Greetings from Gainesville, FL
01-20-2008, 05:58 PM
#1
Track Day
Thread Starter
Greetings from Gainesville, FL
Hi All,
I just found this forum about a week ago and have been poking around some past topics; looks like an invaluable resource. Anyway, I figured I'd introduce myself before making any other posts.
I never had much interest in owning a 911 until a friend almost twisted my arm to get me to drive his mid-70s targa with an 80s engine. Wow. I don't know what I thought a 911 would be like, but it was so much better than I expected. I guess I was anticipating the sort of sterile feel common to newer German cars and motorcycles (I'm an Italophile when it comes to 2 wheels), but instead I found a visceral, raw, engaging machine. I was hooked!
I've always loved the look of the 993, but they were firmly in the "unattainable" category when they were new, so I had sort of forgotten about them until I ran across one in traffic about a year ago. I said to myself, "hmm, self, wonder what those are going for these days?" And so it began...
I bought my white 97 C2 coupe with 18" twists this past April from the third owner. The car had about 84,000 miles on the clock and was absolutely tight as a drum--no rattles or squeaks. Interior and exterior were about 8.5/10, with the only significant wear showing on the driver's seat (some signs of wear on the leather, and slightly sagging cushions) and some hazing/discoloration of the headlights and foglights. Otherwise, extremely clean and sharp-looking. After some of the other cars I'd seen (mostly at dealers, priced higher and in worse shape), I felt like I'd found a nearly-new car, and was really pleased with the purchase.
A couple of months later, after my bank account had a chance to recover from the initial hit, I took the car to the local Porsche specialist to have the 90,000 mile service done a bit early; I figured that way I'd know exactly where I was starting in my relationship with this car...new belts, fluids, tires, etc. I picked it up the day before a road trip to Key West for a wedding. The car was running exceptionally well, I had plans to pick up a young lady on the way, and I was feeling mighty fine. One might even say I was a tiny bit cocky about my situation...
Well, we all know the old saw about pride going before a fall, and this was to be no exception. As i cruised down I-95, looking for the young lady's exit, a Honda Civic merged into my lane in front of me, leaving me no kind of following distance. Almost immediately, and before I could react, I observed, in apparent slow motion, the Honda braking hard and bouncing vigorously. Then, from under the Honda emerged a roughly 8-foot-long section of tire casing, airborne and gyrating wildly, which promptly wrapped itself around the front of my car like a taco shell. There was simply no time to react or avoid it.
After the initial frightening impact and the jolt of running over the tire casing, I managed to collect my wits enough to grasp the fact that my lovely new car was now very badly damaged; this fact was made apparent by the presence of the deformed hood in my field of view and the shower of broken glass which had just blown across the (thankfully still-intact) windshield. I pulled over to assess the damage, and was motivated by the sight to spew a string of curses: the hood was caved in and creased in the middle, one of my foglights was broken, the bumper cover was torn, one fender was dented, and the entire front of the car was smeared with black tire residue. Oh, the humanity!
I dialed *FHP to report the incident and they directed me to the nearest highway patrol station to file an accident report. It's a good thing the car is made the way it is, because I don't think that a radiator would have survived this impact unscathed. As it was, the car was ugly, but drivable.
While on the way, I called the young lady to inform her that I would be late, and that I wasn't sure if the trip could be made at all. After filing the report and talking with my insurance company, I took a few minutes to assess the actual condition of the car. I had two intact headlights. I was able to crudely re-secure many parts of the bumper cover by snapping them back into place. I was able to beat the hood back into a shape that would allow it to latch properly by using my fist and sitting on it (that must have been a strange sight to the FHP officers who were coming and going). Some clear packing tape around the perimeter of the luggage area and over the broken foglight, and it looks like we're in business: ugly, but safe.
The rest of the trip was, thankfully, uneventful, but I am still waiting on a satisfactory repair...for logistical reasons, I wasn't able to take the car in for work until October and I got it back right before Thanksgiving with some unacceptable workmanship issues (things like trim not fitting right, an obvious difference between the new foglight lense and the old one, some orange-peel on the paint, some original damage that they missed, etc.). I had to wait until after the first of the year to get it back to the shop, and I'm still waiting.
I told them I don't care how long it takes, but do not return the car until the work is done right...it doesn't have to be show quality work, just factory quality (the same thing I told them the first time...).
Bleh, I hate things like this. I don't think I've ever had a car that didn't need at least one body-shop visit in the time that I owned it, and it's almost always been some random freak thing like this which caused the damage.
Anyway, here's hoping that this incident constitutes my full allotment of 993 troubles.
Thanks again for the excellent resource,
Josh M.
I just found this forum about a week ago and have been poking around some past topics; looks like an invaluable resource. Anyway, I figured I'd introduce myself before making any other posts.
I never had much interest in owning a 911 until a friend almost twisted my arm to get me to drive his mid-70s targa with an 80s engine. Wow. I don't know what I thought a 911 would be like, but it was so much better than I expected. I guess I was anticipating the sort of sterile feel common to newer German cars and motorcycles (I'm an Italophile when it comes to 2 wheels), but instead I found a visceral, raw, engaging machine. I was hooked!
I've always loved the look of the 993, but they were firmly in the "unattainable" category when they were new, so I had sort of forgotten about them until I ran across one in traffic about a year ago. I said to myself, "hmm, self, wonder what those are going for these days?" And so it began...
I bought my white 97 C2 coupe with 18" twists this past April from the third owner. The car had about 84,000 miles on the clock and was absolutely tight as a drum--no rattles or squeaks. Interior and exterior were about 8.5/10, with the only significant wear showing on the driver's seat (some signs of wear on the leather, and slightly sagging cushions) and some hazing/discoloration of the headlights and foglights. Otherwise, extremely clean and sharp-looking. After some of the other cars I'd seen (mostly at dealers, priced higher and in worse shape), I felt like I'd found a nearly-new car, and was really pleased with the purchase.
A couple of months later, after my bank account had a chance to recover from the initial hit, I took the car to the local Porsche specialist to have the 90,000 mile service done a bit early; I figured that way I'd know exactly where I was starting in my relationship with this car...new belts, fluids, tires, etc. I picked it up the day before a road trip to Key West for a wedding. The car was running exceptionally well, I had plans to pick up a young lady on the way, and I was feeling mighty fine. One might even say I was a tiny bit cocky about my situation...
Well, we all know the old saw about pride going before a fall, and this was to be no exception. As i cruised down I-95, looking for the young lady's exit, a Honda Civic merged into my lane in front of me, leaving me no kind of following distance. Almost immediately, and before I could react, I observed, in apparent slow motion, the Honda braking hard and bouncing vigorously. Then, from under the Honda emerged a roughly 8-foot-long section of tire casing, airborne and gyrating wildly, which promptly wrapped itself around the front of my car like a taco shell. There was simply no time to react or avoid it.
After the initial frightening impact and the jolt of running over the tire casing, I managed to collect my wits enough to grasp the fact that my lovely new car was now very badly damaged; this fact was made apparent by the presence of the deformed hood in my field of view and the shower of broken glass which had just blown across the (thankfully still-intact) windshield. I pulled over to assess the damage, and was motivated by the sight to spew a string of curses: the hood was caved in and creased in the middle, one of my foglights was broken, the bumper cover was torn, one fender was dented, and the entire front of the car was smeared with black tire residue. Oh, the humanity!
I dialed *FHP to report the incident and they directed me to the nearest highway patrol station to file an accident report. It's a good thing the car is made the way it is, because I don't think that a radiator would have survived this impact unscathed. As it was, the car was ugly, but drivable.
While on the way, I called the young lady to inform her that I would be late, and that I wasn't sure if the trip could be made at all. After filing the report and talking with my insurance company, I took a few minutes to assess the actual condition of the car. I had two intact headlights. I was able to crudely re-secure many parts of the bumper cover by snapping them back into place. I was able to beat the hood back into a shape that would allow it to latch properly by using my fist and sitting on it (that must have been a strange sight to the FHP officers who were coming and going). Some clear packing tape around the perimeter of the luggage area and over the broken foglight, and it looks like we're in business: ugly, but safe.
The rest of the trip was, thankfully, uneventful, but I am still waiting on a satisfactory repair...for logistical reasons, I wasn't able to take the car in for work until October and I got it back right before Thanksgiving with some unacceptable workmanship issues (things like trim not fitting right, an obvious difference between the new foglight lense and the old one, some orange-peel on the paint, some original damage that they missed, etc.). I had to wait until after the first of the year to get it back to the shop, and I'm still waiting.
I told them I don't care how long it takes, but do not return the car until the work is done right...it doesn't have to be show quality work, just factory quality (the same thing I told them the first time...).
Bleh, I hate things like this. I don't think I've ever had a car that didn't need at least one body-shop visit in the time that I owned it, and it's almost always been some random freak thing like this which caused the damage.
Anyway, here's hoping that this incident constitutes my full allotment of 993 troubles.
Thanks again for the excellent resource,
Josh M.
01-20-2008, 06:03 PM
#2
I'm Still Jenny
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
Hope all works out okay. One quick question - why did you trust them to do something right the second time with the same set of instructions that they ignored the first time?
01-20-2008, 06:07 PM
#3
Track Day
Thread Starter
BTW, all damage was cosmetic in nature and addressed by panel replacement and paint.
Last edited by desmo33; 01-20-2008 at 08:46 PM.
