Porsche 968 story

[benspeed]

So I've purchased a gorgeous 1992 Porsche 968 to race in ITR. Many folks questioned the wisdom of this project due to cost of Porsche parts and the rarity of the 968. Haven't gutted it yet.

I find a 1993 968 with 91K miles, 6 speed on Craig's list. Asking price is $3k. The car is in a collapsed shed on a farm in Massachusetts and has a broken rear hatch window. It's been parked for 8 years, not started in three years. negotiate the seller down to $1200 over a couple of months. Pics of the exterior show a rough looking car. The owner abandon it and moved to California. No title. I figure I can sell parts I don't need off it for more $1200.

I arrive at the farmhouse and I must cross a private bridge with no guardrails covered in ice, 15 feet over a rushing river. Judgement is telling me - no way - rednecks tell me go ahead, logging trucks cross that bridge (maybe in summer).

Long story short, trailer slides off bridge and is suspended above the river held in place by a tiny tree. If I had gone one more foot the whole rig would have been in the drink. Turns out some rocks collapsed as I crossed. It was 60% off the bridge and I figured not only the trailer but my whole rig was going into the drink, environmental disaster fines, crane fees all fill my mind.

They call the local wrecker. I call a crane company who sends out a disaster recovery vehicle. Local wrecker guy shows up with rusty crap old tow truck at the same time a tractor trailer recovery vehicle shows up. This dude was amazing and had my entire rig back on the bridge in about 30 minutes - NOT A SCRATCH. I was figuring both axels were bent - no damage.

I have to drive across the bridge - success. Get to the top of the farmhouse and these assh*les knew the rig was 50 feet bumper to bumper - no way to turn around. I make them shovel a path for me to turn around. Snow was 1 foot deep with ice on top you could stand on. They do it while I watch. I'm not so happy.

Get the rig back across the bridge with additional heart pounding terror of slewing around again and the tire track showed that there was less than an inch before the rig would have pitched over the other side. At this point I figure heroin is about the only thing that will calm me down.

Now these gentlemen have known I've been coming for about a week and you'd think they'd have at least pulled the car out of the shed. Nope. We need to drag the car out with another 4x4, car nearly rolls into the 4x4 - a quick sprint and ebrake pull saved it with about 1 foot to spare.

My vengeance was making one of these guys sit in the 968 while the other towed him across the bridge - this grown man was nearly reduced to tears, got in and out of the car about 3 times but finally did get the car across.

They ended up being good guys when they said OK - we'll take $500.

So I get the car into my shop last night, clean it up and guess what? It looks like a decent car - from what I can see all clean but there is certainly something lurking.

I'm going to drain the gas, change the plugs, get some injector cleaner and clean fuel, change the oil and fire this puppy up. It's so nice I can't see making it a parts donor but we'll need to see if it's got a healthy motor first. It's still full of oil. Trans, brakes clutch all appear to function.

If anybody has some hints on firing up a car that's been sitting, let me know!