New Glass Topped Targa

RKC · 05-07-2009, 07:38 AM

Well, I sadly said goodbye to my 1987 Targa last night. I knew that car inside and out, and enjoyed working on it. I wish it well as it leaves for salt-free, Southern California.

Gotta go drive the new-to-me 2007 Targa 4S to cheer myself up!!!

Jim Richards · 05-07-2009, 07:46 AM

Beautiful car! How do you like the glass targa so far?

masraum · 05-07-2009, 07:48 AM

Cool, congrats, why the change?

stevepaa · 05-07-2009, 07:53 AM

Did Porsche fix all the ailments from the last go around with glass targa?

Beautiful car, always wanted a 97 Targa but was dissuaded by a Porsche region manager.

RKC · 05-07-2009, 09:27 AM

I like the new car - fast, pretty, and modern. Do already miss the old one though.....

The 3.2 was a summer only car - it was an occasion when it came out in the spring, and always created a happy impression - like a car always on a twisty road on a sunny day heading to the beach or to a Dairy Queen. Everybody loved it, including passers by, I knew every inch of it, and did all the work myself (almost).

Reasons for the change? Well, after 8 years, I had gotten the 3.2 perfectly the way I wanted it a few years ago, but my kids (7 & 12) need to be ferried here and there, and I felt the need for something more modern and normal (better AC in the summer, etc.), plus the 2-3 days of working on it each spring seemed harder and harder to come by as their lives have expanded. Time has gotten to be more important than anything, and as long as I didn't have time to work on it, it felt as though part of the reason for owning it was gone. I have a great nearby shop (Eurosport), but part of the appeal was getting in there.

Figured I needed something under warranty and with no need for work until the kids are old enough to drive themselves. Maybe I'll buy an old one again in 10 years and rebuild the engine just for something to do when they leave home after High School.

The new-to-me 997 feels like a 911, sounds like a 911, drives like a 911 - just more modern. And more GT than sports car, really. Like the color, love the lighter interior, and the Targa roof is really pretty close to the old Targa too - not quite as much wind in the hair, but close, and much better and more open feeling when closed due to the glass. Funny to have to relearn the simplest things though (gas filler, clutch in to start, etc...)

Only real downside is slight fear about it's complicated mechanicals and unfamiliarity. And the fact that people don't immediately admire the car as something happy and fun and well done - people are wary of it, intimidated a bit by it until you go out of your way to be friendly - money, prickishness, whatever - they respect it more than love it. That's a little sad.....

That said, my wife and kids love it. My wife dreams of an NSX, so this is more like it for her. But she liked the old 3.2 to a point. She likes cars and is very supportive - rolling down windows (even in the winter) so I can hear sports car exhausts when they pass. When she drove the 3.2 for about 10 days last summer when her car was in the shop, she said she could see why I loved it. But, really, her heart reaches for something a bit more modern, and she loves the 997 - so much so that I worry about my ability to keep being the primary driver!

The 997 makes more sense for where I am in my life, and for my family. I get the feeling that when that changes in a decade or so, I might regress to something more primitive.

Seahawk · 05-07-2009, 09:33 AM

Very cool...both are worthy.

My kids still miss the 964 Targa, as do I.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RKC

I like the new car - fast, pretty, and modern. Do already miss the old one though.....

The 3.2 was a summer only car - it was an occasion when it came out in the spring, and always created a happy impression - like a car always on a twisty road on a sunny day heading to the beach or to a Dairy Queen. Everybody loved it, including passers by, I knew every inch of it, and did all the work myself (almost).

Reasons for the change? Well, after 8 years, I had gotten the 3.2 perfectly the way I wanted it a few years ago, but my kids (7 & 12) need to be ferried here and there, and I felt the need for something more modern and normal (better AC in the summer, etc.), plus the 2-3 days of working on it each spring seemed harder and harder to come by as their lives have expanded. Time has gotten to be more important than anything, and as long as I didn't have time to work on it, it felt as though part of the reason for owning it was gone. I have a great nearby shop (Eurosport), but part of the appeal was getting in there.

Figured I needed something under warranty and with no need for work until the kids are old enough to drive themselves. Maybe I'll buy an old one again in 10 years and rebuild the engine just for something to do when they leave home after High School.

The new-to-me 997 feels like a 911, sounds like a 911, drives like a 911 - just more modern. And more GT than sports car, really. Like the color, love the lighter interior, and the Targa roof is really pretty close to the old Targa too - not quite as much wind in the hair, but close, and much better and more open feeling when closed due to the glass. Funny to have to relearn the simplest things though (gas filler, clutch in to start, etc...)

Only real downside is slight fear about it's complicated mechanicals and unfamiliarity. And the fact that people don't immediately admire the car as something happy and fun and well done - people are wary of it, intimidated a bit by it until you go out of your way to be friendly - money, prickishness, whatever - they respect it more than love it. That's a little sad.....

That said, my wife and kids love it. My wife dreams of an NSX, so this is more like it for her. But she liked the old 3.2 to a point. She likes cars and is very supportive - rolling down windows (even in the winter) so I can hear sports car exhausts when they pass. When she drove the 3.2 for about 10 days last summer when her car was in the shop, she said she could see why I loved it. But, really, her heart reaches for something a bit more modern, and she loves the 997 - so much so that I worry about my ability to keep being the primary driver!

The 997 makes more sense for where I am in my life, and for my family. I get the feeling that when that changes in a decade or so, I might regress to something more primitive.

RKC · 05-07-2009, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevepaa

Did Porsche fix all the ailments from the last go around with glass targa?

Beautiful car, always wanted a 97 Targa but was dissuaded by a Porsche region manager.

The 993 Targas had some problems, not the least of which were leaks and squeaks - the targa top was put onto a Cab body as a unit - almost like a permanent hardtop - and that turned out to be a bad idea.

The 2007-2009 997 Targas used coupe bodies and this supposedly stopped the leaks and squeaks. The targa unit was put in FROM INSIDE, so that as the car went faster it get sucked up tighter too.

My new 2007 Targa 4S has 10,000 miles on it, and the top glass doesn't squeak, but the roller shade blind does rattle a bit on rough roads if it is deployed open (quiet if retracted so there is just glass). Nothing like an old or new cabriolet (drove a 996 cab an it rattled) or the old Targa, and overall way more rigid than the old car, but it does squeak from that shade. No water leaks (drove through some terrible rain on the way from Miami to Chicago).

997 is a great car, but the 3.2 was more like a go kart (in a good way).

RKC · 06:39 PM

My 87 was built about the time I met my wife & I started my adult life - a very powerful and exciting time of life, full of promise. The car always reminded me of that time - a time which seems, 20 some years later, simpler and less frightening, as well as more coherent and full of meaning than of course it seemed then....Life goes on and change happens though....I'm warming to the new car in a different, but still significant way....