Porsche 911-Special Submariner Edition

Sadly, tests of the new 911 Submariner have not gone swimmingly.

Actually, this photo is courtesy of WreckedExotics.com. A friend of the Porsche owner was getting to the drive the car, accidentally put it in reverse then drove it off a boat ramp.

1977 Porsche 911S Targa

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1977 Porsche 911S Targa. This car takes the honors of being driven the furthest to have work done at Almost Everything Autobody--it was delivered to us by car carrier from Seattle, Washington--a distance of about 850 miles (1400 km.) We need to disclose at this point that the new owner lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (within a hour of us.) The Porsche had some dings, old cracking Bondo and spots of rust bubbling-up under the paint. We fixed the problems and put a few fresh coats of primer, paint and clear coat on her. She looks great again, doesn't she?

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Sebring 12 Hours Looks Like a NASCAR Race

Ferrari 458 crash at 2011 12 Hours of Sebring
Photo by Rick Dole for Michelin North America

Race winning Peugeot 908 at 2011 12 Hours of Sebring

Almost Everything Autobody watched the 59th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring on ESPN.  We thought we were watching a NASCAR event instead of American Le Mans. Endurance racing used to be tough enough without worring about other racers hitting you on purpose. No longer. Drivers bumped & grinded all 12 hours. Cars were destroyed, carried back to the pits, rebuilt and went back out on the track. Favorites from Audi & Ferrari were totaled allowing Peugeot to win overall for the 2nd year in a row and BMW to win the GT2 class.

Here's footage from one of the big crashes that took out the Ferrari 458:

Greatest Porsche Photo Ever

"Cars are Meant to be Used" from Axis of Oversteer

Thanks once again to Axis of Oversteer for tickling our funny bone. Almost Everything Autobody agrees. No garage queens. No trailer queens either.

1978 Porsche 911 SC Targa Factory Repaint

Today's Car of the Day is a pristine 1978 Porsche 911 SC Targa with only 57K original miles. However the original paint had reached the end of its life. Paint on the hood, fenders & cowl had started to lift and crack. We sanded the paint off the front of the car and refinished it with factory match paint then wet-sanded and polished to match the original factory gloss.

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Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid the Star of Geneva Auto Show

From Edmunds.com (our favorite site for real world auto pricing), here's the scope on the awesome Porsche 918 Hybrid! Edmunds says it upstaged Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley at the premier automotive show in the world. And it may possibly be the fastest production car around Germany's famed racetrack, the Nürburgring—assuming it gets produced. We hope so.

Car of the Day - 1987 Porsche 944 - Paint & Bodywork

Almost Everything Autobody received this great older Porsche 944 with a not so great paint job and horrible gang symbols scratched into the bodywork. The car had a brand new engine and mechanically was in excellent shape but as you can see in the photos, it looked terrible. Almost Everything Autobody repaired the key scratches, welded the holes in the front panel and painted the entire car using our Presidential Paint Service with 2 year warranty. We also returned it to very near its original color.

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Nick Kite - Pro Photographer & Car Guy

Nick Kite saw the Almost Everything logo on my shirt while we were sitting together on a plane and he mentioned that he planned to get a vehicle painted at Almost Everything soon. I'm usually not the type to talk to my seat mate for several hours but Nick turned out to be a true car guy and we traded stories & magazines for the rest of the flight.

Nick is a professional photographer who among other things has photographed cars for Car & Model, Boost Mobile's Hot Import Nights & Nightshift. He specializes in more technical photography--some examples were a 1 year time lapse study of San Jose's Airport construction project, long-exposure shots of vehicles in motion & high-speed shots of 12 different duck species as they landed and took flight.

Nick got his first car at age 15--a non-running Porsche 928 that he got back on the road and regrets selling to this day. He's totaled a Porsche Boxster after hydroplaning on a southern California freeway, amazingly escaping with a few bumps on his head from hitting the roll bar then being hit by the stereo as it flew through the cabin. He's gone through BMW 3 & 5 series cars, a Dodge Ram and was just flying back from Florida after purchasing a Cobra replica kit that he & his father plan to construct. His family currently has 3 Triumphs (2 Spitfires & a TR6--I thought my family was the only one insane enough to own 3 British sports cars at the same time--in our case MG-CGTs.)

Nick told me the story about how he got the 928. He made a bet with his father that if he could score at least 3 goals in a soccer tournament, his father would give him the Porsche that had been sitting in need of a clutch for several years. Nick's father didn't expect to lose the bet because Nick was a defender and had never scored a goal that season. But being a car guy and wanting the Porsche, Nick convinced the coach to let him play forward and then he proceeded to make 5 goals that day. Nick's father made good on the bet and together they got the Porsche running.

Nick showed me some great shots of BMWs that looked like they were doing 100 mph through a tunnel. I hope to be able to display some of his work here and to see the Cobra when he and his father complete it and drive it from Florida back to California.

Note: All of the car images in this post are free license photos taken from Wikipedia Commons.