(Updates to this now 3 year old story are at the very bottom)

First a bit about me. I'm a 20 year old Porsche/Audi mechanic, and definately a motorhead, but very few non-duetschwagen excite me much. My father had owned Black Forest Racing, a Porsche repair, performance, and race shop, since 1979, and I grew up with my hands in 911s. The shop was closed in May of 2005 and moved to Charlotte, NC where it re-opened in August of 2005. I've been working on cars for real (as opposed to when I was a kid just fumbling arround) since I was about 12. I started racing in go-karts about the same time, and won the Florida F1-kart championship my rookie year. When I turned 15 I started construction on my SCCA Porsche 914 race car, which I raced for a few years, but recently sold it to make room for my move out of Florida and room for my new family comming up soon. On the street besides the Audi I have a 1974 Porsche 914-4GT, one of only 250 made, which I inherited from my mother. While still in high school I worked for Coastal Technologies Group Inc, a telecom systems company, then I worked full time at my fathers shop, and a little after hours at my own personal shop. Since the closing of my fathers shop I have moved to Kernersville, NC and am currently working for a Ford dealership. Most people I know think my lifestyle is pretty wierd, kind of a double faced life; on one hand I'm a huge motorhead, on the other I'm a computer nerd. It works out nicely when combining the two, but on the other hand it is pretty odd having 2 sets of friends, one that knows nothing about cars, the other that knows nothing about computers. Gets interesting when a few from each set are in the same room, I just find it easier to hold two different conversations.

Me in the famous Turn 1 at Sebring	Another of me at Sebring	One of our typical showings at Porsche Club Of America	My dads car on the right, our #2 team car on the left, at Daytona

My dad, like I said earlier has owned the shop since 1979, before which he was a tech at a Porsche/Audi dealer in New Jersey. He has been racing 914s in SCCA since about 1983, and if you have ever been to an SCCA or HSR race in the south east US you most likely have seen his green and orange 914-6 leading the field.

My first Audi as I bought it needed some work. The interior was in far from perfect condition. Mostly just because of the Florida sun all of the leather had shrunk. The leather on the door panels had shrunk so bad that it is no longer attached, so I started peeling it the rest of the way off and I planed on redoing the door panels with carbon fiber. The seats split at thier seams in a few places, so I replaced them with sport seats from a parts car. Other then that the rest of the interior was ironically good, it seems carpet covers had been used, under them is some nice black carpet. The dash was uncracked too, which is rare for any Florida car over 10 years old. As for the exterior it looks to have been recently painted and is very clean and nice. The car ran and drove when I got it, but had bad shocks and wheel bearings up front. We had a customer of the shop with a 1988 5000CS Turbo which was getting to its last legs (had been involved in many accidents, not a single straight body panel and only 1 door was able to open), but I knew had alot of good parts left. I went halfers on the car with a friend that had another '88 5000CS Turbo, $200 each. He got the tranny, as I couldn't use it, non-quattro automatic, and some other minor parts, I got the suspension and motor, again as well as some minor bits and pieces. I swapped the front suspension from the parts car onto my Quattro, and had started work on the interior, fixing some windows that didn't want to go up and down (one would go down, but not up, another up but not down, and another just didnt work at all) when the car decided to stop running. Of course this way the day before I got my tag for it so it could be driven. The electrical problems that ensued have really been a pain, mostly related to the hall sensor in the distributor. I got it fixed mid January, and have started fixing all the little odds and ends as well as doing the mods.

Now the new cars. I got a '87 5ktq in black which is to be the daily driver. The old white car had an accident (in the news section on the home page arround may '03 to find out more) and its gone, but now I got another white '86 to replace it. Start with the black car. It's really nice looking, recently painted and upholstered, but has some electrical gremlins. I am working to fix one by one and now theres only a couple left. The new white car is not in such good shape unfortunately. The clearcoat is comming off the trunk, the interior is decent but not pefect, and mechanically its got issues. Perfect canidate for a stripped down fun car. I plan on tearing it apart and just using the nescacary stuff, no a/c, no heat, no extras at all. Now that your up to date on the car, check out the plans section for details on what I'm looking to do.


UPDATE:
May 2005 my father closed the shop in Delray Beach and moved to Charlotte, NC. I moved to Kernersville, NC (near Greensboro) with my sister and brother-in-law. My girlfriend is pregnant with my child, Visit our Baby site, due March 1st. Very excited about that!! I'm working for the time being at a Ford dealership in Greensboro, but unsure how long I'll be able to deal with it.