The old SPG from the 528 Trade

HEY!

I found the pix of the old SPG that i was just talking about (the one I traded for the 528).

Here she is the day I "bought" her...






she , uh, had some issues...











But, all parties were happy at the end. The guy with the 528 got his "dream" of an older SPG and I, a 528 that I had (almost) no use for.

-Be careful what you wish for...

:)
Drive Happy,
J

A PAIR OF BIMMERS FROM THE OLD DAYS... Part 2*

*aka: The Car I Never Drove.

So, for those of you who read my last post about my old e-34 M5... here's another.

In the multitude of Saabs I have owned (please click on one of the past threads from 2009 for more info on some of those) I found myself in a strange position.

I had come into possession of an older SPG that had some issues. -Nothing terminal, but more work than I wanted to invest. Anyway, one day I was reading the classifieds on SAABNET I came on a post from a guy looking to trade his 528 for an older SPG.

So...










I called him up, we worked out the specifics and made a deal.

The only thing was, I really had no need for the SPG, let alone an older 528. HOWEVER, my folks (who lived in FLA) were in need of another car, as they just decided to take a place up here in New England for a bit.










So I made a deal, if they wanted the car, they could have it to drive as long as they remained up here. When they were to go back to FLA full time, they would need to sell it for me.


She got rave reviews from my Dad.

They had her for about 2 years.





Never did get a chance to drive her...

Drive Happy.
:)

J

A PAIR OF BIMMERS FROM THE OLD DAYS... PART 1*

So... as we are still in the midst of the ongoing Porsche Project...

Flashback: I can remember the excitement of taking a new job that took my out of New York City. To a sleepy little hamlet called Westport, CT.

In 1992 I took a job that allowed me to actually be close to the ocean, walk and bike outdoors with almost zero pollution and most important: BUY A CAR.

So after riding said bike to work for the first three weeks, I decided I actually hated my bike and that it was time for a car...

-but not just any car would do... Here's my 1991 Alpina white BMW e-34 M5...










(sigh)
-here's how I ended up with her: one fine Saturday morning this then carless ex-NewYorker took a taxi to Darien BMW. Sitting there on the floor WAITING FOR ME was this simply amazing white M5. It had been a corporate lease return for under a year ("WHAT kind of corporation leased an e-34, M5 and where could I get a job app?" I asked the sales guy). So, after about an hour of wrestling and numerous trips to the "head office" to "talk to the manager" (maybe about the True Tone undercoat)... she was mine!
-Drove her right off the floor!

Anyway, flash fwd to a month later. My parents come to town. "Nice car." my Dad says. "-Thanks Dad." I beam. "Wanna take a ride?"



About an hour and a half later we pull back into the driveway, kill the engine, to all the awesome pings, he turns to me and asks:


"So, what did you pay for this?"
without missing a beat, I proudly say "All in about 49k". Waiting for him to congratulate me on making such a sweet deal.

"Um, what's your annual salary on this new job?" he asks.

"About 48k. Why?"

"Um, do you see any kind of problem with that math?" -he inquired.

"Nope." I smiled
-as he just shook his head slowly.

:)

Drive Happy.
J

I'm GUILTY...

Hey, remember those wacky 80's? Crazy styles, crazy new genre of music called "RAP" Hammer's pants, New Coke and those gems of the theatre. -With large(er than) life life-lessons coming from movies like Footloose, St. Elmo's Fire and of course... THE SAINT. -Actually not so sure of the life lessons from The Saint, as the line reads something about never giving anyone your name, ID, etc... But what the heck, it was the 80's remember?...




Okay, I'll admit, I fell under that movie's spell -and thought it was pretty cool (of course, we're talking about memory here, like you remember how cool it was to go to middle school... like 20 years later.)




Anyway, I couldn't resist (-should have) the urge to purchase one of these:








Ladies and Gentlemen: The Volvo c-70. TURBO. Yup, that's right ladies. TURRRRBO.

And wearing gleaming Ferrari Red paint.

And that's pretty much about the only good thing you could say about it: "Hey, nice paint". Much like Chitty-Chitty, it didn't do any of the fancy tricks like in the movie. And the Turbo was more like a truck turbo... slow and steady wins the race... or so it goes in Sweden.

As a matter of fact, even with the cool custom grille and EU tag, it handled and drove... -like a Volvo.

Had it for a couple of years, then sold it to a guy from Kansas. He flew in to buy and had no clue about the new "coolness movie star factor" he was about to uptick himself into.

He just came to buy a Volvo.

WOW, been a long time.....

Well, here it is like FOURTEEN DOG YEARS, almost two human ones... and I am proud to report, that the Porsche Project is almost ready for paint. -Finally got hooked up with the right guy for my project:

Marcel who owns ROUTE 136 AUTO ('www.route136auto.com'). man, it has been a LONG haul on this one. But, here is Marcel taking the pans... with a glimmer of HOPE in his eyes... little did he know....

That it would seem that this vehicle had to be completely rebuilt.


-As it had neatly, rusted from the INSIDE out.
So... here are some pics from over the past year...


Look Ma, no rust on any of the sheet metal... hmmm, seems like there are some advantages to rusting from the INSIDE first...

Here we are putting Humpty back together again...










Ahhhh, here she is, starting to look a bit whole again.









paint coming soon....

DISCOVERING... TRUCKS!

Usually when you reach a certain (this) age, you are old enough to know better.

it would seem that my Porsche Project is, well.. stalled. -to use an overused bad mechanical pun.

once i get all the details i will post them. -let's just say that i think that Crocket and Tubbs are involved...

let's turn the the other side and talk about trucks.
English trucks. -rather unreliable English trucks. and English guys with bad teeth. -err scratch that last one.

Yes, i am talking about my long term affair with Land Rover.

i think this is what hooked me:
a long time back (like 1996) i had the chance to drive one of the Camel Trophy vehicles that was out in Colorado. man, that was cool. and those guys are HARDCORE. -well not as hardcore as s
some of my friend Dave's friends, but for a candy-ass like myself, let's say i was impressed. there i am in my bright yellow fleece...

needless to say i was HOOKED immediately on the Discovery Series. how hooked? -as soon as i returned, i literally went to the local Rover dealer in Darien and traded in my M5! (and they say experiential marketing doesn't work...).

and picked her up:
not a lot of photos of her. -she was a sexy black SE7 and had a bit of an attitude problem. she would start up, but sometimes she would just quit. favorite was the time on the highway -at 70 mph. or on the tri-borough bridge, on a friday before a long weekend! ah, NewYorker's are such a friendly bunch indeed! -but when she did run, she was awesome. she would go anywhere and looked different than all the other SUV's n the road. i really loved taking her off road all weekend and then driving into NYC with her totally covered in mud. guys at the garage thought i had series issues. -it was the first vehicle that i had owned that really felt free in.

anway, all good things... after a couple of years, i swapped her out for this one
(you'll notice a few pics taken at the same Rover , as the models change in the background):

ah yes, in GREEN all will be better. no?

anyway, she came from Cali. and had to be shipped in. had her for a few of years. she was great, made a ton of trips to ACK and on the beaches out there. -drove the sh*t out of her. after s few years, i put her on ebay and sold her to a... "dancer" -who actually paid me in cash. which is not so unusual. but they were small bills. like real small. try going in into citibank with 19k in 5's and 10's. i promise they will bring you into a small room and have a chat with you. especially when many of the bills seem to curl up on the ends... again, see the Crocket and Tubbs remark at the start.


after getting rid of her though i felt like someone had taken away a favorite old toy.

so i went out and looked for a new toy. a BIGGER one.


i ended up with a G-WAG.
but it really wasn't the same for some reason. maybe because to seemed to start and run, like all the time?...

you can see the clear styling influences that were shared between the vehicles.

this was a strange bird. like dating a girl who doesn't speak english and is mad at YOU about it.

-i remember that there was a leak on the driver's side window and MB couldn't fix it; SO THEY REPLACED THE ENTIRE DOOR. -seriously. she was a g-55 AMG and had B*LLS DELUX.

i mean if you punched it, she would snap your head back to the headrest -with aggression. had this great throaty growl to her too.



she ran like a tank and had the extra feature of getting ALMOST 6 miles to the gallon! -just like a real, actual tank.

anyway, she was fun, but strangely i HATED the way she was off road. HATED her in sand. and found myself missing my old toy...

so to remedy the jones, i picked up this old(er) p-38 Range. LOVE this truck. still have it and drive it. -sometimes, it's the simpler things...










after a while the itch became too much... so..... i wandered back in to Darien Land Rover (where they're always glad to see me. right John?) and traded in the G-WAG for an old (new actually) friend:









ah, home again. great truck. my favorite one on the DISCOS.








Ultimately though, just not big enough. so....











stay tuned... :)

peace,
Joe

A (HOPEFULLY) SHORT TRIP...

So, as any who are actually out there know, i am in the middle (i say middle, but have no idea how long this will take, so perhaps i should say at the start) of a total restoration of my 1968 Porsche.

here, thought i would post some pics of another restoration i did years (*gasp*) i mean over a DECADE ago.

the year was 1999 and much like the Prince song went, we were all preparing for a global meltdown when the "Y2K BUG" hit. remember that one?...

anyway, i always had a thing for that old pagoda style Mercedes SL. so after looking the better part of 3 yrs i found one located in RI through an auto broker from Germany who specialized in classic German autos.

Once again all the paperwork checked out and she wasn't too rusty, so after some haggling, i bought her. she came complete with her metal top as well. small snag was she was a direct import from Germany (had a really cool history about a woman who had her shipped over from her estate and had the vehicle in Palm Beach FLA. after she passed away all her vehicles were auctioned off by her estate and above named broker found her. she was at that time in RI) so i had to spend a lot of time in Weathersfield CT at CT DMV HQ getting all the paperwork together. -for those of you who have never had the pleasure... it's like flipping the switch on a flux capacitor and traveling back to Mayberry RFD. - i think even Goober was there... i remember now i actually had to FLATBED it up there. eeks. NOT for the faint of heart.

unfortunately these are some of the only pics i have of her when she was done. -this was of course before digital photography was the norm, so please excuse the poor photos. i'll pst more if i can locate them.

had a great mech in Southport CT named Ward Jennings do all the work. those guys really knew their stuff! then had Gregg at Fairfield Auto do all the interior. got all the new hides from Worlwide -as per norm.

took about 1 year to complete. and was a blast to drive. i think max HP was like 90. -but she wasn't about getting there fast!

sold her to a good friend whose wife fell in love with it. nice to see her again...