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How I Had My Dream Car…Until I Didn’t
In 2002, I suffered a brain tumor accompanied by a series of seizures. This resulted in me losing my driver’s license, and facing an uncertain future, I sold my beloved VW camper. About a year later, I received a $50,000 windfall from a startup I had been involved with. I had recovered from the tumor, hadn’t had a seizure in many months, and still didn’t have a car. I had just been given the means to buy another car, and I decided on a $20,000 budget to get a set of wheels.
For that price, I could get a very serviceable new Toyota Corolla, or some such, but I had higher aspirations. In the mid-70s, I had been given a ride in a Porsche hitchhiking to a party the day after Christmas from Woodacre, a somewhat isolated hamlet in West Marin. Although it was a 912 model with the 4-cylinder engine, and at the bottom of the Porsche product line, I had never forgotten the sensation of smooth and effortless speed that it provided, so I began thinking in terms of a Porsche Boxster convertible, nice examples of which could be had for $20K.
I soon found a flawless example from 1999, navy blue with a tan interior, with less than 20,000 miles on it. Before buying the car, I slipped behind the steering wheel and marveled at how everything…the gearshift, pedals and steering wheel, felt like they were in the perfect…
