Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Today was a special day. On a very cold (-2 degrees..how sad is it that I know this!) and damp Monday morning at about 11.00, on the 30th January 1984 my 944 rolled on to the road for the very first time.

I had always planned on driving the car on this milestone day.....only it looked like I would be thwarted by building work on my house - the scaffold had been erected with a support post so close to the garage door....in the end there was under an inch clearance between the car and the post on one side and the wall on the other. A stressful reversing session saw the car released and out on the road just as the sun came out for the first time in weeks.

The afternoon was spent bowling around the back lanes of Sussex down through charming villages and then over the downs at Ditchling Beacon and down into Brighton. The return journey was magical with a charge back along the A27 and A23 to Crawley.

So the ambition was fulfilled. 30 years to the day that the car first took to the road, I suspect this current owner enjoyed the anniversary drive every bit as much as the original owner did on his first drive all those years ago.

I even stopped at the top of Ditchling Beacon for the obligatory birthday photo!

I reckon I saw your birthday car at one of last years Goodwood breakfast clubs so it must have been Oct I think.
I admired it then as now.

I'm welling up

Well done mate, pleased you managed to get the old girl out on her special day

Thank you, yes I think it was October...she's soon to be much improved with a whole host of mechanical refreshment to keep her happy for the 2014 season.

I welled, it was quite emotional really. A little bit of motoring history passed and the old girl is still a couple of thousand short of 80k miles. I think my 19 year old son is applying the same rule that little and often and keep the movement or effort to a minimum will also preserve him for many years

You did a good job of keeping it clean on the wet muddy roads we have at the moment!

Well done on getting her out of the garage for her birthday.
Ditchling Beacon,ive only ever cycled up it.

Well done Jon, glad you had a good day, hopefully you got her back in the garage around the scaffold pole without incident

Love the comparison between a 30year old car and a 19 yera old son, going to run that one past my 21 year old later as it soooo fits his lifestyle

The good Dr. F. Porsche will have been looking down on you pleased that some of us still use our cars as intended...drive and enjoy. Sounds like a great way to spend any day...

Isn't its birthday the day it rolled off the production line and the registration date/appointment of registration mark just the christening??

Mine rolled off the production line and therefore born at the end of December '79. But it wasn't christened until 18th March 1980. With its 35th looming in the next 12 months which do I celebrate??!!

Well done jon.

Ditchling is a great drive but must admit to tackling it at night for most fun.

Cycling up is hard work but almost as satisfying when you reach the top.

Same brithday as me,,, wouldn't want to shear it anymore its allready my granddaddy and girl friends as well

The colour is very kind in bad weather....not like the Jag that looks like I've been on a rallycross circuit after a trip around the M25 today!

I take my hat off to you Tim, I get worn out just driving up The beacon

No problem getting back in...I closed my eyes

...and I am also trying to convince my son that he is not a professional computer games player!