Porsche 944 turbo vs Ford Zodiac

Porsche 944 turbo vs Ford Zodiac what kind of comparison is that? It is just a title and I bet I have your attention now 🙂

In my last article I mentioned my other longtime classic remember? And that is a 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo. I have owned this car for 18 years and it is a fast and fun car to drive. It also cost a lot more to maintain than a 1964 Ford Zodiac MK III. But my (modest) diy skills and some good and trusted workshops in town have helped a lot to keep costs down.

Time to sell the Porsche 944 Turbo

And now it is time to sell it. Why? Well I have limited time and too many hobbies. The last few years I did not drive the Porsche much. The Zodiac was the preferred car to drive when I could find the time. But the Porsche 944 stood in my garage at home and the Ford Zodiac in a shared garage. And that is not my preferred choice for storage. This also meant it took some time to get the Ford out in the sunshine. And some maintenance was delayed and delayed etc.

The Porsche was fun, fast and very reliable but the Zodiac means more to me. The Ford is more old scool and I like the fact you can fix it with nothing more than a hamer, screwdriver and some rubber bands. So finally I decided to sell the Porsche.

The Porsche sold very quickly and the Zodiac is parked in the garage at home. Now I can make improvements and take care of maintenance at home 🙂

And I became a member of the English Ford Club Netherlands.

Maybe this way some more content will find it’s way to this site…

It (again) has been to long since my last post. Time for some updates. The last post was in December 2017. So I did not update anything in 2018. To many hobbies and to little time, new job and so on. During the year the only update I made was on the technical side of the site. Writing articles did not happen.

So what has been going on with the big Ford Zodiac? Not much actually. The big Z was driven a couple of times with almost no problems at all. Just enjoying the ride and scenery. All on sunny days with no rain and no stress.

It had his new APK (Dutch MOT) and the carburetor had a good cleaning. Sometimes the car would not start at first attempt after being parked for about 5 to 10 minutes. Cleaning of the carburetor seems to have fixed this little snag. And the car runs a lot smoother now.

And what are the plans for 2019?

This year I will change the oil (and finally install the oil converter?). The big Ford will be moved (if possible) from the storage location to the house garage. This to get some serious interior cleaning done. That means that I want to clean the leather very thoroughly. I think the leather can look much better than it does now. And moving the Zodiac to the garage will make it easier to just get it out for rides. It also will cancel the rental fees for storage 🙂

Only thing is that at the moment the space in the garage is occupied by my other long time classic. This is a completely different kind of car than the Ford Zodiac. This particular car I have owned for 18 years, And now I am planning to sell it. More about that later.

And last but not least more articles and updates than the previous year!

More about driving gloves here

Time for some updates. It has been to long since my last post. The last post was in September 2016. So what has been going on with the big Ford Zodiac? This year (2017) was filled with joy and laughter because of a newborn, but this left the Z a little neglected.

Tire updates

I did take a couple of fun rides. But they were short ones, about thirty minutes. One of these rides did not even last ten minutes.So what happened?

On a bright sunny day I drove the Zodiac from storage to my home. This is a very short four minute drive. I checked the oil level and such. Then I went inside to get a cold drink before my little ride would start. I got back by the car, got in, started the engine and began to drive off. At least that was what I wanted to do! But something was wrong. So I got out of the car and the first thing I noticed was a very flat right rear tire. I replaced the flat tire with the spare and the big Ford was put back in storage again. Because the tires were over thirteen years old I changed them for new ones. The Ford looks like new with these new boots. Now I just have to find a way to keep the whitewalls clean and brite.

Oil conversion kit

One of the updates I wanted to make last year was fitting an oil conversion kit. This will provide improved start-up oil pressure due to the use of anti-drain valves in modern spin-on oil filters. And classic cars will benefit from the improved filtration found with modern filters.I did order one but did not yet get around to fitting it. It is a pretty simple procedure and I think it will make a big difference to this classic car.

That all hopefully will happen next year. If it does I will write about the installation and results on this website. So keep coming back 🙂

A couple of months ago I experienced a classic car nightmare. The weather was nice and I wanted to take a drive in the old Zodiac. When I entered the storage location of the big ford the first thing I saw when I approached the car was that something was leaning agianst it. When I came closer it turned out to be a “aanhangfiets” (trailer bike) that belongs to my rightside neighbour…

My neighbour always has a lot of different things standing on his spot. Much of it is standing to close to my parking place. I already had noticed before that his trailer bike was standing dangerously close to the Zodiac but as long as it stood on my neighbours premises I could do nothing about it. Somehow the trailer bike now had tipped over onto my car! The worst thing about it was that by doing this it made two small but ugly dents into the rightside fender of my car! Every classic car owner can imagine what I said when I looked at the damage!

To keep a long (classic car nightmare) story short…

I contacted my neighbour who was very understanding and we both contacted oure insurancecompanies. The damage to the Ford was estimated at 477,- (for two little dents!). It took some time, but finaly the insurancecompany paid for the damage.

Because the money was paid and the Ford was deu for it’s next APK (Algemene Periodieke Keuring, the dutch equivalent of the MOT), I arranged that the damage would be repaired. The bodyshop also ofered to repair a small dent on the leftside of the big Ford. Now the car is looking great again and the classic car nightmare has ended!

And the trailer bike? It is standing a lot further away from the Zodiac than it used to do! But every time someone passes me on a trailer bike I make sure to leave some distance…

The classic Ford Zodiac

My father owned a 1964 Ford Zodiac MKIII. If you want to know more about why and when  you can read it on this page.  After a partial restore and a complete respray, he continued to enjoy the car (his childhood dream) for several years. But eventually he used the car less and less… At some  time the only one that really drove the big Ford was me.

How the big Ford became mine…

One day my father was thinking it was a shame that the car was not driven much and decided he wanted to sell his classic. When he told me this I immediately made him an offer. But (after some thought) he declined, he thought the car was more worth than I was willing to pay.  I told him that if he changed his mind he would know where to find me.

A couple of months passed and the big Ford was not sold. When I reminded my father of my previous offer he said he would think about it. And a couple of days later I owned a classic car!

So what is it like to drive?

The car is easy to drive and pretty comfortable considering it is over 50 years old. It has no power-steering but when the wheels are turning the steering does not feel heavy at all. It does feel a bit vague around the center. So on higher speeds you are making a lot of corrections if you want to keep going straight. The whole car rolls a little when cornering but that also can be expected from a car this age.  The brakes are hmm… eh.. adequate. The engine pulls strongly and the car has no problems keeping up with modern traffic. Although it could use a fifth gear… And  the exhaust makes a beautiful burbling sound (but it is an aftermarket stainless steel one). View all around is excellent. This big classic is very useful for everyday driving!