Hey Pelicans,
I’ve been hanging around the Pelican Forums a very long time now. Mostly lurking, reading, learning, occasionally searching old threads at strange hours of the night when some air-cooled mystery needed solving. I’m 65 and based in Durban, South Africa. I’ve spent most of my life around cars, racetracks, workshops, track days, magazine tests, endurance events, and the wonderfully strange world of Porsche enthusiasts.
Recently, someone suggested I should make a list of all the memorable cars I’ve owned, driven, raced, tested, modified, coached in, or simply experienced over the years.
So I did.
Honestly, it blew me away a little.
Not because the list is full of exotic machinery, but because every car instantly unlocked a memory. A person. A road trip. A workshop disaster. A late-night drive. A race weekend. A lesson. What started as a simple list has slowly turned into something much bigger — an ongoing anthology of motoring stories and memories gathered over several decades.
CARS THAT SHAPED MY LIFE
It’s still very much a work in progress, and there are many more cars and stories still to add, but I thought some of you here might enjoy the journey, especially the Porsche content and the old-school analogue era machines.
Some stories will be funny.
Some mildly terrifying.
Some nostalgic.
Some technical.
Some probably slightly politically incorrect.
Most will simply be honest.
So here's my contribution...
I’ll start posting some of the entries and photos as I go along, and I’d genuinely enjoy hearing some of your own stories too. After all, many of us measure parts of our lives through the cars that passed through our hands.
Thanks for having me.
Pierre
ps - I'll post a list first, and the stories later.
Fat Bully – My Porsche 928 Race Car
Take a heavyweight GT cruiser, gut it, add good brakes & suspension and bully whoever I found in the corners…
250 Superkarts (Various)
Still the most mental thing I’ve ever driven.
Zero to 100km/h in under 3 seconds.
Zero to 200km/h in under 6 seconds.
Top speed north of 250km/h.
No cage.
No belts.
No brains.
The Brown Cow – Dirk’s ’83 Porsche 911 Targa
I introduced Dirk to the 911 experience, then built this sweet little targa for him…
The Yellow Bird V-I – Dave’s ’74 Porsche 911-RSR in IROC spec
Started life as an ’83-SC. Dave turned it into a concourse condition race car…
The Yellow Bird V-II – Dave’s 911-RSR in Grp-4 spec
Then it evolved into a serious piece of kit. No expense spared…