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Well, I had a Toyota MR2 a while back. Total go kart, lots of fun, but really rusty. I knew it wasn't going to last long, but only paid $300 for it (plus another $300 in for a water pump and alternator that I knew I was going to need when I bought it). While pondering what to replace it with, I stumbled across a 944 and bought it pretty much "Eyes Wide Shut." Knew next to nothing about the car, but did mostly ok. It's kind of a POS. Wreck repair, body not quite straight. A few other issues. I've learned a good bit about the brand and the 944 in particular. It's been a lot of fun and a fair amount of grief.
I've had it since 05. In late '12, I came into a small windfall, and the 944 was giving me "more than normal" headaches, so I decided to replace it. But with what??? Another 944? 911? 928? A different brand? I knew a bit more about the brand and the models by this time. Did my research this time too. Long story short, a 928 gave me the most car for my money by a large margin. I knew the 928 was undervalued, but I hadn't realized how much car was available for the dollar.
The research I did also gave me a lot of confidence in being able to maintain it after I found this... Place.
I looked around the ads and found one that looked promising. 85 Euro, 5 speed. Green/green. Mechanicals were almost perfect. Interior was fair (turned out better than it appeared at first), exterior was poor. Lots of little dents and dings and scratches. I really didn't care all that much. I bought it for me, not to impress other people. Lots of minor issues. Speedo/odo didn't work, seats didn't work right, hatch & passenger door locks didn't work, rear wiper worked when it felt like it, wipers screamed like the proverbial "little girl", all sorts of minor stuff.
So I went and looked at it and bought it. It was in Minneapolis, and it turned out my mechanic and his wife were going to Mall of America to scuba in the "SeaLife" aquarium. With the sharks. Go figure. We looked it over and I bought it. Drove it 300 miles home that night. At first I had the "What in the world have I gotten myself into?" feeling. 300 miles from home, middle of January in Wisconsin, driving an exotic supercar home with no real certainty that it would make it. I had some good records, and the car was running fine, but the anxiety level was pretty high.
We stopped for a bite to eat, and when I hopped back in & turned the key, it fired right up. That sweet rumble that we all know so well. Somehow, some way, in that "crank & fire up" I heard the car let me know that "It will be fine. I won't let you down." And it didn't. Made it home fine. Put the car away first thing in the morning and we got 4" of snow that afternoon. Go figure.
I started working on it while it was still parked. Got a lot of the problems addressed before I got it out in the spring (with a ton of help from this place).
Before I got it out, I was explaining to my mom the differences between it and the 944. GT vs sportscar. Bigger, faster, more inside room, better ride, all that. I said (famous last words) "It's designed and intended for long distance, high speed roadtrips. If you wanted to go to Texas or Florida, this is the perfect car." So she said "Oh. We should take it to San Francisco to visit your sisters." (they actually live in Oakland, but it's still California - ~2000 miles). Really? Yup. She'd even pay for gas.
Lemme think about that one...
Take my 30 year old exotic supercar with a list of problems as long as my arm. Take my 76 year old mom. Get in, point west and go until we run out of land. Why the hell not?
So I told her to let me spend the first summer sorting the car out, driving it, learning it. We'd go in spring of 2014. And that's what we did. I spent the summer getting a lot of little stuff fixed, and one big thing - Motor Mounts & Oil Pan Gasket. After that was done (in October) Mom & I took the car for a "shakedown trip" - all day and about 500 miles. Up to Upper Michigan, around a bit and back. I made sure the car was good and that mom could stand being in it all day.
So, it went away for the winter(with a small "to do" list) and we made our plans. Go in late spring, after the snow was gone, but before the summer traffic. Across 90 to Rapid City, drop down & across the Black Hills into Wyoming, over through Lusk & Douglas, Casper then south across Muddy Gap to Rawlins. 80 west. Coming back, we'd drop south from Salt Lake City to Provo, across Soldier Summit then to Green River, then 70 across Colorado. Glenwood Canyon, Vail Pass & Eisenhower tunnel.
I trusted it not to let me down and it didn't . We had a great trip.
Then, later that summer, some idiot posted that older Cayennes were affordable. Really? My 97 Blazer was getting old and tired. I was pondering replacing it, but hadn't considered one of THOSE. So again, I did my research and started looking. After a few months, I found one locally. One owner, stack of records from the dealer two inches thick, nice car.
So now I have 3 Porsches. The 944 was for sale that first summer, but no one wanted it. Lots of lookers, but no takers. So I guess I'm keeping it.
When I was 8 yrs old, my family immigrated here from Hong Kong with only our clothes on our backs and stayed with our mom's family. Not knowing any English, my older brother and I would spent our first summer in 1982 "studying" my uncle's Car and Driver mags. We may not have known any written English, but the Porsche crest with numbers 944 and 928 were pretty straight forward in all languages. We both loved everything about Porsches, and in the early '80s, nothing beats the front engined Porsche!
Fast forward 30 some odd years to now, I am fortunate enough to be able to have a career that my parents dreamt of when they gave up everything (friends, home, culture) to come to America, and it allowed me plenty of leisure time for hobbies. It just happened to coincide with my newly constructed house and a brand new garage to make it my own!
I joined Rennlist in 2/2015 and spent the first 6 weeks looking and learning everything there is to learn about the 944 S2 or 951. However, I finally realized later that I can spend a little more money to get my true childhood dream car, the 928. An extensive search on all the websites (Cars.com, Autotrader, Rennlist, etc) with guidance from Stan (MrMerlin) and Gary Knox, I finally made my 1st 928 purchase, '89 S4.
Now, I am working on the '78 5spd project with much appreciation to everyone here lending me their knowledge.
Oops, forgot to mention that nothing about the garage and cars would happen if I didn't have a truly understanding and supportive wife!
My story started in the late 50's in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin - when my father (then in highschool) purchased a '49 Mercury and started to modify it by dropping in a larger Ford motor (used the tree in the back yard to pull it out with a chain) and paint "Little Rebel" on the side. He claims that was his nickname before some guy named "James Dean" arrived on the scene.
1960 rolls around, my father now 18 visits his girlfriend (my mother) and borrows money from her to buy a cherry red 1960 Corvette (to this day my mother claims he has never paid this money back, yes they are still married).
This Corvette was a lemon in every sense of the word. He learned his lesson quick, dumped it for a triple white 1960 with a 283 and the dual carb option.
To this day, his favorite car.
He spent the next 20 years buying / selling his way through six more Corvettes (63 Convertible, 65 coupe, 69 big block and a pair of 74's).
My father always open to new ideas, noticed this new company.......Audi.....with their controversial "Front Wheel Drive". Sometime in the 70's he purchased one of these and set the stage for a future of German filled garage stalls.
After a couple Audi's, a 240D Mercedes and some VW's (diesel rabbit pickup, couple of cabrio's for my sisters, some bugs...) he started to shop for a Porsche.
This was the mid 80's and I can remember like it was yesterday every 911 we went to look at. Some notable mentions:
Mocha Braun SC - this car was perfect. The owner just went through the engine / trans, replaced all the rubber....it was almost too good. My father loved this car but he was asking a bit too much
Gold targa SC - the seller needed the money since he just picked up a Silver Cloud
Blue Carrera - The car my mother took for a test drive with me in the back seat. To this day I remember the sales guy in the passenger seat instructing my mother to keep it above 3k rpm....as she rowed through the gears on the back roads of Kansas City
Meanwhile, a fellow business owner in Lawrence, Kansas who owned a body shop / junk yard started to buy early Porsche 928's. I remember the day we pulled into his lot with with two 928's out front for sale. A turquoise and brown OB.......
My father took one of them for a drive, and said:
"That is what I expected a Porsche to be like, the rest felt like expensive Volkswagens"
A few years later he loaded up the truck and moved the family back to their home, Wisconsin, and shortly after he purchased a Mocha Braun 1981 Porsche 928 5-speed with the competition package out of Milwaukee.
I was 16, maybe had my license a few months when my parents had to go away for a business trip. They were running late due to some meeting. I rushed them to the airport while the 928 was still in the driveway (it was kept in a storage unit down the road at that time). As I dropped my parents off at the airport my father said: "Sometime over the weekend, just make sure the 928 makes its way to the storage unit".
Needless to day, that short drive to the garage took three full days, included all of my friends and created some lasting memories. When my parents arrived home I told my father about my weekend adventures, he just smiled and said he was glad to hear I was able to enjoy the car.
He raised me around race car drivers and car guys and how to respect high performance automobiles. I did not do anything that weekend with his 928 that came close to risking the car or his trust in driving it (like trying to out run some pimp from Chicago).
I just drove it around and gave friends rides all over town.
That 928 is now the surcharged 16V sitting in my shop.
It's the first Porsche and I ever drove and from the day I got my drivers license I've been driving that car.
The rest, as they say...is history.
I have to give props to Jim Page of Page Auto and his high school friend Twin Turbo Todd. I first met them back in 1996 when I purchased my 944S (which I still have) and was scared to death to work on it. They gave me the courage and pep talks to push forward and Jim more than anyone wanted to see me in a 928, which led to me purchasing my father car a few years later.
Hope you like our story, I apologize if it was a bit long.
Just for ****s and grins.....hers is my mother changing the tire of the red 60 and posing with the 63, and sitting in the 69:
Like many of us here on RL, my infatuation started as a teenager back in the '80s. I saw a few 928s out and about and thought "man....I love that car".
I never have seen Risky Business, so my initial desire towards that car was completely personal. No Hollywood influence at all.
Life progressed, high school, college, marriage, kids, but any time I saw a shark during that time, I still thought "Damn...I want that car".
Fast forward a few years, I go to the local wine store where my wife and I shop and I see a red 928 in the parking lot. I walk in, start talking to the Wine Director (Robot808 / Bob) and bring it up to him. He mentions that it's his, and jealousy immediately sets in. In talking with him, he mentions RL, the great group of folks here and that the cars can be found fairly reasonably. At that point, I still view the 928 as out of reach and go home and drink my wine.
Time goes on, Bob and I talk more about the car, my interest continues to grow, and one day he mentions that he's leaving the store and needs to sell it due to his now job.
The stars align, it's bonus time for me at work, I get the wife's blessing and next thing I know I've got a car that I've lusted over for 30 years sitting in my garage.
I've been working on it for the last ~6 months, getting to learn the innards better and making it mine through all the smallish projects that I've been undertaking.
And now I've got another generation with a growing interest in the car, as evidenced my by avatar (minus the chicken), so the legacy will hopefully live on.
I had the standard youthful passions that are stirred up by a subscription to R&T. They went generally unsatisfied until I finally left school at age 28. With an actual job, I went through two Saab Turbos and a Miata, but later decided in favor of practicality and building a retirement nest egg. No more R&T's in the mail.
(I did have one car-related highlight during this time. GE had a consulting agreement with Ferrari, and I was involved. Very cool. As the 2000 US GP approached, it occurred to me that Ferrari might be sending tickets to Jack Welch that he wouldn't be using. I suggested to our chief engineer (a car guy) that he ought to inquire. As you can see from this video I shot, they were very good tickets indeed. That's Ross Braun at the end, watching the scrutineering of a nicely-toasted winning car.
I switched to a non-lucrative second career at age 50 - not unlike becoming a student again - freedom but no money - driving cars I shall not list here.
The time came to enjoy the nest egg as various critical age points arrived (59.5, 60, 62). Saw a Boxster while out riding my bicycle. That led to a 987.2 Cayman S PDK ("a celebration of engineering"), which led to a fascination with owning a classic Porsche, which led to the 928. That led to new skills and courage in mechanical work, which led me back to the old Saab and more recently, the very old Bugeye Sprite (I was casually looking for a BMW 2002tii at the time).
I've decided to be an opportunistic collector, rather than be the kind of guy that looks for a 5-speed, no-rub-strips, no-sunroof, low-mileage euro 928. Perhaps an '87-89 non-targa non-faded-guards-red 911 will fall into my lap someday....
11-04-2015, 04:23 PM
