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Unread 01-09-2010, 09:16 AM   #1
PNine64
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Default My love affair with a 20-year-old

I recently bought a twenty-year-old Porsche. I’ll try and explain why.

December 31st 2009, by Michael La Fave

On the face of it, I don’t imagine that buying a 20-year-old Porsche makes much sense to the average Joe. Aside from the fact it’s old, outdated and lacks the innumerable mod cons we’ve all come to expect and enjoy in car, there are undeniable reliability and maintenance concerns. Not the least of which is the simple cost of fixing it. It doesn’t even have very impressive stats by today’s standards.

Consider that the 3.6-litre air cooled flat-six in my 1990 Carrera 2 makes only 247-hp and 228-lb.ft of torque. A new Camry V6, by comparison, has 268-hp and a $32,995 Hyundai Genesis Coupe has just over 300-hp. Standard! A Hyundai! Never mind that a brand spanking new 911 packs a whopping 345-hp from the same 3.6-litres of displacement.

There’s no stability control, no Blutooth, no navi, no keyless entry or automatic trunk lid. There aren’t auto-down windows and programmable climate controls. You can’t adjust the suspension at the push of a button either and the stereo sucks. It has dual airbags and ABS though the former probably don’t work anymore and the latter definitely don’t, but I knew that when I bought it.

What it does have, however, is soul. The traditionally adroit lines of the 911 were brilliantly updated with the 1990-1994 964 generation’s integrated plastic bumpers and lower body trim and it is, to my eyes at least, the best-looking 911 there will ever be. I mean is it just me or did Porsche hire some out-of-work Pontiac designers to style the new Turbo and GT3?

There’s soul in the way doors "clack" when you close them and in the way the interior smells faintly of oil. It has soul in the lumpy idle of its engine and deep gargling of its exhaust. It has soul in the weight and meat of the steering and in the whistling of air over its steel rain gutters. There’s a purity of spirit in the way it drives – you just can’t get this close to a new machine no matter how hard you try.

This old Porsche is the bridge between the truly arcane engineering of older 911s and the present cars. Despite it’s lack of gadgets and gizmos it’s truly state-of-the-art in some respects like how it’s almost as quick as a new Carrera thanks to it’s significantly lighter weight. In fact I think it was Road&Track that managed a 4.9 second 0-60 run in a 964. Porsche’s official time for the new one? 4.9 seconds. It rides as well as a new 911 and the steering is even better. It even tops out at a staggering 265 km/h but, as much fun as it can be, I didn’t buy the car for its performance.

So why does a guy that has access to every new car on the road including new Porsche’s several times a year wants this antiquated lump of late-eighties engineering? Simple, it makes me feel great in a way that few if any new cars can. After a long-day at the office I’ll head home, slip into (squeeze into in fact) the old 911 and run her up and down the highway, around a few ramps and cruise the quiet evening streets of Toronto. With the gruff engine churning away miles behind me and the tires hypnotically slapping expansion joints my worries melt away. I have a connection with this old car and I expect that to last the rest of my life.

Sometimes I just stand in the garage and stare at it. My wife's a bit worried but I digress...

My old 911 represents everything I love about cars. It is a fusion of design and engineering, old and new, looking back and looking forward at the same time and I don’t expect this strange confluence of antiquity and modernity to ever happen again in the automotive world. We’ve gone past paradigm shifts like the 964. Mountains of legislation and our nanny state have guaranteed that. It’s a portal into a different time and an experience unlike any new car. Anyone that owns a classic knows what exactly what I mean. The rest of you? I suggest you go find out.

http://autos.sympatico.ca/features/2...-a-20-year-old
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