Well, I went on the first decent drive today in the 924. First time in TEN YEARS this car has seen the open road. I've posted up a worklog in the 924 section if anyone cares to see pictures and the progress...

I bought all of the belts to replace and a few other things to fix.. was going to do them tonight but thought "No, you know what, I want to just take it for a spin, go show my dad how far it's come."

I get almost to redmond and I heard a BANG from the engine bay. Little bit of white smoke on the right side and I figured I had blown the head gasket. Low and behold NO I blew the accessory belt and it was spraying coolant all over. What a mess!

Thankfully, he was nice enough to pick one up from napa, drive it over, tell me "I should know better" (IN reality i did... i let excitement get the best of me, should have replaced the belt which was pretty bad).

Thankfully no permanent damage, engine didn't overheat, I just pulled over in embarassment as I sat there on the side of the road unable to fix it till I had the new belt.

The drive back though? NOW THAT was fun. I took some backroads, hit some twisties and had some fun. They sure aren't fast cars. But the last time I drove one of these cars was way back when I was 15, and I remembered how much fun it was. It wasn't for long, but I sure wanted one. It was pretty cool to bring back those brief memories and make new ones as I toted through some corners and had some fun.

Looks like hell, sounds like hell, slow as hell (that's what the Ducati is for to compensate HAHA!) and sure as hell is far from dignified condition to represent the P-name. But damnit it's mine and I had a blast. Pretty cool to see something that wasn't anything but a big pile of metal off a trailer, wouldn't drive, wouldn't move, couldn't hardly even push the darn thing. And now it's back on the road and saved from what would have been a horrible demise for such a neat little car.

Figured I'd share. Anyone else have an experience with any projects or your first car that revived some teenage memories (granted there's an age gap here, but i love cars, and love hearing other enthusiast stories)?

BTW: Here's a pic of it finally filling up for the first time in 10 years



PS: I think it's really cool that we have a 924/944 board here on 6speed. It's nice to see a few other owners on here. Even if they aren't the fastest thing on 4 wheels.