(engine revving)
- All right, so, here's the thing, right?
There's not a lot of times
that I talk about things outside of the things
that we usually, normally, talk about, right?
Wheels, tires, suspension, fitmentindustries.com.
You get it, I get it, I should probably get it
tattooed on me.
Maybe one day.
But that's not what we're here today to talk about.
No, no, no.
Today, we're talking about why you probably shouldn't buy
an air-cooled Porsche.
(soft techno music)
(engine revving)
(bleeping)
Because, you know the good news is,
is that they're really cool.
The bad news is, is that they're not what you think.
So I'm gonna tell you my experience with it
because why not?
'Cause we're story tellers, right?
We like to create high quality, 4K content
that you have come to love and enjoy.
So I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
and if you haven't subscribed yet,
you're going to want to
because look at all of the amazing stuff
that you could probably already be missing right now.
So with that being said,
let's take it back to when I was a young boy.
And what I decided to do is I really wanted a 911.
So I did!
I got one!
I got the 996 and I hit the forums, right?
I hit 'em hard.
Hit 'em hard 'cause that's what you're supposed to do.
And I tell you what, they don't, they're like hmm,
that's water-cooled.
Get that (bleep) out of here.
We don't do that.
We don't (bleep) with the water-cooled, boys.
This is air-cooled boys only.
You should of got an air-cooled car.
And I'm like, wow, you know,
let's go do some research on the air-cooled stuff.
And over time, few years pass, I'm like,
wow, you know air-cooled is pretty neat.
I kinda want one, right?
And that was the first mistake,
is kinda wanting anything.
And so, I got the 996, things were great,
the 911-ish conversation, the air-cooled stuff was,
you know, great talks, right?
You got the picture up on the wall,
you know you remember when your dad was a kid
they had that poster.
It was like the poster car.
So, things were okay.
You know, and finally, I'd found it.
I found the car that we just wanted to get, for my wife.
It was gonna be great, we were gonna cruise together,
it was gonna be awesome, it was gonna be perfect.
No problems at all.
It was gonna be absolutely fantastic.
Here's the problem with all of those things
is that they actually don't actually go actually,
I'm gonna say actually four more times,
they really don't actually go according to plan.
1982 Porsche 911, G Series, SC, red, guards red,
black interior, 5 speed.
Golden, beautiful, bing, bang, boom.
Peanut butter, jelly sandwich solid.
Ten out of ten.
Couldn't even ask for anything else.
It was perfect, right?
Get the car, awesome.
Wintertime, not a question at all, park it, right?
That's what you do.
You store the car, (lips smacking) you put it in the back,
kinda like a glass of wine, it's gonna get better.
Maybe a bottle, glass probably wouldn't do that well.
But a bottle of wine, put it back there.
It gets better with age.
So we end up storing it.
Doing exactly what we're supposed to do.
We go through all of the checks, get the PPI,
we got all of that done, it was perfect,
it was great.
Get the car out in the summertime,
springtime, late April, actually,
because winter in Wisconsin seems to be
anywhere from four to nine months long.
Get the car out, take it for a drive, it's great.
For 12 to 15 minutes, it is pure perfection and bliss.
After that, it's like getting train wrecked
by the worst possible thing in the world.
The thing starts shaking, it's just angry,
it just won't hold idle, blah blah blah,
things are going on.
And then, my wife is mad, she wasn't too happy.
So whatever, no problem, not a problem at all.
Until we get it back, we got the car back,
got it safe, got it secure.
Turns out, there's a very fancy term for it, right?
But imagine you got a plunger and an air box,
and the plunger is sitting in a bevel,
and depending on where the location of that plunger is
depends on how everything is just pretty much gonna run.
There is your 20 second lesson.
Well that was all, just, straight messed up.
So, we had to get that fixed.
Then turns out that there's a whole unit
that is responsible for that bit,
that kinda helps manage that whole thing.
They gotta get that replaced too, not a problem.
I know what is a problem though,
when you have head stud issues.
So, head studs are very common G Series 911 SCs.
The good news is, is that they're easy to diagnose.
The bad news is, is I'm not sure if you're aware,
but head studs aren't always the easiest to take out
of a 40 year old motor, right?
It requires drilling, tapping, screwing, new bolts,
tearing apart the motor, dropping the motor, actually,
entirely, and then after you do all of that,
debating on if it's actually going to be worth it
because, of course, you can pick up a new SC engine
for like $15,000 or head studs are going to cost you
anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 worth of valve job,
which is always super exciting.
Now you might be wondering, like Alex,
I have an air-cooled Porsche and I never had that issue,
I've never had that issue, I have no problems with the cars.
You are talking out of your butt,
you have no idea what's going on,
and it's actually not that bad at all.
And you know what, you might be right.
You may have picked up a 964 or a 911 SC back in the day,
and it was completely fine, everything was great.
And you know what?
I'm jealous.
I'm jealous because I wish that would've happened.
But here's the real conundrum,
is that these old air-cooled Porsches,
albeit very kinda funky cars are very fun to drive,
and they're worth it, they really are, they're super fun.
There's nothing quite like it.
You get in the car, it smells like oil.
You turn on the air-conditioning,
and apparently the air-conditioning is also laced with oil,
which is super great.
They've got levers, levers, pulls, gears,
transmission switches, pop outs, pop ins,
turn signals, code numbers,
everything you could possibly need,
to turn on said air system,
which still doesn't really seem to work,
'cause you got the e-brake, then you got the defrost,
then you got the other defrost.
When you really get into it, there is more levers
that would make a steam punk girl cry,
on the inside of that car.
But it doesn't matter
because once you actually get behind of the wheel
and you got the four foot long shifter
and you're just cruising around town,
there's nothing quite like it.
Here's the sitch though, right?
The old air-cooled Porsches are getting really popular.
They're getting really popular
and a lot of people love them,
you see them all over the place,
on Instagram you see all the people
wanting to buying a 964,
even though they cost like $70,000 now.
But they don't understand what they're getting into.
Now, my situation, I did know what I was getting into.
Unfortunately, they said that they were done,
and they weren't done.
So that's why I'm just sitting here, ranting,
because that's what the Internet is for.
It's like you're forced to listen to me in this situation.
You're like the greatest girlfriend slash wife
any guy could ever ask for 'cause you're sitting there,
probably having some ramen,
maybe some meatballs with your ramen
'cause you watched our previous video
on how that's a great idea
if you're on a budget in college,
just letting you know.
Lived off that for like three years.
But what happens is,
they don't know what they're getting into,
and the repairs are substantial
and sometimes you find yourself caught in a situation
where it can get pretty pricey.
And air-cooled cars are kind of like Datsuns.
Everybody wanted a Datsun for the longest time
and then when they started actually building a Datsun
or working on a Datsun,
they realized just how sophisticated
and how big of a pain in the (bleep)
the engine can actually be
because the inline-six just doesn't want to do
what it used to do, anymore.
It just doesn't.
Air-cooled Porsches are starting to kinda get
in the same boat, you know?
And if it's your only car,
if you were to buy a car and you're like,
this is the one, this is the one I want,
let me just stop you right there.
I would be arguing to tell you that you probably shouldn't.
It should be your second car, maybe even your third car,
maybe even a backup to your backup.
Maybe a car that you would get
that you know you're not gonna work on.
Because then that way, you will never be disappointed.
Because if you have no expectations,
how could you possibly be disappointed?
It's like, just have the same rule for life,
with your friends, anything,
and then you'll just never be angry.
But don't buy the car expecting
that it's always gonna work,
unless you are paying out of the butt
which, if, maybe you are, but you're probably still
gonna have a couple of problems with it.
Anything sub 30K for an air-cooled Porsche
that is a 911 series platform that's probably pre-964,
or even pre-930, you're just gonna have a bad time,
if you can even find it.
I mean, if you got a story on finding a sweet deal on a 911,
you let me know,
'cause I would happily buy a third one
just so I could be disappointed all over again,
because why not?
We never learn from our mistakes
because we're car enthusiasts,
and if we knew any better
we probably wouldn't even be in the sport anyway.
That is my experience slash rant slash discussion
on cars that you probably shouldn't buy
unless you really really like them
and you're okay with spending a little extra money
to get them up and running.
There's gonna be a lot of cars like that.
So with that being said let us know
in the comment section below,
what is the story that you have on a mistake
that you made with a car.
Maybe it was a car that you knew you shouldn't buy,
but you bought anyway,
or a build that just went terribly south.
Either way, those are always the stories we like to hear
when we're drinking beer around the fire
because we've all been there,
and just whether we want to admit it or not
is entirely up to ourselves,
and, now I'm telling 200,000 of you.
Hopefully it gets back up and running though, I mean,
the motor is out, might need to drill in the head studs,
I mean, at this point, why not?
I mean,
it's just there.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries, don't forget to subscribe,
wheels, tires, suspension, fitmentindustries.com.
I'm gonna go in the bathroom and cry now,
so we'll see you later.
(soft techno music)