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samantha1170
Correspondent
Joined: 01 Jul 2005
Posts: 1145
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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 Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 10:43 |
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JAY BUYS TWO PORSCHE 356'S
Hi everyone, I found this article today which mentions that Jay's bought 2 new Porsches...
James Martin: Make way for Noddy
The PGO Speedster II looks like a fifties Porsche, drives like a go-kart and ladies love it. James Martin, however, feels as if he's got a drive-on part in Toytown
You know what? I'm surrounded by women.
That's not a boast, it's a fact. Girlfriend, PA, managers, producers… hundreds of them, running everything.
Why do I mention it? They all absolutely love this car. And their mates, and their mums – and Dale Winton too, I'd imagine.
The PGO Speedster II: looks like a fifties Porsche, drives like a go-kart and ladies love it
If ever there was a female-friendly car, this is it – which makes it weird for a bloke to drive.
Don't get me wrong. I love cars that look like this.
It's inspired by Porsche's 356 Speedster, one of the first wave of classic German sportscars of the Fifties and Sixties.
I like cars that were driven by my heroes… speaking of which, remember the Steve McQueen Ferrari I mentioned a few weeks ago?
His Sixties 250GT was up for auction with an estimated price of $400,000. I predicted the bidding would go mental – and the hammer went down for three million.
Reckon Tom Cruise's car will be worth the same in 40 years?
Back in the Fifties, James Dean was a serious car nut and a huge fan of Porsches.
He had a 356 Speedster and raced it at Palm Springs and Santa Monica. He also had a 550 Spyder, one of only 90 built, with his team number on the hood and the words "Little Bastard" painted on the rear.
It's one of the most famous individual cars in the world – for absolutely the wrong reason. In 1955, Dean was heading to a race in the Spyder when he was killed in a collision with an oncoming Ford.
Like most of my heroes Dean died young but not before leaving us with advice so good I've got it painted on the wall of my garage: "Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."
The best example of an original Porsche 356 has just been bought by fellow car nut Jay Kay.
I know this because he took great joy in leaving a message on my phone (we often call each other drunk in the middle of the night while surfing Argentinian car sites) telling me he'd been shopping and bought two mint 356s, one of them the first Porsche ever registered in the UK.
It's a bit like Top Trumps with Jay and me.
We'll go fishing on his lake and if he catches two I've got to get three. The day after he'd bought his pair of 356s I rushed out to look at an original Ford GT40 he'd told me about, which I might have to add to my collection.
Actually, 356s are not all that rare. Buy any classic-car mag and you'll find loads for sale; the factory produced no fewer than 78,000 of them.
Before you rush out with cash in hand though, remember the early cars only had between 40 and 70 horsepower – that's less than my lawnmower.
The appeal of the 356 was always in the styling. Many would say it's the perfect sportscar shape – which is why it's spawned so many copies over the years.
I don't mind replicas when they're professionally built. The problem comes with kit cars, when any Herbert can attach a deadly V8 motor to a glorified Airfix kit with a Philips screwdriver and a paperclip.
I was once in a Golf R32, which handled pretty well, behind a bloke in a self-built replica.
Seeing me in his rear-view mirror (bought from a scrap dealer and stuck to the windscreen with Pritt Stick), he decided to press on and took the next roundabout at high speed.
Great move… until his passenger door flew off its hinges and his pet dog, who had been enjoying the ride, followed the two-foot piece of plastic into a hedge with a perplexed howl.
The moral: it's definitely safer for your pet if you have someone else build your replica. But Frenchmen building a Porsche?
No wonder the people from Stuttgart felt they needed to have a word – tiny French outfit PGO no longer uses the name "Porsche" in relation to this Speedster.
The 356 imitator looks perfect from a distance and appears well built. But zoom in: the petrol cap looks as if it's from a Foden truck; the front air-scoop is like Jade Goody's mouth – massive and always open, collecting everything from Mars wrappers to the sanitary products that somehow always get on the road.
Of Porsche's fab-sounding air-cooled horizontally opposed engine there's no sign – it's been replaced by a two-litre Peugeot straight four. The Germans must be spitting out their sauerkraut in despair.
OK, plus points. It starts readily (most old Porsches don't).
Its roof doesn't leak. And it's got a big mirror – handy to help the missus put her lipstick on but not so helpful when turning into a blind left-hand bend as it blocks your view of the road.
Performance-wise it's miles ahead of the original chick-magnet. It's far quicker and the brakes are better, too.
Sling it round the corners, power through the twisty stuff, keep the revs high and you can have some real fun.
It definitely puts a smile on your face.
So should you buy one? For the wife, sure – although the price is a bit steep. A driveable original Porsche 356 will only set you back 18 to 20 grand and you could get a really good one for 30 to 35.
Granted, this has double the horsepower – but there's another reason why I wouldn't drive it.
It's also the reason why I'm standing next to it in the picture. When I sit in it, I look like bloody Noddy.
I don't know whether I'm too big or the Speedster's too small but when I drove it I was driven mad by flies and wasps whacking me on the forehead.
Worse, when I parked at my mate's house all his builders, who are also mates of mine, started laughing at me.
They didn't do that with the Mercedes last month.
So I wanted to like it but the evidence speaks for itself: if you're a builder, a chef, tall or a family man this probably isn't going to be the car for you. Despite all the attention from women…
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html?in_article_id=480530&in_page_id=1889
SAMANTHA
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Sandriche
Officer & Jamily Coach
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 5564
Location: Austraria
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| Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 11:55 |
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| Quote: |
| (we often call each other drunk in the middle of the night while surfing Argentinian car sites) |
hahahhahahah
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Dye
Correspondent & Expert
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 5146
Location: Planet Home; Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 16:40 |
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| Quote: |
The best example of an original Porsche 356 has just been bought by fellow car nut Jay Kay.
I know this because he took great joy in leaving a message on my phone (we often call each other drunk in the middle of the night while surfing Argentinian car sites) |
 , that's an interesting bit 
I remember he sold a blue Porsche he bought, not so long ago.
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MissyM
Joined: 28 Feb 2007
Posts: 451
Location: Here--> there & everywhere!
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 04:28 |
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Wow!! that's a nice pair of Porsches for sure... just lovely 
You'd be CraZy only buying 1 wouldn't u?
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ophone
Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 2191
Location: Lëtzebuerg
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 22:04 |
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, you know what my girlfriend said a few days ago, after I said I dreamt about owning and driving one of the first Porsche 911 of the 70s?
Porsches are for pimps! 
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Jamirocat
Joined: 29 Feb 2004
Posts: 282
Location: deeper underground
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 22:36 |
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hahah...so he drunk and dials too. That's funny.
One of the first cars I was lucky to drive was a red porsche 911 Carerra...a beauty...i worked for a short time for a guy who restored porsches. Niiiice ride...fast too. Lucky Jay...So this must be his 25th car or so in his collection?
ophone, Pimps drive cadillacs, beamers and mercedes now....never a porsche... |
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ophone
Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 2191
Location: Lëtzebuerg
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 23:10 |
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| Jamirocat wrote: |
| ophone, Pimps drive cadillacs, beamers and mercedes now....never a porsche... |
Perhaps in the USA, and after all it was a quote of my girlfriend. I like Porsches for instance.
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Jamirocat
Joined: 29 Feb 2004
Posts: 282
Location: deeper underground
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 01:23 |
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! So your girlfriend was calling you a pimp?! hahah
Funny. |
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