• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Remembering past friends.

Share this page

DrEntropy

DrEntropy

Great Pumpkin
Platinum
Country flag
Offline
And employers. I'd sold Lotus and Alfa cars out of the dealership when it was owned by Bob Rost, left for a while and returned in '78 to become a tech in the shop. As the attached article states, Bob and Paulette Nickel ran the place as a family, the employees were part of their extended family. All dedicated to the dealership's success. On page three of the document, the 924 mentioned was a 'hands-on' effort. The attached photo is of that car with my mother posing with it, taken in my parents' driveway. I was driving it for "shakedown" purposes. Mitsy's '67 MGB in the background. Bob Nickel is gone now, but his influence is part of my past.

JoSCCA1.jpg


Later incarnation, believe this was Daytona 24 hours.
Rooted-In-Racing.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Bob_Nikel_PCA_Pano_2013OPT.pdf
    840.9 KB · Views: 156
Last edited:
Nice article about Bob. "he's a car nut... he remembers people by the cars they drive" :arms:
 
Great read! Thanks for sharing. He sounds like a remarkable guy to have called friend.
 
In fact, both Bobs were remarkable. Bob Rost had a farm in Ligonier. In a building off of the house he had a Lotus 18 chassis, an Abarth "Double Bubble" Zagato and a Lotus Cortina. He asked me if I were interested in the Cortina and of course I said yes. He said he'd not been able to get it running. His price was what I considered quite low but a caveat was I'd have to get it running and drive it home... Mitsy and I went to look at it, I spun it on the starter with no joy, pulled the dizzy out and dressed the points with an emery board borrowed from Herself, static timed it and it chimed up nicely. His only comment was: "I just KNEW you were going to do that!"

I drove it home with Mitsy trailing, in her MGB.
 
Great read, thank you for sharing. I just looked up the "Sewickley Auto Store", and on their Porsche web page, they pay homage to Bob Nikel. And mention "Buttercup", his wife's 356C. > About Sewickley Porsche | New Porsche & Used Luxury Dealer Near Pittsburgh <.

Curious - in your dealings in Pittsburgh, did you ever come across Mike Connolly of McB Autosports? (Before we moved to Boston, he and his son took care of my 2010 BMW; currently he has my TR4A engine for a rebuild.)
 
Well, Mike, I've quite a few stories of the goings-on at the Sewickley shop, both pre-Bob Nickel and after. Paulette would rarely take "Buttercup" out for a jaunt. Scotty George (son of the service manager and later became CEO of The Collier Collection) lived in the third floor apartment above us in what we jokingly called "The SPAA Kibbutz." An antebellum house a half block away from the shop, six apartments, only one of which was occupied by a non-employee. That house seemed to have had a rather "checkered" history. We rebuilt a few Lotus and Alfa engines in its basement over the winters, including a twin-spark GTA. I may have to pen a couple anecdotal tales for Basil to include in the "Articles" section here if anyone would be interested.

The name Mike Connolly sounds vaguely familiar but I'd not swear to having met him.
 
Sounds like a great house!!

Mike was pretty active in the PVGP - I think most folks know him through that.
 
Popeye said:
Sounds like a great house!!

Mike was pretty active in the PVGP - I think most folks know him through that.
Click to expand...
T'was indeed. Brilliant, talented folks to be around!

He then certainly knows Burt Young, former tech at the shop, ran an Alfa in the PVGP races for quite a while. Burt once ran for mayor of Sewickley. Scotty (Dick Scott) another PVGP guy. If I thought about it I'd likely come up with more folks. Jerry (sirname escapes now) was an SCCA EP MGB owner/driver, would spend hours with him in his garage working on the car and helping him lower the volume on bottles of Walker Black Label. :p

Bob Rost and Dick Jenkins ran a Cannonball run in a Berlina in (I think) '74, Bob asked me to co-drive with him in '76 but my then-wife put her foot down... on my, err... head. There's a good description Bob gave of their run someplace on the 'net, I'll try and find it.
 
My bad, it was 1972, and this is not the first-hand account Bob wrote. But I'll find that one too. But this is a fair summary.
On the Berlina Register
 
Thanks for the history - I'm hoping to catch up with Mike later this month; I'm sure the names will bring a smile to his face.
 
Anecdotal quickie: Dick J. had a GTV we did plug-cuts on, setting up a couple Webers. Using Ohio River Blvd. in front of the shop for the runs. :D
 
Back
Top