Farewell but not goodbye

[banjomike]

Well, I replaced the wrecked 911 today. I got a new GTI 1.8T. 180hp, traction control, electric locking differential, 17" wheels, leather, and airbags everywhere. More importantly, it seats 4 comfortably with lots of cargo space and it will be a comfortable commuter. I expect it'll be a few years at least before I get into another Porsche. I'm sure I'll continue to peruse this forum (I'm kinda hooked), but not as an owner. Maybe I'll start looking for a 914 to work on.

[86 911]

Banjomike,
Sorry to hear about your 911. I hope that the GTI works out for you. What year is it?
Hopefully you'll get that 914 soon so that you can restart living the Porsche-active lifestyle!

Good luck!

[aigel]

What did you do with your 911? Did you buy it back? Is there a chance you can still do so? I am interested in the leftovers. PM me if there is a chance to lay your hands on it and pass it on.

Vulturely yours,

George

PS: I agree, I wouldn't want to commute longer than 10 minutes one way in my 911. But consider adding it back as a fun car for the weekends!

[84porsche]

Banjomike,

Sorry about your 911 loss but congrats on your VW acquistion. They are fun cars. I love my VW but I love my 911 more. Put a custom plate on your car "soon to be a Porsche."

Chris

[kevjandon]

enjoy the VW. I've had two GTI's. Most recent was a 2003 20th A.E. Roll down the passeneger window and you'll get addicted to that wooosh sound of the turbo very quickly.

The first mod you need to do to it is get the Neuspeed Rear 28mm adjustable sway bar. You will be so amazed at what that one mod will do. The best 200 bucks you'll ever spend.

Visit www.vwvortex.com
It's the Pelican parts for water cooled VW's. Just as addicting.

[masraum]

If you want to keep the feel of driving a 911, at least the GTI has the engine and tranny at the same end of the car, just drive backwards everywhere.

Kind of sad, but I've been Porscheless for nearly a year and I'm still around, but I had to go with rear wheel drive, power/speed wasn't as important, and 2 seats was just fine.

[banjomike]

Thanks guys,

It's a 2004 brand new. I've never had a new car before. It's the 180hp 1.8 turbo. My initial impressions are that it is bloody quick, tons of torque, but you have to wait a fraction of a second for the turbo-lag. My wife took it to Target for some supplies last night and said there were a bunch of teenagers gawking at the 17" wheels, which makes me laugh since the 911 rarely got looks from kids. I already miss the "hand of God" braking, and there is very little to be done about the fact that all of the weight is up front. The rear disks are tiny and look really goofy in the huge wheels.

I did not buy the 911 back. They wanted ~$2500 for it. I had two reasons for saying no to that. 1st was that the engine mount bar was totally bent and the engine was not in there right (it was still running when I slid to a stop), and the wreckers were using a forklift with this pivoting wood platform to lift cars from the rear. That means they could have been lifting the car with all that weight concentrated on one cylinder bank or even just one cylinder. 2nd, I have no time to part out a car. Last year I got in 2 autocrosses and went skiing once. When would I have time to deal with it? So despite knowing that I could have made a few thousand on the engine alone. I guess the 3rd reason is I get all misty every time I think about it... time to move forward.

I do have some miscellaneous parts that I never installed that will be up in the classifieds soon enough. I gotta start saving up for the Bilstien coilovers for the new ride! It definately wallows around too much at speed.



PS I was surfing around looking at parts and looking for a cool discussion forum for GTIs and BLOODY HELL!! Chips, intercoolers, intakes, coilovers, exhausts, lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! Wayne, you ought to get into the VW parts biz, still german and the market has to be 100 times bigger.

[banjomike]

Actually I ordered it with the super-secret 3.0 liter engine option! (is this enought 911 content to keep from getting moved to OT?)

[nostatic]

Pull the AC and air pump and you'll be on your way...

[aigel]

Mike:

Ah, too bad. I should have contacted you earlier. I'd given you 3k for the wreck, hands down. No kidding. But on the other hand, your concerns are very valid, with the engine being squshed to the side, there may have been bolts pulled from the case, where the engine mount bolts to it. There may also have been damage to heads, cylinders or cam housings. Then you are left with a caseless 3.0 parts donor that needs to be further disassembled. That will take time and make even less financial sense. Still, I would have loved to have a spare engine for my SC that I could build with carbs and open exhaust for the track. It could have swapped entire engines at smog time!

Back to the 911 subject and your new car... That GTI is nice, but you could have bought a nice C2 for the same money, with air bags, 3.6, power steering and a good a/c. It would still be worth 80% of what you paid for it in 10 years. Try that with the VW. While we are all glad you didn't get hurt in the accident, you could have at least bought a P commuter car, couldn't you?

Take care,

George

[Joe Bob]

They can be fun....

[Ferrariguyma]

Until a friend emailed me these two sites

http://www.myvwlemon.com/

http://www.stahrinteractive.com/vw/default.asp

I drive 75 miles a day to work and was thinking a Passat or Jetta Tdi Wagon might be a great commuter/winter sled.

But I changed my mind after reading a little on both of these sites.

[84porsche]

Originally posted by banjomike
Actually I ordered it with the super-secret 3.0 liter engine option! (is this enought 911 content to keep from getting moved to OT?)

That is a sweet photo. I am curious if something like that is possible. It won't feel the same but I would like to see one running to be sure. The new R32 has a 3.2 liter but its not a flat six and it puts out 240 HP.