Vehicular History and Why I am here...
During my wait, I thought I'd take some time and post about how I got here. In one of the first posts, I posted plans of the interior. The shear view with the stairs showed a series of pictures on the wall that are the cars my wife and I have owned over the years.
For me, much of my car history started with my father who was a collector of ecletic cars. We had at least a dozen cars at a time with as many as 18 at one time when I was growing up. He owned many different brands but his true collection was in Chevrolet Corvairs. There were VW Things and Mitsubishi Starions so it was not a one brand fixation. He owned early and late model Corvairs - coupes, convertibles, vans, pick-ups (rampsides), and station wagons. As a result, my first car was a 1963 Corvair Convertible. It was a real project car that was purchased at an auction for $100 for it and two other cars. It had no engine, no top and no interioor. It started out as a 86hp powerglide but was swapped out to a later year 110hp 4 speed. It was older than I was but was a fun car for high school. I even drove it on the sets of several movies filmed in Baltimore including Tin Men with Danny Devito and Richard Dryfus.
I have to admit, the worst car I've ever owned was my college car. It was a '86 Chevy Nova which in reality was a Toyota Corrolla underneath. It was utterly boring and totally reliable on many a 15 hour college road trips cross country between school, work, and home.
At about this time I graduated colelge and I met my wife. She was driving a 89 Celica when I was driving my Chevy Nova. I wanted a convertible but wanted something that would handle the Missouri winters. I decided to buy my first new car and bought a '93 Honda Del Sol. It was a fun car but performance was sub-par to say the least. My wife was (is) smarter than me - she purchased a '93 Toyota MR2 Turbo. She had never driven a stick and bought the MR2 based on reviews and learned to drive stick on this mid-90s car capable of 0-60 in just over 6 seconds. This woman has had a continuous Car&Driver subscription since she was 18. Did I mention that I married this woman?
When we married, we bought a small house with a really small (18'9"x18'6") garage. With a MR2 and a Del Sol we didn't really notice at first. Eventually, my wife traded in her MR2 on a Nissan Pathfinder since we need a vehicle to help carry all the miscellaneous **** one needs in suburbia. That was a mistake without a doubt. The MR2 was a collector car that we should have kept but we just didn't think we could afford to keep at the time. Eventually, after 6 years with the Del Sol, I wanted somthing with a bit more peformance. My wife and I were talking kids, so it had to be capable of carrying kids and car seats. I went with a 99 Ford Contour SVT. It was a fun car, but it suffered from 200hp on the front wheels only. I enjoyed some nice trips with this car including drive from Seattle to San Franciso and Seattle to St. Louis. The pic below is from Huricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula.
Eventually, my wife couldn't take the SUV anymore. She bought a 03 Infiniti G35. This really was a beautiful car with flowing lines that made you think you were a shark among minnows while driving on the highway. For our 10th wedding anniversary, we took the G35 and my car at the time (no spoilers) to Mid-Ohio for the Acura 3-day driving course. One of the scariest things that ever happened to my wife happend in this car. She was hit by a college student that ran a red light because she was late for class. The pics of the post accident are below. My wife made it through with only minor injuries and bought an 05 Inifiniti G35 as a replacement. You can see in the last pic below the Nissan Pathfinder that we had kept as a third car and all-purpose suburbian appliance.
After six years with the SVT, I bought a manual 05 Subaru Legacy GT. It was 4 doors so I could taxi the kids but it had AWD so I could actually put the power to the ground. It had the same 2.5L engine as the WRX STI with a slightly smaller turbo. I modified it quite a bit. I flashed the software, put in a new exhaust, coilovers, anti-roll bars, larger brakes, and new wheels & tires. This was the car that I drove at Mid-Ohio. I think it was running about 350 hp and 350 ft-lbs of torque by the time I was finished with it.
My wife was tiring of the G35 - she had owned the 03 and 05 models for a combined 7+ years. She had never owned a convertible and wanted one. She was also scared of the Misery (Missouri) weather and thought a hard top covertible would be the best choice. She found a VW EOS that was nice. It wasn't a performance beast but we decided to put a body kit, coilovers, and a new set of wheels to make a unique version of the EOS.
At this point, I was 8 years into the Subaru. I enjoyed it but the kids were getting older and I really wanted a coupe. AWD was a neccesity to keep the power down. I looked around for a while and custom ordered an Audi TTS. The 350hp Subaru was a bit of a pain on the daily stop & go traffic with the manual and clutch. I looked at the Audi TTRS but decided I really wanted the DSG for the daily commute. You can see in the background of the the first TTS pic the Toyota RAV4 that replaced our Nissan Pathfinder as our appliance car.
We are now getting to the point of why we have invested in The Place. In 2014, my wife was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She went through hell - Double mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and reconstruction surgery. One of the things that we did to get through it all was talk about what we were going to do when we were done with it all. We talked about a cruise to Europe for our 20th anniversary (which we did) and about her bucket list cars. She is done now and as far as we know she has a clean bill of health.
During chemo, Nancy talked about wanting to get her bucket list car - a Porsche 911. Once she finished the last reconstruction, she started looking. She wanted a Porsche 911, specifically a 997 gen 2 with a PDK and AWD. She found a 2009 997.2 C4S in Florida. My dad, who winters in Florida, checked it out and said it was in great shape. I flew down, signed the paperwork, and drove it back for my wife (who didn't have any vacation time at this point). Because we kept the EOS, we were up to four vehicles with only a 2 car garage. We put the 997 in a neighbor's garage for winter but started looking for a more permanent solution. The Place started advertising in spring of 2015 and we bought in. I can't honestly say that we can afford the porsche or the place but I also really could not say no. Happy wife - happy life. Once you go through a life or death situation (or 3), you also learn to live a little.
Looking forward, I'd love to have an R8. I drove an Audi R8 and a Ferarri 458 at Exotic Motor Sports in Las Vegas. My wife drove a 911 turbo and McLauren MP412C in Vegas. I think long term, she would love a boxster or 911 cabrolet for a summer car and keep the 997 for a winter car. Will any of this happen ... who knows? It is nice to dream - being alive gives you that luxury.
So I still have hopes that this will all work out.
