Not very relaxing: How to buy an old 928 on holiday
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:14 am
I don't think I am a weird, but for the past 20 years or so I have thought about, planned to buy, bought, fixed, driven, (and I even sold one), Porsches. I have done other stuff too of course, like a job, had kids, raced bicycles..but over the longest time Porsche has been a consistent daily escape. Luckily for me, here, you all know why this is. In doing so I have accumulated some Porsches, usually rather impulsively, and I quite like them to be a little scruffy, as they are all I drive and I have kids and stuff to carry about. Like others here I have also learned how to fix old cars, by financial necessity.
And I don't believe you can love old Porsches without being lured to the 928. More noble than the other transaxle cars, and without resorting to the cliches about aluminium panels and weissach axles, full of cool design and engineering. And in the 1977 brochure, it talks of the long life ideal in the design such as the surface treatment of the fuel lines, the policy to avoid face lifts to keep depreciation to a minimum, that kind of stuff. Just so considered, of its teutonic time, assured. And Steve Davis had one.
So, a quiet interest over the years has became noticing, became researching, became searching. The usual sources became a daily check-in , but I was also looking at the European sites -there were a few candidates over there, but I was in danger of settling for cars that I had a crush on but werent right. However I was in touch with one of the few famous Belgians, over a number of very entertaining emails, a certain Mr B. Roex, who cajoled, teased and directed me to less well known sources, including what I guess might be the French Craigslist, Le Bon Coin...the err, 'Good corner'. I'm sure that works better in French.
Alors, in the Good Corner, Bert had found, a 1978, not rusty but dusty, badly repainted, non sunroof 5 speed manual, with the de rigeur later spoilers and rubbing strips added on, but still on her teledials, original steering wheel but a very bad wooden gearknob, by the looks of it optioned with a single door mirror, a little jaded looking but registered with Carte Gris in the vendors name, allegedly driven regularly and in possession of a recent Controle Technique. A Pascha interior that wasnt perfect but at the same time wasn't the fetid pit of mouldy velour foam rubber and small mammal habitat that pervades the early 928 resto project market. It called out to me, and it was cheap. Well relatively so, given the jump in old 928 values. Well lets just say potentially cheap enough after a little bartering, despite the vendor admitting to the car requiring beaucoup de travail a faire.
The vendor (Boris) said he did not speak English, but was friendly enough in that semi-interested way that only the French can carry off. But Bert helped me extract additional information. No major issues, some things work, some don't, comme ci comme ca. The dash has a crack. The rear silencer has a hole. The gearbox report translated as 'showing its age', cryptically. The VIN, 9289100057. So, a Euro 79, but the 46th Euro 79, which was OK I guess. Boris said he thought that the original colour was a pale metallic blue or green. I had fingers crossed for the marvellous madness that is Lindgrun, but I noticed from a photo that scratched by hand into the VIN plate was 'Color 35Y', which internets to Porsche lagoon green metallic. Which is of course as the name suggests, blue.
The car was as all French Porsche of this era, Sonauto supplied, which again was mildy nice, as the name has historical Porsche context. Similar to my SC which was supplied to the Otto Glockler dealership in Frankfurt, before ending up in Manteca.
So. Brexit notwithstanding, Scotland is still in Europe, as is France. The immediate problem however was that we were at opposite corners - I am in North East Scotland by the North Sea, and the car was in South East France by the Mediterranean - Trets, by Aix en provence, to be exact. 2500 km away from home. But, entirely by coincidence of course, we were due to go on holiday to the South of France, near Toulouse - a mere 500km from Trets.
The seeds of a plan were thus sown; wouldnt it be crazy to go and pick it up and attempt to drive it home? Yes it was a project, but The Boris said he drove it regularly. So what could go wrong? This is a Porsche, of course, and I had already pulled off a slightly smaller similar journey in my SC, which was bought firmly as a project from dutch vendors, who then looked on in bafflement as other customers loaded an old Merc SL on to a trailer, we chugged off their forecourt out in to traffic and off on to the road to Scotland. That car got progressively happier the closer to home we got, but it did end up having broken head studs and a dead chipmunk on the transmission. Anyway, I digress.
So here I was, now on holiday with the family, in the heat of the South of France, with very little internet, a 928 that I wanted which was 6 hours train ride away, and a garrulous, uncommunicative and potentially villainous Frenchman to aquire it from. Would it be worth it? Would he do a deal? How would I pay him if the car checked out? How would I get it home? What would I do if it didnt make it? What would the family think? And why could I not just bloody well have sat by the pool with a Leffe and Steinbeck, like a normal person?
And I don't believe you can love old Porsches without being lured to the 928. More noble than the other transaxle cars, and without resorting to the cliches about aluminium panels and weissach axles, full of cool design and engineering. And in the 1977 brochure, it talks of the long life ideal in the design such as the surface treatment of the fuel lines, the policy to avoid face lifts to keep depreciation to a minimum, that kind of stuff. Just so considered, of its teutonic time, assured. And Steve Davis had one.
So, a quiet interest over the years has became noticing, became researching, became searching. The usual sources became a daily check-in , but I was also looking at the European sites -there were a few candidates over there, but I was in danger of settling for cars that I had a crush on but werent right. However I was in touch with one of the few famous Belgians, over a number of very entertaining emails, a certain Mr B. Roex, who cajoled, teased and directed me to less well known sources, including what I guess might be the French Craigslist, Le Bon Coin...the err, 'Good corner'. I'm sure that works better in French.
Alors, in the Good Corner, Bert had found, a 1978, not rusty but dusty, badly repainted, non sunroof 5 speed manual, with the de rigeur later spoilers and rubbing strips added on, but still on her teledials, original steering wheel but a very bad wooden gearknob, by the looks of it optioned with a single door mirror, a little jaded looking but registered with Carte Gris in the vendors name, allegedly driven regularly and in possession of a recent Controle Technique. A Pascha interior that wasnt perfect but at the same time wasn't the fetid pit of mouldy velour foam rubber and small mammal habitat that pervades the early 928 resto project market. It called out to me, and it was cheap. Well relatively so, given the jump in old 928 values. Well lets just say potentially cheap enough after a little bartering, despite the vendor admitting to the car requiring beaucoup de travail a faire.
The vendor (Boris) said he did not speak English, but was friendly enough in that semi-interested way that only the French can carry off. But Bert helped me extract additional information. No major issues, some things work, some don't, comme ci comme ca. The dash has a crack. The rear silencer has a hole. The gearbox report translated as 'showing its age', cryptically. The VIN, 9289100057. So, a Euro 79, but the 46th Euro 79, which was OK I guess. Boris said he thought that the original colour was a pale metallic blue or green. I had fingers crossed for the marvellous madness that is Lindgrun, but I noticed from a photo that scratched by hand into the VIN plate was 'Color 35Y', which internets to Porsche lagoon green metallic. Which is of course as the name suggests, blue.
The car was as all French Porsche of this era, Sonauto supplied, which again was mildy nice, as the name has historical Porsche context. Similar to my SC which was supplied to the Otto Glockler dealership in Frankfurt, before ending up in Manteca.
So. Brexit notwithstanding, Scotland is still in Europe, as is France. The immediate problem however was that we were at opposite corners - I am in North East Scotland by the North Sea, and the car was in South East France by the Mediterranean - Trets, by Aix en provence, to be exact. 2500 km away from home. But, entirely by coincidence of course, we were due to go on holiday to the South of France, near Toulouse - a mere 500km from Trets.
The seeds of a plan were thus sown; wouldnt it be crazy to go and pick it up and attempt to drive it home? Yes it was a project, but The Boris said he drove it regularly. So what could go wrong? This is a Porsche, of course, and I had already pulled off a slightly smaller similar journey in my SC, which was bought firmly as a project from dutch vendors, who then looked on in bafflement as other customers loaded an old Merc SL on to a trailer, we chugged off their forecourt out in to traffic and off on to the road to Scotland. That car got progressively happier the closer to home we got, but it did end up having broken head studs and a dead chipmunk on the transmission. Anyway, I digress.
So here I was, now on holiday with the family, in the heat of the South of France, with very little internet, a 928 that I wanted which was 6 hours train ride away, and a garrulous, uncommunicative and potentially villainous Frenchman to aquire it from. Would it be worth it? Would he do a deal? How would I pay him if the car checked out? How would I get it home? What would I do if it didnt make it? What would the family think? And why could I not just bloody well have sat by the pool with a Leffe and Steinbeck, like a normal person?
