My new ride...

Well, after much debating on a TR vs. a Countach, I bought the TR from Continental. '91, 17K miles, records, service, books, tools, blaa blaa. I don't have any pictures yet, but I think the dealer pictures are still on their web site. The tiny scratch I mentioned in the Concours thread will probably just be touched up as opposed to repainting the whole hood. Otherwise it is perfect. I traded my Porsche 996 C2 Tiptronic Cab instead of the 308, so there are now 2 horses in the stable. Actually, I will take delivery on Tuesday if Custom Cars can't get it in right away, otherwise a few days later. I told my wife today is the 3rd greatest day of my life, following marrying her, and 2nd place will be when I have my first kid.

I still intend on getting the 25th Anniversary Countach, and now I still have something to look forward to. I don't think I would've bought bought the TR after the Countach, as to me the Countach is my ultimate car (I was a kid with the poster on the wall, etc...) and I wouldn't want to go down in speed from the Countach to the TR. So this makes a nice progression. But now when I get that, I'll be keeping the TR and have them side by side. After that, a Dino (looks only, not worried about speed), then a Diablo Roadster, and then I'm done with my wish list!

Looking forward to seeing and driving with you all this year! Now I just have to count the days....

 

I think the car you are speaking of was a different one, it was a '90 with about 2500 miles on it, and Lonnie said they got something like $81K for it. The one I just bought has only been there since the winter. As far as the price, besides offering to fix the scratch and recharge the AC, they only were willing to take off a few hundred bucks, which surprised me, but they were firm on their #, or maybe I wasn't hard enough with negotiation. Most other dealers I spoke to with TRs were willing to knock off a few thousand, as much as $5K, but Continental was not. But the car was really the best I've seen in my long search, and it was local, all records, service, etc., so I went for it. This is the first time I've bought from Continental, and overall it was a much classier experience than when I bought my Porsche from Luxury Motors. Continental's prices may not be the lowest, but Lonnie seems like a straight up guy, and I've known Gary & Scott in service for a few years, and they're great. My search for the best TR paid off. What I like was that I checked out a TR from Continental about 1.5 years ago, and it was in bad shape. It needed cats to make it legal, and they only could sell it to me if I had a dealer license. But they were up front and told me that this was not a car that they would sell on their own lot, so I appreciated that, and was waiting for them to have one that they felt strongly about.

 

Well, the Porsche 996 was black as well, and to see 2 black cars together in the garage was somewhat bland. Although a black TR would have a matching trim on the bottom, (I like the look of the 512TR matching trim) the cheese grates on the side are not as pronounced in black, where with the red car you can see the black accents, and it adds a bit of depth. Granted, the black TR is beautiful on its own, there was one at Prancing Horse Roundup last year I was admiring, but they are so hard to keep clean. When I had my silver Boxster S, although I washed it regularly, I didn't really have to because that color just hides everything. I also liked the grigio TR Lake Forest had last year, but when you buy a car that means red-head, it must be red! Same with the Countach, although when it comes time to find me a Dino, it will be a silver one, I just drool everytime I see Mike E.'s car. Speaking of Mike, my wife almost talked me in to buying his old 355 from Continental, beautiful car, but I opted not to stray from the mission and did not drive it and stuck with my original plan and got the car I really wanted. It's gonna be a long couple of days until it's delivered!

 

Since we're both living in parallel car universes, what car are we getting next? There was a red Anniversary Countach in Florida that just went a few weeks ago on Ebay for $75K. I missed it. That's actually pretty low compared to other prices I've seen recently for the anniversary model.