930 Tragedy

[panzer grey]

A '930 tragedy' that began on 8/29.

I had a '79 930 'barn find' experience....well, almost.

Last summer I noticed a silver 930 sitting on the side of an older gentlemen's home near my parents house.

The car was neglected- faded paint, tatty interior, some minor rust - but not bad overall.

A few weeks later the car appeared in the bay of a Mom and Pop gas station in the neighborhood.

It sat there day after day for over 3 months. I asked someone at the station what the car was doing there and they replied that they were 'looking the car over' for the owner who wanted to give it to his son who was about to get his drivers license.

Besides cringing at the thought of giving a 930 turbo to a teenager for his first car, my porschephile nephew and I kept wondering why anyone would take such a fine high-performance vehicle to a local gas station and not to a Porsche specialist.

As time went on I kept watching the car each time I visited the parents- I never saw anyone working on it and the rear wing became a depository for empty oil containers, dirty rags, and styrofoam coffee cups.

I was just about to approach the owner and make him an offer when Hurricane Katrina came along.

The city prepared for the worst- I moved my 944 to safe hiding in an elevated parking garage- we packed up and left town as did most everyone.

While there were much more important concerns like life, limb, and property- in between seeing the horrors shown on the tv and scanning sat photos to see how bad the flooding was my nephew and I would ponder at times - "he WOULDN'T have left that 930 just SITTING there, would he?"

We knew the car ran, as an employee of the BP station where it was left had told us that the car ran just fine- only needed some 'cosmetic work'.

A week after the storm I snuck back into town past National Guard check points to retrieve my 944 from the parking garage where I hid it- not a scratch on her or a drop of water inside.

At that time, the area near the BP station where the 930 was last seen is still under 10ft of water.

Another week goes by and while working for the media I am finally able to get into the area of the BP station and snap a pic with my cell phone of what I found:




...so as you can see, not all 'finds' have a happy ending.

Once i saw the car still in the garage I knew it was finished.

That is mud caked on the floor of the garage. The car was under water for over a week- the cans and trash were left on the tail by someone who was cutting sheet rock out of the gas station following the storm.

Here is a satellite photo taken during the height of the flooding that shows the garage where the car was left- notice the wake of a boat passing in front of the scene of the crime:





Here is a pic of what happens to an interior that has sat underwater for over 10 days- I can't tell you the stench from the sewerage and fetid water that hit me when I got brave enough to open the drivers door and witness the tragedy. When I took these pictures it was 6 months after the storm and the car still had standing water on the inside.



I took the interior picture in December- the owner didn't even have the decency to wash the water lines off the exterior nor attempt to dry out the interior.

I hesitate to even share this tragic story for fear of offending the owner who, like most of us in new orleans, probably went through hell and back and had bigger priorities than 'just' a car...and also because I have had fantasies of bringing her back to life oneday.

Would there even be any point in it? It would probably cost at least $100K to restore it, if not more.

It's all moot anyway.

I passed by the garage the other day and the car was gone- probably went to the crusher.

Maybe that's where it would have ended up anyway with a 16 year old about to take possession...almost woulda rather seen it go out in a blaze of glory than just rotting away in fetid floodwater from neglect and a lack of preparedness.

I drove RIGHT past the 930 in my 944 the Saturday before the storm on the way to stashing my car in a parking garage only a few blocks away...moving the 930 would have taken all of 10 minutes. If I had a crystal ball and had known that the owner was not even going to bother with it I would have stolen the damn thing and saved it from such an inglorious demise.

See you in Porsche heaven, my friend and almost barn-find.

[Craig 930 RS]

Nice story!

Goes to show at the end of the day.....it's just a car, and you are still alive.

[Wavey]

WTF is wrong with people??? Sheer idiocy.

[jkarolyi]

Wow.

[Redlineshftr]

I would have stolen it when I heard that they were going to give it to a 16 year old who just got thier liscence! Not that I have much more experience im only 18 but a Porsche wasn't my first car and I couldn't imagine trying to learn how to drive stick in a 930... Great story none the less! I wonder how many classic cars that people are willing to pay stupid amounts of money for go to waste like that every day?

[Craig 930 RS]

Quite a few. Wrong car, wrong person.
Seems to happen frequently in California, FWTW.

[nut11]

Very sad. Interesting story, though.

87 blk coupe

[ChrisBennet]

Who knows, maybe Katrina saved that young man's life? Giving a 930 to someone who just got their driver's license is a bit like giving a loaded gun to a 3 year old....
-Chris

[Nickatnyt]

Great story and pix. Way more interesting than watching CNN!

[Cory M]

A waste no doubt, but is it a worse fate for a 930 than this?

[OSI930]

Thanks for the great story and pictures. Very sad.

[Redlineshftr]

Holy crap that slantnose (if you could even call it that) doesn't even look like a Porsche! Looks like something that would sell on ebay for 50k, I wouldn't be suprised if it had a VW engine!

[panzer grey]

I left out part of the story- in Feburary of this year an F3 tornado hit the area where the car was left to rot.

The twister ripped through the neighborhood and passed just behind the BP station- literally missing what was left of the 930 by yards. A house next to the garage was completely leveled! Tracing the path of the tornado, it was on a direct line for the garage and veered around it at the last minute- almost as if it decided to spare what was left of the rusting hulk of the 930! ( Butzi, was that you? )

A family across the street from the garage had spent months trying to clean up their home from the katrina flooding- they were just about to move back in when the tornado ripped their house in half. I saw an interview with the homeowner who said that they were giving up and moving away as this was 'obviously a sign from above'.

Sorta puts in all in perspective.

My extended family lost two homes in the storm...but yet despite the 'real' losses we have suffered, the thought of that 930 being left there when it could have been easily saved still bugs the **** out of me.

Maybe that is because those personal losses were unavoidable but the lesser 'tragedy' of the abandoned Porsche was not.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Just a car, I know.

But for me personally, under the circumstances, it was something more...it was yet another senseless victim of that b!tch named katrina who destroyed so many lives and changed mine forever.

So please excuse my melodrama....but somehow I now feel as if I have the only 944 that has a little bit of 930 Turbo in it...as if my modest water cooler carries on in memory of it's mechanical big-brother that died a watery death.

[randywebb]

still curious as to what part of town the car was parked in...

[Yellowbird RS]

It's going to be a nice project nice story, glad you are ok

[panzer grey]

ck your e-mail, RW.

[Craig 930 RS]

Panzer -

Tell us YOUR story....how it changed your life. Seriously.

[Grady Clay]

Somehow I expect to see the 930 on ebay next week represented with “minor flood damage.”

If only you had made an offer and saved it from both the flood waters and the kid.

Best,
Grady

[panzer grey]

I meant that the storm changed my life...not the missed opportunity on the car.

The car just became the embodiement of my frustration at being powerless against mother nature.


I do want to thank everyone around the nation for all their support and concern- and everyone in the Porsche community who has been so kind.

Now, back to the cars!!

[panzer grey]

grady- I wrote down the VIN !