.

Then there were the once annual weekend trips with the Gilpins, Gene and Cheryl of San Joaquin region (yes, that Gilpin. 1981 Family of the year, past President SJR-PCA, former National Public Relations Chairman, former Zone 7 Rep, Chairman 1990 Porsche Parade) to Death Valley. Napa Valley, Yosemite and others. It was on the Yosemite trip that Bruce made another wry, ironic and almost horrific comment. He will hate me for repeating this but I think I may owe it to him and with luck he won’t find out. The group (cadre) is socializing in the rear yard area of the famous Ahwahnee Hotel. Stephanie briefly disappears. She reappears as Bruce nodding in her direction says, yes wryly, “Steph must want game for dinner”. As I turn to see what he is nodding at the scene becomes bedlam. Stephanie had apparently gone to make friends with a small, but not small enough, deer that had ventured close to the group. as Bruce says “game” the game attacks Stephanie, knocks her to the ground and attacks her in a very aggressive way. Bruce and others leap to rescue and save Steph before more harm can be done. Bruce threatens me to secrecy about what he had said pre attack. I agree,......until now.

Just last last year Bruce helped me by arbitrating a claim I had with an insurance company revolving around a totaled 968 Cabriolet. His well known ethics played a big role in the positive outcome.

Bruce, I swear I really miss you as do a lot of people who really really knew you in ways exclusive to, or in addition to the tech thing. I very much regret not making the trek up highway 49 I talked about all last year. But, what the hell, we had a great time, didn’t we?

One of your many non-tech friends,

Bill

P.S.: Oh, and hey, just one more little thing, can you tell me how to

set the timing if.......

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Bruce Anderson

by Betty Jo Turner

Celebration of Life Speech

5-12-13

When Bruce Anderson, for decades the undisputed  go-to authority on all things 911 and most things Porsche, died on February 9, the news of his passing lit the Internet in ways I had thought were limited to rock stars and heads of state.  In France, Australia, and all over the U.K., bloggers mourned the loss of the man who knew more about 911s than anyone alive…except maybe Norbert Singer.

           

In his work at Panorama, where he originated the idea of a tech Q & A column singlehandedly in 1981, he was that rare writer who never missed a deadline.  Who never failed to respond…..in the tens of thousands of words……when he got the dreaded email from me saying “we need more.”

That Bruce had become a national treasure became clear to me in 1998 at the Monterey Historics.  Porsche was the honored marque that year and we were all at a party jammed with celebrities, automotive and otherwise.  Elbowing his way through the mass of people came Jerry Seinfeld, clearly a man on a mission.  He reached Bruce and stopped dead.  “Is this the real Bruce Anderson?”  Bruce turned beet red but managed to cope.

I remember Bruce as a fan of cool jazz and a lover of cats.  His furry family included a pair named Thelonius and Mingus.  The month we introduced “European Windows,” the column that Michael and Andrew Cotton write for Panorama  from England, Bruce was the person who actually got the reference to the Modern Jazz Quartet’s iconic album. I remember him as a serious wine geek, often happily smuggling virtually unobtainable bottles into banquets.  I remember him at War Bonnet Tech Sessions taking random questions and delivering presentations without the first scrap of a note.

And I remember him as an utterly devoted fan of Stephanie Anderson.  Theirs was a marriage of strong personalities and deep commitment.  Somehow it doesn’t seem at all unusual that when they married, they did so with former Porsche CEO Peter Schutz and his wife Sheila standing up for them.  In recent years, Bruce didn’t care to travel without her.  And Stephanie didn’t care to leave his side.

Just one quick story about them as a couple: Early in 1994 we started to hear rumors about Porsche coming back to Le Mans with a car that could win overall for the first time in nearly a decade.  Norbert Singer had been emphatic at Daytona when he told us that Porsche’s car for Le Mans would definitely be a GT car.  Sitting in a bar in Corpus Christi, Texas, after a PCA board meeting, Bruce and I tried to figure out how a GT car could beat front line Group C prototypes.  To do that would take a 962, but GT cars are built off street cars.  There are no 962 street cars.  “Sure there are,” said Bruce.  You know the story from there. 

Singer had found a way to drive a coach and 650 horses right through the 1994 regulations by building two 962 GT cars off Jochen Dauer’s single 962 street vehicle.  We all made reservations for France. 

For the first half of the race, things didn’t look so great for Porsche.  The Toyota GTP cars were the class of the field and though the GT 962s had no trouble leading their class, nobody believed that was Porsche’s goal.  The Toyotas settled into the lead with the two 962s barely in reach.  Leonard and I were staying just down the road in La Fleche and once all the night shots were done, we went to the hotel and went to bed.  Stef and Bruce, however, were staying near Angers and decided to spend the night in the press room.  When we got back early the next morning, they looked a bit ragged around the edges and nothing had improved on the track.  On it went, until about 90 minutes from the end, Stephanie apparently had all of the leading Toyota she could take.  “I’m going to fix this,” she said, going to the press room window as the Toyota came down the pit straight.  I looked at Bruce and he gave me that little smile and a wink.  And the Toyota rolled to a stop with a broken gearbox weld.  Stephanie turned around with her eyes as big as saucers and Bruce laughed his head off.  That’s when I decided to be very careful with Bruce’s lady.

I am so grateful to have had the privilege of working with Bruce professionally and even more grateful to be counted among the Andersons’ friends.  His imprint is indelible.  We’ll never forget Bruce Anderson.

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Bruce Anderson

by Leonard Turner

Bruce’s Celebration of Life

5-12-13

I knew Bruce for some 40 years, and found him to be a specialist in so many areas that I couldn’t keep count of them.  Everything from cats to cuisine, from jazz to photography, from wine to writing to watches; not to mention that he had more than a passing knowledge of machinery in general and Porsches in spectacular detail.  He was maybe the most generalized specialist I ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Par of my job for a long time was photographing people doing things that were important to them, and to many of the rest of us, so I have accumulated a good many “Bruce pictures” over the years and have looked through them again and again in the last few weeks.

I saw Bruce with old friends, smiling and happy, and with strangers, deep into a discussion of some arcane technical point that he understood and I didn’t. Looking at a 356 engine with a tiny little grin.  Autographing a book for an admirer.  I saw Bruce sitting in panel discussions with various other experts, and hands-on (literally) sorting his way through a Porsche suspension sub-assembly under the gaze of a Horst Marchart, the head of Weissach.  Delicately fingering the Porsche crest on a car one sunny day, judging concours wearing his golden replica of Ferry Porsche’s signature.  I saw Bruce doing sill stuff and serious stuff,

and loving both.

I sam him wearing the media vest at LeMans, in full photojournalist mode.  Other times he was at a podium, elaborating on what he knew and others want to know.  Sometimes he was wearing his signature suspenders, other times that Tommy Bahamas hat.  I even saw Bruce wearing a tuxedo once—while judging a concours.  I saw him being serious, being whimsical, enjoying friends, exhibiting that wonderful combination of dubious and cynical that made him cock his head to the side and start off replies with “Well, I don’t know about that---“.  I often saw Bruce with a glass of wine in his hand, sharing with friends.  But always I saw Bruce and Stephanie, his love, his defender, his support, his other half.

So, here’s to you Bruce.  It was a great 40 year run.  I’m a better, smarter, and happier person because of those images.