I MADE IT!

WHEW!!!!! I made it gang. A while back I asked the group of you about any interesting stops and such on my trip from St. Louis, MO to Kalamazoo, MI. I had previously shipped my 72 911 TE from Hawaii and the closest the U.S. Navy would bring it was St. Louis (actually Pontoon Beach). Well needless to say I didn't stop at one of those places. While I was in Hawaii I never thought that I would need the heater working (it IS tropical after all). Well the ol' P car started right up (after 4 weeks in shipment)and I climbed in to an ICEBOX! Not only did the heater NOT work, but with the targa top it is not airtight. So I settled myself in for the 7 hour trip back up north to K'zoo. Good ol' mother nature decided to make a funny about an hour out of St. Louis (now in Illinois) and let go with a wonderful snow storm (it may be flurries to you guys up here, but to this southern boy it was a full fledged blizzard. The temp dropped to 20 degrees (-20 degrees with the wind chill....I was driving about 80 mph to get home). To make matters worse, about halfway home (after my 10th stop for thawing out and hot chocolate) I lost 3rd and 4th gears. They decided to go back down south I guess. Well, 1st, 2nd and 5th stayed with me the rest of the way and I finally made it to the safety of my garage.......albiet frozen solid, but otherwise safe. Thanks go out to my wife who followed me dilligently in our Durango the whole time laughing her butt off and saying "I told you to sell that damn thing in Hawaii before we left!"........she doesn't understand. Thanks also to you guys who recommended a whole bunch of places to see along the way. I saw them alright.....in my rear view mirror. Last, but not least, to the Sherman (Illinois) Police Officer who took one look at me (after he stopped me on I-55 for speeding) went back to his cruiser and got his brand new cup of steaming, hot coffee, gave it to me and told me to keep going as fast as I could (no ticket).....thanks for sparing me! All in all it was a pretty good trip....now excuse me while I pull my ass outa the fireplace!

Tim Enos
Frozen 1972 911TE with partial gearing

Tim,
That's EXACTLY the heart warming (pun intended) story I love to read. You were right to keep the car. Now the bond is real between you and your car.
Thanks for the good read, GeorgeK

Stupid computer...

[This message has been edited by GeorgeK (edited 12-02-2000).]

Yea thats good stuff!

Hey George, can you get heated seats in the 911 in Swiss Land? My wife has rump roasters in her Volvo and we never get to use them here in Louisiana.

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Robert Stoll
83 SC
83 944

Tim - great story! Glad you made it but I'll bet it was a nail biter after you lost those gears! How on earth did you keep your feet warm? I had headers on my '73 targa (no heat), damn near froze my feet off in the winter. I can see your targa screaming down the road all frozen up with a hole the size of your head wiped on the windshield! Ha! I can't believe that cop gave you a break. I've never met a good cop, never. This guy needs some sort of humanity award!

Thanks guys! I DID in fact damn near freeze my feet off....luckily I had 3 pairs of sox and thermal insulated boots on. And yes....it was a nail biter after losing those gears. I simply wound it out in second before dumping it into fifth gear. Oh well....I've got the whole winter to pull the tranny and engine to fix it. Hehe!

Tim

All winter to fix the tranny, don't forget about that heater too.

Robert,
I have heated seats in my everyday BMW, but not in my Porsches, they are too old nails for that. Besides, I only use the P cars from May to October.
Heated seats are the kind of things you never really appreciate until you heve them. I know they are an option since around '86 or so.
Regards, GeorgeK

How on earth did you keep the windshield defrosted in that snow storm?

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Tyson Schmidt
72 911 cabriolet (964 bodywork)

Tim,

Sounds like quite an adventure! I guess you have an incentive to fix the heater, now!

You may want to drain the gear oil and remove that shift cover, the semi-trapzoidal shaped cover held on by four nuts and having three rounded protrusions on it. Something may have slipped out of place down in that semi-frozen 915 during your adventure.

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

Sounds like your wife got a little revenge but did so in good fun... she stuck with you and your frozen mad dash --- think you oughta keep her!

Great story. Some cops have brains and use them. I wish they all owned Porsches.

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'83 SC