951 Odyssey (v. long!)
04-18-2003, 08:47 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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951 Odyssey (v. long!)
After owning a beautiful 1984 944 NA for the past year, regular visits to Rennlist and intense reading of any Porsche magazines available, combined with an increasing Need for Speed at Porsche Club Queensland sprints, caused me to begin a search for a “loved” 951. After searching locally for the last couple of months, I concluded that good 951’s are very scarce in my neck of the woods (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) and I cast my net further afield via the Internet classified advertising searches.
After just missing out on an 87 in Sydney with 112K km and Cup wheels, I was taken by an ad for a 951 in Adelaide South Australia. (Adelaide is 2,200 km away from my home in Brisbane.) I rang the contact number and spoke to Greg, a doctor who had progressed through 944 NA and 944S2 to a 951, a car that, he informed me, he had intended to keep forever. Sadly, such are the plans of mice and men and the combination of horrendous legal fees, a 2 year old daughter and the choice between keeping the 951 or a Land Rover Discovery meant that the 951 had to go. The car was an 86 with 140,000 km (86,000 miles) supported by dealer logbook records plus various receipts for improvements such as a Fueltronics chip and 3” stainless exhaust and muffler. Colour was Zermatt silver with burgundy leather interior, all purported to be in mint condition. Wheels were the standard 16” Teledials (oh well…). Greg gave me the phone contact for his service guy, who I contacted straight away. When I told the service guy that I was calling from Brisbane and was thinking about flying down to Adelaide to look at Greg’s car, he said “don’t hesitate – it’s an excellent car….” Greg had used the car only on weekends and didn’t clock up many k’s, but had the car serviced every 6 months regardless, just telling the service guys to “do whatever needs doing”. That, and the good vibes I got from talking with Greg, convinced me that this was a worthwhile risk and so I booked a Thursday morning flight (one way!) to Adelaide, South Australia.
Thursday morning came around and at 5:30 am my wife Kathy and son Scott drove me to the airport to catch a Virgin Blue flight to Adelaide. The flight was uncrowded and I struck up a conversation with the window seat passenger, Terry, an earthmoving contractor going to Adelaide to visit his sister. After a few minutes of conversation, Terry and I discovered that we had a mutual interest in ….. cars! Terry had recently disposed of a Mitsubishi Evo 6 and had previously owned things like a Maserati Khamsin, Mercedes 380SEC and Jaguar XJS V12 – so he was a car nut of the first order. I told him of my reason for going to Adelaide and he became quite enthusiastic about the prospect of buying a Porsche and driving it 2,200 km (1,300 miles) back to Brisbane. The conversation about cars continued throughout the flight and into the terminal, where we found that our destinations were in the same direction, so we shared a taxi, dropping Terry off first after promising to ring him if I bought the car.
Arriving at my destination (Greg’s surgery) I (and the taxi driver) couldn’t miss the silver 951 crouching in the single parking space outside the surgery entrance. From the taxi it looked perfect and on closer inspection this proved to be the case. A quick look through the window revealed a beautiful burgundy leather interior and (oh joy!) a genuine Porsche sports leather rim wheel! Greg emerged soon after and after introductions and a more detailed look at the car, it was off for a test drive. Since we were in the middle of suburban Adelaide, there was no place to try some freeway speed stuff, but in a quiet back street, after driving around to warm things up, Greg nailed it in first and second – the effect was a bit like someone running into the back of the car! Suffice it to say that the performance was every bit as good as anticipated. My turn, and it was interesting to note the differences from my 944 NA – powered driver’s seat, higher steering wheel, lower clutch takeup point and lower brake pedal. Once moving, the softer throttle response below 3000 was obvious, but once past that mark everything changed……dramatically. I think I’ll need a “get out of jail free” card with this one! Really, if you hit boost in second, you’re over the local speed limit, so there’s a distinct need to tread carefully around town. Back to the surgery for some more looking and probing and examining of service records – belts changed at 132,000 km, all services done on time or ahead of time. The interior of this 17 year old car was better than some 17 MONTH old cars I’ve seen, and looked like the inhabitants practiced levitation during their time in the car to avoid marking or dirtying anything. The carpets were unmarked and the leather of the seats showed only light creasing. The dash was just as it was on leaving the factory – perfect. A good look underneath at the rear showed a stainless steel Genie Turbo rear muffler fed by a fat 3” stainless pipe. There were no scrapes, marks or oil leaks to be seen, supporting Greg’s claim that he had never driven the car off bitumen. Engine compartment was clean and again, no oil leaks to be seen. All fluids were good, no oil in water or vice-versa. The teledials were virtually unmarked, with no kerb marks – only the remains of adhesive from some stick-on weights. The only haggling factor I could find was that the rear tyres (Dunlop Le Mans) were down to the wear indicators in the centre – so a deal was done and the transfer papers completed and I was finally the owner of a 951.
I’m sure that all new Porsche owners are just itching to use their new toy in the first days of ownership – but I was able to scratch that itch for 2,200 km on my trip home to Queensland. After leaving Greg and his wife standing in front of the surgery waving sadly at their departing baby, I drove gingerly away, looking for a quiet place to park, get my bearings for the trip home, and to ring Terry as promised. Adelaide’s road system is extremely well thought out and I had no problem in charting a route across town to the main highway home – I had the choice of two routes – the first via Broken Hill – meaning large distances of quite unpopulated and wild country with few towns, or the second, via Renmark, Mildura, the Hay Plain, Dubbo, Coonabarraban and the Newell Highway, which was relatively populated, but not heavily trafficked. The second choice won because I didn’t want to risk an unknown vehicle in an unpopulated area and also because the last time I drove that road, it was lousy with kangaroos….big ones that can write off a car if hit at speed!
That settled, it was on the phone to Terry, who suggested meeting at a burger place on the way out of town. This was straightforward and I soon saw Terry standing waiting in the driveway of the burger place, waving to attract my attention. He agreed with my decision to buy the car and after having a good look around it, we went inside and had a bite to eat before I began my trip home. It was now about 2pm and Terry and I parted ways, promising to catch up back in Brisbane. My next task was to fill up with fuel before heading to Mildura, some 600 km (370 miles) away.
On the open road, the 951 proved to be much higher geared than my 944, to the extent that 4th in the 951 was almost the same gearing as 5th in the 944. This, coupled with the soft response below 3,000 rpm, meant that meaningful acceleration below 100 km/h required 4th or, if in a hurry, 3rd. Speaking of the gears, this was my initial assessment of on-boost acceleration through the gears:
1st – a bit like a teenager’s first try at lovemaking – over in a flash!
2nd – a Rottweiler let off the leash to chase an intruder
3rd – falling down a cliff
4th – a jet airliner taking off
5th – if you hit boost in 5th, make sure you have your “get out of jail free” card!
The car’s open road acceleration makes overtaking ridiculously easy, with traffic at 100km dispatched with a change down to 4th, hit boost, grab 5th, back in and look at the speedo – whoops!….dab the brakes in case there’s a mobile radar over the hill! Thankfully most of the road home was 110 km/h (70 mph) limit, and I rolled into Mildura around dinner time, found an overnight cabin for the night and hit the sack at about 9 pm. Awoke in the dark to empty bladder, glanced at watch and read 5 am on the luminous dial. Back to bed, wide awake. OK, I thought, might as well get an early start, so I showered, got dressed, looked at my watch – 4:15 am – I’d read it wrongly in the dark! Oh well – a very early start – so after having breakfast and cleaning the windows of the Porsche, I was on the road at 4:45 am. From Mildura heading north-west the highway crosses the Hay Plain, a long straight, flat, boring area said to be inhabited by aggressive mobile patrols. I didn’t see much but semi-trailers heading both ways, and a curved horizon indicating that, yes, the earth is round…. Fortunately I had remembered to throw about eight CD’s into my luggage, so I was able to try out the Kenwood stereo system with some Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pink Floyd and Talking Heads (showing my age here…). Apart from regularly exercising the overtaking abilities of the car, the day’s journey passed without incident and after 1,200 km (740 miles) I reached Moree in time to grab some KFC at the local branch before finding an overnight cabin and signing off for the night.
Woke up at a much more respectable hour and departed Moree at about 7 am for the final leg home via Goondiwindi, Inverell and Warwick. At 110 km/h in a 100 zone, encountered a mobile patrol outside Goondiwindi – no response from the driver – thankfully they appear to have some degree of tolerance in these wide-open spaces. Again, no particular excitement (apart from driving the 951) all the way home. Picked up excited 10 year-old Porsche-nut son Scott from friends’ place on the way home (wife Kathy was at a pottery workshop) and after driving 2,200 km from Adelaide, did another 100-odd km demonstrating car to Scott – hardly a difficult task, as I still couldn’t get enough of the car.
Some statistics for the trip:
Worst fuel economy: 31.4mpg (imperial), 11.2 km/Litre
Best fuel economy: 36.4 mpg, 12.8 km/Litre
Average: 33.7 mpg, 11.9 km/Litre
Oil used: nil
Kangaroos seen (live): 1
Kangaroos seen (dead): 5
Mobile patrols: 1
Radars or speed cameras: 0
Sphincter-tightening incidents: 0
All in all, a totally enjoyable trip – I would only wish for more bendy roads to try out the handling, but you can’t have everything. Next task – sell the 944 to lessen the strain on the bank account and enable the completion of the “contra” deal for the 951 – a piano for Kathy.
After just missing out on an 87 in Sydney with 112K km and Cup wheels, I was taken by an ad for a 951 in Adelaide South Australia. (Adelaide is 2,200 km away from my home in Brisbane.) I rang the contact number and spoke to Greg, a doctor who had progressed through 944 NA and 944S2 to a 951, a car that, he informed me, he had intended to keep forever. Sadly, such are the plans of mice and men and the combination of horrendous legal fees, a 2 year old daughter and the choice between keeping the 951 or a Land Rover Discovery meant that the 951 had to go. The car was an 86 with 140,000 km (86,000 miles) supported by dealer logbook records plus various receipts for improvements such as a Fueltronics chip and 3” stainless exhaust and muffler. Colour was Zermatt silver with burgundy leather interior, all purported to be in mint condition. Wheels were the standard 16” Teledials (oh well…). Greg gave me the phone contact for his service guy, who I contacted straight away. When I told the service guy that I was calling from Brisbane and was thinking about flying down to Adelaide to look at Greg’s car, he said “don’t hesitate – it’s an excellent car….” Greg had used the car only on weekends and didn’t clock up many k’s, but had the car serviced every 6 months regardless, just telling the service guys to “do whatever needs doing”. That, and the good vibes I got from talking with Greg, convinced me that this was a worthwhile risk and so I booked a Thursday morning flight (one way!) to Adelaide, South Australia.
Thursday morning came around and at 5:30 am my wife Kathy and son Scott drove me to the airport to catch a Virgin Blue flight to Adelaide. The flight was uncrowded and I struck up a conversation with the window seat passenger, Terry, an earthmoving contractor going to Adelaide to visit his sister. After a few minutes of conversation, Terry and I discovered that we had a mutual interest in ….. cars! Terry had recently disposed of a Mitsubishi Evo 6 and had previously owned things like a Maserati Khamsin, Mercedes 380SEC and Jaguar XJS V12 – so he was a car nut of the first order. I told him of my reason for going to Adelaide and he became quite enthusiastic about the prospect of buying a Porsche and driving it 2,200 km (1,300 miles) back to Brisbane. The conversation about cars continued throughout the flight and into the terminal, where we found that our destinations were in the same direction, so we shared a taxi, dropping Terry off first after promising to ring him if I bought the car.
Arriving at my destination (Greg’s surgery) I (and the taxi driver) couldn’t miss the silver 951 crouching in the single parking space outside the surgery entrance. From the taxi it looked perfect and on closer inspection this proved to be the case. A quick look through the window revealed a beautiful burgundy leather interior and (oh joy!) a genuine Porsche sports leather rim wheel! Greg emerged soon after and after introductions and a more detailed look at the car, it was off for a test drive. Since we were in the middle of suburban Adelaide, there was no place to try some freeway speed stuff, but in a quiet back street, after driving around to warm things up, Greg nailed it in first and second – the effect was a bit like someone running into the back of the car! Suffice it to say that the performance was every bit as good as anticipated. My turn, and it was interesting to note the differences from my 944 NA – powered driver’s seat, higher steering wheel, lower clutch takeup point and lower brake pedal. Once moving, the softer throttle response below 3000 was obvious, but once past that mark everything changed……dramatically. I think I’ll need a “get out of jail free” card with this one! Really, if you hit boost in second, you’re over the local speed limit, so there’s a distinct need to tread carefully around town. Back to the surgery for some more looking and probing and examining of service records – belts changed at 132,000 km, all services done on time or ahead of time. The interior of this 17 year old car was better than some 17 MONTH old cars I’ve seen, and looked like the inhabitants practiced levitation during their time in the car to avoid marking or dirtying anything. The carpets were unmarked and the leather of the seats showed only light creasing. The dash was just as it was on leaving the factory – perfect. A good look underneath at the rear showed a stainless steel Genie Turbo rear muffler fed by a fat 3” stainless pipe. There were no scrapes, marks or oil leaks to be seen, supporting Greg’s claim that he had never driven the car off bitumen. Engine compartment was clean and again, no oil leaks to be seen. All fluids were good, no oil in water or vice-versa. The teledials were virtually unmarked, with no kerb marks – only the remains of adhesive from some stick-on weights. The only haggling factor I could find was that the rear tyres (Dunlop Le Mans) were down to the wear indicators in the centre – so a deal was done and the transfer papers completed and I was finally the owner of a 951.
I’m sure that all new Porsche owners are just itching to use their new toy in the first days of ownership – but I was able to scratch that itch for 2,200 km on my trip home to Queensland. After leaving Greg and his wife standing in front of the surgery waving sadly at their departing baby, I drove gingerly away, looking for a quiet place to park, get my bearings for the trip home, and to ring Terry as promised. Adelaide’s road system is extremely well thought out and I had no problem in charting a route across town to the main highway home – I had the choice of two routes – the first via Broken Hill – meaning large distances of quite unpopulated and wild country with few towns, or the second, via Renmark, Mildura, the Hay Plain, Dubbo, Coonabarraban and the Newell Highway, which was relatively populated, but not heavily trafficked. The second choice won because I didn’t want to risk an unknown vehicle in an unpopulated area and also because the last time I drove that road, it was lousy with kangaroos….big ones that can write off a car if hit at speed!
That settled, it was on the phone to Terry, who suggested meeting at a burger place on the way out of town. This was straightforward and I soon saw Terry standing waiting in the driveway of the burger place, waving to attract my attention. He agreed with my decision to buy the car and after having a good look around it, we went inside and had a bite to eat before I began my trip home. It was now about 2pm and Terry and I parted ways, promising to catch up back in Brisbane. My next task was to fill up with fuel before heading to Mildura, some 600 km (370 miles) away.
On the open road, the 951 proved to be much higher geared than my 944, to the extent that 4th in the 951 was almost the same gearing as 5th in the 944. This, coupled with the soft response below 3,000 rpm, meant that meaningful acceleration below 100 km/h required 4th or, if in a hurry, 3rd. Speaking of the gears, this was my initial assessment of on-boost acceleration through the gears:
1st – a bit like a teenager’s first try at lovemaking – over in a flash!
2nd – a Rottweiler let off the leash to chase an intruder
3rd – falling down a cliff
4th – a jet airliner taking off
5th – if you hit boost in 5th, make sure you have your “get out of jail free” card!
The car’s open road acceleration makes overtaking ridiculously easy, with traffic at 100km dispatched with a change down to 4th, hit boost, grab 5th, back in and look at the speedo – whoops!….dab the brakes in case there’s a mobile radar over the hill! Thankfully most of the road home was 110 km/h (70 mph) limit, and I rolled into Mildura around dinner time, found an overnight cabin for the night and hit the sack at about 9 pm. Awoke in the dark to empty bladder, glanced at watch and read 5 am on the luminous dial. Back to bed, wide awake. OK, I thought, might as well get an early start, so I showered, got dressed, looked at my watch – 4:15 am – I’d read it wrongly in the dark! Oh well – a very early start – so after having breakfast and cleaning the windows of the Porsche, I was on the road at 4:45 am. From Mildura heading north-west the highway crosses the Hay Plain, a long straight, flat, boring area said to be inhabited by aggressive mobile patrols. I didn’t see much but semi-trailers heading both ways, and a curved horizon indicating that, yes, the earth is round…. Fortunately I had remembered to throw about eight CD’s into my luggage, so I was able to try out the Kenwood stereo system with some Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pink Floyd and Talking Heads (showing my age here…). Apart from regularly exercising the overtaking abilities of the car, the day’s journey passed without incident and after 1,200 km (740 miles) I reached Moree in time to grab some KFC at the local branch before finding an overnight cabin and signing off for the night.
Woke up at a much more respectable hour and departed Moree at about 7 am for the final leg home via Goondiwindi, Inverell and Warwick. At 110 km/h in a 100 zone, encountered a mobile patrol outside Goondiwindi – no response from the driver – thankfully they appear to have some degree of tolerance in these wide-open spaces. Again, no particular excitement (apart from driving the 951) all the way home. Picked up excited 10 year-old Porsche-nut son Scott from friends’ place on the way home (wife Kathy was at a pottery workshop) and after driving 2,200 km from Adelaide, did another 100-odd km demonstrating car to Scott – hardly a difficult task, as I still couldn’t get enough of the car.
Some statistics for the trip:
Worst fuel economy: 31.4mpg (imperial), 11.2 km/Litre
Best fuel economy: 36.4 mpg, 12.8 km/Litre
Average: 33.7 mpg, 11.9 km/Litre
Oil used: nil
Kangaroos seen (live): 1
Kangaroos seen (dead): 5
Mobile patrols: 1
Radars or speed cameras: 0
Sphincter-tightening incidents: 0
All in all, a totally enjoyable trip – I would only wish for more bendy roads to try out the handling, but you can’t have everything. Next task – sell the 944 to lessen the strain on the bank account and enable the completion of the “contra” deal for the 951 – a piano for Kathy.
04-18-2003, 09:19 PM
#3
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Most excellent adventure! What a way to bring home the baby! Congrats! I can tell you are a proud papa.. Many happy Kilometers to ya!
04-18-2003, 09:58 PM
#4
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Boca Raton, FL
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Nice write-up Rob. Welcome to the family.
My out-of-area buying experience was somewhat like yours. Found "the" car on the net after a two month search. It was in southern Pennsylvania (I live in NE Florida, some 800 miles south of the seller). Flew to PA and found the'86 951 to be in premium condition with only 76,500 miles on the clock. Previous owner treated the exterior and interior car with TLC and it showed. Drive back was uneventful (saw no Kangaroos, living or dead).
Hardest adjustments: (1) waiting for boost (previous car was a normally aspirated '98 BMW M3 with lotsa torque way down low and, (2)the additional $3500 (US) I had to put into the car to put the mechanicals in top condition.
As it turned out, the car was a bit like Dorian Gray: knockout exterior but a somewhat arthritic motor and drivetrain. Out came the checkbook.
My story has a happy ending. The car is finally running well and I have no complaints. It's a blast to drive and I never get tired of looking at it.
Rob, it sounds like you found a gem, and I know you're gonna love it. Congrats.
My out-of-area buying experience was somewhat like yours. Found "the" car on the net after a two month search. It was in southern Pennsylvania (I live in NE Florida, some 800 miles south of the seller). Flew to PA and found the'86 951 to be in premium condition with only 76,500 miles on the clock. Previous owner treated the exterior and interior car with TLC and it showed. Drive back was uneventful (saw no Kangaroos, living or dead).
Hardest adjustments: (1) waiting for boost (previous car was a normally aspirated '98 BMW M3 with lotsa torque way down low and, (2)the additional $3500 (US) I had to put into the car to put the mechanicals in top condition.
As it turned out, the car was a bit like Dorian Gray: knockout exterior but a somewhat arthritic motor and drivetrain. Out came the checkbook.
My story has a happy ending. The car is finally running well and I have no complaints. It's a blast to drive and I never get tired of looking at it.
Rob, it sounds like you found a gem, and I know you're gonna love it. Congrats.
04-19-2003, 03:39 AM
#6
Three Wheelin'
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Rochester, NY
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how i wish my out-of-town-buy went like yours, i'm not even going to BEGIN in fear of tarnishing such a beautiful tale such as yours.
i LOVED visiting your country a few years back, enjoy the 951, keep her shiny side up, sticky side down (even though you guys are all up-side-down there hehe).
<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />
i LOVED visiting your country a few years back, enjoy the 951, keep her shiny side up, sticky side down (even though you guys are all up-side-down there hehe).
<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />