What ignited your Porsche Passion?

[Matt at Pelican Parts]

Although we have sub-forums for multiple European makes, it's pretty apparent that Porsche is undoubtedly the king of our Pelican Forums with the 911 Technical page being our most popular.

So how did you end up here? What is the reason you fell in love with Porsches?

Was it the air-cooled boxster engine? fast-back body lines of the 911? The aggressive wide arches of the 944?

...Or maybe you fell in love with them on accident and it was just fate!

Let's hear your Porsche origin story! Include some pictures if you've got em'!



Photo: }{arlequin

[rfuerst911sc]

In the early 70's my older brother bought a 1969 912 . It was blue over black . Beautiful car . He built the engine with larger jugs/pistons , cams and exhaust . Weber carbs fed the little beast . The first ride he gave me in it got me hooked

Took me about 25 years before I bought my first one a 1974 911S Targa . Next a 1987 944S . Then I built a 914 GT clone from a 1975 chassis . Next was a 1983 911 SC . Those were all fun and now gone .

Current stable is a 1999 996 C4 with a 3.8 and a 2002 Boxster S with a 3.6 . Really love these two . It's a fun passion . I live in north Georgia so mountain roads are everywhere . Driving through the mountains at a brisk pace and enjoying nature's beauty it doesn't get much better than that .

[GH85Carrera]

When I was 13 and reading car magazines I loved the 911 look and fell in love. My dad was looking for a new family car, and I begged and pleaded that we go and test drive a 911. We drove a 67 911S and I was really in love. I was convinced that my older brother and I could squeeze into the back seat an it was the perfect family car. He bought a Delta 88 with real back seats and an air conditioner that kept the car cold.

When I was 19 I was working three jobs. One full time job, and in the spring shooting weddings. And the biggest money maker was shooting 16 mm films for coaches for the football game. Every coach wants to review the game. Video was not around yet. I filmed a Jr. High, High school and college game all football season. That made me enough money to buy a new 74 914 2.0 that I ordered to my specs.

I had my 914 for 26 years. My new wife and I went on a trip to Arkansas. As a long time bachelor, I did not think about it, and tossed her luggage in the rear trunk. All of her makeup melted being cooked over the heat exchangers. In 1994 she insisted I get a car with AC and a cool trunk.

I looked for many months and looked at a lot of clapped out 911s and rejected them all. Finally in the Tulsa newspaper I saw an ad for sale of my perfect car.



My wife said I started drooling. I wrote him a check on the spot. after 29 years and well over another 100,000 miles my car has every project done to it. Kick butt AC that will keep us cool in any heat wave.

I still smile every time I see it in my garage.

[Dantilla]

I heard that if one joined the Porsche club, you got to drive on the race track.

So I bought a 944 Turbo and a helmet.

Who knew I would become an Autocross instructor, and eventually go wheel to wheel racing.

[wildthing]

Driving a VW Beetle in the 80s and reading about Porsches in magazines back in the Philippines...

[masraum]

My dad was a car guy that had a pretty wide variety of stuff mostly in his early years until I was about 3-4. He never had any Porsches though. Some of my earliest toys were cars and several of them including one of my favorites were Porsches. When I was a teen I used to devour Road an Track, especially if there were Porsches. I have no idea why I latched on to Porsche. I had kind of forgotten about them, but then I was in LAX for work and bought 2-3 magazines for a flight, one of which was an Excellence with the G-body buyers guide by Bruce Anderson (1999, I think), and that was the catalyst that got me into my first Porsche just before I turned 30.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I grew up in the back seat of a 1965 build year 911. Hell, I was probably conceived in it.

As a two year old, three year old, four year old. I hated every minute of it. Loud. No AC. Rough ride. Too windy in back.

That car was my childhood. At 16, my dad, realizing I needed a car,, and not wanting his 911 oversteered into a tree, went on a search. He came back with the perfect car, a 66 912 so rusted and cheap it literally fell in half.

We spent the winter welding it back together. I spent the winter driving the volvo.

As a teenager in the 80's, I always wanted the longhoods to look like impact bumpers.

Now I want my impact bumper to be a longhood. Back then, 911's were common. They were affordable. You could enjoy them, tinkering. Of course collectables existed, but the beauty was you could pick your poison- A driver. A project. A concours rarity.

To each his own.

I've tried to keep 78 sc as a purposeful driver. Non stock. Intentionally Imperfect.

The other day, I picked my daughter up in the 911. She HATED it. Too fast! Too loud! Too rough!!!

I get it and smiled.

The volvos were always smoother and more luxurious.

That's why I like both.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by LEAKYSEALS951

911's were common. They were affordable. You could enjoy them, tinkering. Of course collectables existed, but the beauty was you could pick your poison- A driver. A project. A concours rarity.

I'm glad that I got into my old 911 when they were "cheap". I had it for about 5 years, and I'm glad that I did. I wish I still had it but am glad for the time that I had. I don't hate my current boxster either (but it's not the old 911). It is, however better for how we use it. For 7 years it was our only car, and was even used with a kid's seat in the passenger side to take our grandson to pre-k school/care for a time before Covid hit.

I'd love to have another old 911. I'd love to have a long hood, but that's not likely to ever happen unless one of you old guys want to adopt me and leave me your car (I'm 53, so I'm looking at you septuagenarians).

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Oh yeah... Pics or it didn't happen.
My dad's 911 is gone, but I did restore one of his steering wheels for my 78. A 420mm boatwheel. Getting a 66 wheel on a 78 is no easy task.

Silly? IDGAF.

Perhaps. But it steers like a longhood. I enjoy every moment. If I could redo the intruments with the chrome/green theme, I would.

[jcommin]

In 1983 I was 33 yrs old, single and looking for a sports car, initially a Corvette. I had an uncle who owned a very large Chevrolet dealership and at the age of 18 wanted a 396 Chevelle. He wouldn't sell one to me because he thought I would kill myself but at the age of 33, I get I was past being stupid. He talked me out of the Corvette and suggested s Porsche or BMW. So, I began a quest looking at cars. My budget put me in the range of a 3 series and a 944. In 83, the 944 was a very tuff car to find, there was waiting list just to take a test drive.

I settled on the 944. I bought it thru my uncle as the 944s were getting over sticker with a 4 month wait. Still have the car. In hindsight I should have pushed my budget for a 911. Car was paid off in 2 years and got married in a year after that. Life gets in the way and so did car opportunities.

[unclebilly]

way back in the day... this video...

[tdw28210]

Moving to the West Coast in the 1990's and hanging out with car guys that all drove German cars. I was still driving Japanese cars at that time. I was driving those as a response to the crap I grew up driving. The "malaise years" GM cars. Effing horrible garbage. When I got behind the wheel of my buddy's German cars they just felt different and I liked the feeling. We've been a 100% German car household for 25 years now. VW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche.

[Baz]

Dad was a big German air-cooled fan. After quite a few VW's he finally brought this one home.....




My Dad will always be my hero......

[ben parrish]

Never remember not being fascinated with THE BRAND. It started with a poster of all the models up until 1981. Then it went to a book I discovered in Barnes & Noble. At 15 I stumbled across a 1974 bumblebee 914 and purchased it from the bank they had repossessed it from a attorney and his wife after a Divorce. I soon joined the PCA and at 16 I was driving to monthly meetings in Macon Georgia. I loved that car and should’ve never sold it. In 1986, at 18 I purchased a 1980 Corvette and sold the 914 the following year. I was without a Porsche for a couple of years but then purchased a 356 and drove it for a number of years. Somewhere around 97, I Pulled up at a buddies art gallery and there was a guards red 911 sitting in the parking lot. I found out it belong to one of his employees and began asking her if she wanted to sell it. Within a few months I had popped on my $16,000 and I had the car that I still have today.
A funny story on that 356, somewhere around 2000 I sold it to a buddy who kept it for a year or two and then sold it at an auction for classic cars. Within a few days after the sell he was contacted by the seller and a former owner of the car who informed him the car had been stolen years previously. Now keep in mind I had a clear title as did the guy I sold it to. It was eventually worked out somehow and the gentleman who bought the car from my buddy was able to keep it and I assume still has it to this day.

[Noah930]

Growing up in LA, the next door neighbor had a black SC coupe. Well, until he didn't one night when it got liberated from his driveway. But for me, the die was cast.

[look 171]

At 20, I was buying appliance for a small kitchen remodel job to keep myself afloat during those early poor college years. There it was, a black 911 with a tail sitting in the parking lot and the salesman said to me, with a car like that, the chicks automatically take off their underwears before they get in that thing. My eyes lid up and thought damn, I need that because there aint no chick getting into any of my POS with torn seats, running on 3 cylinders.

Seriously, I always had a sports cars, all were Japanese and all were damn great cars with the exception of the Mitsu. 3000GT VR4. Big, heavy, and clumsy. Bought a house at 29, got my traveling bug out of the way so it was time for a new sports car. I have always wanted a Porsche but didn't think I can afford one until I looked at the numbers. Bought a 930. Been buying them since. Have 4 now working my way toward a 991 TT, almost there. Will know in a week or two. Report in when it happens

[IROC]

My dad bought a wrecked Austin Healey 3000 for $400 (!!) around 1968 or 69 when I was about 5 years old. He fixed it up and that was our 'family car' for a couple of years. That instilled the sports car bug in my head when all of my friends were big into muscle cars. Then, in 1973, we moved to Speedway, IN and lived about a mile from the Indianapolis 500 track. Between the 500 and trips to Indianapolis Raceway Park, I became a big racing fan. I bought a 10 year old Opel GT when I was in college (amazing how worn out it was for only being 10 years old...) and thought it was a great little car until I read a little blurb on the 'new' Porsche 911 Carrera coming out in 1984. That was all she wrote...

[GH85Carrera]

Those of you that had "car dads" are lucky. My dad saw cars as an appliance to take him to where he wanted to go. He bought appliance cars. He talked about working on his cars before I was born, but that was a necessity from lack of money. I never once saw him work on any car.

I used to ride my bicycle over to the BOQ (bachelors officers quarters) where Air Force officers that were unmarried, with officers paychecks, and no rent to pay spent their money on cool cars. I learned to leave my bike many feet from the cars, and hold my hands behind my back, and not get drool on the cars.

Dad gave me an interest free loan of $600 to buy my first car. I had to pay that all back, and I paid for 100% of all costs of my 1960 VW Bug, except insurance, as he did pay the insurance. And I had a free room and board

I learned to work on my cars then. I still use the same ratchet set I bought in 1970 to do my first oil change on my bug. My older brother had learned how, and he showed me a few things. He would have charged me to fix my cars, so I did it myself.

I will never complain about my parents. They were the parents every child deserves.

[Seahawk]

I was lucky, sort of.

My Dad was absolutely a car guy growing up in the Bay Area. They would make cars out of various frames, panels and mechanical/electrical parts.



They were also big into motorcycles and worked on/rode a lot.



But then, darkness descended and he and my Uncle Byron went to the dark side:



All British all the time, my Dad included.

This was our family car (I'm with Major Joko).



When we moved back to California when I was 9, my Dad bought one of the first Lotus Europa's imported to California.

Eek.

Before we move to Newbury Park to a 17 acre "ranch", we lived in Rolling Oaks, which was then fairly rural between Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park for six months while the house on the ranch was being refurbished. The rental was at the end of Colt Lane and had a steep driveway we used to gravity feed our carts, etc.

He would set off on a Saturday and drive the many canyon roads everyone here is familiar with. This was in 1966.

My friends and I were standing at the top of the driveway when my Dad comes up Colt Lane followed by a 911, a 356 and a Lotus 7. They had met canyon running and up the driveway they come.

The 911 driver was a great guy and watched me pour over his car.

"Want a ride?"

I "yes sir'ed" him like a mad man.

That was it: The hook was set.

[id10t]

First rode in my 356 when I was three days old... Grew up in it, taking family vacations, learning to drive, took it to prom

While I can appreciate the newer cars, I honestly thought the 911 dad got in '88 (now Shaun's) was too much car to really enjoy driving for me.

So not so much Porsche Passion in general, but passion for one particular Porsche