When did it happen to you?

rickeolis · 06:54 AM

I'm almost to my 100th post, so I need to run something-

When in your life did you decide that a 911 was the car for you?

Personally, I was about 16, my dad had a bad-a$$ Honda touring bike, and he and I were coming back from a long ride when we noticed a '77 930 coming up on us. He, much like myself, couldn't pass up a spirited challenge, so he got on it around 90 mph, and the Porsche driver was ready. We climbed to 120 and came up onto a car in the fast lane, going slow, so dad waited for a clean break around it, the 930 didn't. He went around that car on the left and picked up steam to the tune of at least 150+ and we couldn't see him after about 30 seconds.
Back then I read a lot of Road & Track, and Car and Driver mags, and always kept up with the 911's and turbos. When I finally got the chance, I got mine. I have had BMW's, a fast Trans Am, a sweet CRX Si, fast bikes and some other cool things, but there is nothing like driving the 911! I still feel like that 16 year old when I get behind the wheel of it!

What about you guys, what got your attention the first time?!?!?!?

pwd72s · 06-09-2002, 06:04 PM

"What about you guys, what got your attention the first time?!?!?!?

__________________
Rickeolis "

It was the motor vu drive in movie theatre...the year was 1962, and... Oh, sorry, my mistake...your question was about cars!

RJ Gilliam · 06-09-2002, 06:10 PM

1978, I was 18 I saw this car with flared fenders, big wheels and looking very, very mean...it was a 911 Turbo.

I had seen them before but never this close (side by side) Well I had my 1969 Chevy Camaro with about 400 HP. So I thought I was MR Bad A$$ and figured I would show this rich jerk what HP really was.

30 Seconds later I was pulling off the freeway to go buy something to drink (yeah right I bellieve it is called embarresmnet.) I was doing 115 and he pulls up next to me gives me a thumbs up. And pulled away.

From that day on I have wanted a 930... and thanks to my wife pushing me to buy what I have always wanted, I now own one. Dreams do come true.

Doug E · 06-09-2002, 06:17 PM

Can't say I even remember when I saw my first 911 and decided I would have one some day. Luckily for me my wife already felt the same way when we were married!

I do remember as a teenager back in the late 70's seeing/reading about the 935's and thinking how cool it would be one day to have one of those ...

makaio · 06-09-2002, 06:19 PM

When I was a youngster (about 7) I was driving with my dad, and I noticed a early 911 with a ducktail. I asked my dad what kind of car that was, and he said a porsh. I told him I was going to have one someday. And when I finally got one 18 years later, I informed him it was a Porsche not a porsh.

What was cool, is my dad remebered that day too. When I was going to pick my car up, my dad drove me down. He said" you've wanted one of these since you were a little kid".

tight as a bull's ass · tight as a bull's ass's Garage

i was about 16 and saw a poster of a guards red turbo.....I had it on my wall for many years.....many years later, i purchased my first turbo.

the 911 is the sexiest car ever built, no question about it.

Bill Douglas · 06-09-2002, 06:55 PM

When I was a young 13 year old guy I remember telling my friends I liked Porsches. They said "oh yeah the 911", I said "I don't know about this 911 ****, I just want a Porsche". Then when I was about 16 or 17 and I was on a bike that I thought was pretty fast, I came across one at the start of a motorway that went up quite a steep hill with moderate traffic. I thought "good some decent competion" and because of my good top end and the traffic I should win easily. Well, nope, I wasn't even it the picture. I suspect it was a real RS going by the year and the ducktail.

Superman · 06-09-2002, 09:29 PM

I was just getting to be a teenager when muscle cars were at the height of their glory. I was a little familiar with the kind of horsepower made by those big block V8s. The 911 bug bit me for good, without antidote, when I found out Porsche engines were making 350 horsepower with six cylinders displacing less than 200 cu.in.

To this day, I'm still impressed with those numbers. Even though 700 horspower is now being squeezed out of them.

Jack Olsen · 10:02 PM

Jeez, for me it was two years ago. I'd always thought 911's were driven by uptight European bond traders with bad coke habits.

Then -- for reasons I still don't understand -- my perception underwent a kind of weather change. I realized these things were really just go-karts, dressed up as street cars. I discovered the Pelican board at about the same time, and there wasn't a runny-nosed Swiss-money-manager-type to be found. Instead there were guys like Warren Hall, Roland Kunz, John Walker. Leland Pate and Superman. I realized that this was a really serious little performance car which attracted enthusiasts who were one part crazy dreamers and one part sober engineers.

I came for the car, but stayed for the crowd. I met Tyson Schmidt on this board, and within a few months we were crammed into my car for a full week, driving the Open Track Challenge together.

It hasn't been very long, but in the intervening 24 months, I've managed to indulge both the crazy-dreamer side and the sober-engineer side of my personality in putting together my own 911.

speeder · 06-09-2002, 11:18 PM

Good thread/question. I have had the car disease since I was 2 yrs. old, it is a funny thing that either you have or you don't, neither my dad or my only brother really care about cars at all. By the time I started grade school, (mid '60's), I could name the year and make/model of virtually any car on the road, I would go to the library and study the "Motors" manual with the grille ID's in the front of each section. (Any guys 40+ remember those)?

In the '60's in the midwest, there were very few foreign cars, other than VW's. Ocasionally I would see a 911 drive by, think that it looked and sounded unimpressive. I would waste the days in school daydreaming and drawing pictures of GTOs and 442s.

Ironically, I first caught the 911 bug in about '74 when crash-bumper cars appeared, it's funny but in that year when all new cars suddenly had them, I thought that Porsche did the best job of making them look good. (Still believe this). At about this time I began to learn what the cars were all about and they became my favorite car. I realize that this thread has awoken lots of memories and I may be getting long-winded here, but I will just recount one memory then stop. House party in a beautiful mansion on Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis, about 1980, warm summer night that you never want to end, there was a Saudi prince living in town at the time with a brand-new G. red 930, (grey market), I didn't know him but through some girl I wound up getting a ride to my car on other side of town, 3AM, me and her in rear jump-seats, him cruising on a little boost through empty city, the whir of the turbo, effortless acceleration, and most impressive the outright quality of the car made a lasting impression on me- I've never been the same since.

dickster · 11:24 PM

since i was old enought to appreciate what they were. by about the age of 16 i had decided the 911, datsun 240z, and triumph stag were cars i had to have one day.

i always loved working on cars.

Quote:

I'd always thought 911's were driven by uptight European bond traders with bad coke habits

but you were right, they were! thats the '80's for ya. the yuppie image is only just disappearing here. best advice is to avoid red turbo's........!!!!!!!!!

Nader · 06-09-2002, 11:39 PM

I think I was 9 or 10 years old, so it had to be the late seventies, and was looking for the fastest car I could find in an Edmunds New Car Buying Guide. It was a 911 Turbo. (I don't think Edmunds included Ferrari or Lamborghini.)

Then in the mid-late eighties, I had stuck to my bedroom wall every picture of the slant-nosed 911s from that Road & Track issue titled "Bahn-Stormers!" Remember that?

My mental image of Porsches being the ultimate sports cars was solidified when a local dealership in '87 had a 962 sitting out front. Up close it looked like a spaceship. I remember being most struck by how odd it was that pebbles were embedded in the racecar's tires.

911jon · 06-10-2002, 01:07 AM

I was 8 or 9 years old and already fascinated by anything with a piston engine. I saw a picture of an RS in a motoring journal of the day. There is just something about the shape of it... I was enthralled. I have been a 911 obsessive ever since. My ownership and driving experience of the car have only served to underwrite my wholehearted addiction.

My career was duly dictated by my motoring inclinations. I work in the motor industry in R+D and have a degree in Industrial Design (Transportation). I have found that as my knowledge of design and engineering has increased, so has my appreciation of every aspect of the design of this obsessive and obsessional vehicle. I will never know enough about them, and will certainly never voluntarily be without one again.

With reference to the yuppie years; yes, some people buy 911's for the wrong reasons. But this is a car which can educate the motoring palate, inform the rational mind and suffuse the emotions with a wholly irrational glee. Three cheers for the finest car ever made!

Victor · 06-10-2002, 02:14 AM

I sort of "grew up" in two of the finest countries in the world: Australia and Germany. When I was five, I distinctively remember sitting in the back of the family VW Combi on the Autobahn when a silver 911 zoomed past at an incredible rate of knots. I never forgot the sound and the look and that is what got me hooked.

From then on, I sought after it every time we where on the road. Untill we came back to Australia where small block V8's ruled the road. Enter next love story.......

Cheers, VC
'89 Carrera 3.2

Milu · 06-10-2002, 03:13 AM

I grew up in a car mad enivironment where Ferrari was king and there were always interesting cars around. I got my first 911 because I wanted a big time sports car and I couldn't afford a Ferrari. It is sometimes said that every Porsche owner secretly wants a Ferrari, many buy one and after three months start shopping for a Porsche again. I gradually started to appreciate the differences and the merits of both. I was responsible for converting my family to Porsche but I didn't have a blinding flash of light on the road to Damascus.

Years later I had five cars outside the door and I couldn't find one that started. I decided to have a clear out and have one car that fulfilled all my needs and would always work. I cold bloodedly identified my requirements, my budget and what was available. I decided that my ideal car was for me the one I wanted: a black late model 3.2 forget the other considerations, and so what if I ended up spending 25% more than my budget or than the car was worth, quality really does remain long after you forget the price.

This is the car that really caused my Porsche illness, I had had two 911s, two 944s and a 924 turbo before it, but this is the one that pushed my buttons. I still have it, I've had two other 3.2s that have left the fold and I have another that I use daily but the black one is special.

jluetjen · jluetjen's Garage

My mother's family is from the Stuttgart/Ludwigsburg area and so at some level I've always been aware of the company. In spite of this I'm still surprised that when I found a box of my old toys in the attic (from when I was about 4), there was a 911 in it that I still remember had obviously been well played with. I've also discovered that one of my favorite Matchboxes was Porsche 910 after I found it in my old matchbox collection along with a Lola T70! So I've always been aware of Porsches and the fact that they were "Racing Sportscars". Unfortunately I had little direct exposure to that sort of car aside from ABC's annual highlights of the Monaco GP.

I did have an epiphinie when I was about 15 (1978?) and my dad took me to my first Memorial day IMSA races at Lime Rock. I still have the pictures. We parked on the outfield and started walking down the hill on the outside of Big Bend. I just remember thinking "Wow! They really fly into that corner!" It is burned into my memory watching first hand as John Paul Jr's egg-shell blue 935 belching flames while braking for Big Bend. Before we left I had to buy a Porsche 935 T-shirt. I still have it but I'm afraid to wear it any more because it is sooo threadbare. I guess that makes me "born again"!

Since that time, I've gotton an SCCA licence and raced at Lime Rock a number of times -- once in front of a crowd. But never in a 911, or even a Porsche. I sat in a Porsche once or twice, but never drove one until I test drove my 911E. It has been a given that I would someday I would have a 911. I'm still living the dream! In a couple of years the dream will be complete when my 911 is fully race prep'd and I take it back to Lime Rock. Only then will I know what those guys were experiencing back in '78.

JonT · 06-10-2002, 04:50 AM

I read an article in Road and Track back in '95 where the editors picked their favorite cars for under 15k. A few of them picked the 78-83 SC's and I was amazed that I could afford one! I researched at the local library all about 911's and what to look out for and also went to a Porsche mechanic and asked all the questions I could think of. In return for his help I would take my car there for servicing. Then I searched the regional large city newspapers on weekends for potential cars. Drove a few locally and initially I was not very impressed because I didn't know how to drive it properly--it didnt help that I had never driven a 5 speed! You should have seen the look on the dealers face when I told him this and asked to take a test drive. I ended up buying a beautiful 80SC Targa-triple black with 59,000mi and all service records in KC, KS (I'm in Omaha). This year I'm doing a 3.6L conversion and plan on keeping the car forever. I never get tired of looking at it and still do the turnaround peek when I park.

k9handler · 06-10-2002, 05:15 AM

when I was in high school and even more so when I seen this movie with Charlie Sheen, can't remember the name of the movie but the whole plot was stealing Porsche's!!!
Now that I have one Rick, I must tell you that the bug has started to get worse and I will probably own 2 or 3 more before it's over!

P.S. What was the name of that movie?

k9handler · 06-10-2002, 05:23 AM

No Mans Land, was on the tip of my tongue.

dmac · dmac's Garage

My dad was a US Army doctor stationed in Germany for about 6 years right after WWII. My older brother was born there. As a kid I always heard stories about Germany - the scenery, kind people they knew, and fun they had. Then in 1965 , when I was 9 my older brother bought an old, ratty 356. It had "character"! We had fun cruising around in it. He didn't keep it long, but it must have made an impression. I have always had a weakness for Porsches!

Dan MacDonald
86 944
00 Mercedes ML320 (gotta have a winter car!)
looking for a 911, 78-89