Moving On

We left the story with our hero contemplating the meaning of life, the universe and non-starting Porsches while going about his daily business and wondering if the phrase "bitten off more than he can chew" is a truism...

A couple of days after I got the car home, I was prodding around under the bonnet and it was running of sorts, then it stopped. No more go. I carefully shut the door (hah! "Slammed" maybe a better word!) and worked out how to start flogging bits off it...

Now the Racewear Roadshow season was winding down, and I finally got to spend a day on the 924. In the interim I'd acquired a Haynes manual, and under the heading "What to do if it won't start" was a full page of "test this, test that, mumble, mumble, resistances, mumble mumble". Far too complicated for me! All I knew was that there was no spark, so it was back to basics with the only thing I could do: fit a new coil out of my Midget spares box. Lo and behold - it started! Can't say it roared into life, it was still only running on 3, but it sounded a lot better. Revitalised, I swung myself underneath the trailer to see what it was like...hmm, thought these early 924s were supposed to rust? This one hasn't, compared to a Midget it's like new!

Managed to prise open the back to see what treasure it contained...spare front seats, spare back seat, loads of goodies. Quick photo later and the back seat is on fleaBay and...at last! A little bit of luck. The email I received was quite clear "If you've got the front seats they're worth money to VW camper van drivers." It exhorted me to join the Porsche 924 Owners' Club which was a snip at £15...so I did, and learned more from the Forum in one evening than I already knew about the cars (OK, not hard!)

Now the car was empty, running on nearly 4 cylinders, it was the moment of truth, time to get the car off the trailer. Start it up, it was such a tight fit I didn't need to steer, but all of a sudden there we were! Sat on the road in a Porsche - well it was rude not to....

...3 laps of the Crescent later and:

I'M A PORSCHE DRIVER

Woo hoo.

Get the front seats on fleabay. And some other bits - turns out that funny box thingy was an original tunnel-mounted cassette box, worth £46 to a chap in Cyprus. Before I knew it, I'd made a profit on the car...now THAT'S the way to go racing :-)

Oh, the engine's got good compression, doesn't leak oil and I've tracked the mis-fire down to a duff plug lead. There's a new coil and set of leads on the "must buy" list, but we're good to go - Project 160 for the 360 is up-and-running! And you know what? Judging by the queue of people banging on my door there's a lot of interest in sharing the car. At this rate I'll be out of a drive but in profit :-)