PCH, Faster Pussycat Edition: TR3, MGA, or 356?

First, let's watch the trailer, to get into the right frame of mind. Remember, these bloodthirsty babes are roaming the same desert than the Manson Family made their own a few years later!

As I've mentioned before, Tura Satana's Porsche 356 gets all the attention, but the other two cars driven by Tura's murderous gang deserve equal consideration. So, let's start with Lori Williams' Triumph TR3.

I'm going to get lazy here and copy the description from the England's Dreaming PCH here: Imagine blasting across the desert like a Russ Meyer-esque dangerous outcast in your very own 50s Triumph... say, this 1959 TR3 (go here if the ad disappears), for example. The seller, Mike, is a man who doesn't believe in sucking all the oxygen out of the air with useless discussion (instead, he saves oxygen for vigorous union with iron atoms in the floor of his Triumph); the sum total of the car's description is as follows: "Mostly complete, California car, rust in floors, hard to find classic." It looks like it's been exposed to the elements for a while, so you figure there's some interior work to be done in addition to the rust repair and the inevitable battles against electrical woes, but who cares? Imagine this thing with the body in nice shape and a crazy twin-cam Japanese engine under the hood!

Yes, the TR3 is a mighty fine machine and all, but those bulging headlights might be just a little too cute for a true Tura Satana sidekick's ride. But this 1960 MGA (go here if the ad disappears) is quite the mean machine, with its 79-horse 1600 engine and heartbreaking Lucas electrics. The seller claims the engine and transmission are in working order, and that there's no rust on the body panels. However, mention of the rust situation in other areas (say, the floor... or the chassis) is conspicuously absent from the description. The car comes with a bunch of extra parts, and there may well be enough of them to put together one somewhat complete MGA. All for just $3,500! We'd recommend swapping out the original engine for a 4A-GZE, because your potential desert prey will be driving faster cars than they were in the mid-60s; 79 horsepower will allow everything but Rabbit Diesels and early Hyundai Excels to flee with ease. Then, of course, you'll need to paint it white, to match Haji's car from the movie.

All right, now we're done with the British cars and we're ready to take a look at the car driven by the leader of the pack (by the way, Ms. Satana celebrated her 69th birthday at Alameda's Forbidden Island tiki bar a few months ago, so maybe one of the DOTS cars belongs to her). I know a lot of you are probably saying something like "Dude, no way can you buy a real Porsche 356 anywhere near as cheap as those other two cars!" right about now, but that's because you haven't yet seen this 1964 Porsche 356 (go here if the ad disappears) for a stunningly cheap price tag of $4,995. We'll allow that it's missing a few things here and there. Such as the engine. And the transmission. And the floor. All right, fine, it's a rolling 356 shell- but, hey, at least it's not a Beetle-based kit car! We figure you could stuff a hairy Subaru mill in there and triple the horsepower while applying fingernails to the mental chalkboards of Porsche purists everywhere.