Beautiful car!

Abolutely a beautiful car! Welcome and watch out for the slippery slope.

I tell you what the RUF front and back bumps and a bit of dropping make these 911's look 112% better!

Isn't it amazing how much nicer the bumpers make it look?

I like it

Thank you again everybody for the very warm welcome.

The transformation is definitely amazing to me. The original bumpers are cleaned, wrapped, and stored away.

The fact that this was my dad's 911 definitely makes it more special. I have fond memories of this car.

Some more history:

My love affair with automobiles began when I was two years old. I did two paintings back then. One was called "Volkswagen Beetle with a Flat Tire," and the other was "Volkswagen Beetle with a Wheel that Fell off." Who knows what goes through kid's minds. My dad had these framed and hung in his office. He lost these during a move a while back. This still angers my mom to this day. She thinks these were stolen. She loved those paintings.

I was obsessed with Beetles growing up. I even built a ceramic model. In elementary school, I wanted a Beetle very badly. I had the Hotwheels car, but it wasn't enough. Our family friends had one, and I loved the sound. I wanted a real one. Every Christmas I asked for one. Our friends' blue beetle caught fire one day, so my dad had it towed to our backyard. That was my "jungle gym." I spent hours in it "driving" and inspecting the engine and molten tail lights. It soon filled up with snakes and was hauled away.

I remember fondly the day my dad bought this 911. He wanted a Porsche for a while. It was his dream. He looked at several used 911's, but none of them seemed good enough for the asking prices. He even looked at a friend's mint 1958 356A coupe. It was white on burgundy. His friend was asking $12,500 in 1988. His friend lent it to him for a week to check it out. He should have gotten it, but it didn't quench his 911 thirst.

In January of 1990 my dad received a call from Marty Hughes at Langan Motorcars in Schenectady, NY. He was an elderly gentleman who leased my dad an Audi 5000 quattro in '83 and a 5000s in '84. He took a liking to my dad (he called him "Doc") and told him that he had the 911 my dad was looking for, and would give him a great deal. My dad and I went to the dealership that day and he traded his '87 Alfa Romeo Milano for the 911 you see above. Mr. Hughes was unlike many of the sales people you meet today. Over the next few years he leant my dad a 20 valve 200 quattro and a V8 quattro each for a week. When I was of driving age he leant me a G60 Corrado for a week. He did this just in case we were interested in buying. We weren't special people. My dad only leased/bought the three cars from him. It was just his way of low pressure sales. My dad and I did not buy any of those cars, and that never hurt our relationship with Mr. Hughes. The 20 valve 200 would have been nice, though.

Fast forward to June 2009. I invited my dad up for the Larz Anderson German Car Day on Father's Day. I in my E30 BMW, he in his 911. He was saddened that he did not have time to properly care for the 911 and thought it was time to pass it on. My 30+ year air-cooled, rear engine dream was finally fulfilled in the shape of a 911 rather than a Beetle.

After a few months, Porsche withdrawal finally sunk in for him. I went to visit my folks one weekend about a month ago. Approximately 20 years after our original trip, he and I went back to the same dealer, and he ended up getting an incredible deal on a 2009 Cayman S PDK.

So now, I have the '89 911. My older sister has a '99 Boxster, and my dad has the '09 Cayman. It looks like my younger sister needs a '79 of '19 Porsche to keep the 10 year interval. She does love 928's so maybe '79 it will be.

That's probably enough sappy history for now.

Great story...I, too, had that VW bug thing be quite a large part of my life,.....looking back, there was so much to have learned from my ex Father-in Law...he rebuilt so many of those, I couldn't possibly count 'em all. Used to spend countless hours out in his garage with him, helping on numerous rebuilds...he was quite particular, for sure. Although a long time ago, I still remember those days...NOW, at almost 53 years of age, I'm sitting here looking at (yet another) horizontally opposed engine!!!!!!!!!!! I can relate (of course, having forgotten all the tidbits the old man was passing on...)

One thing I did notice (as to factory) is that my P.O. had the steering wheel recovered,..yet done in black. It would appear from your photos (and others) that the S.A. Edition had steering wheel material tha matched the interior (such as yours...). I guess I have to now say that "it's completely stock except for the rear wiper delete, manually operated front oil cooler fan mod (since the switch was available with the rear wiper delete), and NOW, the steering wheel was covered in another color than what came stock! (dammit)...I love the look of that steering wheel.......makes me want to get mine changed back to stock ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!

SWEET, SWEET, SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best,

very nice...welcome to the forum

Beautiful car! I hope you are enjoying driving it as much as the E30 (okay, more!). I do have to admit, if I could swing it I'd have probably put the E30 into storage with some Stabil in the gas tank and oil on the moving bits... :)

The Ruf ends really make a huge difference in the appearance of the car, especially lowered as much as you have. Do you have any plans to track it, or will it be a road-only setup?

Great story! I'm sure you'll enjoy that car.

Looks like we all have something in common. A beetle was my first car and so is the next 4. Driving my 911 home in May 2008 for 400 miles was the first time I drove a 911. Today I don't wanna drive anything else if I can help it! I need another 911 for the rainy day.

oops,..forgot one other mod: fused the dash lights circuits....

Not sure what you meant.. could you provide pics?

All this Beetle talk and enthusiasm has me wanting again. Maybe someday. I better check my lottery tickets.


dshepp806,

Very nice story. I wish I had someone with mechanical skills to pass on to me when I was younger.

Oh no, it is sounding like your SA is even more modified than mine ;). Just kidding. I love the color matched steering wheel. It is tough to keep clean (grubby hands on light colored leather), but it gives the interior a quirky appeal that really does it for me. Go for it. Get yours recovered. I guess I should add my non-functional AC to the mod list. I believe that the compressor clutch gave out at some point, and somebody just disconnected everything. I guess the $$ vs. necessity equation came in to play for my dad.

mkossler,

If my E30 M3 was a better example, I would have definitely done as you say. Mine was a 200,000 mile, rusty New England car that had been "restored" and modified to track car standards in 2005 (600lb and 1024lb springs front and rear, a built '95 M3 S50 engine transplant). It was brutally fast but brutal on the street. I bought it in November of '08 when the recession started getting serious for a pretty good price. It went straight to my mechanic for a ton of work and came back to me with a couple a months left in the summer. I never really built a relationship with that car given the stresses of the economy and the resultant lack of time. I decided that it wasn't what I was looking for in an E30 M3. The plan was to sell it and start fresh with a cleaner and more stock M3 to slightly modify to my taste (essentially a twin to my E30 convertible; good coilovers, wheels, exhaust).

Then the 911 opportunity came along, so the E30 M3 dream took a back seat. I have, however, enjoyed my E30 convertible immensely over the years and finally have it set up just the way I want it. It is now stored away so that I can concentrate on the 911. I also could not stomach driving that car on normal "Blue Book Value" insurance considering my emotional attachment and the effort I have put into it. It will be eligible for classic car insurance when it comes out of storage.

I have enjoyed the 911 for the little time I have had to drive it between getting it back from the shop and putting it away for the winter. I am looking forward to the next summer to really learn the car. I do plan on some driver's school track events to become familiar with the car, but for the most part it will remain on the street. Well, we will see.

You guys are giving me ideas. Goal was to get another 911 for rainy days. I do like the old M5's... hhmm. I better get outta here and back to work. Ciao!

E28 M5 would be a beautiful summer daily!

By the way, I wanted to mention that I have been reading this forum constantly since July and am amazed by the knowledge and people on here. I look forward to my time here and hope to meet many of you in person.

Beauty and it looks like you fixed her up nice and got ride of the mice!

Your dad has great taste, do you realize how lucky you are to be the steward of such a clean unmolested machine?

Killer looking 911!!

Welcome to Pelican.