Smooth as Sabel: A Look at the 1964 Sabel Porsche Special

During the late ’50s and early ’60s American racers were doing battle in a wide variety of homebuilt racecars and Specials. Taking production car engines and chassis and creating their own unique take on a competition car. They may have been quick, but many had a look only a mother (their creator) could love. This wasn’t the case with a car built by John Sabel.

Sabel was from the San Francisco Bay Area and like his friends, and many others, he fell under the spell of the automobile. Saving his money from odd jobs he finally scraped enough together to buy himself a Ford Model A. That car and successive others were his means of transportation. Sabel eventually picked up a hot-rodded ’29 coupe that was owned by Joe Huffaker and became, dare I say it, “fast friends.” They both became members of the Marin Coupe and Roadster Club.