When you think about driving an old Porsche, you probably think about how much it takes to keep them up or restore them. I have a weird little collection of somewhat unloved models that the company has built, and I tend to buy well-loved examples at the bottom of their depreciation curve. There’s an art to keeping these machines up, and modifying them to my personal taste, without going totally broke. With the help of a used parts purveyor like DC Automotive, I can upgrade and tinker to my heart’s content without going broke.
I recently took a road trip to North Carolina to pick up a bunch of parts (an engine, two transmissions, a full coupe interior, a set of wheels, and more) for my Dodge Neon ACR. Before heading out, I contacted DC to see if they had any parts that have been on my wish list for some time. Thankfully they had a few rarities I needed and I traded a few thousand dollars for them. I told them I’d come get them to save on shipping, and asked if they’d give me a tour of the facility. My guy Randy hooked me up with an amazing after-hours tour of the dark and moody warehouse packed with the torn apart carcasses of hundreds of Stuttgart’s finest.
In a former life I was a Porsche parts sales person, and I still have a few frequently-used part numbers memorized. It was extremely fun for me to walk around the shop looking at all of the cool things in stock. DC’s QR-code-based inventory system is fascinating, and I would have been happy to hang out for another few days just walking the aisles marveling at the incredible breadth and depth of the warehouse offerings.
It’s easy to get lost in a 140,000 sqft warehouse. Half is stacked with shelves of already-disembodied parts and pieces. According to company owner, Robert Zampardi, there’s over a mile of shelving packed with parts. The other half of the building is where the rows and rows of dead cars get picked over. There are dozens of 914s, the car the company started with, and they carry parts for everything up to decade-old Boxsters and Caymans, Cayennes and Panameras. Many solid carcasses are kept indoors to prevent them from deteriorating, and that side of the warehouse is totally lit by solar tubes, which explains the dark photos. There are an additional 200 chassis sitting outside waiting to provide what they can.
I asked Robert why the shop was in North Carolina of all places. Evidently he started all of this when he bought a 914 parts car many years ago, and it just kind of spiraled out of control from there. The shop moved to Connecticut for about 10 years, but strict zoning meant DC outgrew that facility in rapid fashion. Better weather and better business zoning for yards like this drew him to North Carolina.
“It was important to me to be able to preserve the inventory from weather and have enough space to accommodate orders for even the smallest—but still important—parts,” he reasoned.
The newest car I saw was the remains of a white Cayman GT4 (below). According to Randy this car hit a tree at VMax. It goes without saying, the driver didn’t make it. Fortunately for DC, and the lucky car that needed it, this car’s high-revving flat-six engine was completely unscathed.
The warehouse is equipped with big parts processing bays, which can see as many as six cars cleaned, inspected, inventoried, and fully dismantled at once. The company tracks market demands to make sure it has the parts on the shelf that it needs to keep up with customer needs. Apparently older Cayennes are starting to need some used parts, though they’re tough to keep up with because of all the wild options packages you could specify. “Our sweet spot is ten years and older,” says Robert. Recently the company has focused heavily on watercooled 911s, Caymans, and Boxsters. Oh goody, I have a couple of those!
Apropos of nothing, DC currently has this extremely rusty 912, which was heavily inspired by Janis Joplin’s 356 Cabriolet, driven by the Joplin-esque character ‘Sadie’ in the 2007 film Across The Universe. It’s for sale if you want a piece of Hollywood history. I didn’t ask how much.
I desperately wanted this set of Gemballa twist three-piece wheels, but I already have four sets of wheels for my 996, and definitely don’t need another. So, uh, that’s the stuff I didn’t buy. Let’s look at what came home with me.
First up we have a pair of 991-generation GT3 painted hardback sport seats. I only needed a driver’s seat, as my plan is to have a sport seat for the driver, but retain the comfort seat for the passenger. These damn things regularly sell for around $5,000 for a pair (the carbon buckets go for $15,000!), and it’s impossible to find anyone willing to split the pair. Luckily this set features a near-flawless passenger seat and a totally bent driver’s seat. I got the both for $1,000. Now I just have to swap the good seat frame from the right seat onto the seat motors and controls from the left. This is all getting re-covered in green cloth and leather anyway, so I’ll have the interior shop work that out.
Speaking of green, I also picked up a full Nephrite Green interior. This is an exceedingly rare thing to find for a 996-generation car, and I’m so excited to have found one. There are some footwell stains that will need to be addressed, but I think a solid steam clean should get them back to good. The seats and floor mats will cover most of it, if not. According to the folks at DC, a customer requested they send two workers down to his house in Florida to swap his 996’s interior from Nephrite Green to black. Ew. Boo this man.
The final thing I purchased was a factory hitch, tow control module, and wire harness for a 958-generation Cayenne. I recently picked up a 2013 Cayenne Diesel that was optioned without a hitch for some reason. You can still order a brand new hitch kit from Porsche for $2,200, or you can get an aftermarket kit from a dozen different companies for comparative pennies, but I don’t jive with the vampire clip wiring harness pigtails for a four-pin connector. I wanted the factory seven-pin connector so I can integrate trailer brakes, and use a wider range of trailers. The Cayenne can tow over 8,000 pounds, after all. All of this was half what Porsche wanted for it.
The carpet and seats have been dropped off at the interior shop, and I’m on his books to get the full custom interior done next summer or fall. The hitch, meanwhile, has been installed on the Cayenne, and I need to get it over to the dealership and have the control unit programmed to the CAN.
It feels good to get a project done. I love used parts, because they’re going to keeping my shitheaps fun and interesting, while keeping lots of great parts out of the landfill.
