My wife finally talked me into moving to New Mexico. Said she wanted to live there before we get to old. We have sold the house in Grants Pass, packed up the cars, and will be heading there in late June or first part of July.

Have kept two cars: 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider and 1974 914 Conversion which I plan on carving up the back roads of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.

We did live in Arizona before moving to Oregon. The new area is not totally unknown to us.

Who lives in Albuquerque/Rio Rancho area? I remember a few members lived here and one member ran a beer bar which sponsored some 914 events in the New Mexico area.

ABQ is nice. I always liked it much more than Santa Fe.
Congrats!

Déjà vu.

Here. is the same topic from a year ago.

Jon Nelson...

I forget his screen name.

Edit: MadSwede

Yep, I'm here in Rio Rancho. Jon (Madswede) is here too even though I haven't met him in person yet. My car is running fantastic now thanks to an engine rebuild by Russ Kelso. I'll be out of the area in June, but back before July 4th. Look forward to having another teener around.

Don't stop in Barstow...

Drive safe getting there!

Thanks for the info and warm welcome. We should be there after July 11th and will be purchasing a home in Rio Rancho. We had looked at the area about 12 plus years ago when retiring but settled on Flagstaff, AZ. We like the ALB area what it offers. About 12 years later, my wife talks me into moving; we have moved more in retirement (4 times) than we did during my civilian working life (one over 40 years).

Glad to get the information regarding Porsche mechanics and shops. All sounds great.

We will visit the Turtle Mountain Brewing Co. in Rio Rancho and have a cool one.

The house we are purchasing is located on Rio Hondo and backing up to 580(?). A high sand/dirt berm provides sound and noise abatement allowing just enough to let you know there are cars behind you at some distance. It only has a two car garage but the back has two gates and area for the trailer, etc. We will have a total of about .60 of an acre.

Really looking forward to the move.

Thanks again for the info.

Welcome to Albuquerque (soon at least). I like love it here, and after grad school in Indiana, we moved right back. There's an active Porsche club, though I admit I don't do much with them. A couple of good cars and coffees. And I can confirm Russ Celso as the premiere Indy mechanic in the the state, plus you you get to go to historic and beautiful Corrales when you go to his shop.

Welcome to the neighborhood! I don't keep in touch with locals as much as I should. Shame on me. Life has been keeping me super busy these days.

Anyway, you'll be about two miles from my house. It's Highway 528 that you'll be next to, by the way. Just north of Northern Blvd, if I'm not mistaken. I'm at 528 and Southern Blvd, more or less. Southern turns into Meadowlark in my neighborhood overlooking Corrales, and I'm just a mile from Russ Kelso's shop (which is on Meadowlark in Corrales). It's called PMCI if you ever want (or need) to look him up.

Oddly enough I was just talking to Russ two days ago about a 914 in Los Alamos that a PCA guy asked me if I could help a local older guy here sell. I've not had time to do more than put Russ and the Los Alamos guy in touch.

Russ is a good guy, and his shop does good work. But more than that, this is a pretty good state for driving mountain roads! I really do need to get out driving my car more often. Gotta fix a clutch cable or something that is causing it to prevent full engagement of the clutch when the car is warm or hot. Always something ...

Wait a minute ...

Damm, what happen to you in Barstow ??

By the way, that was LizO (aka TurtleGirl) who was at the time married to Nico, the owner of Turtle Mountain Brewing Company (aka TMBC, aka just Turtle). Joe O'Brien (Series9) used to live here (I bought his old house about 9 years ago!) before he returned to Florida, and his ex Lauren (aka Luckie) worked at Turtle. Things change in 10 years or so! I don't go to Turtle much since quitting drinking, but I go for the food every so often, just 'cos it's so damn good! LizO is now in Alaska working on graduate work in archeology I believe, and she and Nico are friends though they rarely have much to do with 914s these days. Luckie is in FL, and she and Joe are friends though no longer together.

Well, that about sums it up for us Rio Rancho (and ex-Rio Rancho) members! Well, besides recent additions like Everett (snakemain) that I've been too lazy to take time out and go say hi and introduce myself. See my previous post.

Zach Mayne and Jeremy Mayne live in the ABQ (just across the river, but might as well be the next state sometimes with how much of a pain it can be crossing the river, depending on the time of day). I think one of them must be the "Mayne" that posted a bit ago. I'm sorry to admit, but I forget which brother is the photographer and which is the writer for some Porsche mags. And I even sold one of them my 968! Sheesh. Now you see why I quit drinking! Already did too much damage to my memory!

Did I buy my black 968 from you?

Yep! I was wondering if that was you. Hope you still have it! My 914 will be available for pics someday, if you still do that sort of thing. Need/want to fix up the driver's rear fender flare though. Heheh. Always something...

Very sorry to say, it was totaled in an accident. I loved that car! But the insurance paid for a 97 Boxster, amazing in its own right. But I couldn't shake the 968, so when a 944 turbo came up for sale, I jumped at it. Great car! Now I've added a 914 to the stable. It's my brother who does the automotive journalism, and he might well be interested in covering your 914. And there you go, NM car community in action!

Not me. Moving van and 914-6, on a trailer stolen from a hotel. Everything lost except the 914.

With all this information I feel like I have lived in New Mexico all my life.

Mike, you have a very long memory. This is the basic reason we are moving to New Mexico since my wife has not gotten over the theft and all the items she lost; a lot of Navajo art facts and paintings which was her hobby. She just loves that part of the country. She never felt at home in Oregon since this theft placed a dark cloud over us.

This board and group of 914 members helped me replace parts: some free, some at steep discounted prices, and other means. Now you know the reason the 914 was kept. I have been around here a long time and do enjoy all the activities here. Even became a PCA member because of all knowledge and activities represented here.

My car is an original "rolling chassis" out of Ventura, CA where over the subsequent years Doc Evil box was added along with 110mm CVs and Sway-A-Way half shafts; 911 Carrera front everything and rear Carrera brakes; hydraulic clutch was added along with all the rest of the conversion extras.

Car is powered by two "bicycle pedal stations". LOL, LOL!!! Put this in to see if anyone noticed.

Engine is 3.2 Carrera 1987 with 145,000 miles and seems to run ok. After a theft and parts replacements, it is now ready for some back road driving.

Background is living in Northern California for 65 years; Flagstaff, AZ for 8 years; Grants Pass, OR for 3.5 years; New Mexico until when my wife tells me to leave.

That's it in a nutshell.

I also see you're an Alfa fan. My brother and I have restored several spiders and have a 73 GTV and 67 GT Junior waiting in the wings. You'll also want to know about Gordon Self, local Alfa guru.

You'll be right up the road from me I'm in corrales

Rio Rancho shot of Joe O'Briens series nine builds. The WCR ( aka Atomic Ramble) was hosted at the Turtle Brewing Co. A good time was had by all

Is it just here or are all the beer joints named after animals ( turtle mountain, boxing bear, stumbling steer,

I could use a new trailer. Could you post your route with planned stops please?

What? Too soon?

Heheh it's because there's a marketing craze going for beer serving establishments to mimic the old British public house, or "pub" for short. Since they've been around for centuries, the oldest pubs catered to frequently illiterate folk and had signs with images on them rather than written words (or in addition to them). Sometimes those images included animals, if not often. Hence the way they are named today in the US, though it has been taken to new heights (or depths) in both the US and the U.K.

Nico named Turtle Mountain both in homage to this principle and in honor of his Dad who was Native American from the Pueblo Oke Owingeh in northern New Mexico. In his Dad's language (Tewa), the name of the dominant ABQ mountain translates to English as "Turtle Mountain" ... and it was Nico's Dad's name too! The Spanish colonials named it after their word for watermelon, or "Sandia" ... probably because of the color similarity when the famous NM sunsets light them up.

Just joined up here (actually this is my first post) but I'm looking at picking up a 914 as soon as my motorcycle sells, and I also live in Rio Rancho, pretty much across the street from the Fat Squirrel. I didn't realize there were so many local 914s, I rarely see any around!

I live in the 4 Corners (Durango, CO) and ABQ is easy to get to - easier than Denver anyway - nowhere is easy to get to when you live in Durango! But I rarely have a reason to leave other than Porsches and Pinball.

I have three 914s in the herd, one I have owned since 1978 (yeah I am an old guy!)

I'll be out more driving during the day once school kicks off again in August and both my kids are finally in full-day school. I'll be out of town June and part of July traveling.

I have a line on a running 72 914 in Los Alamos. PM sent to you soon with contact info if you're interested!

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to follow up with my earlier post. The 914 I was looking at ended up selling, and I jumped on another car to have fun in the twisties. It's not an MR chassis, and only has a 4 speed, but if you see someone going around in a faded green MG Midget give a wave, if I see a 914 I guarantee I'll be looking your way!