New Ride!

[mcholar911]

After 9 months of searching, I finally pulled the trigger last week and bought a car. I looked at early cars (mid 70's), the SC's, and the Carrera's and couldn't seem to find one that fit the bill for me. My dollar limit kept creeping up, and I justified it by targeting a couple of the bikes I don't ride that much for the auction block.

I almost made a semi fatal miscalculation with a Ebay purchase down in Baton Rouge from the Porsche dealership there, but Shuie and Mike Ballard Motorsports pulled my chestnuts out of the fire- Many Thanks!- In fact, it was Mike Ballards casual remark "if your going to spend that much for that car, you should come up with a few extra bucks and buy a 993".
Of course I answered- "how many extra dollars are we talking about?" And off we went....
All leading me to 5:30 AM, this Saturday morning, my ever patient wife and I climbed into a shuttle heading for the St. Louis airport and a direct flight to Baton Rouge.
Flight took off early, wings stayed attached, engine didnt lose any important metallic parts and we landed in BTR at 11:30 am, with a clear winter weekend ahead of us. Almost seemed like a good omen, if I believed in that sort of thing.
After I put my rabbits foot away, I called the seller that had promised to come pick us up. And by gosh, he answered the phone and actually showed up...This was going entirely too good. My natural pessimism started to emerge.
On our ride over to his house, I started to rehearse my "I'm outa here" speech, if the picture were dummied or the thing ran like a lawnmower missing a plug. I started to add up the money we spent getting there,how much it would cost to fly back and wondered if they even were letting flights leave Louisiana. For all I knew it might be like the " Hotel California-you can never leave"....but before I knew it, we were there, and y'know- it looked just like it was supposed to.
A blue/silver 1995 cab with a new top.
Started right up, no smoke, shifted-stopped- everything that was supposed to work-worked.
When we went in to do the paper work, he brought out a big envelope filled with receipts- "oh yeah, you might want these", there were receipts from the original owner- from about 6,000 miles all the way to when this guy bought it at 77,000 miles.
After we exchanged all his paper for my one piece of paper, we pointed the porsche north towards Illinois.
Being the adventurous type that we are, we immediately saw that Hwy 61 looked much more inviting than that nasty straightline of I-55, so off we veered toward Natchez. The seller had filled the car with gas, we had a couple hundred bucks and our credit cards, road side insurance, and a lousy .99 cent airport map. Hey, we were ready to go.
We got about 60 miles down the road, when I happened to glance at the gauge next to the fuel gauge. It's kind of blocked by the wheel, and as my 86 didn't have one, I wasnt really sure what it did. However, at this particular moment, I really noticed it, because whatever it did do-it was sitting at the bottom of the gauge- in the red zone. My experience in the past has been- red zone= bad zone..
So we immediately pulled off the road, and in a cold sweat, I called the guy I bought it from. It took him a couple minutes to sort out who this stuttering idiot was as we had a lousy cell conection and he only caught about every other word. But he calmed me down with the info that the gauge didn't work while driving (thats useful...) and that it should be checked at idle ( and even then it was intermittant), so- trusting that the mechanical gods were still smiling, and unable to catch a chicken to sacrifice- back off we went..
Clarksdale-Memphis-and the rest of the story later, if your interested!
Here's a shot in the garage, I'll take some Monday and post after the ritual post trip cleaning.

[DustinTarditi]

Congrats! I hope the rest of your time with the car is as positive as the first homecoming!

[mcholar911]

Thanks Dustin! I've got some stuff to fix, nothing major...What a rocket once you hit 4500....Wish I could find a good break down of the bottom front spoiler/chin area. I need to do some parking lot damage repair on the plastic..

[rcwaldo]

Love the story, your wording and a good result. Great stuff!

You oil level gauge will, in fact, read zero until the oil is warm, and sitting level with the car idling for at least 20-30 seconds. This is providing you have enough oil in her

Best is to rely primarily on the dip stick. Dont add oil until the car is good and warm. Check the dipstick. Yes, keep pulling, until the dipstick comes out. Hard to read, these are, especially with clean oil. Keep the oil level at about the half way range. Dont overfill.

Love to see more pics. Oh, the drug store has medicine that will help you sleep..

Be honest, how many times have you been out to the garage just for a look?

[mcholar911]

Good question...How many times have I gone out into the garage and looked at it? Hard to count. After being on the hunt for so many months, it still feels a little strange to see it there. I know it's just a machine, but..ahh.. I'm having an oprah moment here..now we start the fix up phase. Off we go down the slippery slope...

[Don Plumley]

Congrats!

[catnmouse]

Hey congrats to the wife too, she sounds like a real trooper.

[kevin993]

Congrats!! More pics!!!

I can relate to the gauge story. When I bought my 993, I had a PPI and a major service done prior to taking her home. About an hour away from the garage that did the service and probably a good 4-5 hours away from home, I had a look at the gauges. Prior to that point, life was good - bright sunshine, top down, my new Porsche. After I looked at the gauges, I was convinced that parts were flying out of the back, there was a trail of smoke and oil behind the car, and my new toy was one step away from a complete and total meltdown.

I pulled in to a gas station and called the garage. After I humbly apologized to the poor guys at the shop and asked whether it was obvious that I had new owner paranoia, I continued on my way and had a great drive home along the coast on PCH.

Enjoy your new ride.

Sweet!

[mcholar911]

After I looked at the gauges, I was convinced that parts were flying out of the back, there was a trail of smoke and oil behind the car, and my new toy was one step away from a complete and total meltdown.



Exactly You nailed it! Had a knot in my stomach the size of Kansas...
Here's a couple shots on a typical Illinois winter day.Safe in the driveway!

[Porsche_Daddy]

mcholar911, congrats on your purchase from Charleston IL. You should come down and join us this summer for some auto-x action at the Coles County Airport if you are in to that sort of thing.

[mcholar911]

Thanks, sounds like fun. I go down to Mattoon quite often, if you get an opportunity- send me some info!

[rching]

Great car. Sometimes we have to stop and look at the dollars we're spending on a car, a little more and we are in another class and a little newer bracket.