TGP62 | Dean Fredrick Clark: Why don’t you just buy a Porsche?

Simpler times.

We tend to look back on the past and think things were simpler. And, to some extent, they were—but how much of that simplicity comes from the benefit of hindsight? Things were legitimately different. And ignorance is bliss.

Today’s answer to “Why don’t you just buy a Porsche?” is pretty easy. Because they’re funking expensive! But there was a time when 911s and 914s were considered “overpriced Volkswagens.”

Winding roads

I recently went looking for an Alfa Romeo Spider owner for my weekly series, It’s an Amazing Machine. You’d be surprised how hard it is to find an actual Spider owner. There’s so many Instagram accounts out there just sharing pictures of other peoples’ stuff for some reason. So when I found Dean Clark’s humble little 1988 Graduate in California, I reached out right away.

There was just one small problem—he also has a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. That he takes off-roading. And as if that wasn’t enough, in the course of our Amazing Machines interview, I discovered he grew up working on old Porsches and VWs with his dad—who was a WW2 B29 bomber mechanic.

In this episode, Dean takes us deeper into his backstory. We talk about what it is about playing with cars that means so much to us—and how, as complex as things are today, there’s still a lot of opportunity out there. We also learn a lot about Porsches.

And yes, his dad actually asked him, “Why don’t you just buy a Porsche?”

Are you ready to start shopping Porsche Cayenne Turbos?

Would you like to know more?

Check out this episode of The Gearhead Story Project.

Note: The audio may not reflect the correct episode number or link. Brian lost count of episodes so we had to re-number them. 

Follow Dean’s automotive adventures on Instagram: @dean_fredrick_clark