Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums - The start of an affair

Hello all, first up I need to tell you all I am a guy even though my name is Ashley, I am originally from England where it’s more common for a boy’s name, but what can I tell you my parents watched gone with the wind ;) I now live with my wife in Torrance, So Cal.

I bought my first Porsche, a high mileage 944 85.5 back in England and loved it, decent gas miles, practical with the hatchback and a touch of luxury. But then my girlfriend wrote it off just before I left to travel overseas, much to my Dad’s disgust since he had agreed to look after it for me while I was away. Time passed and I moved to the US, I had a brief fling with a Honda S2000 but ended up barely driving it and then the economy tanked and I had to sell it to support my surf business. Well that’s all behind me now and I am fast approaching my 40th and with my truck paid off I got spousal approval for another sports car and started shopping. I originally wanted one of the new 5.0 Mustangs but decided I didn’t want a car loan, and then when I really got down to it there is not that much out there to choose from. I had a shortlist of a BMW Z4 Coupe, 928 which I always admired or a Triumph GT6. Then when I had another think about it the 928 was the obvious choice here in the US as it’s made for long drives which was one of the failings of the S2000. I did look at Boxsters and 911’s but they have always struck me as too much sport and not enough comfort.

First order of business, go test drive a 928, because sometimes the car you imagine is not the car it is right. I definitely wanted a stick shift so that also narrowed my choices, as did my color preference of black and tan. I did find a nice looking one in the valley and took the drive over to check it out. It was an 88 in blue with white interior. It had a buzzing noise in 4th gear and a noise from the front left side of the car on sweeping corners. Otherwise it was in really good condition, very clean with lots of history. Ultimately I walked away unimpressed, I just didn’t bond with it. Was a 928 not for me maybe?

Then auto trader turned up a black and tan 1990 GT in Colorado Springs with 190k on the clock for $13k. The pictures looked good and I spoke to the owner and he gave me a good feeling about the car and he had a lot of service history, plus it originally came from So Cal. Some on the phone haggling also saw the price drop; he was moving to Oregon and was a motivated seller.

So over to Colorado I flew with a stack of cash in hand and a hopeful outlook. He picked me up from the airport and I could immediately tell this lady had been neglected but she was already weaving a spell of attraction. The pictures for the ad were artfully taken to not show the badly worn seats, and of course although he had assured me everything was working he didn’t tell me before flying out that this included fully working warning lights for a brake pads, tail light, airbag and seatbelt. Still she seemed to run straight and true and he drove for the next 20 mins to his home which actually gave me a good sense of the car being a diamond in the rough. My expectations were low from the get go anyway, a 1990 for just over $10k with starship miles so I was not overly concerned. Pulling up to his home I noted a small oil spot which he did say had been ongoing for a while.

Long story short after checking all the fluids and giving it a once I cut the deal and headed off back to LA via road feeling pleased with myself. The first stop just west of Denver immediately showed up the first problem, the key didn’t fit in the driver’s door lock. Not the kind of thing you think to test. He assured me via txt that it locked and unlocked from the passenger side. Which it did but then immediately unlocked itself. Sigh.

After topping off the tank I carried on, sticking pretty much to the speed limit since I really didn’t know the car and as the miles passed we got more and more comfortable with each other. This car has a RMB so I had a Top Gear moment when I drove through the Eisenhower tunnel, rolling the window down and dropping down a gear to hear the music, it definitely put a smile on my face. I honestly didn’t notice the miles rolling by, after a long day flying out of LAX and changing planes in Denver and then hitting the road early evening I didn’t really expect to get too far before I was done, but the car and I chewed up a solid 400 miles before I pulled off the road around midnight in green river Utah. To be fair I was looking to stop earlier but wanted somewhere that looked like it would have an auto repair shop since she was running a bit over half on the temp gauge and climbed almost to the red before cooling down at the stop I made for a snack. I left the car unlocked and hoped it would still be there in the morning.

7am saw me heading out to the car with my stuff after having had a good breakfast and she fired right up. Whew! Next stop Vegas…. The next stretch of road was a little uncomfortable to say the least, it started snowing hard and there is nothing around there and no cell phone reception either, yikes… but on the plus side the low temp was a bonus for the cooling and everything ran smoothly. By the time I dropped down the other side of the mountains I was counting myself lucky, and pleased with the purchase. I had also figured out that the gear shift boot had definitely shrunk causing damage to the center console at some point before I got it, hopefully not big fix, I saw on the forums someone had patched in a section of metal around the same place as mine has a gap in the plastic under the ash tray, and as I dropped down in to the desert and the air warmed up I also realized that the A/C had stopped working, but the sound system continued to work well so I lived with it and arrived in Vegas for a fuel stop around noon.

A full tank of gas meant this would be my last stop and off I went and wow…. traffic sucked. All the way through Colorado and Utah folks moved out of the way but not on the Vegas to LA stretch, more confident in the car now I was able to enjoy the traffic a bit by simply using all available lanes and spaces to make good time so it wasn’t all bad and I ended up almost home in good time. Then as I literally pulled in to the road where my home is, the steering started groaning, dang I didn’t think to check the steering fluid on the last fuel stop, or the oil for that matter, and as I parked and looked under the car it was clear that whatever leaked, had literally just given way in the last half mile as I watched a pool ATF fluid spread quickly on my driveway.

Still my old 944 had a failed alternator on my 2nd day so I figured she got me home and I couldn’t ask much more than that given the neglected state she was in. The next day I washed and cleaned and scrubbed and waxed, and after just that little bit of TLC the locks started working! Funny how that goes. The steering noise turned out to be the main seals on the pump, plus the rack seals. It’s in the shop now being fixed along with a fresh set of engine mounts. And so starts the affair, she needs a fair amount of work to bring her back to scratch but once the steering rack is done nothing that will stop me from driving, meaning it will be more of a rolling restoration. Definitely needs a head refresh, timing belt was done 3 years and 30k ago so no rush there either, looks like the original shocks plus a bunch of other things… it’s going to be fun!

Here are a few pics, like I said she is still in the shop having the steering rack replaced. So more will follow as I document the rolling resto. Thanks all for providing so much info on the site, I spent hours going through all the threads before buying and it really helped when making the purchase.