The one that got away
 

In 1970, my dad passed up a 904. He could have pulled the trigger, barely, but he didn't. He regretted it till the end.

Sad story re your Dad.

I said "Thanks, but no thanks." to a 2.2S and in my infinite wisdom bought the SC to have the bigger engine. 27 or 28 years ago so who would have guessed.

I have a few of those stories too. Most recent was being offered a friend's '64 356C, numbers-matching, black plate CA rust-free coupe in near-perfect condition for $25K. This was just before prices went thru the roof, but I declined because the garage was full of old VWs and I had no place to store it :(

1974 I was going to school at KU in Lawrence Ks. My dad flew into KC on biz and we had a day to waste. At the time the local Foreign car place always had a great selection of used eclectic cars. They had an actual Abarth Porsche race car. We are just looking and a salesman comes out like the Christmas tree salesman on Christmas story. Pop the rear deck checking it out and my dad was impressed with the dual ignition being a pilot. Salesman goes you want to take it for a spin? Uh, yea. Fire it up and it’s pretty loud naturally. About a quarter mile drive down to an empty Cul de Sac. The car had a full cage and fiberglass seats no cushions. When it hit 4K it just screamed to 7500. Get back in the parking lot grins on our faces. Salesman goes, we are asking 2,700 but we would take less. Of course I didn’t have any extra money and my dad pointed out no heat in Lawrence Ks not a good idea. Talk about regretting that forever.

Did your father wind up owning any Porsche, Ron?

Late 70's. I had just got my drivers license.
A mile down the street, on a corner, for sale, sat a Fiat Dino Spider in orange. Asking price $4500.

Few weeks later, Dad bought me the Fiat.
But it was used, army green and a 128 sedan. :D

Few more years go by. The local Fiat dealership went out of business. My brother from out of town bought a brand new 1979 Fiat X 1/9 in blue for pennies on the dollar including a rebate from Fiat.

I got the "opportunity" to drive the brand new blue X 1/9 to the Fiat dealership in Baton Rouge the following Saturday morning with my Dad following me. The car needed a few things done to it before my brother was to pick it up.

Once in the repair bay, my Dad says "What do you think about that (pointing) X 1/9 in red?" I say oh man, that's the ticket. Walked over to look at it and the entire dash was removed. Wiring and stuff everywhere. But oh man, what I'd give to have a RED X 1/9!

Dad says "you like that one?"
I say "Oh man yeah!"

Dad says "That's YOUR car."

He bought it from the same out of business dealership that my brother bought the blue one from, someone tried to hot wire the ignition and tore the dash up in doing so, and Dad had it shipped to Baton Rouge for repair.

I must have waited 3 or 4 months for the Baton Rouge dealership to put MY car back together before going to pick it up. Talk about a LONG wait!

The 128 Sedan survived me through high school and 2 successive nephews for the next 15 or 20 years.

So that's a story about the one that got away, and the one that didn't!

In 2012-13 a year or so after I bought the G50, I was looking for a 993... there was one selling for $26k, but of course my wife wasn't going to let me have a second one so soon.

In 2019 there was a blue 993 for $38K that I went to see, but I already had the Cayenne.

About 3 months ago there was a $50K 997.2S PDK with less than 60 miles down near LA. I was ready to fly down, we have agreed on the price. My wife insisted I could find one locally. (I haven't.) She didn't want me to fly because of COVID.

Two months ago there was another 997.2S PDK with high miles for $48K about a hundred miles away. Had a PPI scheduled. It was gone before the weekend.

A month ago there was a local 997.2S for $60K, we spoke on the phone, but I was away for Thanksgiving.

Just a week ago there was a local high mileage 993 for $40K. It was gone in a day or two. It was the one day I didn't check Autotrader.

In 1992 I was looking around for a project. I saw an ad in the paper about two 356 Porsches a guy wanted to sell. One didn't have an engine or trans. He wanted to sell them together, but I went to look at them thinking I could buy just the one (coupe) for a project. The car without the engine & trans was an early 60s coupe, & the other was a '59 convertable. He was asking $20K for both. I couldn't convince him to sell only the coupe, so I passed. About ten years later, I looked up the values of '59 convertables & have been kicking myself ever since.

Not running Vincent rapide for 10k.

Seemed like insane money back then.

Yep. Two of em'. A acquaintance was sick of his old 66, 911. Carb issues (PMO), and no one (he knew) could tune that 2.0 that was running really rough. It was offered to me because he was well on his way to turbo charging RX7s. It was 4500 bucks and I turned it down because it was the red head step child to own a short wheel base car that no one wanted. That was a bit over 20 years ago.

The other was a 74 240Z with 77,000 miles. All original car that belong to a woman's husband who died 10 years ago and it sat in her garage. I was bidding on her home remodel because she wanted a new start. She claims that no mechanic can get the car started, wanted out of there and would take 800 bucks for it. I had just bought my 930 so no more room and money was not disposable. I passed on the car and did not get the job.

I still kick myself:eek:

Long boring story so I wont bother you with the details.

Close to 30 years ago I passed on an Aston Martin DB5 that needed "restoration". Asking $12,500! (privately imported from the UK)
At the time you could buy a really nice one in Aus for around 40k.

They're asking $1,695,000 AUD for this one right now!

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/1963-aston-martin-db5-manual/SSE-AD-6030285/

A local guy has a varied collecton of sorts, ranging from brass era Model T to a Renault engined, Canadian built Manac coupe. In '95 I stopped in one day and he was working on the front brakes of a Convertible D. The laquer paint was checked (a yellow-cream color). He offered it to me for $6500. I had just bought a family sedan the month before. I turned it down. The car was sold to someone in Australia.
I don't like to think about it.

Best
Les

Oh yes!

911L
Carrera 911
Z28 prototype
Early XKE

All misses. There are more as well.

But what about the wins?

73 K5 Blazer
78 930
80 911
01 Boxster (yes. It is a wonderful car)

Back in 1967 my dad was ready to get a new car. I pestered him and wore him down enough that we went to the local Porsche dealer and he test drove a 67 911S. I was in love with the car, but dad saw cars as a big expensive appliance we kept outside in the weather. Dad made a better choice for a family with two teenage boys and bought a Oldsmobile Delta 88 with a 454. They literally called a junk yard to come pick it up, because they could not sell it for even $150 bucks when the gas prices started shooting up. The 67 911s was not a good choice for a car for a family of 4, but damn I wanted him to buy it. It likely would have turned into a pile of rust long before the Olds did, but it would have been cool rust!

mine is more painful.

i rented a house in the Oakland hills from an older dude. when i signed the lease he said, "hell, just give me $200k, and i will sell you the house instead"

i said no.

i bet that house is $2mill now.

Folks of my vintage, 65, with a Dad or a relative that was into "foreign" cars (my Dad and Uncle were) all have tales of woe and redemption.

My Dad was into British and Italian cars; only one at a time and, even though he never lost money because he was a DIY machine, on that my Mom was firm.

The one he really regretted, and again he was not much on German iron for some absurd reason I wish he had sought therapy for, was a Gullwing for around 6k, owned by a friend of his. I forget the exact year he punted on the deal.

I have bought and sold a lot of BMW's and Porsche's (all air cooled) but there is only two cars I regret either selling or buying back after a wreck: My 94 Defender 90 and my 1996 964 Targa.

Around 1984 I was at a dealership waiting to pick up a car I'd bought a few days earlier. It was a "Sporty" Nissan sedan and about 18 months old. When I got there the salesman told me they were running late in the workshop and the car wouldn't be ready for about an hour or so. As I sat in the waiting room I could see across the road into another car yard and they had an orange 911 for sale. Curious and I had time to kill so I walked across the road to get a better look at it. The only thing I remember is that it was orange, a sportomatic and about $1,500 less than the car I just bought! :eek:

The Nissan Bluebird TRX. (Australian made) Like mine but without the side stripes and hood pins!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1640886036.jpg

Oh dear. That's heart breaking. :(

Back in 1969, my dad had the opportunity to by a BMW 328 roadster, just like this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1640886187.jpg

Apparently, it was one of the factory racers, and it came with 2 crates of spares, and an extra engine. It had been hidden under a haystack in Germany during WW2, and the owner bought it while he was in the army and stationed in Germany after the war. The price? $1500. Dad passed on it since he had just purchased a 1941 Packard convertible for the princely sum of $700, and didn't have the extra cash. 14 yr old me was really pulling for it, but to no avail.

I'm sure I've told this story here but: several years ago a friend from Florida called me and asked if I'd go look at a car with him in Houston. I said sure, what is it? He said he'd tell me when we got there.

If I recall correctly, it was a 1965 356SC coupe without a motor. It was a co-worker's late father's car. The father had pulled the engine and sent it to Dallas for a rebuild. The father had been dead at least 20 years at the time I saw the car. The car was silver with red interior. It was straight, clean, with very little rust and the leather was in good shape. The only thing I could find wrong besides the missing motor was some frunk hood hinge damage which I guess is pretty common.

My friend said one coworker mentioned the car and that he'd like to sell it. Another coworker said he'd buy it and the price was set at $8K. When I saw the car I asked my friend to offer the buyer $10K for it so he'd make $2K and not even have to take possession of it, the buyer said no. I should have said $12K. I'll ask what ever happened to it. Maybe he's on Pelican.