too many cars. not enough women.

My sc is a GQ and my T after completion will be too Im a contractor and I do alot of estimates.Showing up in a porsche aint cool. I do most of my estimates in a 92 dodge spirit.[3.0] On weekends ill take out the bike or take out the other toys. P-cars are toys for big boys. I dont have alot of time to play.Or maybe i have to many toys. I will say when i do get into the sc, Theres feeling of uphoria. Its something i dont want to lose and always look forward to when theres time.

Just one other thought - given that my car doesn't let me down and never complains there's not much feminine about it - shouldn't it be a Garage King!

When I owned my construction products company I had to go visit a superintendant to see about some unpaid bills. The subdivision was in an area with great roads so I couldn't resist taking the 911. After the reaction I got from the builders and superintendants I never did it again! They weren't too sympathetic about my collections efforts!

Boats and cars are women. You have to pay both lots of attention or they start acting up on you...

I have an '87 with 66,500 miles on it of which I have put 8,000 on in about four years. The reasons for the low miles are: I live in Cleveland (salt), am married with three kids, work downtown
and have an unlimited use lease on an Exploder.

Weekends are about it for driving the 911. I'm envious of the So CA guys who get to use their cars year round.

My car hasn't been a garage queen with its prior owners (based on the mileage), but I don't drive it all that much.

This is purely for practical reasons - I take the bus to work almost all days, rather than pay $17/day to cross the bridge and park in the open. When I take BART (our light rail mass transit) I take the beater, rather than drive the Porsche for <2 miles and get a lot of door dings.

But when I do drive to work or meetings or on errands, I almost always take the Porsche. It carries kids, gets groceries, sits in freeway traffic, even sits in long-term airport parking for a week at a time (under a cover, of course). Why not? The miles don't bother me, the motor is strong, and I can ignore the stone chips.

Mine's a daily driver, which is the main reason why I got an older one. I've put 10k on it almost to the mile this past year. I do some driving related to work, and its great to drive it a couple of times during the course of the day, even short trips. I can usually let it out a couple times a week going to courts in rural jurisdictions. I wouldn't mind having a garage queen too, but I don't have the garage space.

I walk to the commuter train, and ride my bike to the 7-11/hardware store for little errands around the house. I only put about 4,000 miles a year on my previous car - a Buick I inherited from my father. During those fearful, dramamine drives, I realized I could buy just about any classic car I wanted and keep it forever, without worrying about commuting miles (I'm under long-term contract at work).

So I bought my 87 with 23,800 miles on it almost 2 years ago to enjoy a "nearly new car" experience. On the few trips I need to take for work, I'll take the car if I can get there in a day or two - I took it to Kansas City last year, and hope to go to Toronto this year. But I have 3 kids so I don't like to be away too long.

I like using the car as an extra/special car, but live for longer road trips on 2 lanes. Can't justify a 45-90minute trip into the city when the train takes 25! And can't bring myself to take the car into the salt. No concours stuff for me, though the car is garaged and usually pretty clean.

Some days I wish I were a travelling salesman though!

I wish I could put electrical tape over the odometer.

This mileage issue presents a real conundrum: how much concern to exercise over preservation of my purpose-built dream machine? Like a previous poster, I finally found a nice low-mileage car and, thinking I'd drive it everyday, brought it home. But I had not thought through the fact that my wife also assumed I'd drive it everyday. Now I hear: "Why aren't you driving your car?"

"Uhmmm, there's nowhere to park," or "because I'm going to___ and I know that there is a lot of gravel on the road there." As I'm saying this, I realize how ridiculous it is, so my response decays to a mumble.

BTW, what's the best tape to cover the front of the car before doing a DE?

Have Stoneguard applied, and get out and enjoy your car on the open road!

I always use that "Blue Masking Tape" available at Home Depot. It is designed to be an easy release on walls. It works very well on auto paint, plastic, and glass.

My daily driver is a motorcycle, even in the winter and most rain, because I love to ride and it doesn't hurt that I get close to fifty miles per gallon. I have a beater 75 chevy 4wd pickup for real bad weather. My 85 911 targa has 65k miles and is for pure pleasure driving. I just can't justify using th 911 for stop and go driving and the rest when I have the other vehicles.

-Jeff

Saying a 911 is "just transportation" is like the alcoholic that says he drinks "just for the taste". Why anyone would drive a 911 for any reason other that setting one's hair on fire with speed is beyond me. I use my 911 strictly to "unwind". As much as I love to unwind, and I do it 3 or 4 times a week in the summer, there's got to be some balance, for me anyway. 33,000 mi on my '89

I looked at my average not to long ago.
 

I initially put about 16k miles a year on the car for the first five or six years. Now with two kids, soccer, karate, basketball, scouts, etc. etc. its down to less than 2k per year. But, I've gone from doing about 5% of my own maintenance to probably 90%, and actually I am more familiar with my car now than when I drove it a lot.

5 months of the year I deal with salt, snow, slush, ice... For me, I see no reason to put a turbo cab through that torture. I also have a 3 mile drive to work. I have seen it written and have been told many times, the worse thing for a car are frequent short trips. The car never gets warmed up. Also, it doesn't make sense, in my opinion, for me to drive a car for 5 minutes at 25 miles per hour only to then let it sit in the sun, rain, hail, bird crap... for 9 hours. I also don't take the car to run errands around town. I live in a small rural town and can drive anywhere in under 5 minutes. So again I don't drive it for the short trip reason and I also don't like to let the car sit in a grocery store, hardware store... parking lot. I use to take my SC on these trips because it made me feel so cool. After a few door dings and having the car keyed twice, I figured it just isn't worth it for a 5 minute drive to get milk. That leaves me 7 months of weekends and PCA events which adds up to 4,000 miles per year. I guess you could say I pick my spots that make sense to me. I also feel my Honda Civic does a better job on these short trips. It's just the better tool for 80% of my driving.

Seat TIME
 

I am in Michgan, the winter roads have more salt than McDonald's French Frys! Thus, must wait until a couple of good rains in spring then off to the public races. I have a 99 ML 320 with 130,000 miles 3 yes 3 front hood bumper paint jobs due to the sand/salt blast on the highway:mad: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1071872048.jpg

Unless you daily drive your P-cars it's hard to put on alot of miles. The weekend is the only real time to drive the car and then some times it's just easier to drive the lexus.

-Steve

I know what you mean. Out in Ahwatukee there are 5 of everything and it would take longer to warm up the car then to drive to the store

Maybe the answer for everyone that's afraid to drive their car is that they are simply too nice. I'm 911 shopping right now, and due to my limited budget, it will be my daily driver. Fortunately, the car I get won't be a concours contender, it'll probably have a little rust, some stone chips, a few headliner tears, you know the type. I say fortunately because I want something to make the 20 miles of country road to and from work fun, no matter how *****ty of a day I have. I know that when I get a 911, by the time I get home I'll somehow feel better, even if it means taking the long way home. I want something to tinker with, little problems to fix, to occupy my spare time, and maybe in a year when I can save up the money I'll give a restoration a shot, get a beater for those bad weather days. All I hope is that when I do, I don't lose what I bought a Porsche for in the first place, because I think that when driving a car becomes a fearful experience, it's no longer worth having. Just the opinion of someone who doesn't even have a Porsche, so disregard at will.

Unless you daily drive your P-cars it's hard to put on alot of miles.

That's right. I would prefer to buy a higher mileage car with complete service record than a GQ with low miles. Bring the GQ back to normal drivable condition will take a lot of $$$. That's why the low mileage car keeps sitting in the garage. It's really no point of leaving the car in the garage. A new 1989 930 turbo is selling for $58,000 this week. It the same price it was purchased back in 1989. The owner pretty much keep the car for 14 years and save for the next owner.

I'm insuring my '73 at a specific 'stated value' in the mid 20s which imposes certain restrictions - no shopping, work, track, locking garage, etc. It is good for unlimited pleasure driving. Is it possible to insure a car for a stated value using 'conventional insurance' and get non-restricted driving without paying through the wazoo?

I prefer to drive on weekends. I never take the car for granted, it always feels special, and I just can't wait until the next weekend to drive it again. Since it's a third car - it isn't needed for commuting and grocery getting.

Like 89911 said, it is the quality of miles. I put about 2K miles a year on my car but about 1K of that is track miles so I think that counts for something. I have an A4 for the daily stop and go traffic and to be honest can;t imagine driving my SC as a commuter. It is just too __________. Fill in your descriptive word here for daily driving, IMO.

Noel

Bumper-to-Bumper from Newhall to Burbank with the sun in your eyes down the I-5 in the morning. What kind of driving a pcar is that? I'd rather drive the Mazda (with an automatic transmission and good A/C in the summer) and save the pcar for the weekends. Althought, I do drive the pcar many days when I'm going to a filming location out in the Santa Clarita Valley (north of LA). When your going bumper-to-bumper on the freeway, its not a pcar, its a commuter with a lot of clutching and shifting, you might as well be driving a Yugo, or an Echo (my daughters car).

Bob:

I am insured by my regular company, costs a couple of hundred a year, with no mileage restrictions. It is a 73E. They insist on an appraisal for value, and won't take stated value. I won't know what it really appraises out for till I get it in May. But I couldn't handle the restrictions on where, when and how long I drive my car, put on by the other companies.

I can imagine having a **shudder** accident and during the interview by the ins company have the adjuster ask "so, what PCA event were you driving to?" No answer, no coverage. No thanks.

larry

My '75 is a third car in a 2 driver home
 

My wife and I each put between 15k-20k miles a year on our daily drivers. We live in New Jersey, so the 911 stays off the salty roads during the winter. I use it whenever I can weekends during the other three seasons, but even then I end up putting just 1k miles a year on it. I don't drive it to work because it has NJ "Historic" license plates so use is restricted to parades and "maintenance miles" (benefit is no annual emissions inspection and I insure it for $150 a year).

If my daily driver wasn't so much fun to drive--it's a BMW 528i Sport (17 inch wheels, sport suspension, 5 speed stick) and the 911 was our only fun car it would no doubt see more road time. The BMW is certainly no 911 from a character perspective. In a way, sampling the 911 just once in a while is kind of like having a glass of fine wine as an occasional treat--a fresh experience every time. And treating it this way for 20 years, as I have, means it will be around for a long, long, time.
:D

I posted first time around on this thread but here's another thought. I don't have a garage queen and couldn't have one--I'd drive it too much--but I'm glad that over the years there have been enough of them that the history and beauty of these cars has been preserved.

It took me a long time to be able to afford my '88. I don't mind admitting it. I'm not rich. And living in the snow belt of the east coast does limit the amount of time the car can actually be driven. Right now I'm looking out the window of better than 14" of fresh snow. My car gets driven on road trips when it's just me and my wife, and we'll take it out to dinner in the evenings and such. Oh, did I mention I live on a dirt road?? :eek:

To me there are two distinct types and purposes for cars.

1) Practical type, where you depend on it to get you someplace and back. I prefer a newer vehicle for this purpose, one that is safe, cmfortable and practical. The vehicle in this category must be reliable enough so that it rarely requires any maintenance besides oil changes and never breaks down or leaves me stranded and I never have to worry about it doing so. I'm never late to work and I have perfect attendance and I want to keep it that way. (yeah, I'm a nut).

These needs are dictated by 1 1/2 hours per day spent in stop and go traffic. The 911 would not meet my needs of a practical car very well. I'm too big to fit in the car comfortably, I hate drving a car with a clutch in traffic at 3 mph, I don't like to be in heavy traffic in a small car surrounded by Excursions and semi trucks, my co-workers think my 911 cost $100,000 and I must be dealing drugs to pay for it or something, and I don't like the idea of parking a black 911 in an oil refinery. The paint wouldn't look good for very long.
others can use a 911 as a daily driver because their situation is different. it doesn't make sense in my case. maybe a 996 tip would work but that kind of car is too expensive for me to use up in 7 years. It would be nice if I could afford to depreciate a car $10k per year but I can't justify it. reality sux for some more than others;)

2) Pleasure based vehicles.
Those that are purchased and driven not because of practicality but because they fill the need the driver has for enjoyment. Strictly discretionary. The 911 fits this need well.

The first category is taken care of by my 2003 tundra. It is basically a vehicle that does it's job and is used up in 7 years. I drive it 20,000 miles a year and will replace it with a new vehicle at around 150,000 miles. I figure after that it will no longer be reliable enough to meet my needs. sooner or later something will go wrong and I hate that feeling.
It is basically a living expense, overhead.

The second category is my 911. I drive it when I need to feel the car or the road or however you describe what it does for me.
I drive it to Porsche events, PCA events, and sometimes just to get out of the house. I also drive it at AX and an occasional DE. I like to take it when I go golfing. It helps me forget all those horrible shots I just made (or didn't make).
I've put less than 3000 miles on it in two years. usually I'm not using it when I need to hurry up and get somewhere. If it breaks down or needs some attention no biggie. I just take care of it. (it hasn't done that yet, but I don't have to worry in case it does).

That is what I bought the car for and how I prefer to use it.
I am not a concours weenie but I can relate to them in one way:
Sometimes having it is as important to me as driving it. Just knowing it is there and I "could" drive it if I wanted to means a lot.

26yr old car with 44k miles = 1692 miles per year avg.
The car is worth more than it was new and It's MINE!!
I do with it what ever I want.
All original paint and I like being able to say that.
When I retire I'll maybe drive it every day. They only made about 700 of this one and I think mine is one of the nicest ones.
Garage Queen, I guess so but she's beautiful and will probably stay that way.

I have discovered a perfect way to end GQ syndrome and allow you to drive the snot out of your car without guilt or worry - crunch your car.

Well, I can't exactly recommend it, but that appears to be a side effect of my concrete excursion. The car won't be stock any more, and while I'll still keep it as nice as I can, there is somewhat of a monkey off my back.

The salty winter . . . . .
 

Lots of interesting things here that I agree with. My restored 73E is going to be kept nice and pretty. Won't see snow, ice and salt. And now I wonder that if I hadn't come across this car, would I have rather bought a more RGruppe type of car with flairs and a swapped in engine that I would have driven daily. Hmmm. But this is the road I have chosen and I'm not disappointed.

I imagine coming home from work and saying "Honey, I'm going for a drive, see you in a couple of hours." But between taking the 73E out for dinner and weekend jaunts to nearby B&B's I expect that I will probably only put 5K annually on it. That means that I've got an easy 10 years before I need to drop serious dollars into the engine, etc.

The other interesting thing is that people DO think that these cars cost a fortune!!! I'm not made of money, it took me 30 years to be able to afford a "fun" car, but I can drive it around, get wide-eyed looks and have a great time with it. I want it to stay nice. Want to see the crowd around it gawking and asking questions. Can't do that for very long if I use it as a daily driver and put 20K annually on it.

And nostatic, sorry for your crunch - I imagine it was painful!!!


larry

I buy cars to drive - life's too short. I take care of them, but I'm not going to baby a car just so somebody else can eventually enjoy it!! That said, I'm facing a dilema: I've now got 2 Porsches and have plans to buy another (early coupe - S, RS/ST replica or ???) hopefully next year. So what's the problem? Well, I'm already finding that the Gray Wolf is beginning to become a GQ! Add another early car to the mix and I fear I'll be questioning the logic of owning multiple fun cars that I simply can't drive enough. I have no interest in collecting cars just to have them.

I'd be interested to hear from those who have (or have had) multiple Porsches and eventually wondered: 'Why?!'

You are assuming that I am taking care of it so that I can sell it and make money on it. Shame on you!!!! I am taking care of it so that I can enjoy it!!! Savoring it like a fine wine. I don't need to put 20K on a car annually to enjoy it.

larry

One clarification.
 

I'm not driving 2k miles a year to keep my car pristine or to keep it to sell it. After 20 years, I have no plans to sell but I plan to hand it off to my kids when they get old enough. I drove 30k plus miles a year when I first bought it. When I say I drive 2000 miles a year now, I mean DRIVE. I seldom shift less than 5000 rpm. After constant gear shifts, jaunts to 90 mph, holding in a tight clutch, grasping for first gear, searching for cops ahead and behind, going through curves near my limit, dismissing ricers, I find I'm too tired to do this on a regular basis anymore. Getting out of the 911 and into my automatic 740iL with lots of room is comforting. At my age, I need comfort; and rest, lots of rest. However, for whatever reason, I'm saving to add a 993 to my stable. I've got my goal set on a 98 Targa or S2. I've got time to decide. And it won't be driven in the salt and snow either.

Larry, I wasn't referring to you. Your post hadn't appeared before I posted mine. Actually 5,000 miles a year is alot of driving for a fun car!! And, trust me, your early E is going to be fun :D -- Curt

Curt:

Ahhh, both of us writing and posting at the same time, huh? Thanks. We're driving to the western Michigan shore for a party tomorrow. Which side of the state are you on?

Larry

Re: Seat TIME
 

Actually, it looks like a fun ride parked behind the Porsche...;) Steel body?

Hey Larry, I'm on the east side of the state - north of Detroit. Plan for snow along the west shore - it's pretty much a given this time of year!!

The next owner will thank you for keeping the car so nice for them.

-Steve