Growing up in San Antonio, a young Pixie Newman knew how to work a stick shift and what a thrill it was to feel the wind in her hair thanks to her father’s love of sports cars.

“We always had one when I was growing up. Dad bought a 1967 Triumph Spitfire — I had to share it with my sister — which I drove all through high school. And we always had the top down on that car.”

In 1975, Pixie left San Antonio to attend college at Texas Tech. She took the Triumph, and her sister got an MGB.

Paul Moseley, a Dallas native, was in his junior year at the Lubbock school. He drove an Austin-Healey Sprite and remembers being intrigued by the sight of this young woman tearing around campus in the white Triumph.

As they became acquainted with each other and had mutual friends, Pixie knew exactly whom to turn to when her car started acting up. It was pretty much an instant love connection.

“We got engaged in February 1976 and got married that December,” says Pixie, who was 19 when she said “I do” to 21-year-old Paul.

During their engagement, Paul took a job at the Lubbock newspaper as a photographer, driving the Triumph to assignments because it was the newer of their two sports cars. “We always parked in an area where we could push-start them,” says Paul. “Pixie was a master at popping the clutch.”

They drove the Triumph to San Antonio for their wedding and returned a few days later during a massive ice storm. “The car had no air conditioning, no heat and leaked when it rained. We wrapped blankets around us to make the trip home,” says Pixie. Living off campus, the couple sold Paul’s Austin-Healey for $200 and got a 1978 Ford Fiesta, their first new car. “We were so poor back then. We ended up trading the Triumph to our landlord for a month’s rent,” says Paul, “and we definitely got the better end of the deal.”

Fast-forward through young adulthood, and the Moseleys are living in Fort Worth. Pixie is a schoolteacher and Paul is a photojournalist; she’s pregnant with their second child. “We were about to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, and Paul decided it was time to get another sports car.”

He had spotted a red 1960 MGA in Dallas that was in good shape, and soon, the family of four, including two little girls, were zipping around town in the British roadster — with the top down — in nice weather. They kept the MGA for 20 years, and all that time, Paul was thinking about his next purchase. “I had always wanted a Porsche and had even joined the Porsche Club of America to learn more.”

Like other gearheads, he spent a fair amount of time on the internet scoping out cars. At a “cars and coffee” event in Plano, he was drawn to a pristine white 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera. “I saw the owner hand a guy a flyer and immediately knew he was trying to sell it,” says Paul, who took a photo of the Porsche and sent it to Pixie. The vehicle was in immaculate shape thanks to the owner, a retired B-52 pilot who also had kept meticulous records neatly bound in a notebook. But the owner and his wife had a caveat: They insisted on meeting Pixie to determine if she was also a “car person.” The pilot’s wife was attached to the car, too; the passenger seat had been custom fitted just for her.

Paul drove their new purchase from Dallas to Fort Worth with 50,000 miles on the odometer; it recently turned over to 100,000 while they were out and about in the neighborhood. The Porsche, which is Paul’s daily driver — Pixie drives a Volkswagen Tiguan — still looks showroom new and is all original, with a few tweaks. Paul added an air-conditioner kit in 2019, taking out the radio to make room for the controls and adding vents in the dashboard. For yearly checkups, he takes it to Mayo Performance automotive shop in Euless.

Pre-COVID, the couple spent many weekends taking part in events such as the popular Hill Country Rallye, which offers great scenery and challenging driving conditions. (Paul retired from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2018 after a long, award-winning career, and now is a board member and photography chair for the North Texas PCA Maverick Region.) They compete with rear-engine cars built before 1988, so as not to have to match up with modern speed-mobiles. Rallies require driving skills and an awareness of your surroundings. Paul typically drives, but Pixie has taken the wheel once. “It’s an adventure; you really have to drive the car and be aware at all times. I also don’t want to wreck it,” she says.

Pixie retired in May 2020 after a 41-year career in education, most of it at All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth. The pandemic has kept the couple closer to home, as most car events have been canceled, but they stay busy, as both daughters live in Fort Worth, and the Moseleys are now grandparents. In mid-January, they took a short road trip in the Porsche to Leesburg in East Texas to pay their respects to the legendary Carroll Shelby, who’s buried in a historic cemetery there. Paul’s proud of the fact that he and Shelby attended the same high school in Dallas.

The couple also just celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. “It’s been quite a ride,” says Pixie. “I wouldn’t change any of it.”