"If only you were nearer" Back on track! Apologies...

[Mystery Machine]

Nov 7, 2015 21:40:14 GMT composimmonite said:

Bet a Subaru turbo would fit as well

Wash your mouth out with soap!!

It'll be getting a 2.0 Type 4 with some tweaks. Far cheaper than trying to source an original 912 lump and far more robust than the Type 1. Also slightly more authentic because that's what was put in the 914 and 912E, so kind of OEM+ (not that I like using that term!)



OK, OK, I'll do another update. It's been a pretty hectic day and only just got around to finding some spare time that was tucked down the side of the armchair.


So flights are booked, everything is pretty much ready and then, only a matter of days before leaving in a cloud of excitement, this happens:



Doesn't look much, but the Vectra had pulled out of a side turning just as I was coming down the main road. I didn't even see it coming, she hit me square on the rear quarter and shunted the Land Rover sideways across most of the lane (luckily there was a chevron area to my right, otherwise I'd have been pushed into the oncoming traffic)

I'd already pulled forward in the shot, just to get my car off hers. The damage doesn't look much but it's completely twisted the rear tub, buckled the rear wheel and bent the body mounts. Plus the axle then started to leak inside the hub/brake drum.

I was due to fly out in less than a week and I wasn't going to let a thing like this stop me. That was until I woke up two days later in a lot of pain. Something had been twisted in my back and it took a couple of days for it to show itself. Doctors visit, strong pain killers and a few days later I made the agonising decision to cancel the trip because things weren't looking any better.

It wasn't an easy decision to make, this had been months in the planning, months in the saving and months of anticipation and ever increasing excitement. I was devastated.

But it was the right decision to make. If I had gone, OK, I get to collect my car but I'd not have enjoyed the trip because I'd have been in too much pain to make the most of it. I lost the money for the flight but in the scheme of things, even for a die hard car addict like me, I was being sensible for one and doing the correct thing for my health. I can be grown up. Sometimes.

[Mystery Machine]

Time then seemed to fly by! The accident happened on the 23rd July and I was supposed to have flown on the 2nd August. As you know, that didn't happen.

A blur of physio, pain killers, trying to save up more money, trying to rearrange the shipping, just replanning EVERYTHING and the next thing I know...it's September. Where the hell did that time go??

My back still isn't 'better' but it's a lot better than it was and I think I'm mobile enough to make the trip. Sod it, no time like the present, I book the flights for 11th Sept and find myself at Heathrow on that morning at 5.30am.

I can honestly say that the time between the crash and arriving at Heathrow was a real blur, a fuzz, a whirlwind.

But here I was, standing in Terminal 2 and it was about to become a reality. IT WAS A REALITY! I was about to fly to Canada, about to meet James. About to collect my Porsche.


As the sun came up over London while I stood waiting to board my plane, I had a genuine lump in my throat. I'd already been on a massive adventure to get this far, and the adventure itself was only just beginning. This was it.



Car addiction is a wonderful thing.



I leave England and have two main thoughts: 1) I'm so excited about where I'm heading and what I'm heading into. An unknown, but that makes it super exciting to me. 2) A tinge of sadness that I won't be seeing Amanda, my beautiful girlfriend and Jed my amazing canine sidekick for nearly three weeks.

I settle down and watch the green pastures of England pass by and then, before I know it, I'm over the Atlantic. Truly on my way.

[Mystery Machine]

Touchdown in Toronto and I have quite a session in customs due to having hand luggage consisting of nothing but camera gear. They pull every last thing apart then finally give me the all clear to proceed.

Do not care, I'm here, I'm in Canada and I'm about to meet James.

Excitement level: Off the chart!

Now, one thing about 'internet friends' is the moment you actually meet them for real. Kind of like a strange blind date without the flirting or having to wear your best cologne. Going from the digital to the analogue world with someone you've spent many hours emailing and phoning is strange. You 'know' them really well, yet you don't. Until you realise you actually do and the friendship you've built via broadband and BT is now a real living, breathing thing and where you even have to interact! Luckily James is a Grade-A top guy. My kind of guy. We great with handshake, a manhug and then get straight to the two most important topics of conversation when you've just got off the plane: collecting the hire car and getting some food.

Luckily for me, James has both bases covered. I'd already reserved the car and he knows exactly where to take me to get it - an hour from the airport because it's a damn sight cheaper and also right by where James lives. As for the food? CAR FIRST!



We get to Enterprise where I'd reserved a 'full size' car. For the twenty days it was only going to cost me £50 more than having a Yaris. Why have a Yaris when for a little bit more you can have something will all the comfort and all the toys. Hopefully something American too.... What's the point in being in North America only to drive something my Mum used to own back here in Blighty?

Bad news! My 'rental' guy, Daniel, politely informs me that the car I'd reserved hadn't been returned yet. They are all out of full size cars. he takes James and I out into the car lot and proceeds to show us some alternative options. Free upgrades to the car I was supposed to get.

A Nissan 4x4 thing with black plastic bumpers? (looked awful), "No thanks".

A Ford 'something' soft roader (basically a US spec Ford Kuga), "No thanks".

A GMC Yukon? "Wait, back up, are you saying I can have this for no extra cost?"

"Yes" says Daniel.

I look at James, he says the immortal words, "You'd be a f***ing idiot if you don't" and with that I take the massive gangsta machine.

Black, black tints, 5.7 litre Chevy LS engine, kind of ugly but cool as hell. A $100 a day rental for $40 a day. YES PLEASE!

I thank Daniel and James & I head off for some food. Destination: Fat curse word Burritos!



I follow James there, I'm already enjoying my massive V8 full size SUV and then I get to dine on some of Waterloos finest Mexican fast food. Crispy battered fish burrito with pretty much everything added. I'm in sheer heaven!!

I'm in Canada, I'm hanging with one of my best friends who I've only just met, I'm driving a super cool car and eating food that is both junk and divine at the same time. I nearly burst with excitement. Jet lag? What's that?






Oh, and here is my ride for the next 20 days. It might look ugly but I can tell you one thing, I really, really didn't want to hand the keys back!!

[Donald]

Absolutely brilliant thread.
Kind of dwarfs my flight from Edinburgh to Bristol and into the West Country to buy and drive home a mk1 Fiesta but the sentiment is the same - if you want it, it is never too far away.
Get off your ar*e and go and get it. Simple.
Looking forward to the next episode.
Why are we still waiting anyway?, Have you never heard of coffee and Red Bull ?

[johnd]

You ever thought of writing for magazines ?

Youre really quite good

[Killbill]

........ getting better ........
Ive a feeling this my go around a few forums
Hope you don't mind MM
www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=161648

[welshpug]

Bruce doesn't do coffee!

[randywanger_]

I knew some of this story as I talk to James a bit via PM and a Porsche 911/912 is on my list, one day. Looking forward to more updates.

[composimmonite]

I've been to Spain for vehicles in the past and always intended going to Czechoslovakia for a Velorex 16/350. Unfortunately I can't leave the UK any more as too high a risk

[Mystery Machine]

Hire car sorted, great food consumed, James asks if I'd like to see the Porsche.

"Are you kidding?"

I'm already out the door of Fat Ba$tard Burritos before he can answer. I follow him back to his house where we drop his car off and he jumps in the Yukon. Suddenly the realisation dawns, I'm cruising through Waterloo in a massive American V8 with a great friend. I'm the other side of the world in an incredible country and I'm about to see the Porsche. MY Porsche.

The drive out to the workshop is, to most people, fairly unremarkable, but I'm like an owl with neck epilepsy. Looking straight ahead isn't an option when there is SO MUCH to take in. Just buildings, signposts, houses, quite literally everything is great. Recognisable, familiar yet different at the same time. Everyday things that all Canadians don't even see, I see them. Tiny differences all add up to make the experience almost overwhelming. There's a scene in Superman where he can sense everything, hear everything, feel everything all at once and it becomes almost debilitating. Well, that's me in Canada.

When I read a book I can't skim read. I have to read and re-read every single line until the image being described is burnt into my mind in a picture so vivid it's almost real. I don't ever just accept the essence of what is happening, I have to feel immersed in every little detail, every last piece of the environment the author is writing about.

This is probably the only way I can describe my trip to Canada. Quite literally everything is a new experience and the drive out to the workshop was a perfect example.

Here I am thousands of miles from home after months of planning and saving to buy a dream car. Here I am only minutes from seeing that car yet my focus is entirely on the telegraph poles, the traffic cones, the roof material of buildings, shop signs, garage door sizes, grain silo styles - you name it and my mind is digesting it.

I think James was worried that I wasn't excited about seeing the car? I was really excited, stupendously so, but I was also allowing every part of the trip to fill my mind with the most minute memories in the finest detail that I can savour forever. I can remember that drive to the workshop in as much detail as the moment I first saw the Porsche. I can remember the sound of the gravel popping off the car tyres as we pulled into the workshop. The vibrant colour of the leaves clinging onto their last shade of green before the onset of Autumn, the layout of the rocks on the side of the yard, the way the telegraph poles exactly span the entrance to the driveway, the placement of the small signs for the local election candidates along the route (with Dianne Feeman seemingly outnumbered by Bardish Chagger until you get further out of town). You get the idea.

It's not like I can just pop back to collect a missed snippet of info, so my whole trip was, simply due to how my mind works, a massive, amazing, incredible assault of sounds, smells and sights. The trip of a lifetime.

Then we pulled into the yard.....

This was it. The moment of truth.

[bazzateer]

It was the same for me when I visited Seattle back in '09.

[hillbilly]

Refresh........wait.........refresh......repeat

[Mystery Machine]

The yard itself is fantastic. The first thing I spot when I climb out of the Yukon is this shortened dually which is undergoing an air ride set-up as well as a number of other mods. It belongs to John-Paul (JP) who rents the workshop and yard space and calls it 'Works Garage'. James also rents space in the workshop so he, JP and a few others all have their projects here. It's an amazing place, an amazing space.

I love this Dually already. It's for sale and for a brief moment I start to think abou...WAIT...I'm not here for that!!!




To the other side of it you can see the old School bus. Not only is it covered in graffiti, it's also on air. And being transformed into a party bus. I love this kind of thing.





But what's that next to the bus? Between the bus and JP's dually project? Just poking out in the shot above? Under the cover?


I look at James, he grins, I break out into the biggest smile ever and almost collapse with childish excitement.

[Mystery Machine]

You know those scenes at car launches where some new concept is waiting to be unveiled? Where a new design is about to be shown to the press/public/invited guests for the first time but is covered up with a black cloth to seductively build the tension and anticipation while waitresses that look like they're from a Robert Palmer video serve hors d'oeuvres and bubbly to an excited crowd?

Then the lights dim, the room falls into silence. Dramatic music, like something from a Tony Scott or Michale Bay film, starts to play and the sateen covers are slowly peeled back by a 6ft blonde danish nymphet in a swimsuit and unfeasibly long legs to the gasp of everyone as they clap eyes on the beauty of what has just been revealed.

Imagine that.

That is JUST how I got to see the Porsche for the first time. But substitute the bubbly with a can of A&W root beer, the music with the sound of crickets and rustling trees and the 6ft blonde with an outcast from The Hobbit.

Absolutely perfect.

So was the car.

MY CAR!!!!

[Killbill]

Come on.........

[camerashy]

Nov 8, 2015 15:26:36 GMT Killbill said:

Come on.........

Right? It's Chinese water torture.

[bazzateer]

Who painted the chrome headlight rims???

[Killbill]

Nov 8, 2015 15:27:42 GMT camerashy said:

Nov 8, 2015 15:26:36 GMT Killbill said:

Come on.........

Right? It's Chinese water torture.

Stephen BLOODY King more like
Loving it

[Mystery Machine]

Nov 8, 2015 15:30:59 GMT bazzateer said:

Who painted the chrome headlight rims???

They aren't painted. You can either had chrome ones or black ones. This car would originally have had chrome, but at some point in the past, the whole car has been de-chromed to make it look more 'modern', inclduing having the headlight trims replaced with black versions.

Prior to me flying out I'd asked James to try removing some of the paint to see if there was any chrome underneath (I lived in the vain hope that all the chrome had just been painted over). What you see here is the test area where it was revealed that the black was, in fact, the factory spec black painted brass rings.

I'm going to have to invest a fair bit in rechroming, although that can wait until much futher into the build.



Here are some shots of the car just after James had carried out his car dollybird cover removing duties.









One thing to take note about; the car looks a lot better in the pics than it does under close inspection. It EXACTLY how it had been described and I was beyond excited about it, but it does look quite a bit better than the reality for this 45 year old vehicle.

[SmokeEm]

I like it on the Fuch alloys. Are they getting a polish and staying Bruce?