...the 1976 -only 1976- special made-for-USA 912 E, my brother-in-law had bought via eBay in Sunnyvale, California. By that way, because it's rather unknown in Europe and due that, it was to get for a good price. "Real" 911 are incredible expensive over here, not justified

He recently got the news, that the whole paperwork was done by the transport-company, so yesterday afternoon we rented a trailer, and tomorrow morning, shortly after 5:00, we went direction Roosendaal, a Dutch town, halfway between Rotterdam and Antwerpen (after we needed 20 minutes to dig out the back axle of my Omega out of 30cm-thick snow, where it was slightly slippered in.

The trip was okay, except the narrow neighbourhood-roads all streets were cleaned and salted. After 2 1/2 hours driving (the last 5km on terrible icy neighbourhood-roads), we reached the company. http://www.marlog-car-handling.eu/en/index.html It makes a good, professional and reliable impression to us. After short paperwork we loaded the car up.









It's in the expected condition, the seller hasn't concealed any bigger defects. The rust at the front A-pillar he told before, but it's so big, that you should do something with it. During the shipping in the container the air was so wet and salty, that some plastic parts of the interior got some mould on the surface. Not a big thing, it's cleanable with vinegar. The tires should have been good, but one is total defect, the tread broke off from the tire. It still holds the air, but it will blast after a few meters of driving. Anyways, it was expectable, as the car was standing since several years (if I understood the US-title correctly, since 1993).

I only made these pics for today, because we'd been in hurry. I wanted to be back in office at Noon nd the weather forecast said something about new snow and iced rain...

As nice details we've found these metal-plate on the back lid. Also nnother one from Nürnberg.



Sorry for the bad quality, but I was hasty nd it was cold (due that, and the waiting yesterday, in the wet snow of the trailer-rental-company -the light-cable was torn and had to be repaired by the guys there- a cold is coming. I feel it. I just took my cold-medicine with two glasses of red wine. Some people will scream bout that combination, but it will give you a deep sleep )
Due this plate, I think the first owner (1976-1979) has picked up the new car in Stuttgart, made vacations in Germany and took it back home. Maybe we can find out more about this trip in 1976

Back home after, we had two problems:
a) how to get this car in the garage? One garage at my mother-in-law's house was cleared, but the street to it is very narrow, not clened and salted, so full with much snow. Have you ever tried to push a car with 225-tires on a snowy street with ice underneath?
The Porsche is not driveable right now. The battery still has power, but not enough to start the engine.

b) The worse problem was: the ignition-lock was blocked! We tried it several times, but then I had really to go home to my office-work. We thought: "F.ck! Does Porsche has similar idiotic ideas as Saab?"
Later on, Kay gave me a call: simple solution. Just spraying some WD40-oil into the lock and everthing was fine. No the car stands in front of the house (very surely for the first time in its life in snow and ice), the battery will be loaded overnight, so tomorrow it could be driven into the garage. If not, we'll push it with 4 persons.

So we had an interesting forenoon today

Nice
What's the wagon in background on the 1st pic?

A Plymouth.

I only know that, because the shipping-agent has said that to the guys, who picked it up

There were several other nice cars in that storage-house. US-classics like a 1965 Mustang, a 1969 Dodge Charger in "Duke of Hazzard"-trim, some 1940ies Chevrolets, two perfect looking "Samba" 's, an also perfect 1964 Westfalia Camper and many more. Compared with them, our 1976 "energy-crisis-poverty-special"-Porsche was the shabbiest nd cheapest vehicle.
There was also a Mercedes W109 standing on the ground. Surely I took a look to it, but it was only an US-spec 300 SEL 4.5 Obviously with a broken suspension. The front hanged on the ground, the back still upwards. This costs really money...

O.k., the Astra F Caravan and the Vectra A are really worthless clunkers, probably meant for shipping to Africa, But they are the only cars of this category there.

I also went with a firend and picked up a new car for him yesterday




Perhaps not a Porsche but it's a "Two-door rally coupé" as he like to put it...

Well, amazing as you are suffering, the winter is too crude
But I have to say here, summer is too strong. About 40 º C on some occasions

With respect to the Porsche, I love everyone. 911, Turbo, Carrera, S, etc ...
For example, in Córdoba person sells fiber bodywork of a 911, to adapt in a frame (I guess VW, preferably)

http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-94665449-carroceria-porsche-911-speedster-fibra-de-vidrio-_JM

You link reminds me about the Porsche 911 Carrera-"quatrocycle", we have somewhere at IMCDB.
My brother-in-law has once met the builder and owner of it. He lives in Berlin. The chassis is a frame, made from thin aluminium-braces, the body in the original Porsche-measures, but completely from papier-maché.
And they guy is using it as a normal bicycle. As it's human-pedal-powered, the only rules and regulations are valid, as for normal bicycles, as there are: one white lamp in front, one for the back -no matter, if battery- or dynamo-powered- two different working brakes and orange side-reflectors on the wheels. That's all.

Yes, i remember this
http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/5659329/Transformacion-de-dos-bicicletas-a-un-Porsche_.html (in spanish)
For me, its incredible.

Hmm, are there more than one of these? These pics are abviously from Austria, but my brother-in-law has it really seen it in Berlin.

I don't know, probably yes. When i try to found to this Porsche, i could see this.

We have that one on the site: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=321927

Can I ask a ballpark figure, not for the car but for shipment by that Dutch company? To have a general idea how much it costs to import a car from the USA.

It's not really expensive, it was around 1100 € (including the transport on train from California to Florida!). Plus a bit import-tax, handling-fee etc.

We'd been very lucky, the last decision of the Dutch government before Christmas (they go for us, too, as it was the first EU-country, the car was brought) hadn't hit us: since the 1.1.2011 the Dutch import-tax was lifted up from 6% to 19% of the car's value
The people, which cars are still on the transport, are pissed, understandable.

I thought it was going to be more... Thanks. Yes I read about that overnight decision.

It's a nice car and a good investment perhaps. When the stockmarket crashes the alternatives are always art, oldtimers and gold.... (Actually that is the time to buy stocks. I hope you all bought Ford.)

Regarding the Plymouth station wagon in the background, that's clearly a 1968-70 Belvedere with aftermarket GTX logos on the sides.

No, never, no way! The Ford-bonds may increasing as hell, I don't care about that. I will not touch them, never!

You know, I'm always very longtime-unforgiving. I hate Ford since the mid-90ies, when Ford Deutschland has created a kind of "Abwrackprämie", resp. "Cash for Clunkers". The used cars, they took for selling new Fords, were all crushed, without exceptions - and there were some nice classic among them.

No Ford-stocks in my portefeuille! No Ford-cars in my garage! I already have pointed out to my wife, that, if she would choose a Ford as her next car, I won't tolerate it in our garage.

Ingo, here with the "Plan canje", are the same... thousands of classics are destroyed, to sell "new" cars "Narcosur", especially many Brazilian disposable garbage (Fiat Uno, VW Gol Power, Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Astra, etc)

@Gomsel: I mean the Ford-action, 13-14 years before the 2009' "Abwrackprämie". Back in the mid-90ies, only Ford has made that. Opel and Fiat a bit, too, but there it was sometimes possible to save the old cars.

In 2009 it was founded and organized by the government. It was said, it should have been for the environment, but this was a lie. It was nothing more than a tax-money-paid subvention for the car-industry (and mostly for cheaper, smaller import-cars. Audi, Mercedes and Porsche didn't get anything of that). And Germany was not the only country, many European and other countries -the USA, too- had started similar actions.

Don't remind me of this It always hurts when I think about it. I had the chance to buy Ford stock for less than $2 a share. Somehow I forgot the thing / or was too lazy to buy. Currently the stock is $17 a share I could have made an fortune.

I'm waiting for Chrysler to make IPO this year. But it wont be the same thing. Chrysler is doing quite good now.

That was a great opportunity. I bought Ford at $1,67 on probably the worst day of panic, now up 927%. I won't mention some of my banking stocks that went in the opposite direction so a lot of that is canceled out.

It's not something I would typically buy though, I try to follow Warren Buffett's approach of stock analysis. (P/E under 15, P/S under 1.5, ROE over 25, high div) That will exclude car manufacturers, which are too price competitive. I haven't looked at Chrysler, but there you also have the dollar risk of course...

Well, i understand. But to promote sales, the "swap plan" was also "promoted" by the government and the various brands that belong to Adefa. Of course my father would not change the Citroën for some "regional" waste (such as those named above)