BY BOB HINDLE: I HAD MY FIRST RIDE in a Porsche as a 14-year-old in a 356 C Cabriolet. It was owned by a guy called Eric Beckmann, who lived in a small village south of Düsseldorf. He had been billeted as a 16-year-old prisoner of war with my parents in England, who, after the war, stayed in touch with him on a regular basis. We first visited him and his wife Ulla on a family vacation in 1958. They were living in an attic apartment in Wuppertal and didn’t own a car. Four years later, their fortunes had changed dramatically. We stayed with them in their villa and Eric let my dad drive his 356 with the top down, while I squatted down behind them. My dad was mightily impressed with the car, his own being an Austin A50 at the time. I guess that sowed the seeds of desire to one day own a Porsche of my own.
Fast forward to 1991 and my 43rd birthday. I had been driving a Ford Tempo, of all things, when I saw a 944 in the used car lot of Hawley Pontiac Cadillac on Dundas Street in Mississauga. It was a 1989 944 S and looked gorgeous in Flamingo Metallic. The price was right. I took it for a drive and did the deal, subject to a satisfactory inspection report. At the time, there was an independent guy on Lakeshore Road close to my house in Port Credit, who specialized in Porsche and VW maintenance. He had been trained at Heimrath’s shop, so I took it to him, and he pronounced it to be in good shape, which sealed the deal.
I joined PCA UCR, along with my wife Vivien, and we started attending the meetings, which at that time were being held at the Port Credit Yacht Club. That led me to get involved with the Driver Education program, with Howard Dexter being the chief instructor back then. We had an initial instruction course at a facility in Pickering prior to the first event at Mosport.
Heimrath wouldn’t release the repaired car to me, as he had a mechanic’s lien posted against it. Apparently the original owner had failed to pay his bills with Heimrath. He wanted that debt cleared before I could recover the car.
Driving home about a month after acquiring the car, the engine suddenly died. I quickly put the clutch in, and I was actually close enough to my house to coast into the driveway. I tried cranking once, but it was dead. Unfortunately it seemed the mechanic’s inspection had not covered the timing belt and it had broken, causing pistons and valves to meet. On the positive side, as it was only running at, more or less, idle when the belt let go, the internal damage was not as bad as it could have been. I still have one of the pistons as a souvenir, which clearly shows the interference issue between valves and pistons. The car was transported to Heimrath’s Scarborough shop, where the repairs were carried out, at a very fair price. Heimrath took the opportunity to call the independent mechanic to read him the riot act for not spotting that the timing belt needed changing.
The story at this point gets quite interesting. Heimrath wouldn’t release the repaired car to me, as he had a mechanic’s lien posted against it. Apparently the original owner had failed to pay his bills with Heimrath. He wanted that debt cleared before I could recover the car. Hawley Pontiac Cadillac was owned by the Crewson family. My son and the son of the owner were school friends. I called Mr. Crewson and explained the situation. The dealership should not, of course, sold the vehicle with a lien against it. They quickly rectified the matter and I was able to collect the car from Heimrath’s. It seemed he’d given me a real break on the repair cost, as he was pretty sure he’d recover the lien debt.
A court case between Hawley and Heimarth subsequently took place, which resulted in Hawley submitting a winning argument. That whole episode appeared in an article in the Toronto Star Wheels section.
Having gotten the car back home, I enjoyed two more years of ownership, with many enjoyable drives, as well as progressing to the point in the Driver Education program where I was invited to join the instructor group. Unfortunately I never did get to become an instructor. At the last track day I attended for quite a while, I was sharing the car with my son, me in the black run group and he in white. On the first white run after the lunch break the car failed to reappear on about the fourth lap, which got me quite worried. I heard over the radio that it had come to a halt on the track at corner five. It seemed I’d failed to check the oil level after the morning runs, and the typical 944 problem occurred. Namely, low oil level plus vigorous driving equals seized motor. At this point I had the great good fortune to meet Rick Bye who was attending the same event. He trailered my car to his shop in Burlington, dropping my son and I off at home on the way. He sourced a replacement motor for me from a wrecker in Lockport New York. I went there to collect it, and had to pay some sort of tax (GST I think) at the border crossing on the way home. I delivered it to Rick Bye’s shop for the engine swap to be done. The next day Rick called to say that engine was no good, as it had a leaking cylinder block. He arranged with the wrecker to take it back and to get a good motor in its place. So I had another trip to Lockport to return the bad motor and pick up the good one. On the way through the border, I stopped to recover the tax paid on the initial motor as I was re-exporting it. Coming back with the good motor, the agent waved me through saying I didn’t need to pay anything. Within a couple of days the new motor had been installed and I was back in business, for a while.
Driving home from work, the transmission started jerking between drive and overrun, and making a loud clanking noise. Diagnosis: clutch failure due to the rubber vibration isolators breaking apart. Being used to working on cars all my life, I decided to do the job myself. I gathered all the necessary parts and accomplished the job over a weekend. It involved removing the transaxle at the rear, the gear shift, torque tube, drive shaft and bell housing in order to access the clutch. I was very pleased with myself for getting the job done satisfactorily. About a month later, knocking noises started being noticeable at the left rear drive shaft. Inspection revealed a badly worn inboard CV coupling. That resulted in another weekend repair job. Too bad the noise hadn’t appeared before the clutch replacement project.
At more or less this time, I had been promoted at work to the point where my employer was offering to provide a leased vehicle. So given the significant costs associated with the maintenance of the Porsche, it was time to part company. It was with some sorrow I sold it on to a newly qualified lawyer, who once having seen the car and driven it, agreed to the asking price, with no haggle.
My current car is a 987.2 Cayman S in what our family calls “Hindle Blue.” We have a long-running habit of buying blue cars. It is gorgeous, and wonderful to drive. </>
