A Personal Porsche Tale

I recently picked up the February issue of Excellence Magazine, a US mag dedicated to Porsche cars.  I don't subscribe, but a few months out of the year I can't resist as the cars featured or the stories are just too good to pass up.

My dad's 1964 Porsche 356 SC

The February issue has the wickedly awesome Champion Motorsports Turbo S RSR I featured on Friday.  But more important for me was the article comparing the 1964 356 SC and the 1965 912.  The story instantly made me think of my dad and our own history with the 356 and 912.  Before touching on the personal aspect of this story though, the history of these two models is worth a note.

When Porsche introduced the 911, the 356 replacement in 1964, it was almost double the cost of a 356.  To keep a more budget minded customer in dealers, Porsche came out with the 912, which shared the 911's new body but carried over the engine and many other parts of the outgoing 356.  The final version of the 356 was the SC model, which carried the most powerful motor ever offered in a 356.  While not as powerful as the 911's new 6 cyclinder, the 4 banger from the 356 moved the 912 quite well and was lighter giving the 912 a lively feel.  1964 was the last year of the 356, 1965 the first year of the 912.

Now for the personal tale.

Pimp

In 1972 my dad owned a yellow 1964 356 SC.  It was second in a string of 3 awesome sports cars which included an Austin Healy 3000 and an Alfa Romeo GTV6.  He bought the 356 for $2000.  A year or so later someone offered him $2500 so he sold it.  I've lamented the sale of each of those cars but none so much as the Porsche.  There is just so much soul in a 356 and to think my dad had such a future classic in his hands and sold it has always made for good conversation in our family.  Of course my dad was just starting his family and a small sportscar probably wasn't the best option.  They sold the 356 and my mom's VW Beetle and got a Volvo.  How quaint.

My mom and the Austin Healy

Still pimpin' with the Alfa Romeo

More Ausitn Healy

At the same time, my dad was attending architecture school at the University of New Mexico and made a few good friends.  When my dad bought the yellow 356 one of those friends, Tom Tayor, decided to get a blue 1965 912.  The novelty of my dad owning the last year of the 356 and his friend owning the first year of the 912 wasn't lost on anyone.

My beloved MR2

Fast forward to my sophomore year of college at New Mexico State.  I had made a great group of friends.  One of those friends was Tyson Taylor.  Now, Tyson and I had no idea of our fathers' friendship.

When we returned to school after fall break, Tyson drove up to the dorms in, you guessed it, a blue 1965 Porsche 912.  Of course I was enthralled.  He told me it was his dad's and I shared the story of my pop's 356.  That night I called my dad and he related the above story to me.  Turns out Tyson's father kept the 912 all those years and passed it down.  I had no such luck.  Before, I was bummed about my dad selling the 356, but after seeing Tyson's car and hearing the tale, you can imagine how that has changed our family's conversation about those cars!

My fantasy's of my dad's cars are what got me into sportscars as well.  I briefly had a Porsche 924 then a MG Midget in high school.  When I got home from my mission in Chile, I got a Toyota MR2.  Someday I'll get another project and hold onto it, pass it down to my kid.

I've attempted to track down my dad's yellow Porsche.  There weren't too many SC's made in yellow.  I've found one or two that maybe the car but we don't have a VIN to make sure.  My ultimate dream would be to find the exact car, restore it and give to my dad.  What an awesome story ending that would make!

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Movie Friday

Today's internet time wasters are varied.  If you've got some time this weekend, check out the awesome 1 hr Isle of Man TT documentary.  For shorter bits, there's some quick Porsche porn with Champion Motorsports' Turbo S RSR, a $400k, one off project inspired by the race version 997 RSR.  Next, check out what it takes to set a sailing record from New York to San Francisco in the middle of winter as Giovani Soldini takes the Maserati sponsored race boat around the horn this week.  Finally, scope out what Sailing World Magazine thinks is the Boat of the Year.  They announced their winners last month.  I warn you, the Sailing World vid is terrible in terms of production, but it does highlight the latest and greatest in performance sailboats.

Enjoy!






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PUMA PUMA Ocean Race Challenger Sailing Spray Top (Google Affiliate Ad)

Happy New Year!

Wow!  What a year 2012 was!  I'm always amazed how fast time flies and here we are again, with 2013 already to go.

I like New Years.  It gives us a chance to renew, recommit and reconnect.  Its a great time to set goals, analyze the past and set a course for new and better things to come.  Before we look forward, lets look back a bit.

While 2012 headlines were filled with  too many tragedies, storms and the downfall of a sports icon, we also saw great triumphs of the human spirit and things that left an inspiring mark on the year.  One of my favorite moments was watching Felix Baumgartner make his record breaking freefall.  The fact that we got to see it live and hear his words as he stepped into the atmosphere, just made it all the more dramatic.  Red Bull can sponsor some wacky stuff but this feat to me was on par with many of the great adventures of our time including Steve Fossett's records and roving Mars.

I hope in the New Year we can remember those we lost but look forward to making our world better.  Hopefully we continue to find the things that will inspire each of us to do good, reach our goals and treat people better.

With a new year comes new goals.  I'm willing to bet that most of us have some sort of weight related aspiration to attain in 2013.  I started my weight loss plan about a month ago.  While the past 2 weeks have been difficult with so many parties and family dinners, I'm happy to report that last week I managed to maintain my weight from the week before.  Counting calories really makes all the difference and the numbers don't lie.  I've mentioned MyFitnessPal before and I'll mention it again, because it truly is the tool that has helped me reach my goals.  Its great to have all the nutritional info available right there on the site and planning your food and exercise for the day becomes second nature.  It takes less time than checking your email and your results are front and center for you to analyze.

With counting calories, food quality becomes so important.  You start to realize that in order to make it through the day on the calories you're limited to, you can't waste 50 of those calories on a mini Twix bar or a heavy lunch with no nutrients.  Feel free to "friend" me on the site if you'd like.  My username is "sailtowery". Then we can track each others progress and reach our goals together.  Having a partner in any quest is helpful!

Many years ago, a reporter in a Porsche press conference asked Dr. Ferry Porsche what his favorite Porsche car was.  One of his executives, Peter Shutz, sensing some discomfort is Dr. Porsche simply said "we haven't built it yet".  (Excellence Magazine #200) What that says to me is that no matter how great we may have been in the past, its nothing to what we may yet become.  May 2013 be your best year yet!

Wide Open Wednesday

In the 70's and 80's my dad owned a series of seriously awesome sportscars, starting with an Austin Healy 3000, then a Porsche 356sc and ending with an Alfa Romeo GTV6.  The 356 was my favorite and I've been a Porsche fan ever since.  I cam close to buying a 944 in high school, but that's the closest I've come to actual ownership.  I've had some lucky encounters with test drives and friends' cars so I'm quite guilty of breaking the 10th Commandment and a bit covetous of the brand.  Ironically, its the non-911's that I love the most...the 924/944/968 series of cars and the mid-engined Cayman.

Its hard to be a Porsche fan without being a fan of car racing as well.  If you've read my blog before, you'll know sportscar racing is my choice when it comes to viewing and following time.  And in light of the recent takeover of sportscar racing by NASCAR its good to see Porsche continuing their development of customer racing cars.  The latest offering is the 991 version of the GT3 Cup.

I was surprised to see the new 911 look so good in racing trim.  In my mind, the 911 has become a $100,000 luxury car with its dimensions, electronic aids and growing MSRP so I was curious as to how the GT3 series of race cars would evolve.  Turns out Porsche engineers still know what they are doing.  From its huge wing and other aero enhancements to its new 6 speed paddle shifters, the elongated 991 translates very well to a racing car.

Porsche has sold over 2300 GT3 Cup cars over the past 12 years so the new version has a lot to live up to.  The most recent Cup big brother, the hi-po GT3 RSR, had some issues last year at the end of its life cycle, so lets hope the development of the new chassis takes off.

With all the changes in American sportscar racing coming up in 2014, it will be interesting to see what Porsche does, and what cars will be allowed in the new combined ALMS/Grand-Am series.  With NASCAR's tradition of low tech (Car of Tomorrow, Daytona Prototype) I hope they realize why ALMS had a good fan base...high tech prototypes and recognizable sportscars, and allow marques like Porsche to really shine.