Jason Gonzalez

Jason Gonzalez owns and operates R7 Racing & Restoration in Bayville, N.J. R7 works exclusively on water-cooled, front-engine Porsches. Jason continues to buy up 944s that would otherwise be parted, chopped and scrapped. He still drives and races the first 944 he bought, and he still talks to his cars.

Articles by Jason Gonzalez

• So you want to be a race car driver?

  Friday, August 28, 2015

  What did you dream of doing when you were a kid? Astronaut? President of the United States? Shortstop for the Yankees? With a rare few exceptions, most of you reading this article have not made it in those careers. The flip side of the prior sentence, however, is that if you are reading this article then you probably are pretty successful in your own right and own a Porsche.

• Digital Autobahn: The world’s largest used car lot

  Monday, March 23, 2015

  I finished college in the early '90s. I lived in Port Orange, Florida, a neighboring town to Daytona Beach. I was a securities principal, stock and bond trader and a broker. At the time, I had a beautiful office in the Halifax Harbor Marina on North Beach St and Basin — right on the Halifax River. I could take my boat to work if I didn't feel like driving my Corvette (sorry, I was young and inexperienced).

• Snowshoeing in a Porsche

  Monday, December 01, 2014

  It's that time of year again. The sky is gray. It's cold and crisp. It looks like snow, and it even smells like snow. It's going to snow. It’s the time of year when many of our Porsches go into hibernation.

• Will 944s ever be collectible?

  Monday, September 22, 2014

  A question I get asked frequently is, "Do you think 944s are going to go up in value?" Every time — and it really is often — I still find myself pausing and scratching my head before arriving at the same conclusion. I do believe that the front-engine water cooler is the collectible Porsche car for the next generation of enthusiasts.

• Building a dream: Starting to construct the 944 GTS and 951 GTS

  Monday, July 21, 2014

  At the end of last year, we began discussing the design specs of a car that Porsche never turned out, the 944GTS. What initially started as excited daydreaming evolved into speculation, research and even some heated discussions over the car that Stuttgart seemed to overlook.

• How much does a $2,500 944 Turbo really cost?

  Monday, April 14, 2014

  Owning a car restoration business is an eye-opening experience. I have all of the traditional business issues and overhead such as rent, utilities, inventory and employees and the extra kicker of dealing in commodities with prices for materials and parts fluctuating.

• Building a dream: The 944 Carrera GTS

  Monday, February 17, 2014

  After the release of my previous article, I had dozens of correspondences from readers. Their help has made my planning process more precise and my specifications more concrete. Of course, a new problem arose.

• The best Porsche that was never built

  Tuesday, December 17, 2013

  I was reveling in a 15-minute break from work (and life in general) and prodding through the online classifieds in search of my next something to long for. My standard exercise includes a general vintage, an approximate price tag and a manufacturer before clicking the search button on Google. Even if my real plan is only to kill a few minutes, I want to feel productive — and who knows, perhaps even yield an effective result. How much would I afford myself today? What distinguished breed of GT car would I fancy researching, inspecting and negotiating for?

• Saving the water coolers, 1 at a time

  Monday, October 14, 2013

  I have been a Porsche guy for a long time. I have owned 911s, an outlaw 356 and a couple of Boxsters. For the last six years, however, I have found myself on a path far less traveled. I have completely fallen for Porsches often overlooked and curiously economical, four-cylinder cars — 924s, 931s, 944s, 951s and 968s. Like others who struggle with the same addiction, I affectionately refer to them as "the water coolers."