Andy Gaunt

Model 964 C4 Year 1990 Acquired MAY 2017

It’s funny how quickly the deadline for this column creeps up on me. I’ve spent the past few days thinking about what to share this month.

Last night it came to me on the drive home. Little Green is mostly a weekend car. In my column, I’ve described solo blasts in the hills and escaping into the twisties with friends. But sometimes the old 964 is the perfect antidote to the monotony of the weekday commute.

So yesterday, amid a busy week in the lead-up to the long Easter weekend, I decided I needed a 911 moment. Even the act of grabbing the keys creates a mindset shift. One Porsche key, one house key, a leather Butzigear tag and a frayed, leather Porsche key tag means this set of keys feels different from my heavy, everyday keys. Light in the hand – not dissimilar to the steering of a 911. Sliding into the driver’s seat of the 964, I began the startup procedure. Again, it changed my feeling about the day, encouraging patience. As soon as the car eased its way out of the driveway and on to the street, my feeling was, “This is going to be a great day.”

Truth be told, an air-cooled, manual 911 isn’t the ideal tool for stop/start commuter traffic. After a while the clutch feels heavy and, without momentum to force air into the engine, the temperature gauge starts to climb – a phenomenon that, in the early days of ownership, would send me into a spiral of anxiety. At 7:30am traffic was steady, but I was able to find some space on the freeway to drive how I wanted, which is to say leaving a huge amount of space between me and the car ahead.

There are three moments I look forward to whenever I use the 964 for daily driver duties. The first being the freeway off-ramp that leads to an intersection where first and second gears will be exploited just enough to hear the flat six howl behind me. The second is a 90-degree turn which, if you catch the traffic light at the perfect moment, can be executed without touching the brakes. The third moment is when, having parked the car and begun the 20-metre walk to the office, I turn and give it an admiring look before starting my day.

Today, all three delivered in spades and, as I sat at my desk, I grabbed my phone and texted my pal Gerard, to say how great my drive had been. I probably send him a similar message once a fortnight, knowing that, as a 964 owner who occasionally dailies his car, he’ll get it. I’m sure he rolls his eyes as he reads my message, but still responds with a thumbs-up.

The drive home was even better. The day had been stressful and, like 11 hours earlier, the start-up procedure acted as a reset. Traffic was light as I pulled on to the freeway, its concrete barriers bouncing the car’s exhaust note back at me. I immediately felt the day’s stress melt away. At 100kph with the window down and the early evening breeze making things a little chilly, I cranked the heater just a little and decided I could happily drive like this for hours if it were required to get home.

Five minutes from home, I took a long cut, taking me via a short country road with approximately 12 beautifully spaced turns. Daylight was fading as I turned off the highway on to this little stretch of twisty bliss. The traffic gods smiling on me: I had a clear run from start to finish and for a few brief minutes it felt like I was carving through the mountains in the early morning light. Honestly, as far as bookends go, this was about as good as it gets.

So often, these wonderful cars sit in garages only to be driven on weekends.

But trust me when I say, if you want to break up your week in the best way possible, grab the keys to your 911 and head out into the traffic.