Why "the slow learner"? Well, that'll be me. This is the third 911 I've owned, second Carrera 3.2, and all of them have had a habit of producing big bills. I no longer wonder why Pelican, well, has a pelican as their mascot...
Anyway, this is the car that this is all about:
It's a 1989 Carrera 3.2 Cabriolet - last year of the torsion bar suspension, so depending on which purist or rivet counter you ask, it's one of the more desirable 911s. It's also a less desirable one because, well, it's a soft top.
The story how I got this is a bit sad. The PO wasn't a huge car guy, but he always wanted a 911, so for one of the big round birthdays, him and his wife bought this car from a dealer in my old stomping ground of Reno, NV. He loved the car and had it for quite a while (at least 12 years, if not longer) until he passed away sometime last year. One of the stories I heard was that was pretty much a stoic and the only reason the family noticed that his condition was serious was because we barely drove the car anymore.
His widow happened to be a friend of a friend and said friend asked me if I could check the car out as she wasn't a car person either, didn't know much about 911s and the only people interested in buying the car where wannabes who fancied themselves wheeler dealers, apparently without the cheeky chappy charm.
Long story short, the consultation about what she had turned into "I think you're the best person to have it" followed by a number that I couldn't say no to, but with the implicit unspoken agreement that this car was not to be flipped. So here I am, finding myself with another 911-shaped moneypit instead of an R32 GT-R that I had been lusting for.
Right, so what do we have here?
The car had been modified, either by the supplying dealer or whoever sold the car to the dealer. I knew about the reputation of the dealer (let's just say you can consider it "variable") - there is correspondence with the paperwork that basically threatened to make life for the dealer legally rather uncomfortable for selling a car to a customer in CA with essentially all smog equipment removed and somehow still getting it smogged.
Which brings me to the mods and general state of the car - it obviously has the wrong wheels on it (Cup 1s instead of Fuchs), a MAF conversion from a company called Autothority who probably aren't around anymore, SSI stainless headers and what I consider an obnoxiously loud dual exit "muffler" that's a pre-74 pattern. It also sports a typical dead Southwestern interior (driver's seat ripped, the rest of the seats could be covered in parchment instead of leather), a not very great paintjob in the original colour and a couple of running problems.
On the plus side, it's a Southwestern car with little to no rust in the body. While mechanicals on these things are (sometimes stupidly) expensive, they're generally not as expensive as fixing the bodywork right. And I didn't want to deal with rust. Also, almost everything is present and accounted for.
I did notice that when I drove the car back in January, it had some sort of stutter/hesitation around 2k rpm at small throttle openings. That's not unusual for one of these and given the overall condition of the car I figured I'd start with a tuneup.
Well, seven months later I actually got around to said tuneup. Try to tell the difference between the new and the old spark plugs:
In case it wasn't obvious, the used plugs are the ones with the crazy (1mm+) gap.
The cap and rotor didn't look much better, so I replaced the whole shebang. I also bought some new spark plug wires (aftermarket) from a Porsche specialist, but they were not a good fit so I didn't put them on. Also changed the fuel filter while I was wedged in there.
Of course the sound deadening pad is falling down and covering about a third of the air filter, too:
Once I got it back together it fired up quickly, but it also attempted to smoke out all moskitos in the nearest three counties:
This was taken after the smoke started to clear...
Anyway, time for a test drive.
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