This is one of the hardest ads I’ve ever had to write. I love my 1984 Porsche 911 Cabriolet, but my pending divorce forces the sale of what is likely the best car I’ve ever owned, for enjoyment and reliability. I have also found doing much of the maintenance & basic repairs & updates on the car very fulfilling as well, further enhancing the bond. Please forgive the following "Buy-It-Nows", as I'm likely to place on eBay. The "Buy It Now" price for the extra items listed plus the car is $23,000. Car only I'm asking $21,500.

email: fhurderjr at *** dot net
phone: 401-578-0652 Cell
Location: Rhode Island

The basics: 1984 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera Cabriolet, Black w/ Black top & Burgundy interior, approx. 102,000 miles (101,800 at time of listing), great condition for a 25 year old antique exotic sports car. VIN WPOEB091ES171066. I just ran a Carfax on her, and she shows exactly as she did when I bought her – apparently Rhode Island’s DMV & Inspection Stations aren’t reporting to Carfax. There are a few want-to-do’s that I’ll leave for the next enthusiast, but all major items needed / desired have been done already – brake system, clutch, transmission rebuild, new soft top, new front seat skins, many new top / window seals, alternator, high-torque starter, electrical & mechanical halves of the ignition switch have been replaced, sound system, exhaust, gold BBS wheels, new performance tires, performance chip, short shifter, and so on.

1984 was the first year for the Bosch Digital Motor Electronics (DME / Motronic) Electronic Fuel Injection in the 911, the 1st year of the 3.2L engine, and the 2nd year for the Cabriolet. As I understand it, the ’84 3.2L Carrera was the fastest production car made that year – I believe I have the magazine article stating this as well. It’s not just straight-line acceleration, but handling and braking that set this car apart. I have dyno’d this car, and the previous owner included 13-second timeslips from his passes down the track (one reason why the transmission needed a rebuild).

I purchased the car November 2004, with 50,000 miles on her. I’ve put about 10,000 miles on her a year since, 3-season driving. I’ve had a few occasions to make some decent road trips with her (a visit to the Taj Ma Garage in Dayton Ohio last summer, roundtrip from Rhode Island over a long weekend; another long weekend trip from RI with some Porsche R Gruppe folks to have some fun at Deals Gap on the TN / NC line in April of this year through some awful downpours, and making 27mpg on the trip home with the top down at “highway speeds”). With the maintenance & updates I’ve done, I’ve had good confidence in going anywhere I wanted to with her.

Engine: The stock engine has a Weltmeister chip, and the factory airbox has been replaced with a performance reuseable cone filter. Unlike some cones that extend under the rear engine lid grille, allowing them to get soaked during unfortunate rainstorms, this one is straight out from the air meter, staying tucked under the solid part of the lid. As mentioned I’ve used Brad Penn racing oil (made from the same stocks as the old Kendall GT1 oil, prior to Conoco-Phillips buying up the Kendall name & turning it into another run-of-the-mill oil). Genuine Mahle filters and new crush rings also happened each change. There is a small oil leak around cylinder number 4, which has never been a cause for concern to me. If the car sits for long periods, you’ll get a rare drip. The thermostat, oil temp sender, and some of the oil lines at the engine were replaced during the clutch / trans rebuild in 2008 on recommendation by the shop owner at Randolph Racing in Stoughton, MA. The engine put down 213 wheel hp on the dyno. The O2 sensor & Cylinder Head Temp Sensor have also been replaced, and I replaced the starter, battery, alternator (and the voltage regulator again as well when troubleshooting a failing tachometer), plug wires are Magnecors. Bosch plugs, cap & rotor are fresh as of 101k miles.

Transaxle: Transmission was rebuilt Summer 2008 by Kevin at Randolph Racing. An aluminum Sachs Power Clutch was used, the rear main was replaced at the same time. The CV axles were repacked & new boots installed. The bushings in the shifter could likely use some attention at this point, especially if you are not fluent in the gate layout of the 915 transmission. A new clutch cable & (now obsolete) Omega spring have also been installed. I have a Seine Systems gateshift kit that I never got around to installing which will go with the car at the Buy-It-Now price. Drivetrain / other items performed at the time cost approx. $5500. She’s running Swepco 201 fluid, with 3 fluid changes since I bought her.

Exhaust: I have the original factory muffler & catalytic convertor. At 25 years old, Rhode Island does not require the car to pass emissions any longer to get an inspection sticker, so the car currently has the Fabspeed Euro-Premuffler installed, and also has an M&K fully-polished performance muffler (single-in / single-out, I believe it is a MK-IV design, without glasspacking; muffler needs re-polishing cosmetically, as does the polished Pre-muffler). I also have a Fabspeed Muffler Bypass tip as well. Buyer gets the choice of exhaust setup, all will accompany with Buy-It-Now. Heat Exchanger gaskets have been replaced, and the Pre-muffler / Muffler side have re-useable copper gaskets with stainless bolts.
Suspension / Steering: I replaced the worn-out stock suspension summer 2007. The car came with factory Boge struts, and the rear shocks had already been replaced prior to my ownership. I replaced the front Boges with Bilstein Sport strut inserts (“Greens”), with new strut mounts, new ball joints, new Turbo tie rods, front wheel bearings, front A-Arm bushings were replaced with Elephant Racing Poly-Bronze greaseable bearings, as were the rear spring-plate / Radius arm bushings. On the advice of Steve Weiner at Rennsport Systems, I went with 22mm Elephant Racing hollow torsion bars up front, and 29mm Sander Engineering hollow rear t-bars. Bilstein HD shocks (“Yellows”) were used out back, and the stock swaybar bushings were replaced with new rubber ones. The rear swaybar droplinks were replaced with heim-jointed units. Cost of the performance suspension updates & brake components listed below was close to $3,000, and I performed all of the work personally. The car was professionally height-adjusted after, and aligned. A “better” alignment / corner balance was performed by Randolph Racing with the clutch / trans work in 2008. I also acquired a Cabriolet-specific bolt-in rollbar over the years, which is available with the Buy-it-Now. I’ll also throw in a pair of Simpson Racing 5-point camlock harnesses (unknown dates) with the Buy-It-Now. The harnesses have never been installed in the car. The rollbar was installed for 2 wet track day Driver Ed days, one at Lime Rock, one at New Hampshire. Due to the rain, neither day was a fast day for me, and I haven’t made it back to the track with the car since.

Brakes: Stock rubber hoses were replaced with performance braided hoses, rotors were updated to drilled Zimmermanns all around, and I believe I used Pagid pads front & rear. The rear parking brake components were disassembled, inspected, cleaned up & reassembled, and adjusted accordingly. I thought I needed new parking brake shoes, so I have a spare set of those as well – the shoes just needed an adjustment to properly engage. Buyer gets the extra shoes with Buy-It-Now. She runs Ate Super Blue brake fluid.
Interior: I have replaced the original Burgundy front seat skins, the rears are still original. The rugs are original, but the floor mats have been replaced with burgundy Lloyd’s mats, 2008. The stock steering wheel was replaced at some point during the car’s history with a burgundy Momo Monte Carlo (?) 320mm wheel. The years have taken their toll on the burgundy leather, and she’s in need of a wheel leather replacement, I feel. It’s on the wishlist for the next owner. The 320mm wheel makes the car feel like a big Go-Kart steering-wise. The tachometer failed on me last year, and I had North Hollywood Speedometer perform the repair, and while they had it, I had them make me a custom gauge face as well. It turns the rpms so that 5750-ish is at 12:00 in a racing-spirit, but retains the stock location of the turn signals, as well as the stock 6250 redline. Since I typically don’t wind the engine up to redline, 5750 at 12:00 is more than fine for me. All of the bulbs in the gauge set have been replaced with white LED bulbs. I also have a new set of standard bulbs as well. The airconditioning system was completely removed by my local Porsche shop per my request, and is not available with the car (I have only the compressor left). Since a) I had never used the system, b) it’s notorious for not working well anyway, and c) was 70 pounds of dead weight I was carrying around for no good reason, I decided to remove it. The interior controls are still in the cabin however. The cruise control & intermittent wipers work perfectly, as do the window switches. The car has manual seats, and manual locks, and a manual top. I replaced the original aging sunvisors with new 964-style sunvisors, with the sliding mirror covers on them, back in 2008. In the front trunk, a Das Shild lightweight hood protector is installed under the hood to prevent dimpling from closing the hood on something unexpectedly. While the following items are more car-mechanical than interior, I didn’t know where else to put them, and you do access these items from inside the cabin… the windshield washer system isn’t working properly. I replaced the nozzles, replaced the washer pump, but the windshield washers still don’t work. Since the headlight washers work, I am assuming it is a bad switch on the steering column.

Audio: The Blaupunkt deck that came with the car when I bought her has been replaced with an elegant Nakamichi CD400 headunit, detachable faceplate, remote control; original factory speakers left to make room for Infinity Kappa speakers, and I also added a Clarion SRV303 small powered subwoofer under the passenger seat, for when you choose to listen to your music with the top-down, instead of Porsche’s sweet boxer engine symphony.

Top / Seals: The convertible top was replaced spring 2009, as were a number of top-specific & door / window seals. The ones that have not already been replaced are likely in the pile of seals purchased at the same time. Cost of replacing the soft-top, seals, professionally installed was close to $3,000. I have a soft-top canvas cover used for when the top is down. It is in fair condition with all the snaps / tenax fasteners intact, but is aging & the canvas is starting to break down (there is also a tear in the cover on the driver’s side). I also have a RARE full speedster-style tonneau cover for the car, in excellent shape. Buyer gets the normal cover, Buy-It-Now gets the additional full tonneau cover. My car came to me with the speedster-style tenax fasteners already installed on the dash – they had tiny covers on them & I didn’t even know that’s what they were until I went to buy the tonneau. I don’t know if that was a factory option but it appears to be visually. GAHH list the tonneau as an $1193+ item.
Wheels / Tires: as I purchased the car, she had approx. 1” spacers / lug adapters all around, to allow for the use of post-1989 (“late”) offset Porsche wheels – specifically the 5–spoke 968 style wheels. I was told they were “91 C2 Wheels”, but I believe this to be an error, and that they are actually 968 wheels. They do have Porsche part numbers on them, and have hand-painted centercaps as well (Up to $200 right there for the caps). They are silver 16x6 / 16x8 wheels, with Kumho MX tires at 205/55-16 & 225/50-16 on there… not much tread left on the rears honestly, but still sticky. Since buying the car, I knew I wanted gold BBS RS wheels on her – nothing screamed period-correct “Porsche” to me than the Gold BBS wheels. I mean, how “Miami Vice” is that? So after years of wanting, I finally came across a good set of them owned by an enthusiast on the left coast. I acquired the proper-offset 16x8 / 16x9 wheels after waiting 14 months for his new custom wheels to be made. It was well worth the wait, but the wheels needed a little attention. New German 12-point metric bolts were ordered & shipped to the US, and I resealed the 3-piece BBS wheels, documenting the serial numbers of the inner & outer halves as well as the center sections. I used a proper Dow-Corning silicone-rubber adhesive per 3-piece wheel manufacturers recommendations, and did a light polish on the outer halves. For anyone who’s done it, you know that torquing the 34 bolts on the 3-piece wheels is a time-consuming process, but one that turned out very well. After the wheels were reassembled & cured, new Hankook Ventus R-S2 tires in 225/50-16 & 245/45-16 were mounted & professionally balanced.I have over $1800 in acquiring & updating these wheels & new tires. I also have a set of black 16x6 / 16x7 Fuchs with old Pirelli Snow tires mounted on them. Mounting the snows gave me that “just in case” peace of mind, and also kept the performance tires from getting flat-spotted. The Fuchs cost me $600, and the snows were another couple hundred from memory. Buyer gets the snows / Fuchs, and EITHER of the other set of wheels. Buy-it-now gets all 3 sets of wheels.

Exterior: I’d personally rate the paint a 7 of 10 – it’s a beautiful deep black with the exception of some fine scratches here & there, and the typical 25 years’ worth of driver rock chips up front. I have only had one piece of the car painted – the rear decklid. When I purchased the Carrera Tail, I wasn’t sure I wanted the tail at all, so I bought a full tail / rear decklid from a black ’87 Cabriolet. The description wasn’t as accurate as I’d hoped. Instead of being “perfect” as described, there was a significant scratch, and worse, one corner of the decklid had been dented slightly, at the rear / driver’s corner. I had a Porsche-specific shop do the respray, and honestly, I’ve seen better work. But, you don’t see it from 5 feet, and it’s easily dealt with. The nose needs a Dr Colorchip or similar attention, and the front bumper could use a standalone respray. It’s not horrible, but noticeable. Again, while a very nice example, I drove this car.
There are a bunch of other items that have been replaced over the years, rear plate light housings, door light switches, DME relay, brake light switches on the Master Cylinder, and so on. Whatever she needed she got.

I think you can get the idea here – I’m an enthusiast, not your run-of-the-mill corner sales lot who doesn’t really know the car inside & out, and I love this car. It is my intention to own another example again, just as soon as I can make that happen. Unfortunately, the timing of my personal matters mandates I sell the car, and I can’t bring myself to leave her outside all the time, and drive her through the winter. I am hoping to find someone looking to have a nice example but also who’ll drive her as Ferry Porsche hoped the owner of his cars would, rather than keeping them locked away.

 

Very nice!!
That's some ad (book) you have put togeather.
Did I somehow miss the BIN?

As someone who has rebuilt and refinished several sets of wheels,
I can appreceiate your discription of torquing the bolts.

Best of luck with the sale!!!

Edit: found the price.
Seems like a great buy!

 

$23k for everything I have basically, $21,500 for the car with one set of the two sets of summer wheels, the canvas top cover without the tonneau, etc.

Thanks, appreciate the feedback!

 

She's on autotrader now,

http://www.autotrader.com/ATCarID/AT-fe5d566

Thanks for looking folks.

 

Bummer Fred.

Hope to see you back in a P-Car soon.....maybe a 928????

 

Anyone else who's listed a car for sale, have you guys gotten bombarded with phone calls offering to sell your car for you, "if you're serious about selling it"?

These are like the "sell your timeshare" slugs.

Guess it's one good reason not to use your cell number...

 

OK, update time.

Capital One is processing the lien release (RI does not title vehicles 10+ years or older). 72 hours processing time (dayum they type slow down in Texas).

So I should have the release by early next week. As soon as it's in-hand, she's up on eBay.

 

Well that was fast, I got the lien release today, and she's on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsc...mZ330355394520

 

Weekly bump folks. Have been getting a few emails & calls as the auction gets closer to finishing.

eBay Buy It Now is $22,000, but with fewer items than mentioned here. Listers BIN gets all the stuff I have, like complete Up-Fixin, Shop Manual Set, 3rd set of wheels, extra parts, the works.

Thanks for looking!

 

Auction ends Saturday evening...

 

Yeah, those were the only calls I got on my M3 from autotrader. People with heavy accents offering to sell my car for a price. uh, no thanks.

Good luck with your sale, the car is beautiful!

 

Thanks Doc. Relisted on eBay, dropped the reserve to $17,500 for the car only, $21,000 for everything. I think it'll sell this time around, just have a hunch.

 

Car is sold, thank you!