I lost 10 pounds today

I lost 10 pounds today. I left my heart at the Porsche dealership.

I turned in a leased '97 Carerra 911. It's crazy how attached I am to a car I've hardly driven the last two years. I have a daughter who is now just over two and a half and the week she was born I leased a four door so I could fit a car seat in it. Since then I've hardly driven it. It was the ultimate dream car for me though. I've wanted one worse than even a Ferarri my entire life and that car treated me to some of the most fun driving experiences you can imagine.

I got it as fast as a little bit over 155, and the car could downshift at 100 to bring it a serious power boost to kick it to 120 before a forced upshift. I drove it relatively responsibly most of the time and it served me as my daily driver for a number of years. I was almost to the point of tears when I watched it drive away - which is totally crazy to do over a car, but I guess sometimes you really do get attached to these things sometimes.

I was hoping I could get talked into a 911 convertible when I was at the dealership - but get this - not a single 911 convertible on the lot. Not a used one. Not a new one. Nothing. So I walked over to the BMW dealership hoping I could take a look at a 750 or a 760 and maybe trade in my 530 for a slightly bigger car. Not a single 7 series on the lot. It wasn't in the stars for me to buy another car today so I had to take a taxi home.

The most fun I ever had in that car was coming home from a bachelor party from Pasadena. I have a buddy who has a highly modified eclipse and runs a car club. It could keep up to about 100 when I just had a gear that he didn't. We raced to my house in Huntington Beach on empty freeways 3:30 in the morning. We ran into two other eclipses that wanted to race us and we played with them for about 10 seconds until it became clear that it just wasn't safe. We looked at each other, smiled, and showed them what our tail lights looked like. It was like hitting the light speed button in the Millenium Falcon.

For those that might be disgusted with my irresponsible racing - I did end up with one speeding ticket that cost me over 5 grand - for which I wasn't guilty. (Ticket was for 140 and I was barely over 100).

On the bright side, I'm highly motivated to earn my next car. My problem is that my next tier of cars is really expensive, so it might take me another year or two to make enough money. It'll either be a Ferarri 355 or an Aston Martin DB7, but probably an Aston Martin because buying a Ferarri is so much of a headache and you just can't put any real miles on them without spending a fortune.

I'm going to miss that car. She really was beautiful.

 

Have you seen the Cayman?
I really like that...

This is what my Step Dad has - tried the 911 Turbo and a few other things too, but just fell in love with this (It sounds like a banshee)...
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14129-1113536,00.html

If they have any of those state-side, take it for a spin - It's my fave car at the moment (Maybe after the DB9 )

Sorry to hear about your loss though - I can imagine the heartbreak...

 

You know, I saw one at the dealership. It looked so exotic, I figured it was at least 190K, so I didn't even think about asking for a test drive. That's definitely a pretty car. I can't imagine what it sounds like.

 

It sounds like the Devil riding out...
Wonderful...
The stuff wet dreams are made of. Hehehe...

One day I'll have one of those - I would be to damn scared for now though.

I drove it once but only took it up to 2nd gear - that was 70mph... Scared the living hell out of me.

It's got this funky "Launch Control" button on the steering wheel too. My step dad has never touched the one on his car (As after you use it 3/4 times it voids the car warranty) but he did get to go on a track day with BMW where he got to play with one of the example cars...
It snapped the drive shaft.

http://www.germancarfans.com/news.cfm/newsid/2030228.002/page/3/lang/eng/bmw/1.html

This is the one I wan't though.
http://www12.porsche.com/cayman/pcna.asp

Niiiiiiiiiiice.