The Problem with Porsche
 

...by Superfast Matt. I love Superfast Matt's videos.

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Great video, and OMG, the bit towards the end with Christopher Walken.

I'd never seen his videos before. This one was good and entertaining.

Darned good video. The loss of Porsche's "soul" begins to be explained at around 16 minutes. My own story? Bought a '72 911S in '74...loved it, had a gas in the clubs scene of the time. True enthusiasts then with very few egomaniacs. The '72 S was my 4th Porsche..before that a '66 912, a '69 912, a '70 911T.

Within a few years of that, found myself married, a child to raise, a biz to run. I hung on to the 911, took care of it, but it really got placed on the back burner due to time restraints.

Fast forward to the 90's...the hard work paid off, daughter educated & on her own, early retirement. So, thought I'd play car again. At first I basked in the attention the car got...yeah, it possibly was the best unrestored '72S on the planet...

As time wore on, realized that Thomas Wolfe was right...you can't go home again. There was a handful of people in the scene that frankly, I didn't like much. One day I got a phone call...it began with: "We've seen your car on the net and have talked to people who have seen it, and we're going to buy it." I hung up.

That's when I knew I was done. Evren was the perfect solution for me. No regrets...but I do miss driving the car.

Similar feelings for my old '88 targa. No regrets on selling it, but I miss it.

I was shocked. I saw a posting on the local PCA facebook group where a guy has decided to sell his '82 SC. Granted, it's a super low miles car (22k), that presumably is in amazing shape, but wow, he's asking 65k!

Fortunately, I don't care what anyone else thinks, that does or does not have a Porsche. It doesn't bother me that there are cliques. I've got my Porsche, and I love it. My only problem is that I don't have several.

Good Video.

I have been asked may times over the years "why a Porsche" and it is never a simple answer. I participate in a car show held once per year in Guthrie, OK. Everything from rat rods, to very average cheap cars to really nice restorations of older cars, custom to stock. I have a chair next to my car and answer questions.

My 85 911 has 186,000 miles on it, I have driven it to 41 states and Canada and plan to hit all 48 states, and possibly a ferry trip to Alaska so 49 states are possible.

What other mid 1980s car would you drive to Laguna Secca, or Roebling Road, or multiple other race tracks, go as fast as I can around the track, and then drive it home?

What other 1980s car would you take your wife to eastern PA to the Poconos and do a 10 day 3,650 mile round trip. My car has tripled in value, and it runs and stops and looks great. Oh, year I won the Porsche class at that car show. First place.

There really is no substitute for a Porsche.

..love the line about Harley salesmen at 17:03.

Applys also to a lot of the Porsche posers lined up at the dealerships.

Good video and he was totally right when he messed up the RS 4.0, I laughed because I was thinking, hmm he seems to know is stuff and that is a stupid mistake.

He is very right about Ferrari and I agree with Leno. I was at a show at a local indy this past weekend and there was a 80's Testarossa there parked next to a 3.2 Carrera and the build quality was so apparent. The cool thing was the Ferrari had over 70,000 miles so it gets driven.

I've been Porsche less now for a couple of years. Prior to that, there had been at least one 911 in our household since I was ten years old....My father was stationed in Germany in the mid sixties and fell in love with Porsches. As a young soldier, he couldnt afford a Porsche, so he bought a new VW BUG. He and my mother traveled all over Europe in that car and that cemented his love for German cars.

When i was ten, my father was finally in a position,that even with two youger kids, he could afford a 911. Even though it was 45 years ago, I can remember like yesterday, coming home from school and seeing my dad washing is silver 911T in the driveway. That was a great car. We had lots of great rides and drives in that car. That was when Porsche drivers would flash their lights at each other.....That first car led to two more Porsches for him, two Porsches for my uncle, and two porsches for myself. I bought my first Porsche when i was 20 years old in Oregon and promptly got a ticket 2 days later heading back to the base in California. The cars are great and as much as i wouldnt mind having one, there is just no way I'll ever pay 60K for an SC or a Carrera. Its just not a 60K experience to me. I would be much more inclined to buy a newer one for a 100K. I also enjoyed the scene much more when it wasn't in fashion to have one. Kinda tuned off by the whole thing....

Your final 2 sentences said it well...we who were around during the time of "the flash" understand. Another way to say it...the car just wasn't fun anymore...

Great video... Thanks for posting.

The "Gate-keeping" around Porsche ownership is something I've seen first hand locally. :rolleyes:

My attitude has always been. "Can I afford it? and Why not?"

It’s a good thing Mustang owners are never bitter.

Mustang owners in Australia (new or old) are a "special breed". :(

Good video. Agreed with most of it. No idea about the scene. Other than the people on pelican, none of whom I’ve met in person, I have never known anyone with a Porsche or been a part of a scene. Even as a teenager in the 80s, you just didn’t see 911s around here much.

Even when I go to car shows, I leave my 911 in the parking lot and go see the cars out on the lawn. Almost never a classic Porsche other than mine in the parking lot. When I get back in my car to leave, I always say the same thing…..my 911 is better than any of the cars I just looked at and then I feel bad for not participating in the show but I’m happy I get to leave and go drive my car.

My guess when it comes to classic Porsche people, they are no different than passionate British or Italian or mopar car people which is a good thing. Modern cars and modern Porsche people, no clue. Ide sure love a GT4 though or a base 992.

I’ll be going to the Watkins Glen vintage Grand Prix in a few weeks and I know I’ll be seeing quite a few old 356, 912, 911 etc. can’t wait. But I get just as excited seeing a nice TR3 or any of the old classics….but it’s the 911 I still prefer to drive.

I don't know about how fashionable Porsche has become. I guess I'm oblivious to fashion. But I think the video got it right about how passionate people become about their Porsches, and the older the Porsche, the more passionate they are.

I liked how the engineering point was made that Porsche use embarrasingly primitive suspension to great effect. Never had much need for double wishbone, sperical balljoints, etc. Porsche suspenstions seem to "predict the future" lol. The car seems to know what you want and it is a willing accomplice. It's like having a spunky Pinto instead of a car.

For the record: I'm really glad there are people like Matt on YouTube. The amount of real work he gets done between videos is amazing. Think multiple projects on the go at any one time. I work in much the same way but unlike me he seems to have endless energy.

I'm not super social. When I had by first 911, I only went to 2-3 events with it, but everyone that I met was great, super friendly. I've been to 2 or 3 events since I got the boxster (lived <2 miles from a regular event location when I bought it, but moved less than a week later). Again, all of the folks that I met were great.

20 years ago, we had a local Houston get together with folks from Pelican, and they were all great. I've met a couple/few other Pelicans over the years and they've all be great too.

I'm sure there are some wankers out there, because you can't have a huge group of folks without running into some.

And everything else that you said was pretty spot on.

Great video - thanks for posting that.

The direct comparison he made between Porsche and Harley Davidson is a bit unsettling. Are we the next Harley crowd? Certain to die off in the coming years? I really dont think so. I think he missed the ball on this.

i dont tend to be in any club that would have me. i dislike car cultures in general. porsche car culture is some of the worst IMO.

but i am always a porsche evangelist. and its not because of the GT3RS, its because of 986. every car company can, with a 200k purchase price, build a fantastic car. if they can't, then they are dip****s. but the thing with porsches, is that every single one drives amazingly. from the 2.5L 986, to the GT3s, and every car in between, they all are just fantastic cars. and while they may not compete on the same horsepower/dollar scale, they always are simply the best cars to drive in there segments. i love porsches, and the care they take to make every car just a pleasure to drive.

most car companies you need to get the S, or the RS, or whatever the top level sporty trim is to get the "good one" but porsches are not like that. again, a base model 2.5L 986 is a fantastic driving car. 944 NA, fantastic car. 914, fantastic car. just ... they are all good cars.

and you just dont find that with any other make.

but god help me, i will never join the PCA.

Maybe I'm picking nits, but I don't agree with your last point--that the car isn't fun anymore. Whenever I get into my 964, I have a smile on my face. Whenever I'm in the 930, I have, well, an even bigger smile on my face. These cars are as much fun now, as when I first got into one 17 years ago. I love going on a blast through an empty Mulholland. I love going on one of the TRE runs through the canyons. I love road-tripping up the coast to Monterey with family.

But yeah, the crowd has changed a bit. And that has made it a little less fun. When's the last time anyone ever asked over on the technical forum how much maintenance is on a turbo vs a normally-aspirated car? It's a slightly different crowd that's into even air-cooled Porsches today.

But I didn't get the car for that. I got the car for the driving.

I can't imagine a time when a Porsche or miata or really good, fun sports car wouldn't still be fun and enjoyable (physical infirmity probably being an exception). But not everyone is the same. Paul's in his 70s and more laid back these days. Not everyone goes that route as they get older. Paul Frere died at 91. He was test driving cars pretty much up until the end. He got into a serious car accident near the 'Ring a couple of weeks before his 90th birthday. He recovered, but his health was never the same, and he passed when he was 91.

I was a Pacific Northwest member for several years.
Large group, with several "sub groups".
Rarely did I attend anything social, but if it required a helmet, I was there.
To learn Autocross along side national champion drivers was a privilege. Ended up an autocross instructor myself.
Count me in for autocross and track days, but I'll pass on just about anything else.

^ Agreed. The only Porsche club I found that was fun was an adhoc offshoot that had about as much to do with the PCA as Estes has to do with Raytheon.

The crazy thing is that when I bought my 911, my plan was to do track and autoX. Since 1999, my daily drivers have been a 911, miata, turbo miata, and now a boxster, and I have never been on a track. I think the issue was that I didn't want to have an issue with a daily driver. It may be rare, but you do hear the statement, never take a car to the track that you can't leave there, and I've never been in that position.

And the autoX stuff happens so early. LOL. I'm still sleeping that early on a Sat!

Gotta be careful with that track stuff!

Started off with a PCA track day, ended up with a 944 with a roll cage and big numbers on the doors.
In my experience, PCA lapping days resulted in an SCCA membership so I could go wheel-to-wheel racing.

Been there, done that too. Used to W2W race and instruct with the POC and other clubs quite a bit in the mid 2000s, had a great time. Moved on to other things.

Great video.

Thanks for posting.

I agree that the owners (& "scene") has changed. When was the last time you got a wave from a fellow 911 owner? The folks driving air cooled 911's (fyi - mine is an '87) still do this, but the newer 911's - never.

I'm in the Paul Frere camp. I'm nowhere as gifted as he was as a driver, but I've got his books as I'm a kindred spirit. I loved seeing John Fitch up at Lime Rock, or Bob Akin at Watkins Glen, up until their latter years.

It was funny watching that video, as he (SuperfastMatt) shot it at the local popular LA car haunts: Newcomb's Ranch, Malibu Country Mart, and Supercar Sunday. I actually remember that particular Supercar Sunday, from that lineup of parked blue-white-red GT3s.

Great video. It made me go out for a drive.

What was that beautiful dark blue ‘52 roadster with New York (Seinfeld?) plates?

Disagree. It seems to depend on WHERE one is. When I lived in SoCal, nobody, and I mean nobody waved, flashed, whatever. I drive an ‘84 911, a 996, a 997 C4S, and a gorgeous sapphire blue 991.1 GTS with a manual transmission. Didn’t matter out there, no matter which one I was in.

For the past year I’ve lived in Stuart, FL, on the Treasure Coast. Almost every driver of a Porsche I encounter gives me a wave. Out here the Porsche drivers of all vintages seem to love, love, love the marque.

I haven't has an air cooled 911 coming the other way to wave to for a year or two. I used to see 3 or 4 on a Saturday or Sunday. Lots of Cayennes coming the other way but they are too busy taking the kids to soccer to wave.

I get waves from the Porsche sports cars not the SUV’s which is understandable. I have also met some really nice people at the few PCA events I go to a year.

There’s a local show to support Meals on Wheels this Sunday at the VW/Audi/Porsche dealer in town and I’m going to take my 911 and Westy and I bet the VW gets more attention.

I drive an early 911 three days a week in So Cal. Lots of waves from other Porsche drivers, and almost a 50/50 chance of being chatted up about it if I’m out and about.

I grew up in Upstate NY in the 80’s/90’s and Porsche’s were incredibly rare back then. In fact I knew all of the Porsches in town and knew who owned them. I would soak in the details whenever I saw one and was fortunate to get rides in a couple. I would have loved to see more at the car shows but it was always muscle cars and or more current cars, rarely anything from Europe except maybe the occasional beetle. I guess my point is that you should show your car and hopefully it catches the eye of a 10 yo and ignites the same passion we all have for these cars.

As far as the video, I also thought it was very well done and does a great job of capturing what’s magical about Porsches. The segment towards the end was hilarious too, it reminded me of my experience when I was trying to order my Spyder. 6 months of that nonsense.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1661024290.jpg

You are probably correct that getting a wave from other 911 drivers is very dependent on location. I can understand it in FL.

I'm in the NY/NJ/PA/CT area and here I'm far more likely to receive acknowledgement from drivers of other classic sports or muscle cars than from the driver of a newer 911 - like the wave & thumbs up I got (and returned) from a replica Cobra driver, and from the driver of a Alfa Spider, the last time my '87 911 was out for a drive.

Entertaining video and made me chuckle. Quite happy with my 356’s and 2 liter 911 targa. Anything else is just too complicated and fancy. My ratty ‘57 coupe does daily driver duty for me about 50% of the time. The guy on the video gets it right. It’s a pleasant and very “usable” car. PCA was fun 35 + years ago. Now it’s a bunch of people sitting around eating and drinking and yakking about how many custom stitched doo-dads they ordered on their new suv, or how much the ceramic brakes cost that they will never actually get hot enough to need. A “sports car” should allow you to change your own gears and crank the windows up/ down with your arm (if it even has windows). For the fellow who asked about the blue roadster it would appear to be one of the 13 America Roadsters . Aluminum body on 356 chassis made about 1953. I’m sure one would set you back 7 figures now so makes sense that Seinfeld would have one.

You're my kind of Porsche owner, except I like the 3.2 with Motronic ignition. Anything after that is "just too complicated and fancy."
Whenever I take my Speedster out I come back with bugs in my teeth. It's just impossible to have a bad day driving a 356.

Welcome back Patrick.

My eldest daughter sitting in the passenger seat of my SC: "It's impossible to be unhappy in this car". :)