Dreams can come true…

Every small boy grows up with a dream. For some it is to be an train driver, for others an astronaut. Many dream of fast cars and aeroplanes and have toys and posters to celebrate their loyalty. My plane of choice was the Hawker Harrier and for my brother it was the Tornado.

Models of the two were used for many mock dogfights, hours of imaginary fun and arguments over which was better.

We also disagreed when it came to cars. We grew up in the 1980s, the era of Thatcher, the yuppie and excess and two of the most popular bedroom wall posters were the Lamborghini Countach (my brothers dream car)

and the Porsche 911 Turbo. My love affair began. Up until that point I had shown little interest in cars, possibly because of the dire collection of British auto mobiles that my dad had owned or possibly because I was still young, but now I was hooked. I stared at the poster of the Black 911 Turbo hanging on my wall and dreamt that one day I would own one.

In 1990 I went to the British Motor Show at Covent Garden with a few friends. First thing in the morning we went to the Porsche stand but discovered that it was invitation only and we could only lust over the guard ropes. We consoled ourselves looking at Audis, BMWs, Mercedes and Volkswagens.

After a long day of sitting in cars and traipsing around the show, we decided on one more visit to the Porsches, one last look at the car that I hoped to own one day and to our complete surprise they decided to reduce the limitation and allow us in. I sat in the Carrera 2 and knew I was home. “One day” I thought to myself…

A favourite lunch spot during my time in New Jersey was the Blue Swan Diner, a great spot for some breakfast on a rainy day and on one rainy day we enjoyed a nice unhealthy lunch and then I jumped into my friends Audi. Nothing unusual I understand, but as we headed back to the office he took a different route than usual, a short cut through a business park. As we sped along I noticed a car shop and it’s line of Porsches outside. Bodymotion in New Jersey (bodymotion.com) offered servicing and race preparation of German cars and specialised in Porsches. As we returned to the office I started to wonder how much the cars for sale were. I had many times in the past that 911s were cheaper in the US and I had a pretty good job so maybe it was time, maybe the dream could be real? “don’t be silly” I told myself, they would still be too expensive, but a quick look on the website couldn’t hurt, could it?

Bodymotion had several 911s available. The two that caught my eye were a Black 1980 big bumper and an earlier model. The Black SC looked like the poster from my childhood with it’s big tail, but was on 130k miles. The other model was a 1975 911S, a model famous for it’s short engine life, something that you don’t expect in a 911. Some research showed that the 2.7 engine was actually robust as long as an extra oil cooler was added and was the start of reasonable power in the 911. This particular car had been owned by a Doctor in Pennsylvania who owned several 911s. This one was bought for his Florida home to be used on vacations. It had 63k miles on the clock and had a full set of receipts showing the $6k that had just been spent on a total engine rebuild and most importantly the addition of an oil cooler. Being a Florida car it was rust free and had air conditioning from a much more modern Carrera 2 (AC is a common weakness of the 911, but this updated unit was ice cold). This was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The Saab was starting to be unreliable and the clutch need replacing so keeping it was going to be expensive, I was 30 and I needed it, I deserved it.

My pension fund was raided and my dream car was finally in my hands. My new daily driver was a 1975 911S 2.7. Smooth, fast and so much fun. It was everything I had dreamed it would be. I started taking the long route to work so that the engine could warm up fully and so that I could take the one fast set of curves near my office. I started driving for pleasure again, seeking out fun places to enjoy that amazingly composed 28 year old car.