From Publishers Weekly
Wilkinson’s spunky and entertaining memoir is a yarn-spinning and wise-cracking romp over the author’s many occupations, hobbies, blunders and idiosyncrasies. Bored after finishing an addition on his house and building an airplane, Wilkinson, automotive editor at Conde Naste Traveler, turns his antsy, irrepressible need to tinker on a well-used 1983 Porsche 911—and two years and $60,000 later, he has a car worth far more in hard-earned experience than blue-book value. Among other misadventures, Wilkinson recounts how he spent his undergraduate years at Harvard under the hood of a 1936 Ford Phaeton; his ill-fated tenure as the editor of Car and Driver magazine; his small-plane reconnaissance missions over Kansas for the leader of the American Indian Movement; and a stint as a teenage merchant marine in South Asia, where he survived two typhoons, helmed a 10,000-ton freighter and witnessed a drowning off the docks in Saigon. The author also offers up philosophical musings on the manias of car aficionados, the weirdness of German engineering and the importance of crankshaft-to-bearing clearances and proper torquing technique. Although there is a good deal of shop talk and automotive jargon, it is a testament to Wilkinson’s writing skills that he can make his description of the unbolting of a transaxle as engaging as his stories about crashing test cars and absconding with the company jet to visit his girlfriend. The author’s nerdy enthusiasm and sassy wit will be irresistible to both the technically disinclined and the die-hard gear head.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Wilkinson''s spunky and entertaining memoir is a yarn-spinning and wise-cracking romp over the author''s many occupations, hobbies, blunders and idiosyncrasies. Although there is a good deal of shop talk and automotive jargon, it is a testament to Wilkinson''s writing skills that he can make his description of the unbolting of a transaxle as engaging as his stories about crashing test cars and absconding with the company jet to visit his girlfriend. The author''s nerdy enthusiasm and sassy wit will be irresistible to both the technically disinclined and the die-hard gear head."-- Publishers Weekly

"...takes the reader on a tour of Wilkinson''s life in the driver''s seat, all retold at a fast clip and with plenty of pep."

"...fascinating work. Finding the meaning of life with a Craftsman wrench is the idea behind this book, but that doesn''t get across just how entertaining it is. The writing is crisp, the narrative stays lively with a series of deliberate digressions and blended segues, and there''s plenty here for everyone. Recommended for all libraries."

"No enthusiast, automotive or aeronautical, should be without a copy."--Flying magazine

"With his extensive background as a writer, Wilkinson weaves the story of his fearless and expensive resurretion of a 1983 SC into a series of delightful digressions involving his colorful life as it has unfolded so far. Funny, interesting, and opinionated..."--Porsche Panorma


Book Description
Just as life is often described as a road one takes through the aging process, Wilkinson''s experience rebuilding a Porsche is the exit ramp that leads straight into his garage to a world of wires, leather trimmings, and memory pit stops with each turn of the 911 manuscript.
Quirky, cool, entertaining, and opinionated, Wilkinson''s rebuilding project leads to inspired digressions on his life. Learning about the inner workings of a car is also a lesson in tracing the thought-streams of the human mind. While rebuilding his car, Wilkinson waxes eloquent on the history of Porsche, American engineering and culture, personal status, his unfulfilling stint as editor of Car and Driver, his love of flying and all things mechanical, not to mention the integrity of wedding dress silk when it''s woven amidst engine pistons. According to Wilkinson, "Most of the work that my Porsche required, I was confident I could do myself. Turning nuts and bolts, replacing pieces and parts, disassembling and reassembling, rewiring and renovating were within my basic-competence envelope. Anybody who can overhaul a lawnmower knows how a car engine works. Anybody who can drive a vacuum cleaner or polish shoes can redo a car interior. Anybody who can read a home-wiring diagram can at least begin to fiddle with a car''s electrical system." He makes it all sound so easy. Yet, the expensive misadventures he had while rebuilding the German masterpiece were like mirrors of a life experience; the eventual purr of the redone motor felt like a long-awaited jaunt upon a road temporarily closed, and the traveling sure was sweet.


From the Back Cover
I took to explaining that I was simply spending two years and $70,000 to make a brand-new 1983 Porsche that would never in my lifetime be worth more than twenty grand, tops. It was like the MasterCard commercials: ¿Car, $10,500. Parts, $59,500. Experience, priceless.¿ A few people got it, most didn¿t. This book is for the people who Get It.
¿from the preface

Stephan Wilkinson was looking for something to do. So he bought an old, rundown Porsche and over the next two years tore it apart and rebuilt it in a garage behind his house. The project cost a small fortune, and it started him thinking about many other things.
Quirky, cool, entertaining, and opinionated, The Gold-Plated Porsche captures Wilkinson¿s inspired digressions on his various other careers and misadventures. As a less-than-inspired Harvard student he had spent more time working on cars than on the books. During various Harvard sabbaticals he sweated out the lowest scut work available to tour the world as a merchant seaman. He built an airplane in his garage and flew it cross-country. He drove an ambulance. There was a short and unproductive association with a certain marijuana smuggler from Newfoundland, and the former Israeli intelligence officer who sought to entice Wilkinson into a lucrative but illicit career as a pilot. Wilkinson¿s flying skills did lead him, eventually, to become the chief, and only, pilot for Dennis Banks - one of the leaders of the controversial American Indian Movement. For a week or so, anyway. And there¿s his long and eventful writing career, which included an unfulfilling stint as editor in chief of the prestigious Car and Driver.
As he recounts his own personal history, Wilkinson also waxes eloquent on the history of Porsche, American engineering and culture, status, and his love of flying and of all things mechanical, not to mention the integrity of wedding dress silk for engine repair.
In The Gold-Plated Porsche, Stephan Wilkinson proves himself as adept at crafting a sentence as he is at rebuilding an exquisitely complicated engine.


About the Author
Stephan Wilkinson claims to have majored in sports cars at Harvard, which did not amuse the administration. His unlikely magazine career includes stints at Car and Driver, Cosmopolitan, Holiday, and Flying. He is currently Automotive Editor of Conde Nast Traveler.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Stephan Wilkinson was looking for something to do. So he bought an old, rundown Porsche and over the next two years tore it apart and rebuilt it in a garage behind his house. The project cost a small fortune, and it started him thinking about many other things.

Quirky, cool, entertaining, and opinionated, The Gold-Plated Porsche captures Wilkinson's inspired digressions on his various other careers and misadventures. As a less-than-inspired Harvard student he had spent more time working on cars than on the books. During various Harvard sabbaticals he sweated out the lowest scut work available to tour the world as a merchant seaman. He built an airplane in his garage and flew it cross-country. He drove an ambulance. There was a short and unproductive association with a certain marijuana smuggler from Newfoundland, and the former Israeli intelligence officer who sought to entice Wilkinson into a lucrative but illicit career as a pilot. Wilkinson's flying skills did lead him, eventually, to become the chief, and only, pilot for Dennis Banks -- one of the leaders of the controversial American Indian Movement. For a week or so, anyway. And there's his long and eventful writing career, which included an unfulfilling stint as editor in chief of the prestigious Car and Driver.

As he recounts his own personal history, Wilkinson also waxes eloquent on the history of Porsche, American engineering and culture, status, and his love of flying and of all things mechanical, not to mention the integrity of wedding dress silk for engine repair.

In The Gold-Plated Porsche, Stephan Wilkinson proves himself as adept at crafting a sentence as he is at rebuilding an exquisitely complicated engine.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal