Never too old

Was out for a drive with my daughter (20 years old) last week and she wanted to stop at the supermarket to pick up a prescription. Since she was only going to be a few minutes, I parked out front of the store, off to one side. Sitting there waiting, I saw an old Porsche 912 (early 70's model) parked in one of the handicapped spots and thought to myself: "who would be driving a Porsche that needed to be in a handicapped spot". A minute later this little old lady with white hair and all bent over came out of the store with a baggage clerk pushing a shopping cart and both headed right for the Porsche. The clerk put her bags in the back seat and the old lady got in and drove off. At this time my daughter came out so I followed the Porsche out of the parking lot. I wanted to pull along side and honk the horn and give her a thumbs-up, but she pulled on to a side street before I had the chance. Just goes to show that you are never to old to enjoy sports cars. People will be saying that about me someday. "Did you see that old man who could barely walk drive away in a Ferrari."

 

Come to think of it - a 912 is a PERFECT car for an old lady. Fairly easy to get in and out of, very upright seating position, incredible outward vision, not all that fast, and gets great gas mileage.

 

You should see the looks I get!! I am 43 (everyone says I look like I am 30 though...whatever...my shoulders feel 60) and I always pull into H/C spots... Usually in my crappy company car (supercharged Monte Carlo SS), but frequently I am in one of my many 928's and they are in AWESOME shape, and of course even the old ones still look COOL... People cut me some really wild looks and then I throw my wheelchair out the door of the car and start putting it together and they are like WOW! If someone helps me take stuff out to my car they always freak that I actually drive a Porsche (6 of them actually...not all at the same time of course ;-)! I can't wait to get a Ferrari, man I will probably have people actually walking up to the car to give me a hard time before I can even get my chair out the door! LOL!

Good story! Thanks for sharing!

James

 

AMEN!

 

love it! i hope i will one day be the old guy driving off in my boxer!

 

I saw a couple this weekend who had to have been well into their 80s in a brand new 997 cab. They had the top down and looked like they were having the time of their lives.

I see quite a few elderly people here with sports cars or "odd" cars for old people... There's an old lady in town with a Mini Moke, and another with a Fiat Jolly. Both seem to be having lots of fun when I see them out and about, and both seem to love the looks they get when they're driving them.

 

Yes, older people driving sports cars is a trend that is increasing quite a bit these days.
Have you noticed the average age of a new Corvette owner?
This is one of the reasons the Corvette has evolved over the years to include all the luxury/comfort items similar to a Cadillac Eldorado.
With the baby boomers reaching retirement age and the average life span of the AARP crowd reaching the mid-80's, you're gonna see a lot more gray haired folks driving sporty cars.

Not clear if Ferrari will cater to this market segment or not. Did you notice that the 612 Sessanta comes with cruise control, cup holders, and entertainment center with a rear-view back-up camera and GPS? ("Sessanta" is Italian for “sixty” - to celebrate the 60th anniversary and a limited run of just 60 cars to be built.) I never thought I'd see the day when that happened.

Here are some pics of the 612 Sessanta interior. A beautiful car. You can see the cup holders and entertainment center screen.
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James-
Good man for keeping the 928 flame burning bright! We've had 3, including a Callaway Turbo. Back in 1977 I got to put some laps on a well-used prototype 928 on the circuit at Weissach.

Tritone

 

My pleasure! That is SUPER COOL about the prototype and the Callaway! I don't think he built very many of those! They really are great cars. I think they still look modern (I get asked if my '94 is a new car ALL THE TIME!) and a wonderful GT cars. They are decent on the race track too, I have put over 10,000 track miles on my '88 S4 and now I have a dedicated GT class PCA Club Race car that I am still working on getting fully sorted. Looking forward to putting more miles on that this year if all goes well.

Thanks,
James