Porsche 911: the car old that never grows old

Old cars of Granby

Frédéric Mercier

Wednesday, 31 January 2018 15:06

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Wednesday, 31 January 2018 15:06

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There are a dozen years, Mario Villeneuve was looking for an old car. A convertible, ideally.

“I was looking for a Ford Model T at the start,” he recalls, laughing. Beyond the model, he was looking for a toy, a car with which he could have fun during the weekends. And finally, the vehicle he bought has almost nothing to do with a Ford T.

Read also: 14 models that have marked the automotive History

No, rather, it is a Porsche 911 1983 that it was finally the charm. Wicked contrast!

A resident of Granby, it is not of him that Mario Villeneuve has found the rare pearl. “I have seen it in the courtyard of the Ford dealership,” he recalls. Not the car the more ancient, it is true, but she has managed to charm this great lover of mechanical and automobile racing.

Unfortunately, the relative youth of this beautiful 911 has not spared Mr. Villeneuve from a few headaches. “The body was very nice, but I had a package of electrical problems,” recalls the owner.

Possessing good knowledge in the field, Mario Villeneuve has managed to settle the majority of the breaks by itself. The former owner of the vehicle also had plenty of spare parts, which did not hurt either.

It took a few years before getting there, but Mario Villeneuve can now take the road to the edge of his shiny new Porsche 911 with confidence. His car, he knows now like the back of his pocket.

An iconic model

The 911 definitely has no need of presentations. A true legend of the automotive world, it represents the heart and soul of Porsche since now 55 years old.

Obviously, the model has changed with time. But even today, Porsche continues to apply the same winning recipe: a sports car with four seats at sporting behaviour, driven by a motor placed at the rear.

Baptized 901 in its infancy, the model has had to change their name due to a conflict with the French car manufacturer Peugeot, who was to hold the rights on a numeric nomenclature to the three figures of which the middle one is a “0”. Porsche has finally decided to replace the 0 by a 1. Thus was born the 911.

The model of Mario Villeneuve is part of the second generation of the model, which appeared as early as 1973. Equipped with the original engine, Porsche uses a block six-cylinder, 3.0-liter air-cooled. We had to wait at the end of the 90s to see Porsche abandoning this type of mechanical for a water cooled engine. The Porsche of Mr. Villeneuve is also equipped with a manual transmission with five reports.

Anxious to respect the originality of the vehicle, Mario Villeneuve went so far as to remove some of the components that had been added by the previous owner. He got rid of the radio’s most recent to reinstall the original one.

“Everything is original”, he says proudly. The wheels, the paint, the mechanics, everything has remained about the same since leaving the factory. And as the 911 remains the only old car, he did not hesitate to treat it with onions.

Old cars of Granby

Still for a long time

Mario Villeneuve is the owner of his Porsche for the past 12 years. So he bought it before the price of this model caught fire on the car market collection. Because today, if you want to get a Porsche like that, you better have deep pockets.

Despite the rise spectacular of the value of his car, Mr. Villeneuve has no intention of letting it go to the highest bidder. “I have already thought to replace it with a 911 which is more recent, but it is less exclusive”, he says.

Instead, Mario Villeneuve intends to take advantage of the beautiful summer days at the wheel of his trusty car. The roof down, ideally.