Nov/Dec 09 Classic Car Show, club membership & Porsche NO.2

Several viewings later and still scanning all of the ads, I happened across a 944 Turbo on E-Bay. E-Bay was not exactly where I had in mind for my second 944 but the ad was appealing. The car was an 87 Black 944 Turbo with Black leather sports interior which is a real bonus in any 944.

The advert had stated that the car was immaculate inside and out (a lie) and that it had been looked after for the last 8 years by a genuine enthusiast (which turned out to be true). I really didn't fancy a trip to North Wales just to view prior to bidding and having seen the description and pictures as well as chatted to the vendor, I decided to try and close the auction with a strong early offer which was duly accepted. The seller said he was so confident in the car he would be happy for me to walk away but that he knew no one would. Bold sales chat indeed !

I purchased my train ticket from Virgin, central London to Bangor and was robbed for 79 pounds due to the 'late nature' of my booking, you'd think it was Easy-Jet the way they price their tickets. Sitting on the train I found out that a lady in front of me had paid less than 30 pounds for the same journey booked early.
On my arrival at Bangor I was picked up by the car dealer who had clearly sold the car to a local man years ago and taken it back from him 8 years later. The prior owner of the car was a mature chap who my research had told me was a member of TIPEC and I though this was in the cars favour. On arrival at the dealers site I found it was no back street affair. It was a thriving site with many customers and in excess of 200 cars.I was immediately given the document pack and the keys for the car and told to take the car out for a test drive alone and on trust. This I thought a bit silly these days but the man had it seemed had either sussed what I was about from our previous chats or clearly just didn't care.

Looking over the car including checking sills wing tips boot lining etc as I had now learned to do it was immediately obvious that the immaculate inside and out was a bare faced lie. The car was certainly not rotten and the full Black leather Interior with sports seats was exceptional without doubt.

However the vehicle paintwork was showing its age with touch ups etc and the one major point for me was that the cars front N/S wing was not up to standard and would need replacing to do the rest of the car justice.


Despite being not exactly as described, I drove the car and found it to be far tighter in every respect than my old 944 Turbo and in my opinion worth every penny of the agreed price. The deal was done and I started a 5 hour drive home which I carried out with only one service stop. That alone should tell you how much I enjoyed driving the car. The journey was far from a chore despite no C.D's and near useless radio reception.

Since purchasing the car I decided that we would go as a family up to the Classic Car show at the N.E.C. It had been my intention to join TIPEC for some time but I thought it would be nice to do it face to face on the stand at the show.
Myself and the family visited the TIPEC stand, the PCGB stand, Volvo Owners Club
(a story in itself there) and generally looked round the show. I found the helpers on both the TIPEC ad the PCGB stands to be very friendly and welcoming and there were some great examples of the marque. One car that still stands out in my mind was an early 911 Turbo belonging to a man called Paul who was on the PCGB stand. This chap was apparently a ' normal member' and was clearly a true enthusiast and an asset to a club stand as was his car. I have to say there was far more to see at the Classic than you might expect and in my opinion the show knocked the 'normal' motor show for six as it was more than just sell you a car. The real joy of the show for me ws checking out all of the 80's classics including much to my suprise a Talbot Sunbean TI which I had been fortunate enough to own an example of as a teenager. How I wish I still had that car.


I would say though that with the crowds pushing a pushchair around and feeling pressured to move on was not ideal. If I went to the show again I would like to go alone and mooch around whilst having the odd pint along the way. I duly signed up to TIPEC before leaving the show and received an unexpected show membership offer which was welcome indeed.
Back in not so sunny Hertfordshire I now had time to think what I might like to do with the car next season as it became clear that very little happens in classic car circles through the winter. My first disappointment was at the total lack of an active TIPEC region for Hertfordshire. I was aware of this before joining as I had contacted the local coordinator and found out that both he and his deputy were not attending meetings and were due to resign. Being keen to stay with TIPEC I had a dilemma, do I put myself foreword to try and get meetings going again even though I'm a club 'Newbie' as we call them on the web or do I just sit back and hope that someone else does something. At first I didn't want to stand up and be counted but I quickly realised the region was dead on its feet and decided to start P.M'ing anyone I could to try and promote 'new meetings for 2010'. I also visited the pub that had previously held the clubs monthly meetings and found that it was large and comfortable with a huge floodlit car-park. It was suggested to me by committee members that I let Christmas and new year get out of the way and then try contacting local Porsche folk by E-Mail. This seemed good advice and at the time of typing new year is nearly up so this will be my next step. I can only hope that like me, a few other Porsche folk will think it worth having a Hertfordshire region but only time will tell.

I have had the car in the garage for most of the last four weeks as living down a rain or snow covered track in December isn't ideal for any car let alone a low slung sports car. Quickly I have found out that this is not ideal for a cars battery and so I have purchased and plugged in a vehicle battery conditioner. The make is C-Tec and they are very well known so for a few pounds I should now be able to keep my cars battery in tip top condition despite the freezing temperatures in my garage.

In the medium term it is my intention to treat the car to a 24,000 mile service and a belts change in the spring as despite having covered only 9,000 miles since the last change this was carried out many years ago.

Now we wait for January the 21st to find out if their will be an active Hertfordshire region of TIPEC and hope that I have something positive to report in the blog. Regards Mas

How I started with 'Classic Porsche'

I have started this blog a little late so the first few pages will be retrospective.

The reason for this is that I do have some web space and some basic web design skills so I have knocked up a couple of Porsche pages before. Now that I find myself hooked on the Classic Porsche as a hobby it seems a good idea to properly chart my progress with the cars , clubs and people involved.

By way of an introduction, it is now a freezing cold December day and I have been a Porsche enthusiast for all of 4 months. I am now on my second Porsche 944 Turbo. The first Porsche I purchased was a 1985 944 Turbo which cost me all of 1,850 pounds around 5 months ago. I knew it would be a bit of a heap but assumed that if it drove O.K I would use it as an extended test drive and find out if Porsche ownership and just as importantly Porsche folk were for me.

I am a keen forum user in general as well as running one or two myself and have found the folk on the TIPEC ( The independent Porsche Enthusiast Club) forum to be very helpful and welcoming with a good mix of banter and genuinely useful information.

Many folk online have said that a cheapo 944 needing work should be avoided at all costs but despite this advice which I do generally agree with I decided that a cheap 'Test Drive car' was going to be my first Porsche. Those who know me for all my faults will know that I am an honest man, often too honest for my own good. With this in mind I decided that I would buy a cheapo car and use it for a few months then sell it on declaring all of its faults. If the car was too bad or blew up on me then I would reluctantly scrap the car. This was my plan and this was also duly posted on the TIPEC forum.

I bid for and won the car on E-Bay being well aware that if it was not 'as described' , I coud turn up to pay but choose to walk away. I would not take this 'risk' normally but for 1,850 pounds to be honest I wasn't at all bothered as to me it was worth it for the learning experience. The worse thing I could see happening would be that if it went bang after a month or two then I would have to sell it for 1,000 for 'spares or repair'.

So having won my bid I turned up to buy the car having driven about an hour and a half to Reading together with Mrs Mas and two small children. On the sellers driveway was an absolutely stunning looking Zermatt Silver 944 Turbo which is still one of my absolute favourite colours for an 80's Porsche. I was genuinely surprised by the look of the car and to this day I can say that the paintwork with its deep shine and thick lacquer was exceptional.

I had a quick test drive along local roads and it was obvious that the car had its faults. These included, suspension rattles and knocks (the steering was basically worn out. I was also aware that there was a small oil leak and that the heater was stuck on hot( story to follow).

Despite its faults the car drove like a rocket and the turbo showed plenty of boost. The gearbox and clutch were fine and the displayed 200,000 miles was of course untrue as the Odometer was broken. Clearly this Porsche had been no Garage Queen, not by a long way.

I duly paid up my hard earned cash feeling that she was an old heap but an old heap well worth 1,850 pounds. I then drove home as the missus and kids followed in the Volvo S60 D5. Despite being choked by the fumes from the oil leak dripping on the hot exhaust and the heater stuck on full blast, the drive home was a hoot. How amazing are these 944's to drive they really are. I have driven all sorts of cars in my time , small to large and cheap to very expensive but nothing more fun than the 944 Turbo.

Having driven the car a few times I took it to a well known independent Bedfordshire.

The lead mechanic at the garage carried out my free initial inspection and agreed that the body work and sills were very solid indeed, also the car was not a rot heap as some 944's can be. However every single rubber mount under the car was worn out and clearly had never been replaced. The oil leaks, rubbers , wheel bearing, brake restoration etc would add up to about 2,500 pounds if I wanted to put the car right.

Upon later reflection this really wasn't that bad. I could if I wanted to have the car ' sorted out' and it would stand me around 4,300 leaving me with a rare 'early' example of a 944 in a great colour. Sadly though I had to realise that it would still be a 200,000 mile plus example and the engine was bound to need some work in the near future. My final decision was that I would fix a couple of minor faults and sell the car.

Thanks to the folk on the TIPEC forum, I eventually found the well known 'Broken heater Clip' under the glovebox. Once exposed by my having removed the glovebox liner the fault was clear for anyone to see. Luckily for me this was one fault that I could fix cheaply and in doing so I would actually make the car far more comfortable to drive.

I reluctantly called a Porsche main dealer at Cambridge expecting to be regarded as a bit of a peasant but was very pleased with the helpful attitude of the parts man as I enquired about purchasing a new 'heater clip'. After a few minutes trying to find what part I wanted the man told it is actually called a 'bearing' which if you looked closely it was indeed. A small nylon bearing and a little metal clip that clamps it on to the metal arm or rod were what I needed. The parts man informed me that these only came in packs of three tough he could probably split it for me. He the told me the price of three 'bearings' and three 'clips'. This came to a sum total of just over three pounds including free delivery. I was embarrassed and told him I lived too far away to collect and how could I pay, surely not by card ?. He nearly sent it free but decided that he could get in trouble if he did so he duly took my money by switch and the 'clips' arrived a few days later.

Ten minutes work and the 'clip' was fitted by me allowing my 944 to blow cold air for the first time. I was so proud of my first ever fix that as usual I posted my experience on the TIPEC forum. All of the regulars seemed happy for me and humoured me, presumably realising that I am no mechanic and that this tiny fix had given me some sense of satisfaction.

I advertised the car for sale on E-Bay ( declaring all of the faults I knew of as promised) with a starting price of 1,800 and buy it now of 2,000 and had little interest. A week later I re-advertised the car at a fixed price of 1,700 pounds with no offers. The first interest was within hours and the man was quite local to myself being near to Hertford. Three other gents declared a keen interest and one man in particular seemed a decent bloke and begged second refusal on the car which he was duly promised. I really wanted to sell the car to the second man but he was from Lincolnshire and couldn't get over for a couple of days so in fairness I had to give the man in Hertford his chance to buy. Clearly despite its faults the car was a popular buy at 1,700 as a track car or similar project and it turned out I could have easily sold it 5 times over at that price.

The local man told me a tale re it being a track car project for himself and duly paid cash for the car. As it happened he turned out to be a 'dodgy' car dealer type. Surprise surprise when he turned up to collect the car he had a traders insurance policy (as you do). Much to my disgust he then re advertised the car 3 or 4times on E-Bay trying to turn a small profit by not declaring any of the faults that I had declared to him. I made very sure that I posted details re the car on at least two Porsche forums so that I could try my very best to stop anyone in 'the community' being had over.

I was now 'Porsche less' and spent hour after hour scanning the free ads and forums for a new 944 Turbo or a 968. There was not a 944 or 968 for sale anywhere that I didn't find out about and my viewings, particularly at the showrooms of dealers are a story in themselves. I had definately decided that the first decent quality 968 or 944 Turbo would be the one that I would buy and beig me , I didn't want to wait long.

The next chapter of my Porsche ownership experience includes:
Buying my second Porsche, visiting a classic car event and joining an owners club.
Clearly a busy few months in my Porsche owning life.

Regards Mas