Restoration Wednesday – I’ve Been Humbled

Some people look at the work I’ve done and query “how do you find the time?” But it never feels like an exorbitant amount of time playing cars. It feels like the right amount mixed in with my daily life. When you have a passion or happy distraction, such as a puzzle or going on a hike, time is a bit irrelevant. A lot of my projects, which I catalog here, have been moved on to their next caretaker and I’m honored when someone appreciates what I’ve done for them. My work usually finishes with a detailed web page of all the work and pictures. I take pride in knowing those web pages often sell my projects. They do such a good job of it that all but one of the cars/bikes I’ve sold over the years, have been purchased by the first person to look at it. To paraphrase my friend Hank, they probably need to make sure it’s not a cardboard cutout.

In the case of the ’87 S4 you see here, I bought it and did a fair amount of work covered in Restoration Wednesday. I also paid to have a fair amount of work done. In the case of the new owner Tom, he absolutely humbled me in the amount he put into the car. Check out the Rennlist post documenting the entire affair. “Affair” being the optimal word here because if it was with a person, he’d probably be divorced. The level of detail is incredible and warranted. It’s a car with good bones to which I’d like to take a bit of credit, for finding, saving and investing in this car. I remember trying to track down the gentleman who sold the car to Larry, which is who I bought it from. To my sheer delight, when I asked if he had any paperwork, he presented a folder dating back to day one plus window sticker. I knew then this original paint car was something to behold.

This Porsche recently sold on Bring a Trailer, June 23, 2023 about 10 years after I bought it. The reason I know all this is the latest owner Josh reached out to me via email. We had a wonderful exchange over this car and the other Porsches in his collection. It reminds me why I do this. This car will eventually make its way to the west coast, the Bay area, for some much earned excursions down HWY 1 along the coast. I can only imagine how powerful and smooth this GT will feel cruising the bends overlooking the ocean. I’ve spent many-a-miles cruising HWY 1 in my ’66 912, E34 M5 and Datsun 240Z. This car would be pure pleasure, made only better by a manual IMHO, but who really cares. When you have other stick shifts, it’s a different treat to enjoy an automatic… grip only the steering wheel, forget you’re in an almost 40 year old car and push hard in a timeless design created from the ground up to do just that.

Well done Tom and well bought Josh. Enjoy.