The End of An Era…
September 15, 2008 by John in Auto
…and an albatross flies from my neck. My 1973 Porsche 914 just left town on a trailer. Mike, the buyer, asked me how I felt about it, relieved or anxious. Honestly? I feel relieved. I bought the car in 1993 and maybe put 2-3000 miles on it, much of that the trip home from Helena to Fort Collins. I was elated, blissfully happy, for about a week and a half, scootin’ around town in my sexy black Porsche. I didn’t care that it had a VW engine in it. It looked good (pics circa 1995), it sounded good and god did it ever handle good. Like a go kart. The only thing that would’ve made it better is if I had gotten laid in the car. Back then I was slim enough and flexible enough to pull it off, too.
Then BAM. After that week and a half of pure joy, it broke down. It was serious. I really had no business buying that car. I was broke. I had sold my 1981 Scirocco and poured every last cent (and then some) into the purchase. The heads needed rebuilding (dropped intake valve seat). Several hundred dollars, working an extra job and lots of blood sweat and tears later, I got it running again but it was never the same. It was plagued by oil leaks that I couldn’t seem to track down. Working on a mid-engined car without a lift is a massive PITA. About that time Colorado instituted mandatory emissions testing and it was a struggle to get the dual Weber carbs tuned to pass. I finally had to pay a shop to get it done. But in doing so it ran like shit. I think they had to fiddle with the jetting and carb settings and tune it out of driveability to get it through emissions. I can only assume they leaned out the mixture severely, but I don’t know enough to know if that would lower the emissions. I drove it off and on but I always had another car for a daily driver.
In 1998, when I was hired by BDM in Helena, since I had very little furniture they paid to move the car up here on a truck from Denver. Not long after that, at Fenske’s urging, I started taking it apart and working on some of the custom bodywork that was starting to rust. I never drove it again. Once I moved into my house in late 1999 I never turned a wrench on the Porsche again. With my ever expanding borders and likelihood of never again fitting in the car, I decided to sell it. A few years ago, hoping to rekindle my interest, I picked up a second 914 for parts. That one should be off to Livingston to join the other one on Wednesday or Thursday.
I really am at peace with the decision. I haven’t been emotionally attached to the car for a very long time. I took a 1984 Landcruiser FJ60 (the wagon, not the one similar to a Jeep CJ). It seems to run good and I’ll probably keep that one for a little while, at least through the winter. We’ll see how the Shelby handles the snow.
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