Amber Gramps

My wife and I were in St George, Utah this afternoon after spending a few days in Salt Lake City visiting our 16 year old daughter that is away at school. We were sitting in our favorite little stop along the main Blvd, Nielsen's Frozen Custard, when to our surprise a sweet looking Carrera pulls in.

It parks and out pop a couple that looked to be having the time of their lives. They walk in and I say to the gentleman "nice car" and he totally agrees.... He runs off to the bathroom and the woman sits down right next to my wife and I. Needless to say I had to compliment her on her choice of cars. She says it's her son's baby, then says that it's her husbands baby too.

Then she says that it's on loan from her son in Colorado. Colorado???? It has Utah plates. I ask: "What's up with the GT sticker in the back window? She says that is her "son's company, you know, the one that gave my husband the car two years ago."

Then it hits me...... It's THAT GTgears!!!!!! That guy on Rennlist from Colorado that goes by the name GTgears. Small freakin' world.

DUDE, you gave your parents an '86 CARRERA!!!

I did leave them alone long enough to enjoy the hot date and the cold custard.

Now of course I had to go drool on the car, and I did ask your dad to pose for a picture and your mother was going on and on about how she likes the red one too. LOL. They were awesome to chat with and quickly zoomed off down the road.

It wasn't until I was looking at the pictures later that I saw something that concerned me. It looks like the right front tire caught the fender lip and pulled it down. This just happened to a buddies car here locally and I'd hate for this to get worse. Hopefully dad can get this fender rolled back into shape before he catches it again and cuts down the tire and/or bends the fender and cracks the paint. Just wanted to give you a heads up. For all I know he was on his way to take care of it. With it sitting as low as it is, and with 7's up front, it was bound to happen.

theiceman

hard to tell by the pic but i bet the tire has some nice shaving off it too. I have 7s on mine but dont have this issue at all .. sometimes tire choice can make the difference.

GTgears

I don't know that I'm the best son. I'm reclaiming it when they decide it's too much work to get in and out of a sports car. It's like when someone loans a piece of artwork to a museum.

I guess my stepmom forgot that I traded the Guard's Red one for the car in my avatar. I missed having a SWB and figured two Carreras was redundant.

I will look into that fender ASAP. Would hate for some major to happen to them or the car. That has to be recent. I drove it for two years without issue and it wasn't like that last year when I was out there. Makes me wonder if the struts have worn out and made it sag.

Amber Gramps

Hey Matt, It's likely a combination of wheel and tire size, ride height, age of both the struts and Tbars, and enthusiastic driving.

On my big computer screen I can see chunking of the outer edge of tread. He likely went from the street into a driveway just a tad hot.

Other than that, the car looked great inside and out. Paint was great, tail looked fantastic on the car. Interior was clean. He was beaming from ear to ear when he found out you were world famous.

theiceman

naw . im sure its from the track days they are doing when you think they are havine tea with friends ..

GTgears

Nice. I would actually have no problem with him dashing up to Miller and taking some laps as long as he got a helmet and some instruction. I used to track the car at High Plains when I had it here. That's part of what makes me think something may have changed in how it is sitting.

I don't remember it being quite that low, and I did have a high quality alignment done by local guru, Pete, at the Tire Source when the tires were installed. I only tracked it once after that because I knew it was going away and didn't want my dad to have to worry about shredded tires. Pete sets up a lot of the RM PCA cars for folks. Though maybe it is just a hot driveway entry. Regardless it needs to be addressed ASAP. I just hope I can still get those particular Michelins.

GTgears

BTW,
The car is pretty special and unique. It is Sunflower Yellow, a 1974 color. It is also known as Limonen Gelb because it has just a tinge of green in it. Pictures don't usually show it. I've done some digging and in 1986 I can only find M491 and 930s painted that color, and there are less than 30 of them out there.

In addition to that, the Carrera script, tail with wiper, front headlight squirters, sport driver's seat and comfort passenger's seat were all to order. There's a couple other items I am sure I am forgetting.

The paint is 85% original. The left rear fender was replaced with an NOS 1/4 panel. The blending is really well done on it, but if you open the engine bay you can see that the replacement welds are way cleaner than the original ones on the right. The car is a definite keeper. In a perfect world the car won't ever be for sale.

GTgears

Just spoke to my dad. It appears that it happened in Farmington (north of SLC) last week while visiting my uncle. On the hillside above town the roads are really pitched to handle the runoff and my dad confirms that he did have a couple of scraping incidents entering their driveway.

Amber Lamps,
Thank you so much for the heads up. They were going to head down to AZ tomorrow to visit a cousin and now they are going to get this taken care of before they take the drive. My dad had not noticed it at all, and he also says thanks. He's really appreciating the P-car fraternity right now and that a chance encounter helped to prevent something worse from happening.

Regards,

Matt

Amber Gramps

No problem. For as hard as I may pound the self reliance line, we are still all in this together. What kind of enthusiast and car guy would I be to ignore that little flaw on an otherwise perfect car?

Maybe next spring your dad would endulge me and let me show off my car to him. We could meet at the same place.

...and would you believe we drove right by Miller Motorsports Park on Saturday night? We have friends in Tooele.

theiceman

i did that on my car a few times before i changed wheels .. th enoise is utterly horendous and you think the front fender is collapsing .. there is no missing it

i still think he was canyon carving tho

why does this thread remind me of the Ferris Buller parking garage scene..

Amber Gramps

I know. Imagine being the guy that has to call his father and say that a total stranger is airing dad's little secret on an international bulletin board. "Dad, rumor has it you F'ed up my car. Go to your room.".

" Dad, I told you I have eyes in the back of my head. Now turn over the keys."

GTgears

You guys are too funny.

John@Fabspeed

This is a great thread/read. loving the comradery. +1 guys.

Reiver

Neat story and coincidence.....

theiceman

naw its just a slow news day , no one on asking " can you tell every possible part that could fail on my 911 and what it would cost me to fix each one "

BTW what happened to pushingmyluck anyway ...

but dont say his name 3 times ..