In rural Texas in the '80's, cars were heavy, ham-fisted Crown Vics and Buick Regals that lumbered along in an ocean of pickups. None interested me in the least, until my dad took me to a European car meet. While e-type Jags drew his attention, it was a 911 that grabbed me and never let go. I left with an enduring love for its small size, elegant lines, and growling exhaust. In the intervening years, I have driven a wide swath of the automotive world, including a few noteworthy sports cars. Yet nothing has displaced an air-cooled 911 as my aspirational vehicle. So, after years of dreaming and saving, I began to hunt in earnest last year for one of my own.
After driving a few examples from various generations, I narrowed my search to an SC or 3.2 Carrera coupe in the best mechanical shape I could afford within a budget of $35k. For months, I scoured online forums, magazine classifieds, and Craisglist. While I found quite a few nice examples, few were in my price range, and some that were had “scam” written all over them. Case in point, I came close to purchasing a pristine looking Euro 3.2 Carrera only to discover through a confusing Carfax reference that it had been salvaged in Oklahoma, “washed” in North Carolina, and rebranded “clean” in Texas decades before the current owner even purchased it (poor guy had no idea).
Finally, in April of last year (2019) an ’85 Prussian blue 911 coupe in upstate NY caught my eye. The price was too high for my budget, and the lack of AC turned me away. But it was truly beautiful. So with little hope of success, I sent a message to the seller asking if he’d consider letting it go within my budget. I got lucky. He was not interested in listing elsewhere and was tired of it sitting on Pelican. He had four Porsches, two TR6’s, and was about to purchase a new Mustang. He needed garage space in a hurry. Not only was his price negotiable, but his backstory was superb. He was a retired Porsche and Mercedes mechanic with his own fully equipped garage. He began to list all the work he’d done to the car over his ten years of ownership and it was extensive. Transmission, suspension, brakes, bushings, seals and gaskets, electrics, sensors, hubs and axles, headliner, sunroof ... on and on he went. The car was absolutely rust and leak free. It still had no AC, but research convinced me this was a job I could tackle. Best of all, when I contacted one of the moderators at Rennlist he claimed to know, he vouched for the owner's identity, mechanical aptitude, and character. So, I said one last prayer and sealed the deal with a stomach-turning wire transfer.
Less than a week later, the deep blue 911 of my childhood imagination tentatively backed out of a covered trailer in our local Lowe’s parking lot. Even covered in New England pollen, it was more beautiful in sheet metal than in the pictures. Half an hour later, with my twins in the backseat and my wife up front, we rocketed down a nearby country road yelling with delight.
Almost a year on, I love the car more than the day I bought it, which has never been true of any car I've owned before. I've done a number of projects on her I'll detail below, the most ambitious of which is installing a new triple-condensor AC that actually keeps the car cool even in south Texas summers. I look forward to sharing my adventures with this car, my keeper, in this forum.
