The first three years of owning our 1975 Porsche 911 Sportomatic were a mixture of agony and ecstasy.
When we bought it, the ad on the car said it needed nothing, had A/C, and “runs 100%.”
The car was nearly 3,000 miles from Portland, in Pennsylvania at the Hershey Swap Meet Car Corral. So there was no chance to have an inspection done. Reliable Carriers had a truck leaving the RM Sotheby’s auction the next day and headed west. Fate had it that they had one space left.
So I wired the $46k and the Sporto was on its way to me.
On the plus side, the long-term owner was a SCMer, and he guaranteed the 50,000 miles were original and accurate.
Once it was here, however, we discovered the head studs were loose, it needed brakes, tires and shocks, an alternator and, to be safe, we added an Elephant oil cooler. We also had the transmission gone through to try to address some recalcitrant shifting and a bad habit of getting locked in reverse.
I was told that because the compression was good it could be anywhere from 500 to 20,000 miles before I started hearing the “pop pop” sound that indicated the head gaskets were starting to leak.
All our first drives were spent listening for the “pop pop,” waiting for the charging light to go out, and monitoring the oil temperature to make sure it wasn’t too hot.
Also, we couldn’t get the heater controls to do anything but either blast hot air to the base of the windshield or arctic cold air to the feet.
Mostly I was miserable in the car. But as I have written recently, one at a time we overcame each of these issues. With the removal of each impediment, the Porsche’s excellence in mechanical design began to become more apparent.
This model is the last of the narrow-bodied, lightweight cars before the SC started Porsche on the road of flared fenders and big butts.
We’ve driven a couple of hundred miles on the car this fall, now that it’s “done,” with the heater and Sporto both working properly. It gets better with each mile.
Indeed, the pin in the grenade is secured, not loose, and won’t be coming out soon.
At what point have you decided one of your project cars is reliable and ready to use? I look forward to reading your comments below.
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9 responses to “Keith’s Blog: The Pin is Back in the Grenade”
A project car is a journey. It takes time to understand what might need replacement but each step along the way brings improvement and more pleasure. I’ve owned my 25 year old Mercedes SLK320 for ten years and still discover surprises. The most recent was the collapse of the roof liner. Luckily a friend with the exact same car pointed me to a local Apple Auto Glass that, among other things, specializes in replacing roof liners. The day I arrived they were doing a mini van! Next spring I’ll need new tires, not because of wear but because they have hit the 10 year mark. I did at one time think of selling and moving on but one of my son’s pointed out “dad you have an emotional attachment to that car so don’t sell it.” The car has character and I actually enjoy listening to the creaks and groans from the metal convertible roof!
Yeah… a wise person once observed that life, or a romantic relationship, or car ownership, can be a situation comedy or a soap opera. How you manage what comes up dictates how you feel when you go to bed at night. Standing by the side of the road, you might or might not be comforted by what a great story this is going to make.
To stretch the analogy a little further, if Keith Martin were a character in a horror movie, he’s the one I’d want to be stuck with, because we know all of those warning signs that look obvious in retrospect will be addressed by SCM before they grow fangs and hide behind that creaky door.
But, to answer the question…for cars that somehow charmed me, no “little hiccup” was too troubling, while other cars got off on the wrong foot. For those projects, the day of trouble free was the last day of ownership.
As they say, The Happiest Two Days…
Twelve years ago, I took delivery of my “79 Mercedes 280 SL purchased via eBay sight unseen. Phone conversations with the previous owner left me feeling confident that it was a good car but still, you never know. When it rolled off the truck my concerns were diminished. It looked better in person than in the pictures. After a short test drive, it was obvious the idle was way too high and so began my education on Bosch fuel injection. Since then, it’s been a continuing refurbishment of numerous parts, fixing issues and repairs but the car has always been reliable and never stranded me. It even had the courtesy to kill its power steering pump as I pulled into my driveway. The M110 six has a reputation for reliability and long life as does the 4-speed manual transmission so as of now I wouldn’t hesitate to drive it anywhere.
You don’t just buy the car; you buy the seller, too. No doubt your seller knew about most of the car’s problems but failed to disclose them. Anyway, good for you for bringing it back to good condition. (Coincidentally, I have a very nice bridge that you might be interested in.)
I simply have too many “project cars.” I suspect most of them will never be 100% sorted out. I get them to where all safety concerns are addressed, and I feel they’re pretty reliable, and I drive them – to run a local errand, go to a “cars and coffee” 15 miles away or go to a nice car show maybe 200 miles away. I’ve even taken my old Range Rover Classic TDi all the way down the west coast from Puget Sound to San Diego with a car-hauler trailer to bring home my new-to-me Morgan. After all, driving them is a big part of the joy of owning them!
But I always carry a modest tool kit and my AAA card! And I’ve always gotten me and the car(s) home.
would be curious, if I missed it how much it cost to put the pin back in?
i tended to jump into my ‘new’ car and treat it normally; without some deep thinking i know i surely improved some things on some cars but in general they were troublefree when i got ’em. what blessings, now that i think of it! the weirdest was adjusting the accelerator linkage on the flavia zagato; the fix lasted halfway thru my race at the monterey historics looong ago.
That point for me was when I was able to move the feeling of driving a loose cannon and “what ifs” from active consideration to memory when driving my 1987 560SL. Luckily in my case the essentials (engine, transmission and drive train) were in sound condition when my ebay purchase arrived. The engine mounts, transmission mount, differential mount and front/rear subframe bushings and a/c compressor were less so.
Keith, it seems that your Sporto is rewarding you for your patience. Enjoy!
Dave P.
Just enjoy the ride.Life is too short. These joys do seem to get better with every mile. Then why am I tempted to on from my wonderful BMW M roadster. I think it might be a disease (of the good kind). At 75 I just hope for the best.
Steve S