Dog

Warning. This post is all about cars, so if you are not a car nut you'll be bored, dear reader... There 's a nice picture of a horse in this post instead.

Right. where were we. Ah yes, rewind three decades. In those days I was an avid car tinkerer. and bought cheap old cars and generally sold them at a loss or scrapped them. after a year. I'd had four BMC 1100s, then four Fiat 124s of various states of tune, then finally five Alfa Romeos. I think that qualifies me as a bona fide petrol head.

Well, I spent weekends with a mate who had the bug worse than me, and helped him with getting this thing back on the road...

This is the noisy end of a Porshce 911 2.4E coupe with the early Bosch mechanical fuel injection system. If you drove it carefully it would return eighteen miles to the gallon. If you  thrashed it you would get fifteen to the gallon. We figured you may as well drive it quickly in that case... (There is no legal proof that we got 140mph out of it one Sunday morning on the dual carriageway to Usk, for example).

So, I had some experience with the older 911s under my belt, thus twenty five years ago  I  found myself spending my weekends looking at this.

This is the angry bit in a 2.7Lux with the K-Jetronic injection system. This was almost as fast as my mate's old 2.4E, but it would give you 25 miles to the gallon and was rather more civilised. 

Here's how it looked to the outside world.

Making the jump from a twin cam Fiat 124 Coupe to a 911 was serious stuff. The only 911 I could afford was the dog at the back of the showroom. At eight thousand pounds, it was half the price of anything else in Nick Faure's* showroom. I bought this thing with no guarantee entirely on my own inspection and judgement. Risky stuff.

This was my only car, not some hobby project. I suffered all sorts of hassle during the seven years I owned it. I got stick from colleagues at work, yoofs repeatedly stole the badge off the front.  I had hassle from lads in hatchbacks. It even got spat on. Duh? It cost me the same as a new Vauxhall Cavalier saloon, so why all the attitude?

So here's to my old 911. You weren't a dog, more like an old friend. The only real sports car I've owned. Here's to the work I did on you. I re-aligned the suspension with laser and mirrors. I changed the exhaust system. I even changed the clutch on my own!

These days I avoid getting under my Ford, and I'm sorry to admit I pay other people to service it. However, I still look at old 911s and think of those glory days :-)

*Nick (historic Porsche racing driver) took me out for a drive in it which was an interesting and persuasive experience...