Isn't fun what this is all about? Even the most committed track drivers are probably not going to be offered an F1 contract. Tough to find a good long hood car. But this car, the '69 E, came across my desk and I couldn't resist. Provence and history is everything. That being said, for the uninitiated, the great deal right now is 981 Spyder. And please don't tell me it's not a "GT" car.

 

correct and the 987 spyder is also really really good. but let’s not let everyone know.

 

Fun is definitely what it’s all about for me. And while I’m not anywhere close to as fast as a lot of people on RL, fun does include occasionally getting most anything I own out on a circuit. I tracked the 981 I think 3x over in UK, top down!: Goodwood and Silverstone. THAT was fun. Although, it was a RHD. Coming down the back straight at GW, before the chicanes and only serious wall on the track, I went to grab 4th and I could feel as I was letting out, it did NOT FEEL like 4th. It was 2nd and luckily I caught it before I let out the clutch. But, I sold it after that and found a LHD gt3. It wasn’t as fun of a car, but I learned that day: I can do RHD pdk on track or even RHD manual on street, but muscle memory is too ingrained to do RHD manual on track! It just feels like the higher gears are supposed to be AWAY from my body; not towards it. Luckily I spared a nasty over-rev on that spyder that day, but it was enough to sell it in search of something LHD. But I have missed it from the day I sold it, RHD and all.

 

My 981 Spyder was indeed great fun at lower speeds, typically under 100mph. my 996.2 GT3 (with short gear ratios and lwfw) and current 991.2 manual GT3 w/wing would rival that car-especially at the upper limits.

 

Perhaps I was a bit hyperbolic, but I really hate rust. If you have a rust free 69e, I would consider running cameras in the front pan, sills, inside of doors, and longitudinals and see what you can see. Even if it means drilling a few small hidden holes. There are a lot of other areas too, the other forum can help, inner fender, headlight areas etc. I am not sure what the rust inspection entails, but I rarely see people do camera inspections. Even for a no rain car SoCal/Tx car, I would treat all the inside spaces. There are now lots of great products from Eastwood internal chassis coating to regular cavity wax and they are not expensive relative to replacing metal. My view is it matters less what you use as compared to using something (or go full evilfij nuts and use both a zinc paint based like the Eastwood and then treat with a creeping wax product like waxoyl). If I had a brand new longhood, I am confident I could keep it largely rust free, but so many of them got nothing and even really clean ones with original paint I have seen hidden rust. All sorts of stupid stuff like them rusting out from mouse urine in the longitudinals even though they were dry stored. I plan to do a full rust proofing on my 95 even though it has seen rain maybe three times and it is galvanized. It does not even have the windshield rust. It’s really rust free. I’d like to keep it that way even though it probably won’t matter in my lifetime.

They are good fun to drive the long hoods, but even the nice “Rust free” ones are a ton of work to make perfect (not that you have to, some of my favorites are survivors that have had rust mitigation and treatment). My neighbor is a top flight metal guy and he took a mostly rust free florida 912 with original pans and made it perfect (no bondo metal work, everything opened up and fixed and then treated all cavities with zinc). It was not bad, much better than most, but it still had rust issues. It’s in California now so it will last forever with his work. His current project is a 77 (first full year of galvanized body) which was a PA car and the only rust was on the top of one door sill dogleg (not sure what to call it but all longhoods seem to rust there sort of the bend on the body/chassis where the rear corner of the door is) and I think part of that might have been because it had a crunched fender which cracked the lead joint as the other side was perfect or maybe dirt just got in that side. I don’t know, but the car was really clean and rust free and I know it sat outside from the paint fade (which was original except for the appalling body work on the one rear fender — see my note about no prior accident damage — he is a master so he got it perfect before welding on custom formed flares). I looked at it every time I was over there trying to find something rusting. It’s getting backdated/hot rodded to look like an ST with a fresh 3.3 turbo drivetrain ~400hp with airport gears in the 4 speed. It will be really sweet when done. A lot of the backdates and hot rods (and restorations) I see have bondo all over them. It’s really sad. I was hoping he would keep it narrow body because a backdated 77 shell (with a 95 3.6 drivetrain) is about my idea of perfection, but the crunched fender made that an easy decision. Everyone’s GOAT porsche seems to be different. I like pretty much all porsches, but I also know what ones I want, I just can’t find a RUF 993 cab to buy.

My neighbor does some amazing work if you want to check it out.

https://instagram.com/the_r_institut...=11i8dvk2ksqwg

 

^^^wise words. I’ll take it into consideration going forward.