I bought my 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera in 2013 after watching Magnus Walker in Urban Outlaw at least ten times. That free YouTube video cost me $25,000. My wife tried to talk me into buying a used Honda instead. Yah, right! But I had just turned 50 and I said, screw that (We already owned a Honda Odyssey minivan) I’m buying something fun and blame it on a mid-life crisis, even though I wasn’t having one.

At first, I considered old Corvettes and Mopars from the 60’s. The cars I lusted after in high school. Until I saw Magnus in the early morning sunlight driving along remote stretches of the Malibu hills and heard the music of that beautiful flat six reverberating through the canyons. I was hooked.

So, there I am driving around in my 911 with a smile on my face, Van Halen blaring on the radio, wind blowing through what hair I have left and I start to notice something. Whenever I pass by someone driving an older air-cooled Porsche we wave at each other, throw a peace sign or give a thumbs up, at the very least I get the obligatory head nod or index finger raise where the hand never leaves the steering wheel. 

However, I also notice that drivers in newer water-cooled Porsches don’t wave back, nothing, crickets. Trust me, I tried waving many times at first and when they didn’t wave back I felt like a fool. I looked around to make sure no one saw me like a kid who waves at his grade school crush in the hallway and she blows him off, that feeling. It sucks! I started thinking that I’m new to this Porsche fraternity stuff and there must be an understanding among the Porsche people that’s never mentioned in the monthly newsletter. At least I’ve never seen it and I admit I’ve never had the guts to ask. 

Don’t get me wrong, I hold no ill will toward the newer Porsche people. I know a bunch of them and they are very nice people. The only thing separating us is water. The philosophy behind the waving thing is interesting. If you don’t know the other driver, your wave is acknowledging their similar taste to yours. It’s more dignified than yelling out the window, “Hey, we both like Porsches!” Try it and the other driver will probably give you a look like you’re Forrest Gump. Maybe water-cooled and air-cooled are so different it doesn’t justify a wave. Maybe it would result in too much waving, after all, Porsche has sold millions of cars and that would be a lot of waving. Now that I’m 60 I have a bad shoulder so it’s probably better that I’m not waving at every Porsche that drives by. I would imagine that would fall under distracted driving anyway.

Maybe it’s a generational thing. Maybe I’m just a sensitive Baby Boomer who’s stuck in the middle between the Greatest Generation and newer generations with really cool names. Yea, that’s it, I’m just being sensitive and maybe I’m still feeling the effects of that mid-life crisis I never had.

I have one question though, would Magnus wave?

-CJ