ACCEPTABLE IN THE 80S

Acceptable in the 80s

Vincent de Goede on his rare and incredibly unusual modified 911.

Born in the heyday of punk culture, petrolhead Vincent de Goede fell head over heels in the 1980s. The tuning hype reached its peak as companies converted expensive sports cars into otherworldly creations, sometimes doubling or trebling the original list price.

Vincent de Goede, tall, a baseball cap on his head, wearing large gold-framed glasses with lenses that turn blue when exposed to sunlight, is waiting for us, smiling broadly and literally with open arms on the steps of his mid-century bungalow. Walking through his home, he has a story to go with every item: “The art in the house is all from Bisou Gallery in Amsterdam, most made by Kumi Sugaï, a Japanese artist and huge Porsche lover. All the photos in the garage are by Belgian photographer Bart Kuykens.” The split-level living and dining room is tastefully furnished throughout, including a dining table with an impressive gold base designed by Paul Evans.

However, the conversation very quickly turns to cars, a love for which Vincent had his home seriously expanded two years ago. He says he bought his first car relatively late, a Mazda 626 Wagon GLXi, “The king of understeer, haha”, but handy for touring with the band he was playing in at the time. After that, things would get completely out of hand, as he readily admits.

“At a car meet, this Porsche entered my life. I had never seen one in the flesh before, but I immediately was my nine-year old self again. How eighties do you want it? A car that actually hurts a bit when you look at it because of the lack of the iconic headlights with tunnel wings behind them. It’s almost a flatnose, but with those crazy little lenses. And then those intakes on the side, insane right? When I saw this car for sale on the web a few months later, the deal was quickly done.

"I had never seen one in the flesh before, but I immediately was my nine-year old self again. How eighties do you want it?"

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“It’s an original 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2, delivered with air conditioning and an LSD as options. It really makes me wonder who this king was at the time, spending over 80k DM for a new Porsche, only then to give even more than that to Strosek to do this."

I took my first steps into customising with a gold 911 G-Model. Then with the purchase of a 912, I took things a step further. Named ‘Olive’, I built my perfect restomod with it. The G-Model eventually gave way to a DeTomaso Pantera, through which my childhood love for Italian cars blossomed again. Finally, I sold ‘Olive’ for the dream car of my youth.” With an arm gesture, Vincent unveils a black Lamborghini Diablo, alongside a rat-look 912 called ‘Cookie’, a brand new 718 Spyder RS he calls ‘Barbie’ and his most recent acquisition - a Toyota Century whose pet name has yet to emerge. In the end however, there’s only one car we came to talk about.

“It’s an original 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2, delivered with air conditioning and an LSD as options. It really makes me wonder who this king was at the time, spending over 80k DM for a new Porsche, only then to give even more than that to Strosek to do this. It wasn’t just a bodywork package, it was fitted with a Wevo ‘shortshifter’ and serious work was done on the engine. Altogether it delivers 260bhp. The Strosek, which I have named ‘Sharkie’ for obvious reasons, really is a great driving Porsche, almost like a 964. I had the car serviced and had it lowered and aligned. The 20-year-old tyres were also replaced then and, as the music lover I am, I replaced the audio system. Fortunately, I share my car passion with my wife Karin. With a bit of good weather, she likes to go along to events and she also drives all our cars. But critical as she is, she secretly likes driving the Strosek best. That’s telling.”