OPERATION – SAVE THE 911.
“Hey man, it smells like you got a fuel leak – you got a pool forming there.” – is NOT what you want to hear when you’re a 50-minute drive up in the canyons with no cell service. For Steven and myself, it was the beginning of –
“Operation – Save the 911.”
A brisk morning up at Newcomb’s Ranch – a hidden getaway for car enthusiasts – tucked way up the canyons, it’s a spot for all kinds of drivers alike to go, at any time of day or night, to cruise to and talk cars.
I heard it a quarter mile down the road and readied myself between a G-series Porsche 911 and a Ford hotrod, checked my camera settings then looked up to my right, and there it was: a bright yellow 1980 Porsche 911 SC. Not any 911 SC though, this one had some kind of outlaw kit on it, lowered way down, had some serious tires and brakes on it – a damn cool-looking 911 in my opinion. One snap of the trigger and, yup, I caught it on the move.
Steven, blasting up to Newcomb’s Ranch in his modified 1980 Porsche 911 SC.
As soon as he parked, I went over, introduced myself and told him I had to send him the panning photo I had just taken. We started talking about the car, the Porsche community, how amazing the car enthusiast community is in California – The enthusiasts that we had both met here would do really anything for one another and that’s why this place is so special – there’s no other community like it in the world. The only one I could compare it to would be the Nürburgring, but that’s another story for another day.
As we’re talking, another guy, Ian, comes over and interrupts us - “Hey man, it smells like you got a fuel leak (pointing down at the front bumper)You should probably get the thing in the air and see what’s going on”, he says with concern in his voice. We looked down at the front bumper and sure enough, a dark pool of liquid was starting to form around the passenger side wheel.
“Don’t drive this thing. Get it in the air as soon as you can.” - The moment Ian told Steven to not drive the 911 – the dark pool of fuel under the front bumper continued to grow every second.
It came out like a leaking faucet in the kitchen sink, except with fuel. Not good.
I looked at Steven and could tell he was starting to go into that shock we enthusiasts all get into when something breaks on our car – everything logical starts to leave your mind, and you can’t think of anything other than, “Oh F I can’t believe this is happening. How did this happen? Was it that sound I heard yesterday? Is it going to catch on fire? Damn it I knew I should have brought it to the shop sooner. Maybe I should sell it? I wonder what it’s worth on BAT. Please don’t catch on fire.” And the cycle repeats. So there was only one thing to do.
Every few minutes you’ll hear an exhaust note in the air – which will give you about 10 seconds to get the camera ready to snap it flying by.
“Steven I’ll stay with you until we figure this out, I’ll even bring you down the mountain if you need – we’ll figure this out.” I tell Steven, then I turn to the crowd of people behind us minding their business and talking cars and yell out: “HEY! Does anyone have a jack?! Does anyone have tools? This 911 has a fuel leak!” The guy, Kurht, right in front of me said, “Yeah man I got a jack”, and off we went to his beautiful Tangerine 911T to fetch it. In the meantime, Steven brought his leaking 911 to level ground so we could get it in the air.
Kurht getting on the ground to see what’s going on with the 911.
MOVE! Trails of fuel followed as Steven quickly pulled out of his parking spot to get his Porsche to level ground.
Kurht’s Porsche 911T – What a color.
Another guy in a Land Rover said he had tools, but then immediately went MIA. So the search for tools was on, asking every person I saw, until finally, I found Charles who had a 997 generation Porsche 911 – which had a small set of tools in the frunk.
Charles and Kurht checking to make sure no fuel was in the frunk, and also if there was any chance to address the issue from the top, down.
Ryan and Kurht, discussing ideas on how to get this thing off the mountain.
So we began trying to get the car in the air when someone came over and said, “Guys wait, Ian is a Porsche mechanic, wait until he comes back from a drive he just went on and see what he has to say.” He was referring to the first Ian we met, the guy that came over to tell us the car was leaking, was a Porsche engine specialist. PERFECT.
A few minutes later Ian pulled up in this brown 911, with a passenger, also named Ian– they had just gone out for a little blast up and down the canyons. Clearly these guys were having a good time, as what one does, when their 911 isn’t leaking fuel everywhere.
Ian comes over and takes a look at the leaking 911, which now had a considerable size pool of fuel underneath it. Instead of using the jack, he finds some cement blocks and wood around to carefully, step by step, get the 911 in the air so he can get under it.
He climbs under the car and within 2 seconds he calls out, “Yup! There it is! You got a big ole’ crack in your fuel pump, this thing isn’t going anywhere.” He climbs out from under the car and explains to Steven what he saw. Now, this is not the best news in the world, but at least it’ll be parked safely and, most importantly, will not catch on fire while Steven is driving it.
The culprit in this whole thing? A rock. A big ole’ rock. While Steven was driving up the canyon he heard a SMACK noise under the car. He pulled over, and looked underneath with no signs of anything wrong. So he kept driving. 10 minutes later, and well, that crack let us know that something was wrong. Thank goodness Newcomb’s ranch is there to stop at or maybe he would have kept driving.
So the 911 is parked. Steven and I jump into my rental, and blast down the mountain to get cellular service so he can call AAA and get the car towed. I parted ways with him after he secured a tow and made sure he could get on his way. That was at 10am.
By 6pm the car was picked up and loaded onto a flat bed. A kind reminder – when you see a car parked somewhere up in the canyons: please be kind, imagine it’s your car with the issue, and don’t touch it. The owner is most probably freaking out that it’s up there and is doing everything they can to get it down.
At the end of it, I think 6-8 Porsche owners came together to make sure that Steven would be able to get this situation figured out with his fuel leak - either actively working on it, or lending support through conversation, shop recommendations, etc. I think it says a lot about the Porsche community - as Porsche Club of America states on their website, “It’s not just the cars, it’s the people.” and I couldn’t agree more.
It won’t be long until the 911 will be back in service, and for now, Steven will have to rely on the 911’s neighbor in his garage - But the story of that car, well, I’ll save for another day…
To see the full album of higher resolution photos, and ones that didn’t make this article, click below –
