The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

MY PERSONAL AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY:

My first car . . . technically.  My grandfather, Claude Good, sold this (an identical one) to me for $50.oo as it had a connecting rod knocking.  I took it into my high school auto shop to repair it.  My shop teacher said I couldn't really just repair one rod that was knocking and that I would need to rebild the whole engine. Short on funds, and not fond of this year chevy . . .the '55, '56, and '57 Chevys were cool at the time, I sold it for $75.oo.  I regret it to this day.  It was in otherwise perfect condition: my grandfather owned a Chevron station and was a master mechanic.  Dumb kid that I was . . .

My first car was a 1957 Chevrolet 4-door wagon . . . not exactly like this one (mine was white, but I can't find a photo on-line of a white one).  I bought it at night not long after my 16th birthday with money burning a hole in my pocket.  I soon regretted it: the 283 and auto trans were junk and the body was bad . . . but it had mag wheels . . . . what a fool I was. Bought in Calimesa, CA, 1966.

My second car was a 1964 VW Beetle, like this one, I bought from my brother Allen when he went off to the Viet Nam war.  I put in nice speakers and a 4-track tape player (!!) and had many wonderful life experiences in it.  I rolled it in Santa Cruz, California one morning then drove it back to L.A. with no brakes . . . and got it fixed in my driveway by itinerate, door-to-door Mexican body and fender men. Bought in Calimesa, CA, in 1967.

My next car was a 1967 Ford Mustang just like this one.  Mine was a real bad boy street racer: 390 FE big block, Hooker headers, high rise manifold, Isky cam, Schaefer clutch, and "cheater slicks" on back.  It was a 3-speed and 4:11 gears, which was its secret weapon:  It tended to not spin the tires so much on the street as the the 4-speed cars, and the gear drop from 1st to 2nd also did not spin the tires much either . . . with all it's torque, it was a very fast car and often beat much more powerful cars on the street.  I loved that car!  I ran out of money and traded down (plus cash) for my next car . . . Bought in Redlands, CA, 1969.

I had a 67 Econoline panel van next . . . . with a Kon-Tiki interior of made of bamboo.  It was a horrible car, completely unreliable.  It caught on fire once at the drive-though window of a Der Weinerschnitzel in San Bernardino . . . but it still ran.  I was once mistakenly pulled over by the CHP as a murder suspect in this van . . .  very upsetting experience.

. . . another VW Beetle, this time a 1967 model, the last of the good ones!  Mine was just like this, only it was perfect inside and out, and I kept it that way too. Hardly a week would go by that I didn't have  somebody ask me if I would sell it.  Bought in San Bernardino, CA, 1971.

My good buddy and car guy, Charlie, found a '61 Chevy bubbletop Impala (not this one, but exactly like it) for me for US$500.oo and I couldn't pass it up. I sold the VW for a profit.  The 283 V8 smoked and ran on seven cylinders and the auto trans slipped and overheated, but it was a cool car.  I had it only a few months before I bought a Ford pick-up and moved to Oregon.  I got US$800.oo for it.  I wish I had this car today!

I bought a 1964 Ford long wheel base narrow bed pick-up with a quilted aluminum camper shell for my move to Oregon in 1973.  It had the 272 V-8 and 3-on-the-tree transmission with overdrive . . . and was a very pale pastel green with "Turner's Carpets, Yucaipa, CA" still on the door.  I loved that truck too . . . and made a tidy profit when I sold it for university tuition a few years later.  It was perfect inside and out.  Bought in Yucaipa, CA, 1972.  I sold the '64 Ford when a freind of mine told me about the 1959 Chevy Suburban 4X4, detailed above.

Then I had the aforementioned 1959 Chevrolet Napco 4X4 Suburban.

Technically not my car . . . but it belonged to my ex-wife, and I did drive it about as much as she did.

Even though I loved the '59 Suburban, I had left university and had a REAL PROFESSIONAL JOB in Salem, Oregon, a 20 mile on-way commute.  The Suburban's gas mileage was killing me . . . . so on impulse on the way home from work one rainy Oregon day, I pulled into a Chevy dealer and bought a 1976 Chevy Monza 2+2, V-8 (4.3L - 262ci), 4-speed with only 5000 miles on the odometer.  I liked that car very much . . . it had racing wheels (not those pictured above) and grippy tires.  Lots of fun . . . and pretty fast. Bought in Salem, Oregon, 1975.

That Real Professional Job was filling up my bank account pretty fast . . . . and being a big NHRA Drag Racing fan . . . as well as being haunted by memories of fast cars past (the '67 big block Mustang) . . . I sold the '76 Monza and bought this perfect 1964 Plymouth Valiant from a Plymouth dealer mechanic (Really!).  It had 45,000 miles on it and looked as new as the day it rolled off the assembly line.  It had the slant-6 engine with a push-button automatic transmission.  Perfect road trip car!  Bought in Salem, Oregon in 1976.  This change of car freed up even more money to be able to . . .

I actually found a photograph of my old 1949 British Ford Anglia.  I bought it to . . . build my dream drag race car: a Super Gas drag race car. I found this like new '49 Anglia in the want ads, bought it and took it to Herold Ketch in Portland, Oregon to have a tube frame fabricated that would meet the tech for the just created NHRA 9.90 Super Gas class.  Bought in Portland, Oregon in 1976.  I had a small block and racing powerglide in it . . . . and it had lots of fiberglass body parts . . . and it was coming together as a first class, and hopefully competitive, drag race car . . . . until . . . . I had an opportunity to take a job in Africa!  Kinshasa, Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of Congo)  . . . so I sold the 85% completed Anglia to Herold Ketch . . . and boarded a plane for The Congo . . . .

In The Congo 1977, my employer supplied me with a made-in-Brazil 1976 VW Beetle . . . with a dual carb 1600 engine.  It was a great car for the bad Kinshasa streets and the even worse country roads.  I drove everywhere in that Brazillian Beetle.  My third Beetle.

In 1980 my employer in Kinshasa supplied me with a 1980 Toyota Corolla (just like this one), my first NEW car.  I drove this car across most of The Congo on the worst, and most dangerous, roads in the world:  it never missed a beat!  A great car!

I was given the use of another new Toyota Corolla in 1994, this time a white wagon . . . another durable car I drove all over The Congo . . . until I departed for London, England in 1996.

I did not need to own a car in London as the public transport was so good.  For the first time since I was 16 years old in 1966, I didn't have my own car!  But I moved to Singapore after two years . . . This gold 1980 Ford Cortina was the car I had for the one year I lived in Singapore (1988-1989). Amazingly I actually found a photo of this fine car.  Because of the convoluted tax laws on car ownership in Singapore, I actually made a very good profit on the sale of this car . . . I traded it for Asian rattan furniture to be shipped to The States.  I drove this car from Singapore to Thailand along the west coast of Malaysia: 500 miles of tropical beach and palm trees without seeing a single person!  Wow!  After Singapore I spent time living in Chiang Mai, Thailand being  "movie star" (I had a five-week bit part in the horrible "Air America" movie while it was being filmed there).

In January 1990 I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia and bought a nice black 1980 Chevrolet Malibu 2-door with a hood bubble.  My Malibu had big tires in the back and Keystone Klassic wheels.  It was a junky car with a weak V-6 an lousy interior.  My old "race car addiction" reared it's head again.  I never did much with this car . . . too busy getting my Ph.D. at the University of Virginia to do much else.   I drove it a couple of years.

In 1994, in a huge rain storm, I traded in my lousy Malibu to an unsuspecting used car dealer in Richmond, Virginia for a 1986 VW Jetta Turbo Diesel like this with 70,000 mies on it.  It was nearly perfect, but nobody wanted a diesel at that time in America.  The Jetta regularly got over 50 mpg on the highway and purred like a kitten.  Great car.  I loved that car.  I eventually gave it to my daughter when I moved to Bangkok, Thailand in 1996.

O.K., this wasn't MY car, but I was a team member on the Oliver Kuttner-owned World Sportscar class racer at the Rolex Datona 24-hour race in February 1996.  I assembled this very BMW V-12 powered race car.

I actually had this 1990 Suzuki Caribbean before I arrived in Bangkok in July 1996.  My old friend from Kinshasa, Duane Vogt, was living in Bangkok and knew a guy who had a "car you will want" with low miles, so I bought it sight unseen.  It was perfect . . . only 15,000 miles on it.  I drove all over Thailand, north and south, in this car without ever having any problems.  However, I did have a very high-dollar car stereo system stolen out of it at a shopping mall in Bangkok when I parked next to the police sub-station . . . hhmmmmmm.

I bought this 2000 made-in-Thailand Ford Ranger when I stared to build may Harper Racing Drag Familia.  This photo was taken in front of my trackside garage and office at the fabulous Bangkok Drag Avenue . . . sight of many wonderful evenings spent racing and hanging out with my racing buddies.

I finally got around to building and racing a "super class" e.t. bracket drag racing vehicle in 2004: the famous Harper Racing Drag Familia.  It is a 1980 Mazda Familia mini-pick-up that was powered by a series of different Toyota engines over the eight years I owned and raced it: 1JZ and 1.5JZ turbo straight sixes, and a supercharged 1UZ V-8.  It ran a best of 10.56 e.t. at 146mph. Yes, I loved this car. A full feature of my former race car can be found on this site at this link:  My Former Race Car

I was part owner of this 1980 Maverick drag race car project.  This would have been the nicest drag car in Thailand . . . built to pass an NHRA tech inspection for safety as an example for Thai racers . . . and, perhaps, the quickest "street" car in the country.  Sadly, it was never completed.

My second brand new Ford Ranger, a 2007 double cab, towing the famous Harper Racing Drag Familia. The made-in-Thailand Ford Ranger is a great vehicle . . . over 30mpg on the highway while towing a race car.  Am selling it before I move to Aberdeen, Scotland in July 2013 . . .

My 21st car: a 2014 Nissan AWD Juke NISMO.  A totally awesome car for the cold, wet, narrow streets and roads of northeastern Scotland.  I sold this wonderful machine and moved back to Thailand.

 I'm back in Thailand again and bought this 'project' car: a 2002 Toyota Hilux Tiger pick-up.  I have big plans to make this a cool daily driver.  I have done extensive modifications on this car . . . chassis and engine - a V8!

The engine in my Toyota Tiger project is a Lexus 4.3L V8.  It made 311hp on the dyno.  I am very happy with the work done by the Mactec shop.

Although not really my car (it belongs to my brother), I brought it back to life and bought a Craigslist camper for $500.oo and lived in it on a 12 month road trip around the USA.   A Great year!  A 1994 Chevy 4X4.

After four years in Scotland we moved back to our home in Bangkok, Thailand.  Soon after we bought this Ford Everest.  It is a fantastic SUV.  Diesel, auto  . . . gets 40mpg on the highway.  Rides and drives like a dream.

Completed now . . . runs great (and fast), looks fantastic.  Adding a Whipple supercharger to the Lexus 4.3L V8 next . . . watch this space!

2019 Suzuki Swift . . . our new "city car" . . . excellent fuel economy, super low emission, quiet, comfortable, handles great, reasonable price.  We love it.