My personal prism is an unusual one. I fell for the company long before I fell for the car.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's with amazing cars all around me. My father was a mechanic and owned a garage. One of my first memories is being washed in the kitchen sink by him and one of his mechanics. To this day I love the smell of Swarfega. I used to watch him as a little boy and he'd put sugar in it to wash the oil off. The driveway was always filled with amazing cars. Lotus Cortina's, E-Type's, Mk2's, BMW's and Aston Martins.
Yup I was born a petrol head. :drive:
My teen years were spent in magazines or helping the old boy with various projects (he'd 'retired' by this stage and we had moved to the Highlands). Panel beating a rolled GPO Bedford van. Changing the wings and gear box in a Capri. Doing the brakes on a Vauxhaul Firenza. And so on. :mechanic:
I was a car geek but.....much to my father's shame.....rubbish with a spanner. My brother was the technically gifted one. I was the bookworm. :damn:
I exercised my car love in various ways but then while doing a Masters I stumbled on Porsche when I needed an interesting case study. It was 2002 and I needed a company to research for an assignment. Porsche seemed like something it might be worthwhile to spend a Friday night time learning about. But when I started to research it I fell in love the rise of WW (long before the 'fall'), the shift in production line approaches, the incorporation of Kaisen, Kanban, Six sigma, Customer Focused Strategic Segmentation, Employee Engagement, Corporate Financial Models and so on Porsche was world class in every area. I spent the whole weekend in the library (it was a ten mile cycle ride away) pulling off everything about Porsche. Everything. :typing:
And that was it. Every one of my topics used Porsche as the subject matter or case study. Imagine a year of studying Porsche. I loved it and was the second in the whole class. By under 1%. :loser: (I can tell you to this day the exam question that cost me the class prize AND the paragraph I got wrong :evil: )
I still use Porsche now as a case study when dealing with various companies. Leadership? WW. Unintended consequences? Bore Scoring. Successful culture change? Porsche. Failed organisational measurement systems? IMS claims. Investment genius? Porsche tricking a wealthy investor (VW) to pay for building a factory so that the first car off the line is cash positive. (And more profitable than the Toerag) Sophisticated SCM? Valmet and early Boxtser production. And so on. :camera:
I can get a little Porsche Protective on here and challenge when I hear claims like 'the company cut costs' or 'the company has lost it's way'. I do that as there is so much more going on those simple generalisations. Porsche's failings are far more interesting than these. But yes, I can be over zealous. :soapbox: :yawn:
I bought my first 996 (a Mk1 2001, C2) in dubious green (Jungle apparently not forest) with Suicide Savannah interior in 2010. On the advice of those on this forum I engaged Peter Morgan and paid out a small fortune making it perfect. (As perfect as a Green with Savannah can be of course). It had 37k miles on it and I ran 'Jess' for 3 and a half years and took it up to 90k miles. It was sensational. I was now in love with the car as well as the brand. More so. :cloud9:
The way you can feel the weight 'swing' until you know it's ready for the throttle to be applied at the exit of corner. The 'weird' steering that's just too light until you're used to it in corners. The 3rd gear to 4th gear dash between corners on a swooping Scottish Highlands A road. The ability of it to start in winter first time when caked in snow. :drive:
I tried to explain it once to a mate who had a C63 AMG. I said, drunkenly, 'you don't get it, once you've felt the way it sits and moves you'll never want anything again'. He's never taken me up on the chance of a drive and now he's in an E63....
ut:
My Mum was alive for just 3 months from first sitting in my 911. I took her in it for her cancer diagnosis. It made her happy 'her boy' had a Porsche and I'd like to think it gave her something amid the darkness of those days. I remember it ferrying me from London to Glasgow at a speed that would have seen me in trouble with plod had they pulled me the weekend she died.
My Dad and I spent a number of journeys in my little 911, revisiting the places we had known when my Mum was alive. But he never got over her and the little 911 carried me on another journey north when he died while I was in SA on business. Even though I'd been on a plane all night 'Jess' got me there. I will always associate the love of the car with the last few years with my parents.
Don't mean to be morbid: just being honest.
In short my passion for the brand has been my guiding light in a personal as well as a personal capacity for nearly 13 years now. In that time I've covered 54k in my C2 and 16k in my turbo. As I finish another degree the thought of being able to buy a newer turbo is what spurs me on. :heat:
I can't imagine life now without a Porsche. For me there really is no substitute
orsche:
Thanks for reading :cheers:
