And that’s one vintage Porsche 911 less in the world:
Man seriously injured after crashing Porsche.
That’s in New Hampshire (albeit wayyyy north of here, in Coos County near the border with Maine), and that is was a 1967-vintage Porsche 911.
One of my frivolous middle age pipe dreams is to own a restored Porsche 911 built in my birth year, 1971, but that desire has no basis in rationality. As the owner of that 1967 911 found out, cars of that vintage have pretty lousy safety equipment. A 911 of that vintage usually has an air-cooled 2.0l 128hp flat-six in it, which was a stout amount of power for a sports car of that time, but I could probably outrace one in a modern minivan, and with air conditioning, Bluetooth, a kick-ass stereo, and better handling characteristics. But those old babies aren’t about that.
Of couse, as this accident shows, you can hurt or kill yourself with just about any motorized conveyance if you don’t know or respect its (or your) limits.
I know some folks that would love to have that top… Their ‘real’ Targa has rusted out, thanks to Porsche’s lousy weather stripping…
Trivial Pursuit: IIRC, Porsche was the first automobile company to use double-sided galvanized steel for their bodies. I believe it debuted with the 924.
To all the People From Away, please note that “Dummer” is the name of the town in New Hampshire where he crashed. No doubt the residents of Dummer are as tired of the obvious homonym as the people of Weare are. (You’re from Weare? I thought you were a Dummer resident.). Extra points for the correct pronunciation of Coos County.
It appears to me that the majority of the damage to the car came from the zealous extrication by the FD ……. as a precautionary measure, of course.
Riiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhhht.
It’s not every day you get an opportunity to cut the lid off a Porsche, after all ; l
I’m surprised they did not go for a full dash roll ……
I swear if I’m ever in a crash, and I am able, I will exit the vehichle if at all possible……. otherwise, the FD will make sure it’s totalled…… totally.
Speaking as a volunteer firefighter and a car enthusiast, I’d hate to have to cut up something that nice. But the current thinking — and the way we’re trained — is that it’s safer for the occupant to “remove the car from around the patient” than to try to extricate the patient from the car. There’s no easy way to get someone out of a wrecked car without some cutting or prying if you’re using full precautions for a suspected spinal injury.
What’s frustrating is that the vast majority of people we collar and board turn out to have no spinal injury. The state protocols are evolving to give us more freedom to not use spinal immobilization. But it’s one of those things where the consequences of being wrong(death, lifetime paralysis,etc.) tend to drive the standards despite the odds of it happening.
If you are conscious and alert, you have the right to refuse some or all of the emergency care that is offered.
lyford, I know why we cut the cars off the patients …… (Lawyers, that’s why.) …… I have some experience running the “jaws”, too …….
Everything Phil said.
Also, on of my favorite hobbies from the early 70’s was going to the Portland Rose Cup Races and watching overconfident stock brokers and lawyers go backwards up the retaining walls in their 911’s. The car that beat them all when it came out? The Volkswagen Rabbit. Watching a those stupid cracker boxes going around the corners on three wheels while the Porches tried to keep up was endlessly entertaining.
FormerFlyer
We can’t forget that those early 911s were notorious for being downright diabolical to unskilled drivers. Get into a corner a little too hard and try to scrub speed with the brakes, you get snap oversteer. Go in a little slow and decide to power on, you get understeer you try to medicate with a tap of the brakes, and again, snap oversteer. That rear engine and swingarm rear axle just don’t give much of a margin for error.
I’ve read someone state that the 911 is a great example of a horrible idea executed brilliantly. That it still exists is a testament to not only how Porsche has tamed the design but also how much they got right to begin with.
I’d love to own one, but I’d probably go for something a little more recent (and less likely to bite me on the rear when I run out of skill, luck, and pavement).
“We can’t forget that those early 911s were notorious for being downright diabolical to unskilled drivers.”
Yup. Until the late ’70s, at the very earliest, 911s had evil handling characteristics. They earned their racing laurels despite their chassis, not because of it.
If I just had to have one, I’d probably take all the body panels off an old one, and stick ’em on a newer one. Old school looks, modern power and handling.
Yeah, the Porsche purists would hate me, but hey, fuck ’em.
Not that I actually fit in an older Porsche anyway. I have a friend with an 80-something one, and holy crap. It’s not quite Lotus impossible, but it’s a serious chore to wear one of those things. (I went to the local Lotus shop and tried one of the newer Elises. I had to take my shoes off to get the door closed, and even then, there was no question of actually driving the thing.)