Cars
It’s a hobby, and I enjoy it. Fixing things is satisfying, there’s pleasure to be had from beautiful objects, and I’ve met some lovely people along the way. For balance, though, I do remember a non-car friend once saying (when I opened the garage door to retrieve a jump start pack for her daughter’s Nissan Micra), “that’s not a hobby, that’s a problem”. Bit rude, given that I was being helpful, but arguably fair comment.
Here is the “collection”…
‘59 356A
A new-ish addition, which squeezed into the garage in November 2021. Behold, a 1959 Porsche 356A 1600 Super.
“Super” is a nice positive adjective, isn’t it? Superman, Supercomputer, Supernova…. So this Porsche “Super” engine, must be something pretty special? Er… no. In this case Super means that, on a good day in 1959, it had a mighty 75 bhp (as opposed to the non-Super variant, which had a frankly feeble 60 horsepower). Porsche marketing department, version 1.0.
I must be getting old, I really like this car.
'65
A restoration project, just started. More details on that here.
Original colour was dark blue, "Bali Blue". Potentially a nice car, when it's done.
‘69 S
As well as the orange project car I have, for a few years now, been lucky enough to run an 911S that actually works. At least performs some of the normal functions of a car - goes, stops, keeps most of the rain off.
It's a 1969 model, so the first year of MFI, first year of long wheelbase. Previously a race car, now leading a more gentle life. RHD, which makes it fairly rare - conventional wisdom seems to be that Porsche made 32 RHD “S”-es in the 1969 model year.
'70 S
Most of this site is the restoration story of my 1970 911S. You are most welcome to read about it here.
To cut a long story short, the photo on the left is Australian eBay circa 2014, and on the right we have the 2021 "after" pic.
‘87 928 S4
As above, I must be getting old, I really like this car.
In contrast to the 356, though, this one has a 5L V8. Torque is adequate, even by modern standards. In 1987, this was allegedly the third-fastest (highest top speed) production car on sale in the UK. Countach and Testarossa were better for top trumps, but perhaps a little extrovert for everyday use?
Mine is RHD, manual, PTS "Moss Green" and has the brownest interior I have ever seen. Low mileage and low owners, but one of them was Chris Harris so it probably spent those 3 years doing skids.
Eeee Geee (1992 G Wagen)
Currently with Mercedes' OM603 straight-6 3L turbo diesel. Quite a good engine, and famously long-lived. Mine has certainly lived a long time and many miles, and mostly still works.
Ignoring those excellent diesel qualities I have a plan to upcycle it into an EV. A plan which is currently stalled, so the G is currently dieselling around at a relaxed pace.
'95 993
One of the many nice things about a 993 is that it's always ready to go. School run? Sure! Alps now? No problem!
Not a temperamental car.
