1. How did you come to the decision of buying this car?
As usually happens with me, this car fell into my lap. A friend had bought it on eBay years prior and couldn't get all of the parts needed to pass California smog. I mentioned in a Facebook post that I needed a 912 but the prices had gone beyond my budget, and he reached out to me.
As luck would have it, I was in the area the following weekend, so I stopped in to check it out. It had been stored in the corner of a shop for years, and it had flat tires and wouldn't start, but it turned over and I was confident I could make it run. The seller told me that I could have it for the same price he'd paid years earlier, which seemed fair to me, but I still wanted to talk it over with my wife. He then extended an extremely generous offer that I could pay him over the course of two years if I wanted. That pretty much sealed it, but I still wanted to talk to my wife.
When I got home I showed my wife pictures and she deemed it "cute" and agreed that I should have it, especially with the zero percent finance rate I'd lucked into. I called the seller and told him I wanted it. He said that it was good that I'd agreed to the terms, because it was already loaded on a ramp truck heading to my house!
2. What has your ownership experience been like?
I have loved this car since the moment I got it running. From a maintenance perspective, it's been relatively easy to keep going. I've had to deal with a few different parts supply issues as Porsche only built 2099 of these, so some of the 912E-only parts are unobtanium. And as reliable as the old Volkswagen type-4 engines are, they aren't cheap to rebuild. Since I've owned the thing, every single mechanical system has been gone through and completely refreshed. It's still kind of ugly on the outside, but everything underneath the skin is practically brand new.
I wouldn't say that everyone should own a 912E, as they sound terrible, are very slow, and can be a pain to source parts. But if you're passionate about an old car, it's not difficult to make it a daily driver. I live in Northern Nevada and I have no issues driving it around in the summer without air conditioning.
It does still have one issue that I can't seem to fix and it may be the death of me. The car has had a light steering shimmy ever since I first drove it, and it seems to be getting worse. I've replaced every part in the front suspension and can't figure it out. C'est la vie.
3. What is your fondest memory with this car?
In 2017 I drove the car across the country on a three-week trip. I stopped in at all of the automotive and motorcycle museums that I could find. It was my sister's college graduation ceremony, and I didn't want to miss it, but I also didn't want to take an airplane. I lived a lot of life on that journey, and drove some amazing roads with some amazing friends. Prior to moving out to Nevada I'd never been west of the Mississippi, so I had a lot of country to see in a hurry. I'll never forget it.
4. Why do you love cars?
I'm not sure even I know why I love cars at this point. These four wheeled contraptions have just been a central pillar of my life since at least my senior year of high school.
I did a foreign exchange program to Spain when I was a senior and my grandfather sent monthly care packages with his cast-off issues of Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Popular Hot Rodding, and Mopar Muscle. Being that they were the only thing I had to read in the English language, I devoured them from cover to cover and learned the basics of being a car fanatic.
While I was in Spain, Fernando Alonso was an up-and-comer in Formula One, so I occasionally watched as the national passion followed him up the ladder of success, so that's how I really got into racing.
Ed: Brad is the co-founder of Radwood, a writer for Jalopnik, and the master of bad takes on Twitter.
---
If you would like to participate, just answer the above four questions and submit one to three photos of your daily driver to milhousevanh at geemail. Thanks and have fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment