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A few things to know before stealing my 914

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Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#181

Post by deltarholamda »

I laughed out loud several times at this.

It's kind of sad that a lot of younger folks won't have this kind of experience. Muscling a 1973 Ford F150 around with no power steering, I learned many, many things about driving. Having to do hill starts with a 3-on-the-tree, I learned many, many more.

A recalcitrant, finicky, or otherwise nearly broken car is a source of much distress, but also character building. And often a source of many fond rememberances--albeit far, far in the future.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#182

Post by pmags »

mellavora wrote: post #10

My first car was a 914. Love and miss it to this day. At some point the solenoid died (or some other electrical component). So to start it, you'd have to reach under the car with a screwdriver (or some other piece of metal, but I kept a screwdriver in the car for this purpose), and short out across two terminals. You then had 10-20 seconds to get out from under the car, into the driver's seat, and turn the key. As a…

I had a '73 VW Bug -- the solenoid failed in the middle of a post-college beach camping adventure through Baja with a friend. We too designated a screwdriver just for this purpose and kept track of whose turn it was to slide under the car to short the terminals. We became quite adept at it! Good times...

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#183

Post by everybodyknows »

mellavora wrote: post #10

My first car was a 914. Love and miss it to this day. At some point the solenoid died (or some other electrical component). So to start it, you'd have to reach under the car with a screwdriver (or some other piece of metal, but I kept a screwdriver in the car for this purpose), and short out across two terminals. You then had 10-20 seconds to get out from under the car, into the driver's seat, and turn the key. As a…

On mine, the well-corroded cast-pot-metal door handle snapped in two. No problem: The ignition key could be wedged between the remaining stub of a handle and the frame, producing just enough leverage to pop the door catch.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#184

Post by [deleted] »

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #140
tricky wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello to a fellow member of the "my first car was a Porsche" club. Mine was a $400 924 that broke at least once a week. Good times.

924 here too! Totalled it (not that there was much to total) at the age of 20. May it rest in pieces.

[deleted]

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#185

Post by polynomial »

tricky wrote: post #104
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father had one of these just sort of gathering dust in the garage when I was growing up, utterly shocked when I turned 16 and he handed me the keys. I still like to casually drop "oh yeah, I used to have a Porsche back when I was 16." Although I must say it was in immeasurably better shape than this one :D I still dream of finding an old 914 and giving it an electric conversion… I'd have to do something about that…

Hello to a fellow member of the "my first car was a Porsche" club. Mine was a $400 924 that broke at least once a week. Good times.

The 924 had a design flaw in the engine. The oil pressure sensor was located in the oil pan at the base of the return pipe to the cam, rather than at the top of the pipe at the cam. Thus, the pipe could become clogged and no oil would reach the cam shaft, while giving no indication of the problem. Needless to say, this could be very bad.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#186

Post by dugmartin »

cenazoic wrote: post #136

All I could think about was how I should write something similar about my belovedly-wretched 1979 MGB. Lucas, the manufacturer of many MG parts, colloquially known as ‘the Prince of Darkness’ because of a tendency for the lights to suddenly stop working. The tell-tale crimp in many trunk lids, caused by attempting to shut it without disengaging the little rod that kept it open. Don’t bother locking the doors if you d…

I wrote in another comment about my 1978 MGB. You missed a few more fun parts (they might have just been for my model year though):

1. The "springs" under the seats were bent wood slats (my dad and I put in new carpeting and found that one out when we removed the seats).

2. The heater was literally sliding a door to the engine way down the foot well. I remember several winter top down drives in the Midwest where my face and hands were frozen but my legs felt like they were being branded.

3. The manual choke.

4. The small cascade of water in your face when you drove in the rain and took a corner.

5. The electric 5th that seemed to break every few months.

All good memories though.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#187

Post by lvh »

oliveshell wrote: post #148
bombcar wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Deuce and a Half has an even more interesting one, just when you think you've figured out the dog-leg you find the last two are reversed again. HN supports shift pattern unicode! Ⓡ②⑤ |–|–| ①③④

You’re not kidding! I first learned to drive stick in a deuce-and-a-half that my dad bought cheap at a surplus auction. I accidentally shifted from 1st straight into 5th quite a few times. The darn thing had so much torque that it wouldn’t even stall when you did that!

Much better than shifting from 5th straight into 1st though :)

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#189

Post by tibbydudeza »

I am rather glad that modern cars late 90's are so depressingly reliable and lacking in "character" and just works when I turn the key and all they needs is fuel, oil change, filters and fluids at intervals.

I would choose an Audi/BMW if I wanted that sort trepidation in my life.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#190

Post by cpfohl »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #99
gkoberger wrote: post #42

This is one of my favorite styles of writing. I have absolutely no clue what this person is talking about and have no interest in cars, yet I read every single word. I love when people have such a deep knowledge of something that they can write an essay as unique and thoughtful as this. It reminds me of Kitchen Confidential, Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman!, or any rant about British politics by David Mitchell.

If you love this style and want something intentionally ridiculous check out the various writings at https://www.mcsweeneys.net/

This also reminded me of this delightful piece of writing: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/why-the-police-dont-pat...

I can't find the original, but the copy there is exactly what I remembered.

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