It is time to sell the Porsche. Hard decision, but one that has been considered for a while now. I am listing her for $26,500 obo. I have invested over $50K in her (including the original purchase price). She has currently:

• 4 New Tires (year ago)
• Engine Rebuild in 2008
• Stereo Upgrade (accepts iPod) (Additional Link)
• Optima Battery Upgrade
• Priority Start Upgrade
• Strut Brace Upgrade
• BB Exhaust Upgrade
• Valve Cover Upgrades
• All Weather Carpets
• Custom Rear Speaker Setup (PO)
• Air Conditioning Upgrade
• Performance Air Intake Upgrade

There are a ton of other things done, fixed, updated over the years. Spend some time on this site to see them (I’ve documented most everything). I also have Official Porsche service books to go along with the car.

The car has always had professional mechanics work on her over the years (or me). 92 octane, except for the occasional 100 octane has always been used. She was a daily driver, but with current travel she is more of a “drive to the gym and back” vehicle. Always garaged. Always loved.

You want to know how many miles? Currently (and this is going to change slightly as she is driven by all you good people who want her) she has 129403 original miles. NOW, for those that say “woah, I don’t want a car with that many miles…” ok, good thing you don’t have to buy her. NOW AGAIN, after the engine rebuild, valve covers and new exhaust she had 112817 original miles. SO, she has 16,586 miles on the newly rebuilt engine.

So now what? Shoot me an note for additional information. Come by and test drive her. Ask me to take pictures of specific places that I have not already covered in the Photographs section. When I sold the 912, I had a lot of people make offers and “let me think about it..” It wasn’t until I told the last guy “look, if you want her send me $1000 as a deposit” did things take shape. If you are interested, and still interested after we speak on the phone/person, $1000 deposit will hold the car for you. No deposit, the next person that gives me $1000 gets it.

So why? I want something else. Turbo, Beck 550, Ferrari 308.. I don’t know yet.

What does she need? A bath, a vacuum and that’s about it. I was on business for a couple weeks and when I got back there was a drop on the floor. My mechanic looked at her just days ago and said “minor, just needs a seal.” I would drive her from here (KC) to coast to coast with no reservations. My anal-retentive-tedious-detail-oriented ownership of her is your benefit. Just love her as I have.

But really, what does she need? Nothing. She is 21 years old. She is NOT concourse. She has a couple nicks on the front hood (minor), I have not replaced this rubber on the door, and she has a filled chip on the windshield (smaller than a penny on the passengers view). That’s it. That’s all.

I am listing her on eBay local, Cars.com and others in a week. This is, for all intensive purposes, a pre-sale for visitors to the site and Twitter followers.

Thanks everyone for looking. She deserves a good home.

89C4

It’s been a while since my anniversary (to my wife, not the car), but this is what I got… Porsche Soccer Ball. Kick ass. Will I ever kick it? Probably not. Will the kids try and get it to kick it? Probably yes.

The issues with my yellow-top Optima battery continued till I said screw it and bought a new Optima red-top (which I used in the 912 and loved). I also purchased a PriorityStart from Performance Products to ensure there wasn’t ever a problem again. Go figure, switch to a good battery and starting it immediate.

I’ve been considering pissing off my wife and selling her CLK430 and getting an 89 944S2. My plan was to do it while she was out of town and the CLK was at the airport so when she returned she no longer had a parking spot, but I got busy this week.

Happy Easter everyone!

I get a lot of spam. We all get a lot of spam, but I get a LOT of spam. Usually from bots trying to get me to approve junk links to help them with rankings in my comment threads. I painfully check and read each one and tag as junk yet they still keep coming. And after this post, I will get even more, but such is life. Obviously I’d rather be out in my C4, but alas that is a story for another post (think ice.. lots and lots of ice).

I’m multitasking on a couple projects and need to rest my eyes yesterday so I check my personal junk folder. I notice an email from a name that sounds real. I begin reading and I almost delete it from the first sentence “I thought your readers might be interested in..” Well good readers, be glad I didn’t delete.

LuxuryLab has created a massively insightful and valuable report – L2 Digital IQ Index for the automobile industry. I could paraphrase to make myself sound intelligent, or I could be lazy and cut and paste… guess which wins:

“The Index, authored by NYU Stern professor of Marketing, Scott Galloway, ranks the top 44 U.S. automobile brands according to their digital competence (site, social media, mobile, digital advertising and SEO.)”

So, I was sold on the read just after the first paragraph. Why continue reading? Why did I even care in the first place? Vanity, of course:

“Interestingly, your twitter account was mentioned in the full report: ”PORSCHE’S TOP NON-BRAND AFFILIATED TWITTER USER, 89C4, TWEETS ABOUT HIS 1989 PORSCHE C4 AND HAS MORE THAN 2,000 FOLLOWERS.” Porsche ranked fifth in the Luxury category and fourteenth overall.”

So there you have it. Out of truckloads of spam and checking each and every one individually once in a while a human gets tucked in. Thank you for the heads up LuxuryLab and thank you for the research and reference.

You can download the rankings and top line findings PDF to get a preview of the info.

Part of a gift package I received a couple of nights ago was this “limited” edition sample from Porsche Design Group. Apparently only a handful of stores are carrying it, and my friend was able to snatch me up a sample. Smells good. Kind of gave me a headache, but that could have been the lack of sleep.

As a side-note, if Porsche could bottle the smell of a 1966 Porsche 912 I would buy it by the drum and reek of it always. A classic VW friend of mine when sitting in my old 912 noted “..ah, I love that classic Porsche smell..” As do I.

You can imagine my surprise when my wife in an irritated voice asked if I had ordered something from Porsche days before Christmas. I hadn’t. But what I had done was register my 1989 911 C4 over at Porsche’s Family Tree website. I forgot about the offer to receive a commemorative poster. Looks like I’ll be framing yet another thing this holiday.

A new-hire announcement went out regarding my new position. In a company my size I knew there had to be at least one Porsche die-hard. Turns out I was right. Dave L. sent me a picture over of his Porsche. Turns out Dave took a 1979 911 SC and upgraded the motor to 3.2L using a low miles from a 1998 Carrera. He beefed up the suspension, wider tires, custom wheels and of course the whale tail. Turns out he’s looking to sell her due to lack of time to enjoy her. Ping me if you are interested (let me know via a post to keep an eye out for you – I’ve been having wacky email issues).

It all started with a Facebook post on my wall from my wife. Seems I missed a joint venture between Porsche Design Group and Adidas. She found a site that had the shoes. “Pretty cool” I posted back. She asks what color I like the best? Turns out there are 4 colors, 2 styles. Naturally I dig the orange/black in flat mat style. I jokingly tell her “12.5, thanks”.

I get a cryptic message today on IM “you have a surprise waiting for you when you get home”. I prod and ask a couple questions, but get nothing helping me understand what the hell she is talking about. Then I get home and open my blue box of coolness. She asks me “so, are you even going to wear them, or just put them up on the wall?” She knows me so well. Thanks babe. These rock.

After my unfortunate flat tire incident last week (maybe 2 weeks ago), I ended up getting a set of 4 new Sumitomo HTR+ tires. They ride great. I haven’t gone crazy with them yet (nor do I intend to), but I am looking forward to a good rain storm to test them out. Anyone else had any positive (negative) experience with these tires? I’m coming off a set of Pirelli’s.

There are very few things left on my Porsche C4 that need to be attended to. I have the drivers seatbelt to install. I need to look into the front hood latch (nothing big, just keeps sticking every once and a while). The cigarette lighter still doesn’t work (it charges things, just not the element, but that doesn’t really matter). And then there was the air control. I tried multiple control units and nothing fixed my problem. The heater was still not working, I was getting heat off the engine all the time, and AC was getting less and less cool. I jacked with the servos, I charged the AC, I attempted to change the control unit (2 times).. Nothing. She was not very fun to drive in the heat or cold.. If I was going to have a Porsche I could only drive in “perfect” weather I should have a Beck Spyder in my garage!

I took her down to Carriage & Motorworks on SW Traffic to have them give me an analysis (just around the corner from my work). They couldn’t work on her, so they sent me over to Aaron at BHR. So, here’s the breakdown:

1. When the AC was switched over originally, they installed it wrong and I was getting coolant leaks, bad pressure, and all around bad AC distribution.
2. The servo on the passengers side (one I missed) wasn’t allowing the air distribution to flow correctly, and was staying half open the entire time: reason for the heat off the engine all the time.
3. Blown fuse for the rear blower.

Aaron tells me I have strong AC (as strong as a conversion can get), good air flow/control and heat when I need it. Looking forward to driving her again in all weather conditions. I’ll report back when I actually get into her and drive her home in 100 degree heat.