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Driving 964 Speedster from West Palm Beach to Carmel
Almost twenty-five years ago (September 20, 1993) I flew to Frankfurt, boarded a train to Stuttgart, and found myself in Zuffenhausen taking delivery of my PTS Polar Silver 964 Speedster. The factory was already producing 993's. 964 Speedsters' and 964 3.8 RSs' were the last cars produced "the old way." Wendelin Wiedeking had recently been installed as Porsche's President and was instructed to fix what is still referred to as "the crisis." Believe it or not the company was very close to going out of business. The first thing he did was to modernize production techniques for the new 993. I spent the next two weeks driving around Italy going from five-star hotel to B&B castles. I was by myself and it truly was a great adventure.
I still own that Speedster. It just turned 48,000 miles. The paint is original. The car has lived in Colorado, California, Boston, New Jersey and Florida. In that order. At times it's been a daily driver. Other times it was stored. It's even served as a moving van. Recently, I found out that the chassis for the Speedsters' were the same as the 964 RS. A few years ago, Andreus Preuninger, asked me what was my favorite Porsche and why? I told him the 964 Speedster. It's light, quick and can be used every day. It's everything a Porsche should be. But mostly it's really fun to drive. So now there's a new Speedster. I don't know for certain if the production 991.2 Speedster will be introduced this week at Pebble Beach but there seems to be some chance of it. So just yesterday, in a world where most of these great cars don't often get driven, I decided there would be no better way to celebrate my Speedster's birthday and the intro of the new Speedster than to drive the 964 3000 miles to Pebble Beach. I'll be posting photos, driving impressions and video on Instagram (The Laurence Kenyon Company) along the way.
Delivery photo September 20, 1993
Zuffenhausen October, 1993
Delivery photo, Tourist Delivery Pass and German Tourist Registration (photo taken today)
What a treat to really drive this car. 1134 miles yesterday the car remains one of my favorites. It's just so light by contemporary standards. I saw a radar detector GPS verified 136 mph. The car hasn't gone that fast since I picked it up in Europe 25 years ago.. And 20+mpg. More later. Time to get back on the road.
The drive has been EPIC. And to drive it in a Porsche has been an incredible privilege. I'll post more specifically about the 964 Speedster in my next post. But most important...DRIVE YOUR CAR!!
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Factory lightweight 964 GPS. (5 pages of directions on Speedster seats) After 4 days and over 3000 miles the seats are incredibly comfortable... if you fit. They have the same shell as RS seats but have a "trampoline" instead of a pad on the hard surface. Just don't gain any weight.
Welcome to Texas
later that day...Welcome to New Mexico
Topography changing...Albuquerque
US 93 North heading to Las Vegas...One of the only other 911s' I saw until Monterey
Good morning Las Vegas..great deals in the summer
Leaving Las Vegas
Blackwells Corner. I needed fuel. He needed fuel. This was James Dean's last stop. We (My girlfriend signed up in LV) took some back roads and many 4-way intersections don't have stop signs even now.
Jerry Seinfeld's very last air-cooled Riviera Blue '98 Porsche 993 C2S parked in front of the PCNA Event unveiling the last, last air-cooled 2018 Exclusive Edition 993 Turbo.
My not last air-cooled '98 Riviera Blue C2S parked next to the Speedster a few weeks ago. Maybe I drove the wrong car?
US 1 South. One of my favorite buildings with an ocean view out back. Cayucos, California
Moon river on the Pacific heading south to LA.
I didn't take this photo but I did see this. The scenic overlook was on the south side of US 93 south of the Hoover Dam. This country is just so incredibly beautiful.
08-19-2018, 08:25 PM
Driving 964 Speedster from West Palm Beach to Carmel
