"JalopJeep" (JalopJeep)
12/12/2013 at 21:02 • Filed to: None
5
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"JalopJeep" (JalopJeep)
12/12/2013 at 21:02 • Filed to: None | 5
| 10 |
So I just finished my last Fall semester in college. Next semester plus 1 summer course will lead me to graduation. Sitting here sipping (err, gulping) a couple Bud Lights, I'm reminiscing a bit considering the free lunch train will be over once I gradjeeate and it's fun to think back to simpler times.
I was your normal 8th grader. I've always played a lot of sports, good group of friends, did well in school, but one thing set me apart from the rest is my insatiable appetite for automotive knowledge. I attempted to get my hands on every single piece of car literature that planet Earth had ever seen. I ran through all of our library's car collection in about a month. Still to this day, I just want to LEARN LEARN LEARN about cars and how they operate.
I give you that background information to sort of paint a picture in your mind. While trying to satiate my 4 wheel lust I was always browsing eBay Motors and the like perusing (read: drooling) over every possible segment of cars. Eventually, my dad joined in on the fun. He's always been a car guy and super handy with a wrench. His cars of choice have been killer in my opinion; 74 Grand Prix with a 455 from an Olds wagon, a couple Supras, and and countless others.
We eventually started looking at 77-79 Trans Ams after realizing the prices weren't outrageous. Also we are massive Smokey & The Bandit fans. However, we just couldn't find the right one. "The right one" meant having the Pontiac 400 and T-Tops + the right price.
Then for some reason that I can't recall (It may have had something to do with our Porsche fanaticism) we started looking at air-cooled 911s. Mostly pre ~86 because that's when prices began to leave our section of the stadium. Then, one day my dad calls me downstairs in to his office to look at a 911. Holy smokes, a black on black 81 Targa. After much deliberation, my dad bids on the car. He ended up winning the auction and I went, for lack of a better term, ape-shit. I was finally going to be sitting in a car that I once had as a background on my computer. But there was one unaccounted for factor...
Mama Bear.
"Husband buys 80's Porsche on eBay without consulting wife."
You do the math.
My dad contacted the seller and informed him that we would not be purchasing his valiant black SC. However, my dad insisted we would continue the search. And sure enough, some time later we stumbled upon a 1979 911SC Targa. My dad made sure to inform the family CFO this time around and we made the long drive to go check it out in the mountains of Tennessee. As soon as the owner fired up the 3.0 flat six I immediately entered puberty. I was absolutely in love with the Bursch exhaust and how gorgeous it was to behold in person. Mind you I was a kid who, for being such a car enthusiast, had never been in any real sports car other than a teammates father's Guards Red '83 SC Targa. I wish I could convey to you all how the test drive went, but I believe I was the first person to actually black out from sheer joy. After we brought the car back and I had regained consciousness, my dad told the owner that we'd be in touch.
The coming weeks after we didn't do much prospecting for other 911s. We didn't even really discuss it all that much. But then one day I got a text from my dad telling me that I was to be a car rider because I had early practice that day. Ok, whatever, nothing unusual. That was until the bell rang and I stepped out in to the car rider lane laced with mini-vans and beige Camrys as far as the eye could see. But there was a noise... what is that noise... I KNOW that noise... that is not how a beige Camry idles. I began to walk down the line of cars looking for my dad and he wasn't hard to miss this time, because he was sitting in this:
My smile must have been a country mile wide. He had bought the 911 unbeknownst to me.
We had the car for ~5 incredible years before my dad sold it a couple years ago. It was the first car I drove stick in, the car that brought about my affinity for Porsches, the car that I learned to get my hands dirty on, and the car that taught me to make sure the wheels are secure in the garage before you watch one of them roll down a steep driveway at Mach 3 and hit a curb sending it in to commercial airspace. Did a bit of autocrossing and a lot of soccer practice hauling and the damn thing made the most mundane of trips an experience. It was tough knowing the 911 was gone but the knowledge, passion, and pure love for cars that Porsche instilled in me will never be lost or forgotten.
benchslap
> JalopJeep
12/12/2013 at 21:34 |
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I learned how to drive stick on my dad's 911 as well. Great memories.
FlipperB
> JalopJeep
12/12/2013 at 22:22 |
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My Dad got rid of his 911 around the time I was born. He had a 912 before that. For whatever reason, I was always attracted to the 914... finally bought one a few years ago. Highly recommend for the mid-engine air-cooled fun, and less expensive to get into than nine-'lebbens.
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JalopJeep
> FlipperB
12/13/2013 at 02:05 |
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I have to say I love a 914/6
Stef Schrader
> JalopJeep
12/13/2013 at 02:32 |
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!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Seriously. Congrats on the purchase! My next car needs to be a 911SC hard-top in Guards Red. Needs, man. I have needs.
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FlipperB
> JalopJeep
12/13/2013 at 09:15 |
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I love the /6 too, but prices are 911-territory (and up!). It's not to hard to take a 914/4 and build up the motor to produce more power than a stock 914/6. And of course, there are hundreds of original 4-cyl cars that have been swapped to a flat-6 (or SBC, or Subaru, or...)
I'll take 911 RS for $5000
> Stef Schrader
12/13/2013 at 11:18 |
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Guards Red or GP White! It's insane how much I want one of these. Almost bought one this past summer, but the PPI didn't go too well, and cooler heads (father & girlfriend) have objected strongly enough that I should wait.
NoahthePorscheGuy
> JalopJeep
12/16/2013 at 21:41 |
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My dad still hasn't let me drive his 88 or his 71... Then again, considering both have less than 30k original miles, I don't blame him. Great story man.
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JalopJeep
> NoahthePorscheGuy
12/17/2013 at 00:37 |
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Thanks! My dad bought our 911 with over 100k miles so it wasn't like I was learning to drive stick in a museum piece. Going from the clutch in that Porsche as compared to a Jeep Wrangler clutch was akin to shoving a cinderblock in to place vs. pushing back a post-it note.
case-sensitive
> FlipperB
12/17/2013 at 09:16 |
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My dad sold his 914 when I was born. Sold it for a '79 diesel rabbit. He's never been the same since...
K-Roll-PorscheTamer
> JalopJeep
03/08/2014 at 13:33 |
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Looks like I'm late to the party; but I'll chime in anyway!
My Dad bought his '74 911 from a dealer in 1975; has owned it since and refuses to allow me to do anymore than TLC, start the car, let it run, and diagnose the problems it has because he drives it so little....
When I was younger, say 3-5 years old, we'd go for drives in it every week in the summer. That car was and still is my childhood. I'm 18 now, but whenever we go for a drive, It is simply the purest driving experience I've ever experienced; the growl of that air-cooled flat-six, feeling all the bumps in the road, that acceleration, it is simply MAGNIFICENT!
Currently, it's in the process of being "restored", cleaned up, wear parts being replaced, and other such things...
Here's a pick from last summer after a major repair where the oil pump broke and only 5/6 cylinders were firing...
I hope to eventually drive it one day, and this year may be the year it finally happens!