Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Me and the Gold-Plated Porsche

Yours truly, stylin' in a Dolce and Gabbana black, gray and olive striped knit cap, Calvin Klein black long-sleeve T, and A&F olive-drab cargo pants, peering under the hood of Stephan Wilkinson's bright yellow Porsche 911 race car, 2004. Hah! I always wanted to walk down a red carpet and have someone ask me who I was wearing, instead of asking me who I was stalking and escorting me out. None of my clothes had paint on them at that point. Rips and tears, and in some cases duct tape and staples as I don't sew, but I didn't start painting until late fall 2004 when I stopped working full-time.

B O O K S — The Gold-Plated Porsche: How I Sank a Small Fortune into a Used Car, and Other Misadventures, Globe Pequot Press, 2004. This is a book by my publisher, but I had nothing to do with its design or production. Stephan Wilkinson is a former editor of Car and Driver, a graduate of Harvard and contributes a monthly column at Popular Science, "Man and Machine." The car isn't a product of a Las Vegas shopping spree gone wrong, it's not actually gold-plated; the title refers to the obscene amount of money the author spent to have the car made race-worthy after buying it for next to nothing. 

I was still working full-time in 2004, about to quit actually, when the author dropped by with his book's namesake Porsche. He was a really interesting guy to talk to, aren't all car people, lol? The car's six-cylinder 'pancake' horizontally opposed engine was L-O-U-D and stripped out as race cars tend to be. It was good weather, a great afternoon to gather outside for an impromptu car show of one, and I always enjoy the times I can tell someone associated with a book or magazine I've read forever, just how much I appreciated their contribution to my car-fueled adolescence. We have a few Porsche lovers that read this blog so I thought you'd appreciate this post.

For a link to the Amazon write up of this now out-of-print book, click here.

Here's what Car and Driver said of the book:
". . . this isn't a book about Porsche restoration. It's about Wilkinson's colorful life. . . . That, along with elegant writing, is what makes this book so endearing--the tales are told without ego. Wilkinson is amused by life's inevitable disasters and humiliating blow-ups, trotting them out so everyone can laugh. This is . . . less a tale about a machine than a tale about a man enjoying a machine."

19 comments:

  1. Good Morning Casey - Gold Plated Porsche looks like an interesting read. I checked online and they have it at my library, just one little problem my library card expired 5-31-2010, oops! Well I will get that little matter taken care of this morning. Always scares me a bit when I see big red letters saying "Please see the librarian" flashing at me. I've never felt completely loved by librarians and always sensed they never took an eye off me. I must have been traumatized by a falling bookshelf as a child?!?

    I was hoping Stephan Wilkinson might have been a guest on Charlie Rose Show but did up, he would be an interesting subject.

    I woke up too early today for me and now I feel like I need a nap, maybe the walk to the library will serve to clear my head.

    Where is Granny? She didn't mentioned she was going away, so I hope she is OK.

    Later....

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  2. If you really want red carpet recognition you have to wear the latest couture from an emerging designer - how about Vera Wang! LOL !

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  3. Good Morning!

    even when i worked at WWD i never looked good or wore the latest... i was always on the funky side!

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  4. FUNK IS BEST. FOR MYSELF, NO FRILLS. I LOVE EVERYTHING IN SOLID COLORS. LOVE FLOWERS BUT I DON'T WANT TO WEAR THEM. I RATHER SMELL THEM. YOU PEEKING UNDER THE HOOD REMINDS ME OF GRAMPS. HE ALWAYS WANTS TO SEE THE WORKS UNDER THERE. NOW FOR ME I WANT TO SEE BEAUTY. INSIDE AND OUT. SPORT IS BEST.

    A/C HAS BEEN OUT SINCE SUNDAY.I'M TAKING ANNIES' ADVICE AND STOP WRITING SO MUCH ON OTHER PEOPLES BLOG. I REALLY DIDN'T KNOW HOW A BLOG WORKED. SO I GUESS I'LL REMAIN A MYSTERY.LOL, I LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY. NO OFFENCE ANNIE, JUST DIDN'T KNOW THIS RULE. I KNOW YOUR NOT SUPPOSE TO WRITE IN LARGE LETTER EITHER. WHO MAKES UP THESE DUMB RULES ANYWAYS? LIKE I SAID BEFORE WHEN YOU GET TO MY AGE YOUR ALLOW TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T HURT A PERSON. HAVE A RAIN FULL DAY. THAT'S WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE.

    GRANNY

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  5. I don't really have any rules here! You can write as much as you want to Granny! I like your all caps style of typing too. No worries! Sorry about your AC. It's been cold up here for a couple of days. and raining. And VERY windy, things are blowing off the porch as I type this.

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  6. Oh Yikes, Granny no, no I'm sorry if that's what you heard - that was not what I said. I was referring to personal conversations that were best sent in an email not left on a blogs. And in no way was I talking about you, just some of that personal stuff people write and live on other blogs, not here! Oh, gee I feel so bad, Granny / Casey I'm sorry.

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  7. no worries for you either Annie! it's all good in caseyland. : )

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  8. CASEYLAND IS LIKE CANDYLAND FOR ME.

    NO PROBLEM ANNIE, YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU.

    GRANNY

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  9. I bought my car for $700. It cost $1200 to replace the water pump, plugs, battery, brake pads, muffler and shocks. That was just to get it back on the road.

    I could easily put another $3,000 into it, if I had it.

    For that I could have bought another car that worked.

    It makes no sense, but yet I do it.

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  10. Marius, it really all comes down to the passion you have for the vehicle. I'm in the process of buying a 40 yo classic. I told myself, while I was still thinking rationally, that I'd buy it completely restored, having let some other fool spend the money. But the car is the right color, has the right (and rare) options, and I'm hooked. I know I'll spend too much restoring it, but the passion has taken over. AND I'VE DONE THIS BEFORE !!!
    Bottom line is , we're guys, and we lust after things, and rationality has absolutely nothing to do with it !

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  11. I have a similar $ story about my second rwd Celica, an '85 GTS Liftback, which i bought in '95 for $4995 with only 50,000 miles. 31 days later, with a 30 day used car warranty, the engine blew and it cost $5500 for a new engine and assorted other paraphernalia. That was the only the start!

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  12. And that's the way it always starts !!

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  13. Something else that's completely insane. I live in the middle of a city with virtually no parking, so I have to rent a garage 15 miles away to store my toys.

    BTW, Casey I saw on another blog that some folks were clamoring for information about your art work. Intriguing. I think maybe your ship may come in.

    You may go viral!

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  14. Well The Gold Plated Porsche cost me nothing but two short walks to the library. One to renew my dang library card and the other to pick up the book when it arrives at my branch.

    Caseyland - like that Granny.

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  15. Casey on location, how awesome is that! I'm not fashion guru myself, all the nice clothes I want is too over price, so I just stick to wearing simple stuff. I am fortunate to own my tux, not the My Cousin Vinnie style either.

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  16. I hope you enjoy the book, Annie! You should check to see if the library can get you a copy of the Roy Rogers book I designed. I think you would like the visuals in it. I think it's one of my best designs, and I did all my own photoshop production and page production, of course! Happy Trails: A Pictorial Celebration of the LIfe and Times of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. You also might like The Secrets of Wildflowers: A Delightful Feast of LIttle Known Facts , Folklore, and History, by Jack Sanders. It's one some awards. The interior is a little heavy-handed. It's one of the first books we had printed in China and they sort of over-inked it. But it has a lot of great info about wildflowers in it.

    Marius: That's interesting! Going viral would be fun, lol. I'd take mild interest.

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  17. Woody, "My cousin Vinny style" that's too funny! I owned a tux once too, back in college for a professional singing group I was in. It was made by an Italian tailor, and it was the platform shoe period, lol. I must have gotten rid of it years ago. All I wear these days are short cargo shorts and short sleeve T shirts in spring and summer and long cargo pants and long sleeve Tshirts in fall and winter. most of the shirts are from a local seafood restaurant around here, where you can buy them for $7 and they're very creatively designed. I have them for every year almost going back to the '80s, I haven't worn a button shirt or 'slacks' in six years.

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  18. Thanks Casey, I will see if they are available.

    Nite, Nite, Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite. :)

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  19. Marius, you COMPLETELY underlined my point!

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