My Low-Mileage '88 Venetian Blue Coupe

[tig]

I have posted a few threads in the past on my car, but realized I don't have a dedicated thread. In my other car communities (Toyota FJ40s, AMG C63s, and BMW E28s) I had/have an ongoing thread that describes the life of the car.

I do have a website for my Porsche but it's not easy to keep posting updates to and few people actually check there for updates (other than those who use the Porsche Option Decoder I built). Charlie's Porsche Pages.

So here's the thread dedicated to my 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe. It's the only car I've owned that I have not named. It is also the car that I've owned the longest (since 1997) and the car I intend on owning forever.



Expect lots of pics and also expect me to rehash stuff from other threads of mine; revisiting the stuff I've done with the car is therapeutic to me...

Let's start with her birth and the stuff from the CoA:

• VIN: WP0AB0916JS121213
• Engine Number/Type: 64J03894 (M930/25)
• Transmission Number/Type: 2J11111 (G50/01)
• Model Year/Type: 1988 911 Carrera Coupe
• Production Completion Date: 11/20/1987
• Exterior Paint Color/Code: Venetian Blue Metallic/F8 (VENEZIABLAU METALLIC)
• Interior Material Color/Type: Linen/Marine Blue Partial Leather/NG

Options (from option code sticker in trunk, via my Option Decoder):

• 018 Sport steering wheel with elevated hub
• 139 Seat Heating - Left
• 340 Seat heating - Right
• 158 Blaupunkt Radio
• 220 Limited slip differential
• 243 Shorter gear shift lever
• 286 High intensity windscreen washer
• 288 Headlight washer
• 437 Comfort seat left
• 438 Comfort seat right
• 454 Automatic speed control
• 474 Sport shock absorbers (Bilsteins)
• 490 Hi-Fi sound system
• 975 Velour carpet in luggage compartment
• C02 Equipped with catalytic converter

She currently has just over 37,000 miles on her and remains in pristine condition. I drive her regularly (at least several times a month), but avoid nasty weather as much as possible. I immensely enjoy the challenge of keeping her pristine while actually driving her. She is absolutely a garage queen and will remain so until I die. Then my son can decide what he wants to do with her (assuming he stays in my good graces ).

More to come...

[white-tt]

Beautiful car, and excellent composition/lighting! Thanks for sharing.

[Reiver]

Don't name the thing, drive it

[theiceman]

nice car .. Maybe its just me but i would NOT be posting all that information including serial numbers and VIN numbers.. maybe Im just being paranoid.

[tig]

Like all 911s mine is unique. Here's a few of the things, other than the low mileage, that make it unique.

• No sunroof.
• 15" Fuchs. In '88 the 15" Fuchs were standard, but very few people in the US ordered them without the 16" optional wheels. On the 15x7" / 15x8" wheels I have mounted BFGoodrich g-Force Sports at 205-55/R15 and 225-50/R15.

These tires are slightly undersized. I have had the speedo adjusted by North Hollywood Speedometer so that it now reads true. Sadly I didn't do this until the car had about 32K on it, meaning that from when I started putting the shorter tires on it (~7K) until then the odometer was racking up 5% more miles than actually traveled.



I love the look of the shorter wheels. It makes the car look more aggressive, especially with the slight-lowering I had done. It also makes the gearing shorter which is a negative on long highway drives, but an advantage zipping around town (and when I was autocrossing).

[X JBM X]

^^ you're paranoid.

The car is beautiful!! Keep up with this thread. I'll follow just to be intrigued by the steps taken to keep her pristine.

Edited to add: When I spoke with Kevin at NHS (my speedo was there last month to be recalibrated also) he noted that the odometer operates independently from the speedometer - meaning, even if your speedo read high, your odometer shouldn't have. I don't know if he was blowing smoke up my tailpipe, but that's what he told me.

[regency]

Wow, one of my favorites. Color, year, Coupe, no sunroof, no tail. All you need now is the Hot Chick standing next to it. Just sayin.

1973 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

Steve

[Venetian]

Beautiful car. I'm biased though since mine is pretty well identical but an 1987 with more miles.

[mdripley]

Absolutely a beautiful Car Congrats

[caitov]

Wow! What a well cared for car. Looks great!

[Kidasters]

Nice.

When NHS had my speedo last, I had them zero it. I bought the car with 132K on it, but the odometer gear had been broken for a few years. So - it had mystery miles on it anyway. Now, it has my miles on it.

I do that with all of the cars/bikes I work on.

[westcoast911]

Love the car, love the thread. Inspiring that youll drive and enjoy it, yet be dedicated to keeping it pristine.

Looking forward to all the details.

[Reiver]

Originally Posted by X JBM X

^^ you're paranoid.

The car is beautiful!! Keep up with this thread. I'll follow just to be intrigued by the steps taken to keep her pristine.

Edited to add: When I spoke with Kevin at NHS (my speedo was there last month to be recalibrated also) he noted that the odometer operates independently from the speedometer - meaning, even if your speedo read high, your odometer shouldn't have. I don't know if he was blowing smoke up my tailpipe, but that's what he told me.

I'd never heard that...my speedo reads about 6 mph high and my odo runs faster than the road side mile markers indicate too... about 1 mile indicated in .92 actual.
In his case tho, since it is an 'other than stock' tire size, his odo would be off regardless unitl matched with the tire.

[Macroni]

Beautiful.... love the 15 7&8s......

[tig]

Here's the story of how I came to own this amazing car. Reposted from The Story of My Porsche:

(Written May 22, 1997)
Charlie's Dream

For a long time I've dreamt that I would someday own and drive a Porsche 911. I've bought just about every Porsche book and subscribed to every Porsche magazine available. I didn't want a new Porsche. While the modern (last 5-6 years or so) 911 is an awesome automobile, I've always been a fan of the "middle-era" cars. In addition the prices on newer 911s is out of this world!

The Porsche 911 is a special kind of car with a unique (and b>long) history. First shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1963, the 911 has remained basically unchanged and in production longer than any other production car in the world. Each year minor updates were made to the design, and every few years more significant updates were made. The "early-era" cars were built from 1964-1972. Today the "early-era" cars can be classified as rust buckets, race cars, or collectors items. The bodies on 911's were not galvanized until 1974 so older cars are prone to rust. I didn't want a race car, and since I wanted a car to drive daily, a collectors item was out of the question. Besides cars built in the '60s are just a little to primitive for my tastes.

The "early-middle-era" always looked good to me. Because of rust I had ruled out anything prior to 1974. But reliability in the cars built prior to 1981 seemed suspect to me (the 2.7 liter engine had serious longevity problems). In 1989/90 the 911's look was significantly altered with the introduction of molded bumpers and sleeker aerodynamics. Some prefer this era's (called the 964) look. Not me. In 1995 the most dramatic change to the 911's look was made. Whereas before the 911 was beautiful because of the engineering excellence it stood for, the "Type 993" was even more beautiful due its styling. However as I mentioned above these newer cars are very expensive. Thus the 911sc, built from 1978 to 1983 was what I thought most about. I didn't really pay attention to cars newer than 1984 because of price.

The 1988 model year was a sweet spot for the 911. It was the year prior to the introduction of the of the "molded-bumper, high-tech-4-wheel-drive" cars of the 964 and 993 types. From 1984 to 1989 the engine was a bullet-proof 3.2 liter, DME-controlled, 217hp, musical instrument. These cars were called Carreras (the "SC" in the previous generation stood for Super Carrera). In 1987 the Carrera got all new transmission, the G50, which is much smoother and more reliable than any previous 911 transmission. There is virtually no difference between the 1987, 1988, and 1989 Carreras. The "original" 911 platform was discontinued completely in 1990 with the introduction of the Carrera 2 and Carrera 4 models (internal Porsche designation of Type 964). These are the first 911s with the aerodynamic molded bumpers.

If you pay attention to the 911s you see on the street you'll know that there are basically four body styles: Coupe, Cabriolet (convertible), Targa (lift off top), and Turbo Look (aka "Whale-Tail"). I can't picture myself in a convertible, the roofline of the Targa ruins the shape of the 911 (except the 993 Targa which I would own in a heartbeat), and whale-tails stand out too much. The coupe is just clean design.
In terms of color, my daughter will tell you that her daddy's favorite color is blue. But I've also always loved silver cars. German cars are supposed to be silver. 911s have come in lots of different colors, but the three that I've always liked the best were, light (e.g. Aluminum) silver, dark silver/blue, and midnight-blue (almost black).

Accident

This spring, my lovely wife was driving to the grocery store in my Infinity G20, doing about 40mph. A dolt in a mini-van turned left in front of her and she T-boned him. The Infinity was totaled and my wife got whip-lash. This unfortunate event turned out to be most fortuitous for my pursuit of a 911!



A few weeks after the accident the insurance company called to confirm that the car was indeed totaled. My wife called me at work to tell me and we decided to go down to the Audi dealer that afternoon and buy a new Audi A4 Quattro (purchasing a Porsche was discussed only jokingly).

We arrived at the dealership and began looking at an Audi. The salesman, whom I had previously spoken to before about Porsches, mentioned off-hand that a 1988 911 Carrera with 6800 miles on it had just become available. "Is it a coupe?" was my first question. "What color is it?" was my second. "Yes it's a coupe, and it's Slate Blue. Wanna see it?". I didn't immediately realize what color "Slate Blue" was, but we said "Sure, why not?". "Does it really have only 6800 miles on it??!?! Wild!"

The car was in the service bay. It looked brand new. We fell in love. We bought it. It's a newer car than I expected to own. It's also in much better shape than the 911 I thought I'd get someday. It also happened sooner than I expected. But how can you pass up a car like this? The right "era", the right shape, and the right color (it's actually "officially" Venetian Blue).

The Story

So how did this come to be? How in the world did this Porsche/Audi dealer end up with a 1988 911 (built in November 1987) with only 6800 miles on it? The story is priceless.

Apparently this lawyer in a smallish town in our state bought the car for himself in 1988 and drove it infrequently until 1990. His son turned 16 in 1990. He told his son not to drive the car. Ever. One night dad went out and when he came back the engine cover was warm. He was so mad that he decided to take the car down to his place of business and essentially hide the car from his son.

Recently a client of the lawyer, who happens to be a Porsche car salesman, told the guy he should sell the thing. After all, it's just sitting there. So the lawyer sold it to the dealership. Apparently "some lady" had already put a deposit on the car and was supposed to make her final decision by 10am the morning we visited the dealer. She didn't show up, so we got it! Turns out she came by the next week wanting to buy the car, but it was already in my garage! We just happened to be there at the right time! The car still had 1990 license plate tabs.

It's kind of like the stories you hear about finding an old car in perfect condition in some grandmother's barn.

Pretty cool, eh?

Pictures taken the day I brought it home:

[tig]

Originally Posted by X JBM X

^^ you're paranoid.

The car is beautiful!! Keep up with this thread. I'll follow just to be intrigued by the steps taken to keep her pristine.

Edited to add: When I spoke with Kevin at NHS (my speedo was there last month to be recalibrated also) he noted that the odometer operates independently from the speedometer - meaning, even if your speedo read high, your odometer shouldn't have. I don't know if he was blowing smoke up my tailpipe, but that's what he told me.

There may be some independence, but use your brain. At some point there is ONE mechanical sensor that detects revolutions of the rear wheels.

[OttoBob]

You lucky dude! You must have good Karma. Thanks for sharing your story and your car is absolutely beautiful!

[tig]

And then the instructor puked in my car...

The Story of My First Track Event (An email to some friends dated Monday, May 5, 1997)

To:
Date: May 5, 1997
Subject: And then the instructor puked in my car...

With a little help of J and Reb, today was my first day at Seattle International Raceway in my "new" Porsche. What a kick. I'm hooked.

Here's the story...

Last Friday J & Reb told me they thought there may have been an opening for today's race school at SIR. There was and I signed up. I arrived at SIR at 7:30 am, following 3 other 911s up highway 18 from Auburn. I'd never been to SIR before so I just followed the cars that seemed to have a clue on how to get into the track (we were supposed to meet by the tower). We all parked in the staging area nose-out. What a sight. Roughly 20 Porsches all lined up in a nice row. One 924, one 944 Turbo, a Boxster, and the rest 911s of differing years.

The day started with an hour or so of classroom instruction where I learned things like how to position your seat properly and how to heel-toe (I had my own intuitive ideas, which turned out to be not too far off, but I'd never been "taught" any of it). Pretty good stuff for the most part. I am normally not a very good student (short attention span), but today I was in to it. I ate up every word.

We then spent several hours doing "cone" exercises on the track. Slalom, emergency breaking, and accident avoidance. I learned a lot and really began to "know" my car. Remember, I've had it for less than a week...

We then took several laps around the track with an instructor. He drove for 2 laps, then I drove for 2. Slowly. Just to get a feel for the track and to have something to think about during lunch.

After lunch we hit the track again. Helmets this time. There were two groups of cars and each group took roughly 20 minute turns on the track. The other group did chalk talks and thought about what they had done wrong/right while waiting. There were "lap" cars on the track (including J Allard, Doug, Darryl and several other MSFTies) to keep things exciting. Darryl had a race 911 as well as one of his Ferraris on the track. Pretty much the only non-Porsche out there.

My first session was pretty good. My instructor gave me LOTs of input and advice. Almost too much for me to take in. I was feeling a bit overloaded, but by the time the session was over I knew what I was supposed to be doing and sometimes doing it. My favorite turns were 3a/3b. You come off of 2 and over a rise and down a grade into 3a. If you've taken 2 correctly you can be carrying a lot of speed down the grade. I never saw my speedometer but you're in fourth gear before you need to break. The turn-in point for 3a is smack at the "back" of the turn; just head right for it breaking hard and downshifting (heel-toe!) into 3rd and then 2nd. Just as you approach the back of the curve, turn right hard to the apex and out across to the exit point on drivers-left. Accelerate into 3b (still going downhill!). Really break hard prior to the turn-in point for 3b to get the nose down/weight forward and turn sharply to the left, accelerating hard out of the turn. Feel the drift as you accelerate towards the exit point. Weee!

My second session started out ominously. A different instructor this time. He starts off saying that he hopes that I drive smoothly because he's not feeling very well. Early on he had good advice, but as we made more and more laps he got quiet. I even tried asking him "How was that? What should I have done differently?" Mumbled responses. Finally as we approach the place on the track where you're supposed to exit he says "you better pull of". I signaled (arm out the window per protocol) and pull in. He said "Stop here!". I stopped, he threw open the door and proceeded to puke. The majority of it stayed in his helmet, but a bunch landed in the interior between the seat and door-sill. Bleeech! I could have screamed.

Fortunately it all cleaned up and didn't smell.

Needless to say, I picked a different instructor for my 3rd session. This guy was great. I really tried to remember his name but I obviously had my mind on other things because I can't. Anyway, by this time I was feeling much more confident and was successfully executing most of the time. I had trouble figuring out the breaking point for turn 8, but finally nailed it. I came to really like turn 8 because if you do it right you get to take tons of speed into the front straightaway. I hit 120mph several times. Yeeehaaw!! I never really felt like I had 5a/5b nailed, but in my mind I can visualize it. Next time!

J & Doug were both behind me for a lap during my 3rd session and both got videos of me. Cool! I can't wait to show them to Julie.

-cek

[tig]

Here's a set of pictures I took right after I bought the car in 1997.







It's kinda shocking to me that I took almost no pictures of the car between sometime in 1998 when the photo below was taken and 2008!



These were taken at an autocross in Bremerton, WA in 1999.






(My daughter watching me come towards the camera).

[SoCalSK8r]

Bi*chen, love everything about it, good score!