Time to move on from bikes! (Not really, I still love going on bikerides!)
However I do think a little write-up about my first car is needed!
I had a modest budget and sensible criteria, they were, in order of importance:
Rear wheel drive.
Older than me.
Play my Rush mix tape(s).
Raced at Le Mans/Excellent racing heritage.
Pop-up lights.
And so naturally, I came to the conclusion that my first car should be a 25 year old Porsche.
It’s a well known fact that Porsche make the best racing cars and this history is something I wanted to be a part of. Whilst my car only has a tenth of the power the venerable 917/30 of 1973, I’d like to think it has some relation. Indeed, with the rear transaxle setup, the car has a near perfect 50/50 weight distribution. Simply, by having the engine in the front and the gearbox in the back, it’s very balanced and handles excellently. Weighing in at 1080kg and powered by a 2 litre engine, I’m not going to set the world on fire, but equally, I’m not going to crash at 150mph. It also means I can expect a reasonable 30mpg.
Getting it home yesterday was tense at times, but it’s everything I want: old and noisy. With no power steering, anti-lock brakes, airbags or traction control it’s going to be exciting to drive. I’m going slightly mad seeing it outside, knowing it’s 3 weeks before I’m 21 and insured to drive it myself!
I’d already been to see a crap one earlier in the week, so this time I went to look at a slightly dearer one with the intention of buying it. Here’s a little diary with awful photos.
It was a long day, starting with snow.
And then just 1 of 4 London trains were running, so I was standing all the way to Swindon! This definitely let my standards slip for the car, almost to “as long as it starts, anything but the train.”
Finally, after 5 hours, Farnborough!
I got a taxi with my Dad to the house, where we found one of the owners relatives outside. The reason for sale was a baby. I can back this up, as the owner was inside giving birth in the front room!! I had a good look around the car and then the relative took me on a drive to show it was all working. After some more time checking all the switches and finding no rust, I made my offer. The owner was then consulted and he came back out with a counter offer slightly higher. Given the circumstances I agreed. As we were signing the paperwork, the midwives came out of the front room! I expect the first words the child heard were “Porsche” which is good, obviously. The 924 isn’t really a child friendly car, even the torso of a small child would be cramped in the back seats. This isn’t a problem for me however, with so few, if any friends (to give lifts).
There were some anxious moments as my Dad pulled out of the driveway and proceeded to get lost before the M4! But then we filled it up and headed for home, as conditions got progressively worse! Time for some more ironically bad photos:
The exhaust is much quieter than expected.
Home at last, just 9 1/2 hours later!
The car was flawless on the way back! Apparently it’s happier at 90ish than 70. Our personal highlight occurred when going down a slip road by Cardiff with a 10 plate Cayman spinning out in-front of us! We then made it down with ease with some decent driving. Cheekily, we stopped in our “classic” Porsche to see if they were okay in their poor mans Porsche. It was a 4 hour drive in snow, and it was absolutely fine. The heater makes quite a bit of noise, something which I’ll sort out. There is no wind noise, this is probably because there’s a lot of engine noise, thanks to the driveshaft and exhaust running between the seats. You feel like you’re sitting on the ground when you’re inside, it’s no exaggeration to say your eyeline is about equal to the height of a Ford Focus’ door. It would be fair to say it looks, sounds and feels like you’re going a lot faster than you really are. Pleasingly, the pop-up headlights can be seen at the end of the bonnet, and looking out the back, the rear hatch clearly marks the end of the car.
The car came with 12 months MOT, having hundreds spent on it this year and it went through the last two MOT’s with no advisories. In 25 years, it has only had 5 previous owners, and I hope to keep it for a few years. There’s a few cosmetic things to sort out, namely replacing the stickers that were removed for a respray, otherwise it’s all sorted for me to enjoy!
Oh and this morning I went outside to check on it, the car started first time of asking! I just need to think of a name!
It’s been a while, but noticing you finally got a car (and a good one!) has made me smile. Hopefully all is going well!