Year after year, car guys drive to the same places with the same people. Why do they do it? Discuss.

Rolling into the Chunnel car park and finding twenty of your friends waiting for you in similar cars is a great feeling. Camaraderie engulfs the entourage, with anticipatory awe permeating the queue of cars headed for check in.

Off the train in la belle France half an hour later, we gathered to discuss the route options. A red Carrera GT filling up next door was a positive Porsche portent, with the same good vibrations evident throughout our journey west to Rouen and south towards Sarthe. An unbelievable amount of rain means marine terminology is required to describe making way along the A28, each 911 creating a huge rooster tail of spray. France is famed for its joi de vivre though, so torrential rain and a few wet clothes do not dampen our high spirits. (more…)

It’s hard work keeping up with a blog when you are writing elsewhere non stop! A lot has changed since I scrapped that 924.

I have sold my bike for a start. I just wasn’t using it more than twice a month (if that), and it was going to endure a winter in the cramped garage and a year of book drops, so I put it on eBay and it went to a very nice guy who is taking it back to uni with him - look out for it in the Bristol area. Did think about getting a Gilera to replace it but have gone cold on that for the time being - when the garage is up maybe.

I bought a Golf GTi which is a beautiul little thing. 90K miles from new in 1986 and only a few rust spots on the bottoms of the doors to show for it. It goes well enough though I do need to double check the timing on it as they have usually been retarded to run on 95 RON. I bought a Jetex SS exhaust and G60 manifold for it also, that should be getting picked up sometime soon. Plus I have a PAS setup coming for it - they are so heavy without that parking is a real chore for Mrs G. Then it is top mounts and suspension, bit of a tidyup on the body and job done.

Just been offered a Corrado by a buddy however which is a very pretty car; 1996 2.0 litre 8 Valve in Blackberry, so the lovely little Golf may have to go to make room for that. Not sure what to do yet, driving the Corrado tomorrow. Sarah will probably like it, but is it worth spending another grand on top to have something that essentially does the same job of spare car? Maybe not. Pic:

Lots of car stuff up in the air at the minute. We are waiting to hear back from the council regarding our loft extension planning permission, so the bank acounts are locked down pretty much (doesn’t sound like it though does it LOL). That will be great when it kicks off, as the house will then be huge and the kids will all have their own rooms. After that it is garage all the way, which should be great when done. So lots of hard work ahead, but will all pay off.

Next event for the IB Porsche boys is Classic Le Mans, and we are away from the 10th to the 18th of July - bring it on!

(This was run as Part 2 of the Perky piece)

The main advantage of buying from abroad is obvious: better choice. Most Porsche production was exported, with the USA the biggest customer, and the vast American market offers a selection of cars far beyond what is available here in the UK. Thanks to this extensive supply, prices for most cars on the American market have remained low in relation to ever-increasing European prices. Combine this with a US Dollar priced very low against Sterling and the Euro, and it’s no wonder that huge numbers of people are importing vehicles from the ‘States; cars like this SC are cheap.

To some people, talk of US imports conjours up images of sunburnt 356s, and scruffy but solid early 911s, brought to the UK as cheap entries into classic Porsche ownership. Importing from dry states remains a useful method of acquiring rust-free base vehicles, but the current flow of Porsches across the pond spans the spectrum, from would-be restos to full-blown RSR replicas and all manner of exotica. This time last year, I spoke to a pair of Porsche enthusiasts who had snapped up a couple of Carrera GTs from a dealer in downtown New York when the dollar rate hit what was then an all-time low. (more…)

I have finished stripping the 924 out and it’s going on eBay tonight. I still can’t get over just how much additional weight Porsche put into this car, it is astonishing. The big rubber blocks in the roof are one of the strangest things; why they couldn’t just use expanded foam is a little beyond me, as that is what they used in the passenger footwell. 

Anyway, let’s see how this little thing does. The body is in really good shape so it deserves to live on and give someone a laugh. I am putting it on for £299 including free delivery up to 50 miles, so should sell at that I think.

I have a bit of a 944 fetish going on at the mo, but in my defence it is all related. I have always wanted an early 944 Turbo, and watching 944 prices with the SC Cabriolet sale in progress led me to A911 DRY. Bought that and it needed interior and ideally a running car to sort the non-running problem. So I bought the 924 for the trim and the red 944 for the running gear to do some swapping. 

No sooner have I agreed a deal on the red 944 than up pops an ‘86 Turbo at Autofarm car for £1750. I thought it was an OK buy at that until I saw it at £1250, which is a steal on Fuchs even with a knackered engine. Emailed them and arranged to go and see it next day. Was waiting around for a lok for a while but anyway, eventually got to see it in the dark in a barn with only a candlelight torch to help!

The car presents itself well. Fuchs very nice, with track-ish rubber and the half-leather sports logo trim also very nice. Panel gaps on one side not so nice, so I assumed it had been in a fairly decent smash a while back. Mentioned this to Josh and he said he didn’t think so, thought it was a nice honest car. I bid for it assuming it was on the hit list and the bid was accepted - it is really just in the way down there. Paid a 10% deposit and agreed to pick up at the end of the month, when my Cab has left a space.

Came home and HPI’d it: it was declared a Cat C total loss in 1997. Still I think it’s a good buy at what I paid, even with the damage and the engine in bits. Might make a nice article in the future about buying and repairing damaged Porsches versus buying a nice clean original car.

Went to see Bob Watson today for a chat, and he has plenty of 944 Turbo bits inc crank and oil pump etc. We will use his man to sort the cylinders out; some scoring on one apparently, though I didn’t see the engine either! Bob reckons 300bhp is fairly easy on any 951, I will shoot for 250 on mine. It is more of a family Porsche to replace the Cabriolet than anything, though it’s bound to see the odd French/Belgian track.

Anyway, the aim is to be back down to two Porsches by June at the latest, but we’ll see how that works out. Some pics of my new 951 are here: a long exposure makes it look much brighter than it was in there.