Christmas Intro (914club style), Introduce yourself Options

[cooltimes]

A few years ago I started an annual Christmas Intro on another 914 site.
Seems like it would fit nicely in here too.
Just introduce yourself. Tell the rest of us a little about you and your family, your 914.


Mike Cooley aka Cooltimes, MikeCool
I am a 914 addict or just plain old 914 nut from Memphis TN
Married to "Red" since 1961
We have 1 son, Mike Jr also a 914 person for life
2 Grandsons, Paul and Tony
Pet is Katie cat

I have owned lots of 914's, around 30, since 1970.
My latest, a 1975 914 1.8 fuel injected, was a gift from another 914 group on Rennlist.

Merry Christmas, Happy holidays or whatever.

MikeCool

[ThinAir]

I'm Ernie DeVries, 53 (how did that happen?) and married to my best friend Linda since 1972. We've go 3 kids: Mike, Mandy & Nick. Mike shares my addiction to 914s and hangs out here. Mandy is married with a wonderful little boy, Nate, who turned 1 about a week ago. Nick got married to Tasha this October and just graduated from college a week ago - He drives a 75 bus and loves it, but isn't mechanical. Linda got addicted to quilting after making a quilt for our VW camper so she may not understand about air cooled cars, but she does understand the passion - we've got a 12' Gammill quilting machine in our house to prove it. No one is looking for a cure for the quilting addiction either.

Well my 914 addiction started with the 1962 bug that I learned to drive on. Then there was the 73 fastback that blew up in Blythe, CA while my brother and I were on our way to Long Beach to pick up the Austin Healey Sprite that the Navy shipped from Guam to U.S. for me. And my folks had a 72 VW camper van. It wasn't until 1977 when we knew that Nick was coming along that I discovered 914s. The Chevette wasn't big enough for 3 kids so we bought a 69 VW popup camper from a neighbor. A friend at work told me about the foreign auto repair class that met at the local high school on Saturdays and I was off doing my first engine overhaul, learning about brakes, valve adjustments, etc along the way.

A doctor in that class had a 914. I liked the look of it and knowing it was a joint project of VW & Porsche I figured the Porsche snobs wouldn't like it and that it would be designated NORP. I figured it was the "poor man's Porsche" that I could actually afford to have. The ride the doc gave me to the parts store was pretty wild since he had a turbo on it and he was a maniac driver - I was hooked.

It wasn't until 1990 that I actually got a 914. I saw one sitting on a local car lot. I was driving a full size Chevy pickup that was a mistake from the day I got it. I traded the truck and $300 for the 72 914 having no idea what I was getting myself into. The ride home in the rain was great as we tried to figure out how to get some defrost going, but didn't know about the heater lever on the floor!

These days there are 5 914s at my house:
1970 parts car that I've finally started cutting up
1971 that I've borrowed from Mike to use as a daily driver
1972 that I took apart to restore, but discovered it was too much for me to continue with so it's waiting for a late time
1973 Mike's 73 that got wrecked 2 years ago and is awaiting a roller to receive all the good parts
1973 picked this up off the club classifieds about 1 1/2 years ago. Last January it lost 3 quarts of oil when a freeze plug blew and I'm in the midst of building a new engine for it. This is my dream car.
Then there's the 1977 VW bus for parts and storing parts in
and Mom's 2000 VW Eurovan Camper.

I spend my days working as the "computer guy" for the Museum of Northern Arizona. I get to do everything from managing the Windows network to replacing power supplies to building databases and web pages. It's a cool gig and I love working there. It's too bad it meant getting laid off to find it, but I'm glad to be there.

This group has been great and I'm truly greatful that it exists. When I first got my 914 the best technical resource I had was the exploded-view diagrams in the newspring AA catalog. We've come along way since then and this resource is the best thing around for those of us with the 914 addiction.