Going for Gold - 1983 Porsche 944 - My Car

As far as first cars go, most people had something pretty dull. Maybe you had a Ford Ka or a Citroen C1. Maybe it was a Fiesta, or that most prevalent of first cars - a Vauxhall Corsa.

Either way, chances are that it was cheap, boring, and quickly gotten rid of in favour of something a bit more powerful and exciting.

Chances are equally as good that your first car wasn’t a gold 1983 Porsche 944. But it was for Nelson Chong.

“I told myself ‘what would be the coolest first car ever to get’”, Nelson told us, “and I scoured [the internet] with all sorts of things.

“I was looking up and down, looking at cars I could afford, couldn’t afford - I looked at a shell for a 911 that was £200 and completely scrapped, I looked at MX5s, I looked at everything.”

After searching high and low, it was a night where he’d had a couple of “refreshments” after dinner that he saw this 944 and knew instantly that it was for him.

“I was on Autotrader and this gold… thing showed up - that was it. I just saw it, and I looked at my friend and it was that kind of look where it just went ‘that’s it - that’s the one’.”

Nelson admits that it took some time to convince himself that, yes, a gold 944 is a good first car - taking a month between seeing the car online and going to view it in person. But when he first cast his eyes over the roughly 150,000 mile, 40-year-old Porsche that was it - deal done.

“There were genuinely so many things wrong with it, but I didn’t care - I just bought it,” he explained.

“It had a leaking fuel pump, the fuel mixture was awful, and also the side sills were rotten, so I had to do those. I took the car to a Porsche specialist called Strasse. They redid all the side sills, redid all the fenders and everything, replaced the brake lines. I put a short shifter kit on it, adjusted the mixture, and now it’s been going strong.”

With the car back and ready to go, it became what all first cars truly are - a passport to freedom.

“[I’ve done] lots of car meets, meeting new people. It’s a really great way to socialise - that’s kind of the main thing for me. In the first month that I’d received the car back from Strasse I took it down to Oxford for a big Porsche rally.

“I took my cat in it - I had a full setup in the back of the car. I had the cat litter, carpet, food, water - it was my six-month-old kitten that I’d had for a month. I decided that I can’t leave it at home, so I might as well just take it with me.”

The social aspect is certainly a popular part of car ownership, and as we speak we’re at the Classic Car Sunday meet in Harrogate, surrounded by more Porsches and interesting cars. Nelson’s has a claim to fame here too, as it appeared on the front cover of issue 614 of Classic Cars magazine.

As you’d imagine for a car of this vintage, it does have a bit of history. There’s a Porsche Club sticker from 1987 on the passenger side, a plaque for the 1997 Wiveton Bell Classic Car Rally (an event run from the Wiveton Bell pub in Norfolk, later renamed to the Charles Clark Classic Car Rally in memory of the Wiveton Bell’s former landlord, who was lost at sea in 1998). And it’s done more miles than the clock will show.

“This is currently on 72,200 miles, but that’s 172,000 miles - it’s only displaying five digits because it only has five digits, so it’s gone all the way round. In just over two years I’ve done over 20,000 miles - so not bad going.”

Plans for this year? “Constantly driving it,” Nelson says. “It’s my only car - it’s my everyday car.”

First cars are usually seen as disposable - a necessary first step on a ladder to climb. But Nelson eschewed that and skipped straight to this 944. It’s not a garage queen or an investment; it’s a daily driver enjoyed as a Porsche should be. And in going for gold, he’s got something much rarer - a first car worth holding onto.

You can find more of Nelson's 944 on Instagram @everyday.944.