Introduction and newbie 964 owner

[ash_kapoor]

I have been lurking and reading many informative posts in 911s and I think its time for me to formally introduce myself.

I am based in Seattle area. Have always wanted to own classic Porsches and today bought a 1991 964 Red coupe. I don't think I have experienced such range of emotions before.

I have to admit that I am more of a newbie and honestly I am excited as well as a little scared ..

Hope to keep learning and looking forward to interact with some of you. Attaching a couple of pictures!

[aabarth]

She is a beauty !!
I was in the same boat 2 years ago. My first Porsche. A '92 964.
So different than my other sports cars.
Took about 6 months of driving before I was relaxed and confident driving her fast.
Believe me, it just gets better the more you drive it !

[RedCoupe]

Welcome Ash_Kapoor! I'm a newbie here myself, but I've owned my 1990 964 for 10 years, so I've got a little experience at 964 owning and driving. The 964 shares a lot of looks and driving position with the 911 SC and Carrera 3.2 - I've driven both - but is updated in many ways. Did your 964 come originally from Seattle? The northwest is very gentle on cars; little or no road salt, minimal amount of UV damage to paint and interior, and generally no overheating problems along the way. Don't hesitate to jump in and start a post when you have a question or concern. Here's my 964, which is also Guards red and originally from Seattle:

[964Carrera4]

Congratulations on your purchase!! I'm on my second 964 and love it.

I also live in Seattle and there will be a 964 owners meet up on Saturday morning, June 28th at the Exotics at Redmond Town Center car show. Exotics At Redmond Town Center | The Largest Weekly Exotic Car Gathering North of Los Angeles

The show goes from about 8:00AM-11:00AM. If you can't make it there early, show up by 11AM when it's ending.

The 964 group is planning on doing a drive after the show and lunch together.

Hope you can make it!

[89-964-MN]

Congrats! I too have been lurking for a year and finally pulled the trigger on my first Porsche last week. I take delivery of 1989 Carrera 4 this coming Wednesday. It is white with black interior (pictures to follow).

REDCOUPE - Where did you get your wheels? I am interested in buying Turbo Twists and eventually lowering the ride height. Is there an easy way to search for used Turbo Twists by year and model? I've been told 8x18" will fit but 7x17" wiil be easier when the car is lowered. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[RedCoupe]

89-964-MN, believe it or not I found the wheels on Craigslist a couple of years ago. Someone had bought a 2000 Boxster and immediately stepped up to a set of flashy, aftermarket wheels and listed the 17" Turbos on Craigslist. One of my original D-90's had a flat spot in the outside edge and I actually was just looking for one used wheel when I saw this set for sale and couldn't resist. Although they had no curb rash, one of them did require a little straightening of the inside rim so they could balance properly.

[dangeruss]

Hi Ash_Kapoor,

I'm around the Seattle area and a newbie as well. I picked this up last Saturday:


I've done a lot of driving the last couple of days. Enjoy!

-Russell

[ash_kapoor]

Didn't realize it'll be almost a year since I started this thread.

A year has flown and I have had some good fun. Here are some of the things I experienced during the first year of ownership. Hopefully, it'll help other folks.

1) While I loved driving the car, one thing that started to bother me immediately was a louder exhaust than the stock. The fact that my wife wouldn't ride in it made it even harder to live with one. So my very first project was to take care of that.

The exhaust on this car was an aftermarket design to go with the 3.8 engine. Specifically, the whole system was GHL headers with a cross over muffler (flowmaster 80). The car was dynoed at 285 HP so the exhaust was definitely doing the job for a track car. Upon quick consultation with the engine builder, it was decided to replace the Flowmaster with Magnaflow (Seemingly quieter). Well I did the change, it did get a little quieter but still was louder than what I wanted. But I quickly got tired of researching / experimenting and decided to live with it.

2) Next, I simply decided to swap the open air filter with the original closed one (OEM), in hopes to further quieten it. It didn’t make any perceptible difference. However, this was my first thing I did under the hood, so I enjoyed the experience nonetheless.

3) I had my share of broken switches. Quick read on the forums was immensely helpful and I was able to replace pretty much all of them. Interestingly, the seat adjustments switches just needed a good wash with WD-40 and they were working again! While fixing the switches I blew a fuse and was quickly able to figure out why and promptly replaced them. IT was quite frustrating to find switches that didn’t work but I got immense joy out of fixing them.

4) I drove the car quite a bit (4K miles in 10 months), so it was a bit of surprise when I found the battery dead one winter morning. Quick jump start worked, but same thing happened a few days later. It was a yellow top Optima (just a year ole), and it was super simple to pull it out and swap it for a new one. Stress test on the battery confirmed that the battery was not charging properly.
I was tempted to swap the battery for a lightweight Odyssey PC680, but decided not to as it required mods to hold the battery.

5) Last month I started investigating the exhaust issue again. Researched various forums, explored if I could put a couple of resonators or baffles and what not. But nothing seemed promising. So I decided to call the previous owner and check if he had the stock exhaust. Indeed he did but had the secondary muffler that was missing. I bought that system from him and started to hunt for the secondary muffler. Thanks to the local 964 circle, I came across another gentleman who wanted to simply swap the entire exhaust systems (he was getting an engine rebuilt and wanted my setup).

We did the exhaust swap and I can truly say, that I have the perfect car in the world now! I decided to pamper the car with a full interior and exterior detail. I think I have achieved a crescendo, I don’t expect anything to better what I am experiencing now!

Thanks for reading and much appreciate all the info spread across the forums (truly invaluable)!

[Rufian]

Welcome, I'm also new here!...your car is very nice...enjoy it to the max, in other words...Use It!!!