My long journey to Porsche ownership

I'm fairly new to Porsche ownership, but my experience with the brand goes back to my childhood. I'm a California ex-pat, part of a Ligurian fishing family from Santa Cruz. Sometime in the 50's I was at a family funeral when I overheard my uncles talking about one of their cousins who had this Porsche and was having problems with it because it had this temperamental crankshaft. At the time I was clueless but later learned it was an early Carrera 4-cam. But the seed was planted. I started to notice 356's around town and while I was working for my uncles, who had the Lincoln-Mercury dealership in town, got to drive a 1965 356SC convertible that belonged to a local radiologist who took the car to the dealership regularly to get it washed and detailed. Living on the Central Coast I was into sailing and the races at Laguna Seca where Porsches were the giant killers. In early 1965 I drove to Wester Porsche in Monterey to look at what had to be one of the first 911s in the US. Over the years I was always in a circle of friends with Porsches. A grammar school classmate, Bill Doyle, became one of the leading 4-cam experts in the world (he sadly passed away a couple years ago). My first cousin, the son of one of my car dealer uncles, has always been a serious Porsche enthusiast, racing them, restoring them and selling them. He even managed to get the 959 certified in the US after many years of effort.

I did take a detour into the Mercedes world over the years. My father was a sea captain who was always impressed by the Mercedes he saw around the world. In late 1963 he owned Islander, a sailboat built in Germany that won the1963 Traspac race on corrected time, which was fitted with the Mercedes OM636 diesel - the ubiquitous 36hp engine found in boats, 180Ds and ThermoKing Nose-Mount refrigerated trailers. That engine set me off on on a Mercedes journey that lasts to this day - this year marks the start of my 49th year as a MBCA member! I've owned nine M-Bs over the years including a show winning 250SL we kept for 36 years. But there were constant brushes with Porsche ownership. I can't remember how many I looked at, drove, tried to buy over the years. Then the Boxster came out. Then I got serious. I started following PPBD religiously. I almost traded the SL to a local PCA member who had a Speed Yellow 2001 Boxster S - but he didn't want to put up enough cash to make the deal work. I visited dealers in every city on the East Coast. But I never committed. Then the 981 came out. Then my youngest son bought a 2014 Sapphire Blue Cayman. Then I got really serious!!! We found our 2014 Sapphire Blue Boxster S at Porsche Fairfield in Connecticut. Picked it up December 29, 2014 and drove home to SE Virginia between snowstorms. Joined First Settlers Region PCA as soon as I had the VIN. After a year I was elected to the FSR board as Activities Officer. It was great 4 years, but I stepped down at the end of 2019 to pay more attention to my business in California. We've taken a lot of road trips in the Boxster - the longest was a 2600 mile journey to Fallingwater in SW Pennsylvania, then through the Finger Lakes, on to Montreal, down to Jay Peak, VT, on to Quebec City, then to Stowe, VT, then to Manhattan and home. Almost exclusively country roads with the top down. We attended Treffen Asheville. I've done a few DEs - all at VIR - which is a great track in the Boxster. I can't count how many Fun Runs, etc. we've done. We really enjoy the car and could own it as long as we had the SL - if we live that long:-)

Even though I'm not very active here I follow it every day. I was really sad when PPBB started to wind down, but I truly appreciate the fact the Pedro stepped up (and I follow every tech question he answers in the Panorama). And many thanks to those who support him keeping the site working. Thanks to all.

The day we picked up the Boxster at Porsche Fairfield - sorry about the background.



Out for a drive.



AT VIR.


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The Spec: