This is actually a FAQ, but
probably the best way to explain my background. I was always interested in
cars; some of my first memories are from my late father working on his race
cars, and me “helping” of course. That probably contributed me getting my
Mechanical Engineering Diploma after High School. I soon find myself in the
field of irrigation design (hey, where’s the cars), so I jumped to the
opportunity when I friend asked me sometime in ’94 to help him rebuild his
rally car that he just wrote off.
A few evenings into the
project and my friend (the late Ampie Visser), bought a wrecked 944, and I was
asked to help him to dismantle the car since we need the space, we were
building a Rally Car after all. At this stage Ampie was involved with selling
used Porsche parts for quite a while, and since I started to work on the our
project a lot earlier in the evenings, I would receive a list of 944 parts that
had to be stripped off urgently for clients…I was hooked. Soon followed a 924,
914, 928…this was FUN; and I started helping him with some of the repairs, so I
got to drive the cars as well.
Soon Ampie got a warehouse
and started a full time career selling used cars (mainly Porsche) and the New
and Used Porsche parts, trading as Theporscheshop. I went and work for him on a
full time base doing evening classes in Surveying.
I landed a job at the local
university, got married, and now only manage to help Ampie out over weekends.
In 2002 I bought my first
Porsche, a ’84 944 that had an interior fire, but I had a good source of
spares, AND I could spend more time working on CARS.
Then in 2003 tragedy
struck; sadly Ampie Visser passed away after a terrible accident in his
workshop. His son was too young to continue the business, and everything was
put on auction. I manage to buy all the 924 stuff to finish off my car.
I still needed a clean
interior, and soon bought a accident damaged car only for the interior and
started parting the rest out; I soon bought a 3rd car and eventually
I was known as the guy to phone for 924 stuff; that’s probably why I never
finished my project and parted it out.
Then people started to
phone for 928 and 944 parts, so just one solution; move to a bigger place and
buy more Porsches and expand the range.
I also started importing parts
from the States, UK and other parts from Europe since 2005, and is now
importing parts on a monthly base, so what actively started in 2004, had a 10
year run-up
That my friends, is how I
got to play with Porsche and deal in Porsche parts, and yes, I eventually
bought a running 924 to play with end then later a 944 and another 944 and then
another….always bigger and better.
