My wife likes to begin sentences in the middle and work her way outward from there. I believe it has to do with her relentless pursuit of efficiency. This sentence began with “Are you kidding me?” Not terribly unusual, and a laugh usually follows, which it did this time. What? I replied. You just came from work, now you’re sitting here reading a Porsche magazine? Guilty as charged. I laughed, and shrugged. Guess so.
The conversation got me thinking about how long I’ve been obsessed with all things Porsche – and where it began. When I was a boy, my first exposure to Porsche began with a 1970 911T Targa. A beautiful car, to be sure. Even more interesting than the car were the couple who owned it. Lifelong car enthusiasts who cut their budget back severely to buy their first (and only) Porsche. The story was often told at family functions to illustrate how hard core they were. He has since passed on, but his wife still has the car – and still drives it from time to time.
As the years went on – I drove my first Porsche at 13, a 944. Not a Turbo, like the one in my garage today, but a 944 nonetheless. To say that car made an imprint would be a great understatement.
At 16 I saw my first 944 Turbo and decided immediately that one day I would have one. What I didn’t realize was that I would have THAT one a mere 25 years later. As fate and circumstance would have it I got the exact one I saw that day – and it will likely reside in my garage indefinitely.
When at 21 I decided that the only business I wanted to be in was the car business – my obsession with Porsche only increased. I’ve spent literally most of my adult (and no-so-adult) life working on, reading about, and relentlessly pursuing classified ads in pursuit of either Porsche’s or Porsche parts. Whether I was the technician working on the car, or the manager of the techs working on the cars – I was lucky to be able to feed my addiction to Porsche. For me, and I think many of us – there really is no substitute.
When the opportunity to become the Tech Chair for NCR came up – I jumped at it. If any members (or non-members) have any topics they’d like to have explored, or have any questions that I could help with Please email me at [email protected] . I look forward to serving the club however I can.
In the meantime, back to my Porsche magazines.
– Tom
