Steve Brookes
Moderator
I'd dropped my car off in the morning at Unit 11 to have the heat exchanger flange replaced and to have the geo tweaked for the next track day. Jonny called me just after lunch time to say it was done and ready to collect. A quick call to my good friend and 964RS owner John Liles (Oldtimer) revealed that he would run me up there to collect the car.
We arrived at Unit 11 to find that it was open house and buzzing as usual. Sure enough my car was parked outside alongside Nick Appleton's new 964, a 993RS in for a rebuild, a 3.2 carrera and a 2.7 RS (probably a replica). Inside Marcus Carniel was busy rebuilding his 964 race car that he'd pranged (yet again [:-]) at Brands at the weekend. Jonny and Danny were under John Biddulph's 3.2 track car fixing a front strut. Barry (Sten on Rennlist) another 964 owner, was also passing by and had dropped in for a chatter. Jonny was in no hurry to shut up shop because an emergency was on the way - a SWB 911 that had conked out at the end of the three castles rally and was now on a trailer and would need fixing quick as it was due to be flown out to a rally in Croatia!
So, rather than just pay up and drive away I spent an idle couple of hours chinwagging with a bunch of other 911 enthusiasts and prowling around the garage while Jonny and Danny beavered away fixing the emergencies that had come in late in the day. This is included the non-starting SWB 911 that arrived at 5 pm and was rolled off the trailer for diagnosis. It was great to watch the Unit 11 boys crawling around the engine bay to see what was up and carrying on with their usual banter which includes a lot of words beginning with F and S
. After much checking for supply of fuel and sparks it was simply solved by a new rotor arm and was once again purring away, much to the relief of the owner. With that solved I paid up for my own work and drove the car home about 2 hours after I'd arrived to collect it. []
The afternoon summed up perfectly to me the passion for older Porsches held by those who own them and those who work on them. Unit 11s attitude of you can see as much as you want and stay as long as you want (whether they're working on your car or not), is very refreshing in my opinion and a main reason why many of us use their services.
And....the only kettle in sight had a 13 amp plug on the end
We arrived at Unit 11 to find that it was open house and buzzing as usual. Sure enough my car was parked outside alongside Nick Appleton's new 964, a 993RS in for a rebuild, a 3.2 carrera and a 2.7 RS (probably a replica). Inside Marcus Carniel was busy rebuilding his 964 race car that he'd pranged (yet again [:-]) at Brands at the weekend. Jonny and Danny were under John Biddulph's 3.2 track car fixing a front strut. Barry (Sten on Rennlist) another 964 owner, was also passing by and had dropped in for a chatter. Jonny was in no hurry to shut up shop because an emergency was on the way - a SWB 911 that had conked out at the end of the three castles rally and was now on a trailer and would need fixing quick as it was due to be flown out to a rally in Croatia!
So, rather than just pay up and drive away I spent an idle couple of hours chinwagging with a bunch of other 911 enthusiasts and prowling around the garage while Jonny and Danny beavered away fixing the emergencies that had come in late in the day. This is included the non-starting SWB 911 that arrived at 5 pm and was rolled off the trailer for diagnosis. It was great to watch the Unit 11 boys crawling around the engine bay to see what was up and carrying on with their usual banter which includes a lot of words beginning with F and S
. After much checking for supply of fuel and sparks it was simply solved by a new rotor arm and was once again purring away, much to the relief of the owner. With that solved I paid up for my own work and drove the car home about 2 hours after I'd arrived to collect it. []The afternoon summed up perfectly to me the passion for older Porsches held by those who own them and those who work on them. Unit 11s attitude of you can see as much as you want and stay as long as you want (whether they're working on your car or not), is very refreshing in my opinion and a main reason why many of us use their services.
And....the only kettle in sight had a 13 amp plug on the end
