traveller09

Sorry so long!

Hello All,

Well she is now home, safe in the Garage. I left Seattle last Friday on a 0600 flight for LA, arrive 0830. The owner picked us (a buddy went with me) up at the airport and took us a short distance to his house, the owner and his wife were a nice couple who wanted the car to go to a good home. The car was as represented. There are a few (subtle) scuff marks on the hood and roof, I am guessing one was from a Bra and one was from a gym bag. The paint is not scratched, just the coating. I need some advice on getting the marks out.

Oh, it is a late model 1995, C2, Polar Silver/Black, 9300 miles, 2 owners (2nd owner is best friends with the 1st). 100% stock, this is good and bad, nobody monkey'd with it, but now I have to spend all the money to get it to what I want. The car is pretty simple, not a lot of options. In fact there is nothing special about the car, other than it is a Porsche. What makes it special is the condition and mileage. The only factory option I really wanted and didn't get was LSD, but everybody I talked to said don't let that detour you away from an otherwise great car, you can always add one later.


After closing the deal with the owner we headed to Santa Monica to see Marc at Red Line Service, who performed the PPI. What a great guy to deal with. He spent over an hour showing me the car, how to check the oil, how the systems work and such, and general BS'ing about Porsches. He knew he wasn't going to get anymore business from me since I was in Seattle but he took the time to make me feel comfortable with the car. My friend said to him "you would think it was your car that was being sold", because he was giving us such a sales pitch on the car. Not to start a "tread" war but, I asked him what his favorite 911 was. He pointed to my car. I said "oh, the 993"? And he said "no, the 1995 993". I said "over a 96-98?" He said "yes". He then proceeded to give me half dozen reasons why, but I am too much of a neophyte to understand and remember. The point is, I was suffering from a little bit of Buyers remorse, because of the amount of money I was spending on a second car. He made me feel great about the car.

The trip:
We hit the road heading north out of Santa Monica at 1330 and got bogged down, leaving right away, then again in Santa Barbara. It was after 1630 when we hit Morrow Bay. I had delusions of hitting Redding or Sacramento the first night and stopping. The drive between Morro bay and Big Sur was great, of course! At Monterey we headed to I-5. We hit Sacramento at 2330 and decide to keep going, we hit Redding about 0130 and decide "awe hell let's just keep going". So long story, we drove straight through to Seattle. It took us about 24hrs. The car just purred the whole time! I am glad we decided to drive through the night; we had a good 10 hrs on the road with very few cars. Few cars = less rocks being kicked up. The only near miss we had was at night going 80 on I-5 when a huge Owl took off from the side of road and just missed the passenger roof/window by inches. Scared the ...... out of me.

I figure I drove the car faster, harder, longer and further than the car had ever been driven. In fact I think I put more miles on it in 24 hrs than the owner put on it in a year.

I have never owned a muscle car or sports car before so this is a whole new experience for me. The car is incredible, I love the clean lines, the simple interior and of course the air cooled engine. The quality blows me away. I love the glass gauges, but my favorite thing are the doors, yes the doors. I love to firmly pull the trigger handle and open the heavy door then shut it and listen to that solid, heavy, crisp "thunk" sound as the door closes. I think when I first got it I must have opened and shut the door a dozen times just to hear the sound of the door. I love the feeling when you get on it and you can feel it in your *** when the backend digs in and goes!

I think I have figured out what makes this car so special. It has an elegant timeless look, clean solid construction, simple functional interior and of course the air cooled engine. All of this combined, but particularly the air cooled engine........well the car is the only car around that still has a Soul to it! You can feel this car in your gut, it just wants to run naked, be free! Or was that this hippie chick I used to date??? You get the point.

Help have I gone over the edge? Ha..ha... It has been well worth the 25 year wait.

Saturday I will put new tires on it (I new it needed tires on it when I bought it, still had the original's), since they don't make the PS2's in the stock 17's I decided to put the PS Ribbed on.

The only negatives are: Passenger seat does not go back far enough; I need to figure out how to remount the seat track back farther. I hate that little built up area next to clutch it prevents me from stretching my leg out when I need to. Of course we were in the car for over 24hrs. Oh, the biggest negative is my shifting! I am a little rusty and I just hope the clutch survives me; it is really the 1st to 2nd that is my worst shift. Poor car! :-(

Anyway here is a picture for everyone (if I can figure out how to upload it). Thanks everyone for your support, and being patient enough to read this long post!

Thanks

David
PS Marc at Red Line is great! Go see him if you are in Santa Monica!

OldGuy

I NEVER get tired of these stories!! Thanks David!!

csertich

David-great write up. You now have it bad, Enjoy the heck out of it.

It doesn't have the basket handle back brake light. I personally think that 's OK. The flush roof mount design looks better IMHO.

Congratulations on a great car. I like the color, of course.

chuck

993RS

David,
Nice story. Congratulations. Can see that you have the soul of the true Porsche enthusiast instead of the Porsche Poseur. Just like being lucky enough to find the right girl for the love of your life. The 993 addiction will grow on you... Wait until you start customizing it to make it even more personal...

brian J

David

Congrats on your new 993 and well wear. Beautifull scenary you guys have out west too!

Arrwin

Let me be the second [EDIT: DOH...I must type too slow! I will be the 5th then!] to say CONGRATULATIONS! That was a nice write-up and like OG, I always love these stories.

Sweet car! Now...go and drive some more!! You need to put as many miles on the car as it was driven the entire life.

Serioiusly tho....congrats again and I know the feeling of disbelief that you are probably feeling right now; that you actually own a Porsche.

Hey....where's that SAG (Silly A$$ Grin) pic??

WarpMan

Great car and I like the background. Whereabouts is that?

viperbob

Great story... Congrats on the new car...

Terry Adams

Congratulations on your purchase and home delivery method. Nothing against the first 2 owners , who I am sure took good care of that puppy. However, it must be thinking, "Man, I love this guy for getting me out of the pound and letting me off the leash!"

911

Way to go, David. I was right behind you in Seattle last Friday as I left in the early afternoon to come back home to LAX. Glad to hear about your trip. Enjoy your "new" car.

ca993twin

Congratulations on a great car and a terrific write-up.

For the little scuff marks, I use Meguires "Scratch X", swirl and scratch remover. There may be better products out there, but I love this stuff. It does not leave any marks behind. Autozone, Kragen, Pep Boys.

Steve 96C4S

Oh yeah... Polar silver. Nice color. You might want to eventually think about clear turn signals in the front instead of the amber. I switched and love the look. Very cheap upgrade, I think they were about $116 total.

Congrats. I feel exactly the same about my car-LOVE IT. You'll get used to all it's idiosyncracies over time.

Clear turn signal pic below...


Steve

jcnesq

Congrats - your car is a beauty! You can't imagine how much I miss my Polar Silver 993 Targa sometimes, especially lurking here on the 993 forum.

Enjoyed your write up.

Enjoy the hell out of it!!!

traveller09

Thanks everyone for your support!

It is funny, somehow word got out at work that I was buying it and everyone was coming up to me congratulating me as if I had just had a baby. And of course everyone has a story about their neighbor’s uncle that has a Porsche that they have to tell you about. What has been great is how everyone I meet has fully supported my purchase, the most financially conservative people I know have said to me “you have wanted this a long time, you only live once, go for it”! Before I picked up the car I had thought I would probably keep this a few years and then upgrade. Now that I have the car I am like, I think I could end up hanging on to this car a long time! Ha..ha..

I have a long list of mods I want to do, and shallow pockets at the moment. This winter I plan to put Robbins RSR on and the Stone Guard/3M ........bra…is that what you call it? And hopefully new shocks and springs next summer.

Dang you Steve for showing me the clear turn signals, now I will have to do that too.

Thanks Steve for the recommendation on the "Scratch X", I will give it a try.

I stopped in the Porsche dealership this week to pick up a little kit so I could mount a front license plate ($20 by the way). I had a nice little chat with the service manger and as I was leaving he said to me “you know you can drive the car in the rain” and I said “oh I am not so sure about that”! It was pretty funny, it almost seemed like their service business suffered in the winter because nobody wants to get their car out in the rain.

Here is another picture from the same location, if I remember correctly it is about a half hour south of Big Sur.

Bruce SEA 993

Congrats on you new car! The write up was great and reminded me of my first drive...not as long as yours!

Enjoy!