More to come soon, but here's my "new" car - a European-model 1985 Porsche 911 Cabriolet in Grand Prix White over black, with a black top.

I just bought the car a couple weeks ago, and although it only has 45k miles on the clock, it has been sitting and needs some overall "freshening." I bought it from the original owner - a French woman who had purchased the car new in Paris in 1985, and then subsequently moved to the USA and brought the car with her. She stopped using it regularly about two years ago, so the car had been idle, which manifested itself in corrosion of a lot of the electrical contacts and other irritating foibles.

I also just finished replacing all four brake calipers, which were seizing up to various degrees. Then the voltage regulator failed inside the alternator, resulting in an overcharged battery and (far worse) a fried Motronic ECU. When I went to have the computer rebuilt, it turned out to be a computer out of a BMW 735i, with a 911 chip in it! Grrrrr! (Probably a result of when the car was federalized...) So I bought a rebuilt 28-pin computer and a performance chip from AutoThority. At the same time I replaced the catalytic converter with a B&B test pipe, but left the oxygen sensor in place.

Investigating further, there seemed to be some internal shorts in the fuse box, but cleaning it up didn't help, so I replaced the entire fuse box with a new one, which solved a LOT of problems. I also fitted a French number plate in the spirit of the history of the car...

I have a new carpet kit here to replace the somewhat faded and tattered originals, but I haven't installed it yet. The driver's seat is worn but undamaged, but the passenger seat is torn on the bottom cushion, so I'm actively looking for a set of used seats to replace these with. Oh, and since I'm an iPod junkie, I installed an iPod-controlling head unit by Pioneer, playing through the four 6.5" Pioneer speakers that were in the car when I bought it. It's not the greatest system in the world, but I'm a speed nut not an audiophile, so I don't care. It sounds great to me and plays my iPod, and that's all I care about...

It has some of the traditional 911 oil leaks, primarily from the valve covers and the oil return tubes, so I'm planning on tackling those sometime during the winter, but at the moment I'm just driving the heck out of it and enjoying it tremendously.

UPDATE: Last night at 3:30AM, while coming back from Columbia, SC on a deserted stretch of highway, I hit v/max. The car pulled all the way to the redline in top gear, which I calculated to be 156 mph, because I have a slightly higher rev limit with my AutoThority chip. That's the fastest I have ever driven a convertible, and contrary to all the legends the car was very stable at that speed. No wander, no appreciable lift. It was just going like a bloody missle...

UPDATE: I drove the car to Washington DC and back last weekend - a little over 800 miles in three days, and it ran like a top. Coming back I hooked up with a new BMW 335i coupe and we drove from Blacksburg Virginia to Statesville, NC averaging over 100 mph the whole way. There was a big stretch where we were cruising at more than 135mph for almost an hour... These Carreras are simply wonderful cars to drive.

UPDATE: I have been sticking with the stock muffler on my car up to this point. Partly because I hear the stock muffler is very good and partly because I don;t like the sound of most aftermarket mufflers on the Carrera. They all have too much bass - with a deep, rumbly sound. But today I fitted an M&K rear muffler, and OH MY GOD it's sweet. At idle and low revs it doesn't sound much different than stock, but above 4000 rpm it takes on a higher-pitched, purely mechanical wail, and at 6000 rpm it's screaming like a mechanically-injected RSR. If you want a muffler for your Carrera and you love the sound of the older, smaller-displacement 911's of the past, get an M&K. It's AWESOME. Oh, it's also 10lbs lighter than the stock muffler, is pretty affodable at under $600, and bolts right up with no problems at all. It's a GREAT piece. (I don't have any affiliation with M&K. I'm just a happy customer.)

UPDATE:  I installed 17" Fuchs replicas made by Linea Corsa, shod with 215/45ZR-17 front and 245/40ZR-17 rear Michelin Pilots.