how to treat your 911?

[nostatic]

Just wondering how many people treat their 911 this way:


a) drive it in stop-and-go traffic
b) leave it parked outside (no garage space, but at least window shades and perhaps a cover)
c) have it suffer the door dings and whatnot of life on the road

I know it's "just a car", but part of me feels like it is too nice to drive. We all know I'm a tortured, twisted individual from previous posts, but do others have these feelings?

just curious....

btw, frost is thawing.

[This message has been edited by nostatic (edited 09-24-2001).]

[Saffs]

a), b) and c)
Unless one has a rare, original car that's becoming extinct: USE IT! that's what Porsche made it for.
I use my car all the time - when I'm home. It lives outside too. The pleasures of using are immense and you really get to know and understand your 911, driving it in all weathers - get to know how inadequate the heating really is! - and long journeys.
You'll then understand it intimately....

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'75 911S Targa
'81 BMW Alpina C1 2.3

[Jack Olsen]

I'm with Saffs.

Stop and go traffic is fine, so long as some of your drives are long enough to warm the car all the way to operating temperature. This means 'taking the long way' sometimes, and -- as you're beginning to see -- doing that requires no effort whatsoever.

Parking outside is fine with a cover. You live in the south, don't you? Even if you don't, consider Saffs' excellent car:



Door dings can easily be fixed by paintless dent removal outfits. Stone chips are simply incontrovertible proof that you are a man.

Marriage issues aside, here's my advice. If you think you like driving the 911 now, take it to a Driver's Ed event and have an instructor show you what it's capable of. When you're in a four wheel drift at 120 mph, the virtues of this car will make you babble like a child again. A 911 on a track will spoil you for all other cars -- forever.

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Jack Olsen
My Rennlist page • My Pelican Gallery page • My Porsche Owners Gallery page

[This message has been edited by JackOlsen (edited 09-24-2001).]

[patalive]

I've owned the 83SC for about 10 years now; for the first seven, it was a garage queen. I drove it occassionally, kept it cleaned and waxed but really never felt in sync with her.
-
Then about 3 years ago, I started participating in Drivers Ed events, put on 7 & 8 Fuchs, SSIs, Carrera oil cooler w/fan and started driving the beastie every day. We have become one. It has never run better and I believe I am a far better driver after three years of DE. It's a blast!
-
Yeah, the hood shows rock chips but the rest of the car is pristine. It still resides in the garage at night and when I do go into town, I park in covered parking. And ALWAYS, I park waaaaaaaaay out in parking lots and hike in. Not only are door dings minimized, but the SC's flanks are less apt to be damaged by negligent people walking by with their Home Depot purchases, Giant Food purchases, large shoulder bags, purses, briefcases etc. Besides, parking in the hinterlands provides more opportunity to turn around, and walk backwards with that Porsche Grin Factor pasted on my face!

Chuck

[Ted Stringer]

Mine is luckey to get parked on pavement. Most of the time it gets parked on the grass. Otherwise I just treat her like the the daily-driver she is.

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Ted Stringer
nuke3@juno.com
'84 911 Targa aka pocketrocket

[Rick Lee]

My '87 Carrera gets parked in front of my townhouse and with a cover on it during the week. On weekends I drive her every chance I get and always leave a reflector/visor in the windshield. It's amazing how much heat that thing will deflect or absorb. Mine is black/black and the summers in DC can get pretty toasty. But that visor keeps it manageable. My grey BMW with beige interior gets hotter than my black/black p-car.

[jpnovak]

My 71 targa used to sit in the driveway hidden under cover since I did not drive any car much(I commute by bike). Now that I have moved to DC and my wife works mostly from home, We definately did not need 3 cars. No place to park them. This means that I sold my daily driver Subaru wagon. So the 911 has taken over the job of getting me to work. Thanks to old 1/2 sycros It does not like that stop and go, take 20 min to cross a bridge, type of traffic, but when I finally get to my exit I can let it rip. So much fun. Traffic does not seem to bad.


I think my car likes being driven. I will keep it happy.

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Jamie
71 911T targa
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jpnovak

[carrera]

hmmm...... I am really surprised that I am posting a reply to muchstatic but this one seems 911 appropriate.
Driving the 911? Yes, drive, drive, drive,rarely is my carrera in a garage.
My idea of winter storage(I reside in the great white north) is four w210's and a wool cap.
I feel that this particular car(read 911) especially likes to be driven in snow.
Funny though, rarely do I see another at the ski hills and cottage country.
I have a 4x4 but cannot walk by the 911 to get into it.
Friends kid me about storing my 4x4 and driving my carrera.
The more I drive it the happier it seems.
People often ask me why I drive it in winter?
My reply, it is my winter car.

"Once bitten how could you live without one"
hmmm... this statement makes me think of the saga that we have been party to.(sell, keep,sell,keep,sell, a good solution?
Sell it, buy another together. If this does not work, well many people are happy being single.
Is it true that many of you feel as passionate about 911's as I do?

I do not love my car, just really, really like it. A lot.
Remember! Shiny side up.

[jsmarcus]

I bought my 911 in March of '99. It had 97,710 on the clock.

As of today, it has 146,698 (as of 2 hours ago when I got to work). By the way it is raining today. In fact, I had a great time with it last winter through the Northeast snowstorms that happened to fall almost every Monday afternoon.

I bought my car because I made a choice. Spend the same on a new car that I could afford, or buy the used...err...barely broken in Porsche. I opted for the fun choice and have driven it everyday since. I do not have a garage, and only cover the car in spring and fall because of the high amounts of pollen from the trees. No garage queen here.

Real men drive their Porsches.



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Josh
Black on Black '84 Carrera

[Dantilla]

I NEVER drive my 911. It ALWAYS stays in the garage. Oh. That's because there is no engine in it. It sits there on jackstands waiting its 3.2. In the meantime, I'm driving the other P-car like an idiot.

[Pillow]

My 911 is more along the lines of a garage queen... I drive it to work on Friday and sometimes Monday, covered parking. Always park in BFE of lots to avoid dents. On the weekend if I can, when not running errands in the truck. And of course I take her out for autocrossing

The one time she has seen rain that was preventable was for my wifes birthday and she insisted we take the 911 out to dinner... Other than that she stays dry, in my opinion very important for a long car life.

I am usually pretty nice to the engine especially durring warm-up. The only time I get on her is in the turns and on-ramps, which are super fun.

Basically the 911 is a toy for me instead of a workhorse.



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Adrian Pillow
1979 911 SC
1966 VW Microbus
PCA - Peachstate Region

[MarkY]

My 911 is a toy as well. It is my pride and joy that rarely sees my work parking lot. It has never seen rain or a supermarket parking lot. I drive it on weekends and for pleasure runs.

That's probably why this beautiful 1988 black coupe only has 21k miles.

[nostatic]

Originally posted by carrera:

"Once bitten how could you live without one"
hmmm... this statement makes me think of the saga that we have been party to.(sell, keep,sell,keep,sell, a good solution?
Sell it, buy another together.
Remember! Shiny side up.

That's what I'm kinda thinking. Together we look for one that is not quite so pristine, and buy it to keep it for the longer term. Owning one, albeit briefly, has given me even better ideas about what I do and don't want.

[thabaer]

I still get a kick out of the notion that I have the dirtiest 911 in Boulder. It gets washed properly, but when it rains my dirt driveway turns to mud and so do some of the fun roads in the area.

Made to drive and enjoy in whatever conditions you can still see through the windshield. If it were somewhat unique I'd probably be more protective, but me thinks there are a lot just like mine all over the world.



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Charlie Baer
'79 Euro 911SC

[pbs911]

Stop and go traffic from Orange County to LA. It doesn't get worse than that.

Always garaged at night, and always under a car cover at work. Except today since the wife tried to patch it and burnt a nice big hole in it. I'll have a new car cover tomorrow.

No door dings. I'm knocking on wood right now. I always park in a safe spot away from others and next to other expensive cars with new paint.

The motor sees redline in second and third almost every day. There are some nice wide sweepers is a great sweeping freeway overpass I love.




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Paul
78SC Targa

[wckrause]

Charlie, I got one just like yours. I drive the piss out of it, but I also try to do my best at keeping it maintained correctly.



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Bill Krause
'79 911SC Euro
MY PELICAN GALLERY

[Z-man]

I don't drive my p-car to work because since most of the drive is on the highway, it gets boring. (Any car can do that!) I'd rather save the pcar for the twisties on the weekends, the autocrosses, and the DE events, where I can drive it to abandon and feel good about it!

When not driving it, it does sit in the garage. As for winter: I've got a Subaru AWD Legacy, that is as much fun in the snow as a pcar is on the track!

Put it this way: if I'm going to get a dent on the door, I'd rather get it by kissing the wall at The Glen, instead of getting hit in the parking lot by Granny Faye.

Just my $0.42.
-Z.

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PCA NNJR
My Toy:


[This message has been edited by Z-man (edited 09-25-2001).]

[ebradway]

Before I bought my 911, I usually drove about 10K miles per year even when I worked 20 miles from home. Now I work at home and have managed to put 10K miles on the car in six months.

I love driving my car. I am selling it but I will buy another one as soon as possible. I am on an aggessive plan to get out of debt. Once I've done that I will buy another 911 and pay cash.

Drive it. Park it where you want. I do try to park mine in garages when possible but that's because it's a Targa and I'd rather not have to put the top on unless I have to.

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Eric Bradway
'86 911 Targa
http://www.bradway.net/porsche

[CamB]

Originally posted by Dantilla:
I NEVER drive my 911. It ALWAYS stays in the garage. Oh. That's because there is no engine in it. It sits there on jackstands waiting its 3.2. In the meantime, I'm driving the other P-car like an idiot.

Hahaha

THis is me too. (Except the 'T' doesn't go that well either)

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Cameron Baudinet
1975 911S (in bits)
1969 911T

[pwd72s]

Garage queen...'cept for a little short distance run to Cambria in May....1800 miles or so.