Der Sportwagen

January / February 2015 24 SPECIAL INTEREST Coming Home, Again COMING By Jim Rand I t is no secret to people who know me that I am a big fan of the Porsche 944 platform. My first Porsche was an '84 944 and I put a bunch of miles on that car, driving it all over the United States and learned a lot about Porsche ownership through it. From there, of course, the natural progression was to add a turbo version of the 944 and later, a 968 cabriolet. All three share a common lineage but are completely different cars with defining characteristics that made each one special to me. Collectively, owning these cars have made a significant mark on the last twenty years of my life and they are more like family members to me than they are "cars". Eventually, though, there comes a time when you need to open a new chapter and move on. Some of us do so with grace and ease, for others, not so much. For me, it usually feels a bit more like careening over a hill on a blind curve and the steering wheel has just come loose in my hands, but I digress… One of the best parts of purchasing a Porsche, at least in my opinion, is the drive home that allows time to bond with my new friend and get a glimpse of what the future might hold. The longer the drive, the better. My first Porsche was purchased in Texas while I was living in Minneapolis and as I was new to the Porsche experience, it was an overwhelming moment to take in but the thing I was most struck by was the sense of balance that the '84 had. It was like a ballerina pirouetting down the highway and through the curves, and that car hooked me, apparently for life, on the magic of precision and soul wrapped in sheet metal that Dr. Porsche wrought. At the time, I was unprepared to appreciate the glory of taking a long distance drive in a Porsche so some of that initial experience passed by in a blur. Some years later, the purchase of my 1987 944 Turbo allowed me the opportunity to relive the experience, except this time I was traveling from Baltimore MD to Kansas City. Traveling in a car that has approximately twice the horsepower as a naturally aspirated 944 can have certain "side effects" on the driver and having long expanses of interstate to cover allows one to explore them *ahem* "fully". I won't go into a complete confession here, but allow me to say that driving the 951 is a completely different animal than driving a 944 and I am happy to say that By Scott Harrison Photos by Scott Harrison

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