I hope everyone has been enjoying their spring and summers. Here in New England we have had some of the best summer weather we have seen in years so it has made for some great driving. But time continues to move forward and we are already halfway through August so let’s make sure we get out there and enjoy those 968s.
968 “Barn find”
If you are a “velocity” channel addict such as myself I’m sure you enjoy many of their programming choices where they either locate or restore interesting collectible cars. One hot topic that often shows up on many of these shows is the “barn find” classic car. This is defined as a car that has been stored (in a barn) and unused for many years and is eventually located by someone who tries to purchase the car and retrieve it from its tomb of storage. Well, we recently had one of those in the 968 world.
I was first told about the car by a fellow 968 register member. The car was “found” at an estate auction in Texas. The 968 in question was an early 1994 coupe in a fairly standard guards red with black interior. But what set this coupe apart was its accumulate mileage. The odometer showed a mere 3,000+ miles. As mentioned earlier, the car was listed in an estate sale and the second owner picked it up for a “song” (stated to be $5K). I heard that the new owner wasn’t exactly sure what a 968 was but for $5K, how could he go wrong so he charged the battery and drove it out of the location. That in itself takes a lot of nerve since the motor hadn’t been run in years and if that timing belt had snapped, well, we know what that would have meant!!!
Thankfully since that day the car has had maintenance (hopefully a new timing belt). It has also been through a few additional re-sellers. Most recently, it showed up on Craigslist in California but now listed with a selling price that had swelled to a cool $100k!!! I, for one, hope he gets it!
So, keep your eyes and ears open for word of the “barn find” near you. You never know what it could be.
Option X32 968 spotted!
So, what’s option X32? That is an exclusive option code for the dark rootwood e-brake handle that cost $535 back in the 968 days. Only 3 of the full 4,242 North American 968 run (1 coupe and 2 cabs) were factory equipped with this option so it is RARE. One of the cabriolets that was equipped with this option showed up on eBay recently and I was pleased to see the rare handle is still with the car. The seller sent me a photo. Neat!
2015 Zone 1 Concours/Rally/BBQ
Are you looking for a fun driving event with great scenery and great cars? Well, why not attend the Zone 1 concours which is taking place during the weekend of September 12-14. The event looks to be a great one as it is being held in a spectacularly scenic location of Vergennes, Vermont, looking over Lake Champlain. It is a little bit of a hike but a beautiful one with nothing but fantastic roads and scenery (and no snow in early September). Attendees receive a nice discount at the host resort. The concours will be held on Saturday morning with a BBQ later that night. On Sunday a rally will be held. Last year we had a few 968s show up including three of the factory speed yellow cars so check your schedule and see if this is an event that you might like to attend. The wife and I will be there with Minty. All the details on the event can be found at this link:
968Register.org
Progress continues with the new register website. We were successfully able to retrieve the URL information from the previous host location and are now putting the final touches on the site. Adam and I hope to launch it in October. I’ll let you know via email when the site is ready. In order to help you fully understand all the great 968 stuff you can find there we’ll be having a “scavenger hunt” to launch the site with a prize going to the winner. There won’t be any better source for 968 production data site on the net. I promise you that. Continued thanks to Adam for his hard work on the new site.
Sincerely,
Jeff Coe
PCA 968 Register Advocate
