Unimportance of retail value

Dear Sir, The luck of the Irish! I live in southern California where I have the opportunity to drive numerous two-lane roads over hill and dale, always watching out for bicyclists. Ortega Highway, Azusa Canyon, Highway 33 to Pine Mountain, Hudson Ranch Road, Decker Canyon Road... the list goes on forever. My attitude toward my car (now a 997.2S with a stick shift like the one pictured) is that I own it to drive it, and don’t really care whether it ever has a significant resale value. I put about 33,000 miles a year on it, use it as my daily driver, and I believe that I’ve driven to the moon and back (238,855 miles) more than three times in the six Porsches that I’ve owned. I’ve been driving Porsches, starting with a 914 2.0, for more than 46 years. Total 911 has taught me a lot about these superbly designed machines. There’s a reason why my chapter of Porsche Club of America has a lot of retired space engineers. Yet the most knowledge has come from being tutored by my instructor friend, who has a 1975 911, a GT3 and a GT4, and is willing to avoid the track in favour of the natural beauty around us – fir, pines, eagles, bobcats, even a bear or two – and encourage me to follow along. I do think that each of the six automobiles lived up to the promise that it can be driven on the highway as well as on the track. My wife Linda has told me many times that (at 79), I am “...growing older but not up”, in the words of Jimmy Buffett. She has a point. Yet with the top down, surf music resonating and the forest trees seeming to stream by, my response is that this aspect of my life may just be – in Jimmy’s words – a tire swing. Mark M O’brien

Thanks for getting in touch, Mark. The most rewarding aspect of Porsche ownership is driving these fantastic sports cars, not garaging them away. It’s great to read that you’re still enjoying a Porsche 911 on a daily basis, and long may it continue.