Old man in a red Tesla Model 3! Thank you, Elon! Farewell, Ferdinand Porsche!

Question: Would any sane guy surrender a 1957 Porsche 356A Speedster for an old guy's family sedan?
Answer: No sane guy would ever do something that dumb!

I did. And Lordy, it still hurts! But now that red Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor looks pretty good in its place. A lot of things jammed together to make getting the Tesla a good idea as I satisfied my "Tesla lust"...a yearning that hit me like a sledgehammer the moment my neighbor first came home in his new Model 3! First one in the neighborhood.

To begin with, we were already a three-car family with a two-car garage, so getting the Tesla as a fourth car wasn't going to work. Next, it dawned on me years ago that the Speedster's "crumple-zone" consisted of some light sheet metal supplemented by my ankles, knees and hips, there being no engine up front. It was also kinda obvious that my passenger and I were sitting from our hips forward under the car's front ten gallon gas tank. Not being made of flame-proof Nomex, this was worrisome. But maybe the gas tank was part of the crumple-zone. What a great idea!


Other concerns: The car's roll bar consisted of my head plus a thinning short haircut. Plus my wife if she was aboard.
 
An air bag? Not to be found, there having never been one even imagined by the firm of "Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, Konstruktion und Beratung für Motoren-und Fahrzeugbau" back in 1956. 

Note that Herr Dr. Porsche's previous employment, before serving time for war crimes, was manufacturing Nazi Panzer tanks. Hitler even named one "Ferdinand" in his honor.

Seat belts had been added as an afterthought by some earlier owner around 1975 or so, but with anchors in the car pan's thin sheet metal any usefulness was questionable.

The one amazing feature of my Speedster was the thumbs-up from folks everywhere we drove. The car looked cool: James Dean cool. 

What could possibly take the place of our Speedster? How about a car that is safer, faster, and warmer (the Porsche was topless and had no heat, somewhat of a disadvantage in Colorado's winter!)

I grew to agree with my wife that our thirty year Porsche romance was coming to an end, especially when she pointed out that we just weren't driving it much anymore. A more worthy owner eventually came our way, and off into the sunset drove our Speedster, making room for a red Tesla Model 3 LRDM. With FSD. 

I'm cool again! No thumbs up, perhaps, but I'm happy.