Thoughts on ageing, When is it time ti call it quits? Options

[Pat Garvey]

I bring this thread up on this forum because it's the forum I came to originally.

We, who have owned these beasts for many years (37 in my case) must reach a point where we have to consider moving on. Not all, but I personally am having questions about this.

I bring this up here because I am a CW & will always be.

But, I have been thinking lately (six months or so) - is it time to put 2 nice cars into someone else's responsibility?

I keep buying new parts, but never get around to installing them. Hell, I don't even need them!

But, in the last year my interest is wanning. I don't have the physical capabilities to do what I used to, and I won't pay someone else to do what I KNOW how to do. I also have other interests, namely model railroading, which I've been involved in since before Porsches (do I sound like Jon Lowe?).

I also don't have the urgency to do anything on the Porsches. I just don't think I care anymore, at least not enough. Used to be, when the garage temp rose above 50, I was there. Not any more.

So, I'm asking for some opinions here. I will take all of them seriously.

Should I get out? I'm inclined to do so. Can something re-awake the fire? I wonder.

Your opinions are appreciated & welcomed. I'm on the brink.

[1970 Neun vierzehn]

OK, here it is, the TOUGH LOVE response.

Pat: "I want the truth!"

1970 Neun vierzehn: "You can't handle the truth". (Or can you?)

Pat, your problem is precipitated by several factors, which individually have not caused your malaise with regards to your 914 and 911, but collectively have undermined your automotive (Porsche) enthusiasm.

Let me ask, for the sake of our fellow Forum friends, some questions that even though I know full well the answers, your candid responses to will reveal reasons for your manifest disinterest and lethargic attitude toward your enthusiast cars.

1. Once upon a time, you and I would have lengthy discussions about the latest issues of R&T, Automobile, C&D, Autoweek, and PCA Panorama. What do you subscibe to now? Do you even read "Pano" anymore?

2. Since you moved to Philadelphia, what 12-13 years ago, how many miles have you put on your 914? Ten, twenty?

3. Since you moved to Philadelphia, how many PCA events, 914 World get-togethers, or special interest/collector/sports car events (Hershey, Carlisle, etc.) have you attended?

4.What (this is one of my favorite questions) are your daily drivers? Once upon a time your D/Ds were a Rabbit, a GTi, various Audis, a Scirocco, Passats. And now you drive what?

5. You claim that your body is getting too old for repair and maintenance on your Porsches. That "you need to do it yourself". Pat, think Tom Oerther, Bud West, Jerry Wolf, Howard Rapp, Dick Weiss, John Meyer, Tom Stegman. All these guys (and myself) are (or were) at least as old as you and their enthusiasm for their respective Porsches did not wane as they either got older or no longer "wrenched" on their own cars. I might also add that all the above mentioned Porsche enthusiasts drove their cars AND did not have BORING cars as daily drivers.

6.We all know (or at least a lot of us do) that you harbor a disregard for the real or imagined arrogance that PORSCHE AG has displayed in going so far upmarket with their cars. It also annoys me somewhat to see the marque that was once the provenance of hard core driving enthusiasts, road racing adherents, discreet professionals, and connoisseurs of excellent craftsmanship and (though sometimes quirky and offbeat) engineering, be hijacked by so many elite, crass and unappreciative individuals whose only interest in their PORSCHE is as a
bauble with which to flaunt their wealth and material success. You've said that you have no interest in new, and late model PORSCHES. Does it follow then that you must not, therefore, admire the marque (Cayman aside), squelch your enthusiasm, and by association, diminish your own regard for your own PORSCHES?

If you take yourself out of the loop of reinforcement with regards to a hobby, be it a car, a motorcycle, a model railroad, a bicycling passion, a guitar pursuit, a record collection, etc. and don't immerse yourself with passion and seek affirmation and support from those with whom you share your enthusiasm, your affinity and affection for that endeavor will no doubt wither. (I can't avoid the cliche here...............) Use it, or lose it!

Your dear and sincere friend,
Paul