This is just too good not to post. I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but in case you haven't, you gotta check this out. This kid, Steven Oritz, started out with an old cell phone and, through a series of trades over the last two years, ended up with a 2000 Porsche Boxster S.

If you're thinking about the guy in Canada who started with a paperclip and ended up with a house, this is the same kind of deal. Steven has done his bartering primarily through Craigslist's barter section. It took him 14 trades to end up with the Boxster. Through the process he had stuff like a better cell phone than he started with, an i-Pod Touch, MacBook Pro, 1987 Toyota 4Runner, dirt bikes and an older Bronco valued at $15,000. Someone even offered him a locksmith business for the Bronco.

I love stories like this. I find them inspiring and love to hear how people think outside the box. Of course, being the dreamer I am, guess what the first thing I did was? Yep, went to the Portland Craigslist Barter section. After about an hour of searching, I started looking around the house for things to start with. Replicating Steven's success would be a heck of a challenge and I don't know that I'd have the patience to do it. It's still fun to dream though.

Thanks to everyone who send in this story. Funny how quickly things like this spread.

[Source & Image: SGVTribune.com]

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Just got back last night (we pulled in to my driveway at 11:45pm) from a blitz road trip from San Diego, California in a Porsche Cayman. Was a blast and confirmed why I love road trips. I'll try and give the abbreviated version of the story.

I was in my buddy's restaurant last Thursday for a lunch meeting. He happens to be a big car nut and mentioned to me when I walked in that he was thinking about buying a Porsche Cayman. Said he found one in San Diego that he loved. Immediately I'm thinking, "ROAD TRIP!!!" and told him I'd fly down and drive back with him if he ended up buying something.

By the time I got back to the office from lunch I had a text asking if I was serious. We had flights booked by the end of the day for Sunday and he'd purchased the car. Turns out it's a 2008 Porsche Cayman S Porsche Design Edition. Since it's a special edition, it has a little plaque on the dash showing it's #407 of 777 made. Black with black leather and only 7k miles on it.

Among other things, it came with some really cool Porsche Design accessories:

• Chrono watch
• Titanium pen
• Leather keychain
• Sunglasses
• Wenger swiss army knife

Everything is in that cool Porsche Design black. The knife is especially cool with black blades and a nice matte finish. None of it had been used by the previous owner.

We flew down, picked up the car, had dinner with his daughter and her friends, then took off early the next morning for Portland. I'd never driven or even ridden in a Cayman, but I have to say, I was dang impressed. The Porsche Design edition is especially appealing with some nice touches. Inside, there are slick shiny black surfaces sprinkled throughout the cabin with a suede wrapped steering wheel and shifter. LOVED those! Outside, the car has decals up the center that run from front to back, but they're very subtle. In fact you don't even notice them at first. There are also some on the lower doors that run horizontally. They really set the car off (and I don't usually like that stuff). Also included on this model are Porsche turbo wheels.

The car drives and rides like a true Porsche. The ride is a bit on the stiff side, even without the Sport setting engaged. Steering is precise and it corners like a dream. I was particularly impressed with the power of the car and how responsive it was. It feels more agile than the 911 because of it's smaller size and the engine being mid car rather than in the rear. I also loved the sound in the cabin with the engine right behind your back. Reminds me of the Ferrari.

I spent plenty of time driving and enjoyed every minute of it. Well, almost every minute of it. I drove through the pass and ended up driving through snow and some ice on the road. I don't mind driving on that stuff, but not in someone else's new-to-them Porsche. We made it though and even made the non-negotiable In-N-Out stop for lunch just outside of Stockton.

I've been thinking a lot lately about Porsche special edition cars and whether or not they're worth it. I have a post partially written up with some thoughts and have some interesting new material to add after spending time in this Porsche Design Edition Cayman. It's definitely tainted my view a bit on the special edition cars.

God bless the "road trip"!

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I'm sure lots of you are going to be haters on this story/video. That's okay. It's just downright entertaining to me (I know, I'm a simple man at heart). At least he did this on a closed road/track. No need to bring up my Porsche 911 driving while eating an ice cream cone, which again, was a safe drive. It was slow and no traffic, so no need to come after me again on that one.

Too bad we don't see more real world video reviews like this. Come on…put cars through the stuff us "normal" drivers do. Great product placement too.

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I came home yesterday to an issue of Success Magazine that was sent to me in the mail. It's not a magazine I would normally read (despite my desire to be successful!), but this one happened to have an article on Mario Andretti in it, so I gave it a quick read.

Me not being a big racing fan (of any sort), my respect and knowledge of Mario Andretti primarily comes from the association of his name with speed, racing in general, and simply going fast. I always took it as a compliment when my parents would complain about me "driving like Mario Andretti."

Although not Porsche-specific, I'm sure most people are impressed with his legacy and he's definitely got the name recognition. His career has spanned five decades and has shown him 111 checkered flags. He was also clocked once driving 234.275 miles an hour. That's CRAZY FAST!

Driving down the highway one day, a young trooper pulled him over. Maybe he had been speeding just a little. "Who do you think you are?" the  trooper asked him. "Mario Andretti?" Classic.

Quite a man with a long, successful career of going fast.

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Here's what he had to say:

School was not cancelled today despite all the snow we got in the New Haven area. Drove the boxster to class and almost died like three times!

I'll let Joe give more detail if he wants in the comments, but I don't see any road in front of where the Porsche is pointed and that snow looks awful close to the windshield.

Thanks for sending this in Joe and braving the elements in your Porsche. You're livin the dream!

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Why do angry wives/lovers/girlfriends have to take out their aggression on a fella's Porsche?! Can't they show a little more respect for these cars we all love so much? Why can't they break a window in a house, take a 7-iron to their man's TV, or snap that bowling trophy he loves so much? Seriously, don't take it out on a piece of fine German engineering that likely provided you as much pleasure and thrill as it did him.

Why bring all this up now? I was reading an article about Nick Faldo and they covered the ladies in his life over the years. One in particular seems to have had a bit of a nasty temper. Oh, and no respect for Porsche supercars! Brenna Capelak and Nick enjoyed a 3 year relationship before Nick decided it was time to move on and started seeing the next lady on the list, Valerie Bercher.

How did Brenna respond to the breakup? She took a 9-iron to his Porsche 959! Yes, is that crazy or what?! Here's what Nick had to say about the incident: "It was a very special car. It was so hi-tech, it was made of plastic. The club kept bouncing off. It wouldn't leave a dent. I auctioned it off."

Wikipedia claims £10,000 worth of damage was done. So maybe it wasn't quite as rosy as ol Nick remembers.

All I can think of to say is WHY? WHY? WHY?

[Via Guardian]

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I ran across these pictures on Thanksgiving Day while looking for a turkey Porsche. I didn't really think much about it until I read the captions.

Imagine this beautiful Porsche sitting safely in it's parking spot…

…when this happened…

Here's what the owner had to say:

yes – they all fell. 8 bikes and one spare frame and wheel -all pulled right out of the multiple studs..luckily the car was at the mechanic that day – I love my mechanic for taking two days!

That is one dang lucky Porsche!

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The 550 Spyder came from Dezer's collection and, I suppose, is the ultimate statement of Porsche passion. The process took months of planning and architecting to prepare the car for the wall and ensure it wouldn't fall on someone's head.

There's some good commentary and video of the process on the Miami Herald's site. Check it out here: Off The wall: Condo owner's decor includes a Porsche Spyder 550.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this. In one sense, it's gotta be close to being an ultimate piece of art. On the other hand, even though the car is ultra rare and not something you'd use for a grocery run, shouldn't it still be kept in working order and driven on special occasions? Seems like all cars, no matter how rare, should be driven and enjoyed as they were originally intended.

[Source & Picture: Miami Herald]

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There's only so much provocation with which I will put up, especially behind the wheel of someone else's Porsche.

Over the years, I've found there is an envy-factor that rears its ugly head when people who do not have a Porsche, encounter a 911 like the Carerra 4 Cabriolet I've been driving for the past week.

I thought perhaps the rather low-key Porsche Racing Green colour would reduce that factor, but no. Normally courteous drivers refuse to let you merge; they speed up to block you; they ride your bumper; they cut you off and, no matter what kind of wreck they're driving, they just have to try to pass.

What's with that anyway?

The last day I had the car, I was cruising along at 110 on a nearly-deserted four-lane highway, minding my own business, enjoying the top-down ride, when some twit in a pimped coupe of Japanese origin got on my bumper … just a couple of feet back.

I ignored him for awhile, but he would back off and then run back up. After a time, this began to get on my nerves.

The last I saw him, his mouth was hanging open as I left like a rocket. When provoked, the 345-horsepower horizontally-opposed six cylinder engine in the back of this 911 will respond with a vengeance, especially when it's connected to Porsche's wonderful PDK dual-clutch transmission. I hit the go-pedal, the transmission went from seventh gear to second and the Porsche and I were gone. I dunno what velocity I attained, but it was considerable. [Source The Standard]

I'm sure many of you know by now, or at least can guess, that I'm not really a drive in the slow lane kind of guy. I'm a fairly spirited driver, although I try to limit my spiritedness to the non a-hole type of driving. That said, I'm not particularly fond of people riding my rear bumper, driving in the fast lane without passing anyone, or just being generally stupid drivers. That's probably why I loved driving in Germany. The system made sense and worked.

In thinking about the time in the Giveaway Porsche, I don't know that I experienced the type of behavior the author of the quoted article mentioned, but perhaps I'm just oblivious to other drivers treating me that way given my driving mindset. It does raise an interesting question though. Do people treat you differently when you're driving a Porsche? If so, does it matter what type of Porsche you drive or is it only the 911 or flashier Porsches (color and mod -wise) that draw attention? Also, do people tend to treat you better, or assume you're a jerk because you're driving an expensive European sports car?

A few years ago, some friends of mine had their BMW (it was an older one) in for service and were given a Mercedes to drive for a couple of days. There was nothing particularly special or flashy about the Mercedes, but they swore up and down that people treated them like they were snobs whenever they were seen getting out of that car.

Anymore, pretty much any car brand is available to just about everyone. You can even find old Ferrari, Rolls Royce, and Aston Martin models that are "affordable" to purchase. Not to mention the huge range of Porsches we have on the market. It surprises me that people still associate the badge on the hood with status and potential persona of the person driving. Sure I can see that for higher end cars, but those are model specific.

Heck, there's a Porsche 944 sitting on the street all the time by an old rundown trailer park near where I live. I'm pretty sure that owner isn't a closet millionaire with a big dose of rich jerk personality waiting to be unleashed.

I guess I'm having a hard time seeing the same thing happen regularly for today's Porsche driver. Maybe it's a Canada thing. Maybe the area is dramatically different. Maybe the green color just welled up anger in people. Whatever it was, I don't think people give me the "Porsche" attitude.

I'm curious to hear what other Porsche owners, drivers, past owners, etc. experiences have been.

UPDATE: John over at PorschePurist.com reminded me of a post he put up a few months ago along these same lines. You need to check it out here: Is Driving a Porsche a Reason to be Begrudged? One of the most interesting things is that of police discriminating against Porsche drivers.

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The Beogradski Fantom, which is Serbian for Belgrade Phantom, became famous for his high speed driving night after night through the streets of Belgrade. He regularly eluded police and other chasers with his skilled and daring driving.

Belgrade at that time, was relatively boring (or so I read) and people would gather every night around Slavija square waiting for him to show. It was a thrill people didn't normally have to see his driving stunts and eventual escape from the police. It was even said that he stopped every night to pick a rose from the square for a lady he was trying to impress.

Here's a short little film about The Belgrade Phantom.

It turns out The Belgrade Phantom was actually Vlada Vasiljevic. He was a small time crook in Belgrade who developed an uncanny ability to steal cars. He was particularly drawn to fancy and expensive sports cars such as Porsche. Thus the reason the white Porsche 911 was his ride of choice.

As it turns out, there is a documentary that was made about him and his stunts that was released earlier this year (overseas only I believe). A number of people have speculated about the meaning of his antics, so it's hard to decipher what's truth and what's made up. It's also unclear what model of Porsche he drove on those 10 nights when he made circles around Slavija square.

It does sound like Vasiljevic finally was caught and went to prison. He evidently died a few years after getting out of prison while driving an old Russian Lada…also stolen.

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