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2023 |
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In March, a service in Porsche Italia to change some minor items... the 996 was perfect |
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2023, the flood |
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Sadly, the night between 17 and 18 May 2023 the river Lamone broke its bed and flooded Faenza. For the first time in one hundred years the water arrived to my garages and the 996 was partially submerged |
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It was a disaster, and the only very partial stroke of luck was that the water stopped below the dashboard |
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Not much mud, but lots of dirty water |
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The recovery was tricky, up a steep ramp in a street filled with stuff thrown out of flooded houses and cellars. Marco Gordini overlooked the rescue of the 996 after he had removed the Bristol only the day before |
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On the truck |
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A sad view of what was the most perfectly original 996-610 around. The complex and expensive task of having her rebuilt begins... |
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Restoration at the Porsche Padova Classic Centre |
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It didn't take any special elucubration to decide to send the 996 to Padova. My long friendhsip with everybody there, and the certainty of the extremely high level of skill and knowledge, makes me trust them almost blindly (this being a funny thing to say, for an ophthalmologist) |
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Long-time friend and super-expert Alberto Pontara recommended to entrust the 996 to Paolo Verardini of Porsche Padova; once the 911 got there she was cleaned and stripped to revel how many parts have been compromised by ythis hideous flood |
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Stripping was meticulous but wisely limited to the necessary parts, all of them below the dashboard that was miraculously immune |
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A potentially expensive damage is that the water got in the Litronic headlamps. They are trying to cleaning it, no easy task.... |
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My pristine radio, the original Becker CR22, was another casualty of the water |
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Another 996 underwater... |
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Keith, K996 is a fellow Rennlister in USA and his 996 suffered the same fate as mine. Intriguiguingly, in both case the water arrived more or less just below the door handles; instruments and dashboards were spared, but everything else below that beltline was ruined, as I know all too well. Keith at least had insurance.... and was able to save his 991 Turbo in another garage! |
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Anyway, it's a sickening view. Thanks to Keith for allowing me to publish these pics |
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9 August 2023, restoration almost complete... |
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24 November 2023 |
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Ready, at long last... it was so rewarding to have BH314KP back after 6+ months of complete overhaul. I must credit Paolo Verardini with this exceptional job. His Porsche service garage in Padova is to be recommended to anyone driving a classic (or modern) Porsche |
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Anna and I drove the 996-610 to Antica Quercia' in Solesina. Believe me, it's one of the best seafood reastaurants in Northern Italy. Small wonder it's always packed |
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This (below) is the incredibly rich 'Catalana' of the Antica Quercia. Superb, exactly what I needed to recover from the incredibly high prices of the parts we had to change in the flooded 996 |
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24 November: back in its garage in Bologna... |
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The radio is still missing... |
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Becker Indianapolis fitted, just before Christmas. The yellow is not a perfect match for the original CR22 so I decided something more appropriate to a 2000 996-610 |
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2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 -2020 -2021 -2022 - 2023 - 2024 |
| A flooded Bristol 409 |
