Back in beige

[Robind]

Good to see you and the car in this months Octane mag

[jamie]

OCTOBER 2017 UPDATE!

Earlier this year, Photobucket started charging to hotlink images from their site.

If you are seeing broken image links in this thread, download Google Chrome browser and install the extension 'Photobucket Hotlink Fix'.

[KS]

Discovered that a short while ago and was amazed to find it actually worked!

PS - say hi to Redondo for me...

[jjeffries]

In which issue of Octane was Jamie's car featured? Thanks, John

[jamie]

Long overdue update...

Not long after getting the 912 back on the road we moved to the US. We also had a baby (born in the UK shortly before we left).

I shipped the car back across the Atlantic and for a year we all lived in Los Angeles. Like every European that moves to the US, I bought a stupid big American V8 (1995 Buick Roadmaster Wagon with a 6.2L LT-1 Corvette motor). My first trip in it was driving it home from South Carolina.



Living in LA was an interesting experience, but after a year I was finding the congestion, the number of people and the cost of living really stressful. Good driving roads were an hour away (two, in traffic) and going to Cars and Coffee every weekend wasn't getting old. Also, the place loved to regularly catch fire.



It didn't take me long to realise what I loved most about the US was vast open spaces and weirdness. I had worked in Palm Springs a few years ago, and always thought I would like to live there. Vast, beautiful, hotter than hell and populated by people that can only exist in this oddball microcosm. So we loaded everything into a U-Haul van and moved out to a nice house that a friend was renting. It was three times the size of our apartment in LA. You could drive out of the gate onto a road with no traffic jam, surrounded by mountains and palm trees and a beautiful blue sky.

Friends in LA said I'd be bored, but after a year out here it's yet to happen. There are great roads (Highway 74 being the jewel in the crown) and lots of stuff going on. People come to Palms Springs to have a good time, and you can feel that even when you live here day to day. There is miles and miles of open space in every direction for you to do your thing, whatever that may be...



With regards to the 912, it's still running strong. The Bilstein shocks were too stiff, so I replaced with with Boge units. That made the car ride beautifully, but the handling became a bit sloppy. After spinning three times during a track day at Chuckwalla, I installed a 15mm through-the-body anti roll bar and that seems to have sorted things out. Now I have a car that rides smoothly and corners well.



And I re-packed the front seat foam because, after 7000 miles, the original foam in the Cobra buckets just wasn't holding up.

The engine sometimes struggles to stay cool in the 100+F heat, so my next modification may be to fit an external oil cooler and thermostat. Other than that, I'll just continue to drive and enjoy. My little boy loves going out in the car, and doesn't get car sick (been flinging him around the Malibu canyons since he was six months old) which I am obviously pretty happy about



View from Palos Verdes, looking north. Taken in 2017, whilst we lived in LA



Where the 912 lives now



Meeting with friends for an early morning drive on Highway 74

[jamie]

Flying, my other passion...

I've done a lot more flying since moving here. Aviation in the US is like nowhere else in the world and is the true definition of that F-word that Americans love so much. The attitude to aviation is very different here - in the UK it's a rich man's hobby. I've best heard it described here as an American way of life, in that nobody seems to question it, and it's usefulness is never contested.

In the UK, general aviation is treated as a fourth-class citizen to the commercial air traffic. You are taught not to fly small single-engine aircraft over cities, and that serious controlled airspace is off-limits. Landing and parking an aircraft costs money. Often a lot. I flew 300 hours in the UK and Europe without ever using an ATIS or flying over a big city, and had never dreamed of being able to afford to operate an aircraft with any sort of performance.

Shortly after we moved here, I found a good deal on a 1987 Vans RV-4 up in the desert north of Los Angeles. After checking it out and handing-over the money, I flew it back to LA. Leaving an uncontrolled airfield in the desert, I climbed over an 8000 ft mountain, down into the Los Angeles basin, under the LAX Class B approach, and into my local Class D airport at Torrance. The thing climbed at 2000 feet per minute and cruised at 175mph. During that flight could see airliners at the same level as me, operating in the same chunk of airspace. I didn't know what to say on the radio, or what to expect at the other end of the journey. To my British brain it felt utterly illegal, but it wasn't, and somehow I lived. I now have 160 hours on the aircraft, have flown it across the country four times at over 10000ft, regularly transit Class B airspace, operate as part of the regular flow of traffic amongst commercial 737s and Airbuses at my local airport, and am absolutely in love with flying here.





Bay Area Transition over the Golden Gate bridge, with San Francisco Intl in the distance



Quick 25-hour oil change, with the 1,000,000th 911 for company.



A friend's jet, which he bought off Las Vegas Craigslist for $5000

[DustyM]

Fantastic Update Jamie. That last line just about says it all. Different world.

[hot66]

Now that’s an update

Car is looking great. I love palm springs so a little bit jealous . Sounds like you’re livin the dream

[KS]

(Almost) my second home – and how I envy you being able to enjoy the good life to the full! Good for you that you grabbed the opportunity rather than sit and say 'Wish I'd done that...'.

Very cool!

[Lightweight_911]

.

Great to see & hear that you're enjoying life to the full.

This must be the first update you've posted that hasn't involved you hacking into parts of your body accompanied by pictures of your bloodied/bleeding wounds ...

[Bootsy]

As above, living the dream Jamie. Wonderful stuff

[911hillclimber]

Fantastic.
I worked in Santa Rosa in north Cal for a few months in the early 80's, nearly gave up on the UK and take a permanent move out there.

The approach to life was just as you are experiencing now, back then, a big part of us wishes we had done it.
Still taking pictures as a living?

[jjeffries]

I'm very glad to read your update; had been wondering. And as others have said...some update. My Dad moved us to the US in 1981 (Burbank on the TriStar program with R-R) and I stayed when they retired "home". I'm no pilot but have always been interested and met lots of great people at little airports around the country, guys who often have cool cars stashed in their hangars, too. Despite the whackadoodle current occupant of the white house, hoffific gun violence and lots of unresolved racial stuff, it's still magnificent from my POV.
The late afternoon shot of the 912 with a huge desert visit behind is very Henry Rasmussen, and the photo of the jet trainer off your starboard wing is.....totally rad! Safe to assume you've flown into Chino and has a nosey around? Please keep the updates coming. John in Connecticut (very different to SoCal...)

[sladey]

Nice update Jamie - glad to hear you are doing well. The flying sounds great - bit calmer than your engine misfire over the North Sea

[inaglasshouse]

Jamie,
It's very good to hear from you, especially with such a perfect update. That jet is bonkers!

Know what you mean about wide open spaces. Do you remember that random dinner in LA? I think I mentioned that we'd spent the previous week in a house in the middle of the desert in Nevada - loved it.
So I am properly jealous of the PS lifestyle. I remember one year when we were out there for a month in the winter, the immigration guy at LAX couldn't believe that we'd be spending most of the month in PS (not LA etc)- he said we'd be bored after 3 days. Like you, didn't happen.
Need to find a way to spend several months of the year there....

Best wishes, keep in touch, Richard.