rbuswell

I've been flaming guys mainly in the OT about this idea that cars have soul. After all they are only machines. But I have no other way to explain this.

My '82 SC has never run very well since I bought it about a year ago. It's my first Porsche and I wanted the classic style and a car I can still work on. I just assumed that I was going to need to spend a lot of money or live with it. CIS issues (stalling when hot, surging), major oil leaks, underpowered, squirrelly handling, weird shifting, just crappy stuff that drives an old guy like me nuts. Heaven forbid that I'd ever drive it much or depend on it!

Last week I made up my mind that I was going to drive it as much as I can (every day that it doesn't snow, I guess), stop babying it and let the chips fall where they may. If it blows up, so be it. I've been pushing close to redline, passing cars I was staying back on before, just pushing it some. Since then, the car has started instantly, goes right to idle and stopped stalling, there's gobs of power, it shifts better, handles like a dream and I'm having an absolute blast. It even seems much smoother and less noisy.

Now it could be that my attitude is better but I don't think that can explain everything. And it may still bite me and strand me or something. But I think the darned thing is saying, "OK this guy is finally 'all in' so I'm going to show him what I can do." What do you guys think of this lunacy?

Edgy01

The more they're driven, the better they do,--also, the more familiar you are with its little quirks so that you can troubleshoot it faster!

shaynes

Listen they have soul no doubt, I have had almost every type of Porsche made, and the 3.2 widebodies just make me smile, I had to go take pics today to classify mine as collectibles for lower insurance today and I just smiled......You are all in and that is good.

Bretech

it took me 4 months to finally say "alright i have 911" cuz the truth is mine sucked at shifting, and I simply had to figure out what it likes and doesn't like but a 915 tranny should put me back in the drivers seat so to speak. Soul or no Soul these puppies have charater.

ked

I'm not sure about the car, but the designers sure did - they were the souls who designed it such that it is most functional (happiest?) when driven in the manner intended, as you have now determined. Enjoy! {& don't forget to maintain it in the manner intended, too.}

Loaded

i agree with all above, Mine was bought from a exas A&M Nerd who never drover her the way God Porsche ahd intended She had leaks galore. SO I said dman the torpedos full speed ahead droveher every day and VIOLA no more leaks, No more smoke on start up etc.


Congrats

rbuswell

Absolutely!

JV911

+1

go drive a toyota camry (or even a WRX ) then drive the 911. then you'll know what soul is all about

Bretech

Definitely OT but this BMF definitely has soul.

dsmith

yea, well, the harder i drive mine (on the track), the more it leaks! guess i have a real leak then... i'll rag it out some more this week at MSRH and see how it likes it!

rbuswell, i bought my SC for the reasons you state. only downside is parts cost.

rgrimm

I had the same "light bulb" moment with my first, the '68.

I knew you weren't supposed to lug air-cooled engines. I "thought" I was doing okay...and the car was fun and, dare I say, "soulful."

Then I got hooked up at the back end of a "color tour" one fall (as my wife says, we went screaming down the road, blowing all the leaves off the trees). I have to admit, on more than one occasion, I thought I was in the process of killing the car. But about half-way through the tour, I began to realize that this was what it really was all about. And on the drive home, by ourselves, at more "lawful" speeds, I also realized that the car had cleared its throat (Webers) and had never run better.

With the carburated cars, there was an old joke about the "Porsche tune-up"--just take it out in the spring and run the Q@$%#% out of it.

DARISC

Against my better judgement (striving daily to be a fish and fowl devourer for my protein needs), I'll ocassionally indulge my taste for organ meats, e.g. liver, heart, kidney.

I learned shortly after buying my SC (my first Porsche) that to truly experience this old 911 in the way it wants me to experience it, I must drive it in a way analogous way to properly preparing a kidney for the table, which is to say, turn up the heat and boil the **** out of it!

Ya gotta try it - it's soooo delicious!

psychoideas

g'day rbuswell,

I hear what you're saying. Back in the early eighties I had a 74 911s with standard CIS. After putting up with the surging and farting for too long I took it to my mechanic. (He was 250 km away!)
He took DARISC's view and "Boiled the **** out of it" Took it to redline in second about three times in a row. After that it ran fine. He looked at me and sternly asked, "Have you been driving it slowly???"

srf506

rbuswell,
My '85 euro 930 was driven a documented 24 miles total the year before I bought it (down to the vehicle inspection station and back). When I bought it I drove it from its home in PA to its new how in Orlando, FL, a distance of approximately 1,000 miles. In the first hundred, it died once on me for a completely stupid item I should have seen but didn't think of (it had a glass slo-blow fuze, of the proper amperage, in place of the ceramic fuze for the fuel pumps!), but after that one correction, it just ran better and better the further and faster we went. By the time we got home I had a list of changes/repairs I wanted to make. We did a major service (set the valves, replaced the push-rod tubes, changed every filter and fluid in her, cleaned and lubed her CV joints, replaced the rear shocks, new brake pads, and new tires) and she's been a stomping daily driver ever since.

These old cars don't want to be hangar queens, and for a 22-year old car, she still outperforms most stock 21st century vehicles with few exceptions.

You've now officially come over to the "dark side" and from now on just about any car you drive will be just another car. You are now officially a Porschephile!

Mike Murphy

The good old Italian tun-up! Blows the carbon deposits right out! Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: these cars have soul, like the drivers that drive them, no doubt.