FINDING GOLD His Dad Drove Race Cars Member Feature by Mark Johnson Walter “El Gordo” Sarmiento is a native of Bogota, Colombia. He arrived in the states in 1989 at the age of 27, but his love of Porsche and automobiles started much-much earlier.
safer since 1994. Basically, he is doing his part to keep our Florida roads safe for transport by all vehicles, but especially for our Porsches.
Walter’s father is an architect, who built half of the City of Bogota back in the day. He designed the tallest building in the downtown area among many others. Senior Sarmiento was also a race car driver. He would bring young Walter to the track to watch him race a VW with a Porsche engine. The engine was built by Walter’s dad by his own hand. Per Walter, “Gustavo Sarmiento can be described as a genius. He’s crazy, stubborn, a tremendous professional, and adorable human being! I don’t remember him much as a race car driver, as all I can remember is being in the back of an old white VW and seeing him pass by on occasion. It was similar to watching any race from a single vantage point, the cars travel past quickly - unless it is on TV. But the smell of fumes; oil, gas, smoke is what stays with me. To me he was one heck of a driver!” Walter also shares, “Today, it’s what gets me excited about my 930, the smelly old bastard” (the car not dad, ed.). El Gordo Sarmiento lives in the Embassy Lakes area of Cooper City. He is a CEI civil engineer by training (Construction, Engineering, Inspection) with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). He has enjoyed an amazing career with FDOT rebuilding roads and bridges in Florida, and our great country. He has been part of renewing our infrastructure, making it more dependable, beautiful, and
18
Die Porsche Kassette
The 930 is Walter’s third Porsche. He’s also owned a red 1986 944 Turbo and a red 1988 928 S4 at the same time, of course wishing he still had both. They were moved to make space for the turbo. In addition to the 930 Turbo, Walter currently owns a ’82 C3 Chevy Corvette and an ’88 560 SL Mercedes Benz. The 930 Turbo is his “all time” favorite Porsche, and he is fortunate to have acquired it back in 2003 after owning the 928 and 944 among many other brands. These days there is consideration of adding to his Porsche fleet by acquiring a Boxster S and perhaps a Panamera. Depending on storage and or garage space, we suspect that the Corvette and Benz will be moved to new owners to make room for the PCar additions.
Walter Sarmiento on a jobsite, CEI civil engineer for FDOT. With regards to Porsche, Walter owns a 911 Turbo 930 in Charcoal Gray, the “widow maker” in Porsche parlance. This specific model 911 was given its less-than-ideal moniker owing to the vehicles’ propensity to snap-oversteer in certain cornering situations. He acquired this 930 in 2003 and has driven the Porsche continuously since.
As for modifications the 930 is equipped with a 3.4L with a larger turbo system and increased capacity intercooler. Interior wise there are quite a few additional mods which are generally too numerous to mention, but they work! Walter has had the vehicle serviced in a few locations around south Florida, to varying degrees of success. As a result, he has identified his personal favorite shops for key vehicle maintenance:
Posing with the 944 Turbo and 938 S4, both Guards Red in the early 00s.
| June 2022
