< Previous Page
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Next Page >
June 25, 2020 - The Sowing

I explained my situation to Luke over breakfast (or dinner or whatever). That basically, I was starting to warm up to the idea of a lightweight, mid-engined Porsche. I related my thoughts, of imagining the feeling of that low polar moment of inertia in a nice tight hairpin, powering out in first gear and rocketing to the next hairpin. I then ... floated the idea of maybe doing just that .... but with another Porsche close by .... maybe, maybe ... Luke's .... own Porsche? Wouldn't that be cool?

Luke didn't seem immediately rejective of the idea. I'm fairly sure the wheels had started to turn in his head - at least a little. We talked a bit about how this could be a paired purchase ... maybe we could even match our cars in some way. Certainly, Luke was still a firm fan of drop-tops, and gravitated immediately to the Boxster. I was less sure, having enjoyed my times in my S2000 but also liking the lines and the all-sports focus of the Cayman. We both considered that a base model (whether Boxster or Cayman) would be a reasonably-priced purchase, especially if we were careful with the options (always a big and expensive temptation with Porsches). At that time, in mid 2020, base Boxsters/Caymans listed at roughly $70,000 CDN - which was only a small increment over the price I had paid for my M2. As a further incentive, I cited online chatter from purchases during the last few years (in the 2017-2018-2019 timeframe) about how we might even expect to get a reasonable discount - maybe 5%? That would also help soften the pain of such a big purchase.
Luke's Thoughts
[on the crazy idea of buying two Porsches...]
I recall rather rapidly scoffing at the idea that I, too, could do such a thing. To me, Porsche lived in the stratosphere of unattainability, and certainly my lifestyle doesn't trend towards that of the 'rich and famous'. Obviously that was a bit of a false impression, as Porsche cars are clearly not solely the province of the upper echelons of society. Expensive, absolutely. Unattainable for someone with my resources - I initially thought so, absolutely. But in chatting about it, as you say, the wheels started to turn a little and I began tentatively to ponder the possibility soon after (or perhaps even during, though only as a flight of fancy) that initial conversation.


Our chat session concluded. We parted ways, and I'm sure Luke spent the next few days running all of the details over in his mind. I considered the seed planted. Would it sprout?

Summer 2020 - A Long Gestation

Summertime meant summer things - hiking trips and family gatherings and the like. We chatted back and forth intermittently over the summer of 2020, but nothing much advanced on this idea of a double Porsche Euro Delivery purchase. By mid-August, however, the thoughts had re-coalesced.

Neither Luke or I had ever really seriously considered Porsche before, and therefore we had never really bothered to investigate any model up close. I was currently in the ... let's call it .... the "mid-level German Sportscar" tier. I mean with the M2. More than a hot-hatch like a Volkswagen Golf GTI but definitely below single-focus purpose-engineered pure sportscars like a Porsche 911 or something like an Audi R8. And Luke had settled into the mindset of "oh I'll just buy whatever Andrew sells to me when he gets his next car". Which, of course, meant he figured he'd just eventually buy my M2. This double-purchase idea had completely now upended that order. Our minds were drifting in an automotive world of new possibilities, and we decided that if nothing else, we should go actually look at some examples of these cars. See how we felt about them in person.

August 15, 2020 - First Contact

On Saturday, August 15th, 2020, we visited Mark Motors Porsche in Ottawa, Canada. The visit was our first true sense of Porsche. On this visit we were accompanied by my friend and long-time work colleague Gord (and his partner Tracey) - both of whom were sports car aficionados and who were also [lightly] considering what their next fun car might be.

We wandered around the dealership lot. There were many Porsche SUVs, uninteresting to us, but also a few sports cars. We met Julian, a friendly and seemingly unpretentious line salesman, and he showed us around inside, where, among several other high-end models, there was a base Cayman in black. He took us down into a lower garage level of the dealership where an un-prepped Boxster sat, still wrapped in the coverings of its journey across the Atlantic from Germany (we had wanted to get a look at the roof operation of the Boxster, and that was the only one present during that visit). Smooth and slick, especially compared to Luke's existing S2000. We didn't take any test drives, and we didn't talk price. We just looked. Felt. Sensed.

In all, we came away with the perception of a focused, no-nonsense vehicle with a minimum of ornate flourishes and a definite sense of jewel-like quality, I especially appreciated the analog controls and the round dials of the instrument cluster, including a proper tachometer/speedometer. We both liked the middle ground provided by the digital multi-function screen in the cluster, as well as the choice to mount the infotainment screen flush into the console (rather than the fashionable tablet-screen-that-sticks-out arrangement chosen by most manufacturers).

Basically, we liked what we saw. We certainly wanted to feel them on the road, regardless of whether we chose to actually order.
< Previous Page
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Next Page >
Send feedback or leave comments (note: comments in message board below are separate from those in above message board)
send feedback | homemade custom message board
(Message Board failed to initialize. )
Web Page & Design Copyright 2001- 2025 by Andrew Lavigne. (Privacy Policy)