DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

One of the things that makes DDK special is that we're all here for different reasons.

Some of us grew up with Porsche posters on our bedroom walls. Some inherited the bug from parents or friends. Some spent years dreaming before finally buying that first car. Others stumbled into ownership almost by accident and never looked back.

Whatever your route, we'd love to hear your Porsche journey. We've done something a little like this before but I thought it would be great to have one thread where forum users can share their story.

Where did it start?

What was your first Porsche?

Why that particular model?

What made you take the plunge?

And where has the journey taken you since?

If possible, post photos of the cars along the way (we like photos!). Old snapshots, grainy prints, scanned pictures from the pre-digital days, restoration shots, road trips, family photos — it's all good.

Don't worry if you don't have pictures of every car. The stories are just as important as the images.

Whether you've owned one Porsche or twenty, whether you've been around since the early days of DDK or bought your first air-cooled car last month, we'd love to see your story.

I'll start with mine below to get things moving and give you an idea... and then it's over to you. I appreciate it's quite an undertaking to think about your Porsche history, dig through old photo albums, hard drives and phones, remember dates and stories, find the time to write it all up etc. but hopefully this thread will build over time and make a great reference point as DDK approaches it's 25th anniversary!

I turned 55 last month and realised it was 30 years since I acquired my first 911.......

As a young teenager in the mid-80s, I made a promise to myself that I would own a Porsche 911 by the age of 25.

When I got my first car (a 1972 1303 VW Beetle) and passed my test, I would often drive up to Lancasters in Norwich, a small OPC at the time. I'd stand gazing through the showroom window and was completely captivated when the 964 launched and a Guards Red example sat proudly on display.

To cut a long story short, I acquired and played around with many air-cooled VWs over the following years, but I was always aware of that approaching 25-year milestone. As that significant birthday approached, I decided I was going to keep the promise I'd made to that 13-year-old lad. So I set about selling my Oval Window Beetle and 1966 Karmann Ghia to fund the purchase of my first 911.

Bought from Ivan, then Editor of VolksWorld, it was a 1972 911T in Sepia Brown. Recaro seats with tweed inserts, S trim and I absolutely loved it. The car used to pop up regularly at events and is now owned by Ron Vincent. I haven't heard from Ron for a good few years now, but hopefully he's doing well and the car is still looking as great as it did back then.




The 911T eventually went to fund a house purchase and I went without a Porsche in the stable for a little while before deciding the time had come to rectify that.

I bought this 912 in North Norfolk from a chap who had imported it. It had a rebuilt 1720 engine, a few rusty bits and a few spongy bits, but it was an honest car and gave me several years of enjoyment. Last I heard it was with one of Jonny Graham's friends in Scotland.






A slightly left-field replacement followed in the shape of a Martin & Walker 356 Speedster, running a 914 engine with horizontal Porsche cooling. I played around with it and put my own stamp on it.





Then came a lovely 356B T6.




I never got to drive it a great deal because the one and only Studerman was rebuilding the engine and let's just say it took rather longer than anticipated! I used to love giving him a call every few weeks though and catching up on progress.

Then came my Yellow Bitsa, hot rod, outlaw... call it what you will... and of course, remains with me today. After several different guises over the years, it currently looks like this and is presently in the garage undergoing a brake overhaul and some long-overdue maintenance.






I also swapped a Split Bus I had at the time for this lovely 1973½ 911 T/E, which came via Viv on DDK. That one eventually headed off to France.






This 924 arrived at one point too, although I'm a bit hazy as to exactly when!



I then decided I wanted something a little newer for trips and longer tours — perhaps a 3.2, 964 or 993. I ended up with my 993 which, like most of my cars, has evolved considerably over the years. It remains with me today and currently looks like this.





Oh and I've also got this early 2.5 Boxster as a run around which I love to drive - always wear it’s hard top as I don’t like to mess my hair up!






Looking back, it's been quite a journey from that 13-year-old making himself a promise and that lad staring through the showroom window at Lancasters.

Your turn...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My adventure with Porsche is far simpler!

Saw my first 'hot' 911 at Shelsley Walsh hillclimb in 1985 while there watching the runners, Josh Saddler was eye opening to me, the 3.5 race car more so.

Sold up my (real) hot rod and bought my 911T in 1988 with the other eye on competing albeit at a lower level. Cost me £3000 delivered from a back street Second Hand dealer in Coventry, rusty and LHD and with a 2.2 T engine.

My daughter below is now 40...





Fixed the car in my single car garage, all DIY inc the repaint in cellulose, and did my first spring event (Baitings Dam) in early 1990. Showed there was a lot more work to do...

In went a 2.4 S/E DIY engine, RHD conversion and a lot more over the next 4 years.
Did a few Social Events too:



I won't bore with all the details, but a 3.2 engine was in in 1994, the 2.4 sold to Majordad (I eventually found out) and through Matt Powell I joined DDK.

The 911 was road/hillclimbed for 13 years before a hot Impreza (fab car) and the Lola-Porsche came along.

I still have the 911, so 38 years of ownership, a hillclimb bump, 2 resprays but much the same car as it was. Gone from 3000 miles/year to 1100 due mainly to the 10 years with a 987.2 Boxster.

Has been quite the adventure, almost 100% a pleasure and broke down at Shelsley once in those 38 years and about 70K miles, (new clutch plate broke!)
It may be the nastiest early 911 on DDK, but I would not have had it any other way in my life.








Even made it onto a special T shirt! And 4 Porsche Post articles, and a classic car magazine feature, and even the DDK calendar. (next month)

Thanks Graham….

Right, who’s next?

Interesting exercise looking back... Not such interesting history compared to most people on here!

First contact with Porsches was when I used to see Jenks driving his well-worn 356 through our village. He lived not far away and would buzz about in the Porsche or on his Norton. I swapped a Dinky Toy Mini for a white 356 soon after...
Working in my spare time at Autocavan, the sadly departed VW & Porsche parts specialists, I had the opportunity to drive my first Porsche – the ex-Motor Show Martini Turbo, owned by Geoff Thomas, Autocavan's owner. Not a bad way to start.I was a VW man through and through, and went to buy some 356 wheels and gauges for a Beetle I was building from Clive Ward-Miller, a name I'm sure some of our 'more mature' members will recall. He offered me TWO 356As, less engines, for £350 the pair. My mother said no way, and that was that.
In 1982, I went to work for Autocavan full time, running their VW/Porsche workshops. During that time, I drove a couple of Porsches, including an amazing 934-styled 930 Turbo built by Kremer for Harry Highams, the property developer famous for building Centre Point in London. Famous? I should have said infamous... It was all a tax-dodging money-making exercise. The car was amazing, with huge split-rim BBS rims and adjustable boost. Black paint, too. But I digress.
Around 1996, I began to look out for a Porsche I could afford. Drove a 944. Nice but not what I was after. Considered a 914, but Christmas got in the way. Then one morning my phone range and it was the late Barry Curtis on the line asking me if I was still looking for a Porsche. He then told me of his friend Valentine Kaiser in Paris who was selling his 914/6, which had sat unused in an underground garage for over a decade. A deal was done for £5000... I recommissioned it and drove it quite a bit, taking it back to the Karmann factory on one occasion. Ultimately I sold it back in 2003 during a divorce (hence the sad look on my face)...

Shortly before I sold it, through some wheeler dealing, I bought my 1974 Carrera 2.7 for £12,000. It was an Italian import in black and pretty well perfect. Factory LSD, too. I decided to backdate it, something not that many people did back then, and had fun with it for two or three years before selling it to Nick Faure. He then sold it to Sean Lockyear, a connection which resulted in my being called by the Police a couple of years later as part of their investigation into Lockyear's shady business transactions!

Things did get a bit weird around this time as I was offered a Series 1 928 auto, which was owned by Chris Branston, former PCGB head honcho. Normally I would have said no, but it could be mine for £2000 as he was emigrating to Florida! How can you refuse such a deal? It was a bit of a dog, to be honest, with constant electrical niggles and a voracious thirst. I sold it a year later for about £1800 and it ended its days in Bahrain!

I couldn't resist a Porsche Junior tractor for £1100 , and that joined me in Cornwall for a year or so before I sold it to Andy Prill for a couple of grand.

Moving house, and having sold the Carrera, I planned on being sensible for a year or two – and then came across a New Zealand import 912 for sale at Beaulieu for £6000. It was a lovely little thing but fated – no more than 20 minutes after it was delivered to my home, the neighbour backed into it... Bruce Cooper took on the repairs and the neighbour paid up in cash. I sold that after a year or two to buy a full-on 200+bhp Cal Look Beetle, which I shipped from the USA. It was great, but I started to get the itch for another Porsche.

Soon after I moved house, I was told that there was a green Porsche in the neighbour's shed. I ignored it, because the neighbour was a single lady in her 80s. Fast forward a couple of years and it turns out it was a 1973 Targa in Conder Green that had been left there by her son and daughter in law, who had worked in Germany but now lived in Australia. A deal was done and I bought the car for £2000! jwhillracer of this parish helped me drag it out of its hiding place. However, it wasn't in great shape and as I had already started another project, I decided to sell it. It went to Germany to a dealer for the sum of 8500 Euros. Cheap, yes, but it was a quick easy transaction netting me almost £6000 in a few days.

And then things took a sinister change... I decided I wanted a Porsche again, so sold my Beetle and bought a used and abused '66 912, less engine. I also bought a 2.2-litre 911E engine from Roly Resos in the USA. So began a saga which swung from tears of joy to tears of despair. I won't go into detail here, but those who know, know... The car was my interpretation of what a hot rodder in SoCal in the 1970s might have built, and so proved to the deadly serious Porsche types into part numbers and factory colours that I was a lost cause! . The engine was one of the last built by Bob Watson and proved to be troublesome with a capital 'T'. The whole project showed that there are crooks among us, and I'm definitely NOT talking about dear old Bob, but more someone from the south west along with a well-known company from near the south coast. No more said.


I realised that even though I'd driven numerous modern Porsches over the years, I'd never actually owned one. I chopped in El Chucho and bought a Cayman 981 PDK. It was perfection on wheels but for two things: it was too perfect and therefore without soul, and other drivers hated it, cutting me up at every opportunity, driving a few feet from my back bumper or refusing to let me out of side turnings in heavy traffic. It had to go...

I sold the cayman after a year, dumping £10K in the process, and bought a 914 from South Carolina. And the rest is history, as I have now owned it for over seven years, the longest I've ever owned a car!
And there we are...

Some journey Keith

I found it quite therapeutic looking back

As I’ve said I appreciate it takes a bit of work to put together so thanks

This could end up being an epic thread

Good idea this Tom- will take me some time to assemble!!
I have no pix of my 85 supersport - bought from new - or worse yet my 74 2.7 that was stolen in France in 2014 - although I was already posting here and there was some discussion when it was stolen=o there may be a pic around?
C

I remember seeing a pic of it

, my 914 is my first and only porsche. I bought it as an import rolling shell from california. It was imported by someone else. I only bought it to do up and sell to recover some lost earnings after another back injury lost my income for 6 months.

It took 2 or 3 years to do. I have no intention of selling it currently. Before i found this i looked at 2 others. 1 was overpriced and the owner did not inspire confidence. The 2nd was a trip to belgium. That car was on skates and was so retten it was folding up on itself. I opended the passenger door with difficulty. I could not the close it!!!!

I'm now looking at 924s, boxster or 944 as an addition.

KS wrote: ↑Fri Jun 12, 2026 7:52 pm Working in my spare time at Autocavan, the sadly departed VW & Porsche parts specialists, I had the opportunity to drive my first Porsche – the ex-Motor Show Martini Turbo, owned by Geoff Thomas, Autocavan's owner.

I didn't know you'd worked at Autocavan.

Coincidentally I bumped into Geoff Thomas about 12 yrs ago down at Goodwood when I was there for a C&SC magazine shoot in my 904 shortly before I sold it ...


.

Lightweight_911 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 12, 2026 10:47 pm I didn't know you'd worked at Autocavan.

Coincidentally I bumped into Geoff Thomas about 12 yrs ago down at Goodwood when I was there for a C&SC magazine shoot in my 904 shortly before I sold it ...

I first worked in my holidays back in 1974-76, helping Geoff run his rallycross Beetle - I built his second (white) 1302 rallycrosser with its 2332cc engine. We'd go to all the rallycross meetings at Lydden Hill, Brands Hatch and Long Marston. Fun days with lots of stories to tell (John Button...don't ask).

I the ran their workshop 1982-83, helping build Geoff's Mod Saloon Golf and his son Mark's championship-winning Formula Vee. John Lucas used to come in and do the Porsche stuff and we had som every alcoholic lunchtimes together!

Oh, my second wife was Geoff's ex-wife, who had co-founded Autocavan with Geoff...