Living with a Porsche 944

On Friday of the long bank holiday weekend I decided to drive TheHoff to work - it appears as if Friday is the day to do such things with classic cars, as I see all manner of retro & classics out and about on dress down day, and I wanted to join in the fun & games. Sadly my enthusiasm was curbed rather too soon into my drive...about 200 yards from my driveway when the low oil pressure warning light came on; the steering lost all powered assistance and my heart sank a little while I quickly did a u-turn and headed back for the garage and trusty Preston Tucker. The cause of my short lived Friday expedition & distress, it turns out, was the crank pulley in rather unusual position - hanging loose. Upon closer inspection I discovered that the 24mm crank pulley bolt had become undone and had fallen out completely but only as far as the engine undertray thankfully. Which I only thought of while retracing my route to search for the missing bolt... I ordered up a fresh tub...

It's funny how project cars evolve. A couple of years ago I stripped out the carpet and rubber sound deadening inspired by what Singer are doing to 911s. I must admit I loved the exposed tunnel but I've never got round to finishing off the floor and when I started to think about it, I felt like I wanted to put the burgundy back in... After two seasons of trying to find a good second burgundy carpet set to modify so that I could keep the lovely white tunnel exposed, I've relented and dug my own set out from storage. They're obviously now extremely hard to come by and I figure I don't want my mint original carpets rotting away out of the car. So with a rare 2017 sunny spring Saturday and a few hours to spare I removed the seats from TheHoff. Then after giving the carpets a good vacuum, I started to place them in situ starting with the rear section. Thankfully I didn't need to remove the console, just remove the screws holding it in place. Then the ...

I should really update this blog more often. The truth is I don't think of the internet when I take TheHoff for a drive. Just two weekends ago I pulled the 944 out of winter hibernation and took a friend on a drive. We took in some motorways miles and then some country back roads before pulling into a pub for lunch. It was one of those glorious spring days in southern England and driving TheHoff was pure pleasure. What I did notice was some clunking from up front & a pull to the right when I brakes, so when I arrived back at home I drove up on the ramps and took a good look around underneath. What I found was rather alarming - the right side rear wishbone bolts were lose...I tightened them up, and everything else I could find, and then took the car down to the garage to have the wheel alignment checked. With that sorted TheHoff was as solid as you'd like on the way home. This morning it was annual MOT test time - that's the yearly road worthy test here in th...