I recently picked up a 996tt from a fellow forum member and I thought I would share my experience and thoughts about my trip back home.
I had been working with the seller for several weeks, exchanging pictures, listening to his experience and history on the car. In the mean time I was looking at other p-cars locally to get an idea of what I would be getting myself into. I drove a stock 2001 996tt, and honestly I was not too impressed. I wasn’t ready to give up on the car since the one I was looking at had a couple of important modifications and also an x50 package; most importantly it met my requirements for color and transmission. The x50 was simply a bonus, the color was #1 on my list and it had to be white. The PPI was taken care of and the seller was very helpful in getting me all the pictures I wanted, he also took care of the 60k maintenance. Anyway, enough about the purchase arrangement… let’s talk about picking it up.
I am in Arizona and the car was located in the Bay Area. I flew out there with a good friend of mine and we decided to make the drive back to AZ in a day. I pulled up to the sellers home and saw the car sitting in the drive way, I was in love and I was so happy I stuck with white, it was stunning. After taking care of the final details for our transaction, he backed it out of his driveway and turned her over. He took a few pictures as it left the neighborhood.

Leaving his house I got to test the pss9 suspension on all of the winding roads, a much needed improvement over the stock suspension I had experienced with other 996tt’s I had driven. After getting through the winding roads that lead up to his house I felt I would open it up a bit. The car was so civilized, the power was smooth, but when I looked down and realized I was doing 70+ in 2ND gear a sinister grin grew across my face. I threw it into third and punched it, all the sudden the car starting making this nuclear alarm sound, some alarm going off, it scared the living crap out of me. The nav and cluster are flashing “LIMIT REACHED” and I’m flipping out and so is my buddy. “WHAT LIMIT?!? What limit did we reach?!” – We thought we were about to travel back to November 5, 1955. After fiddling around with the PCM, we found out how to set the limit to a higher value.

After getting some gas I decided to let my buddy take it for a spin. I’m pretty picky about whom I let drive my toys; he’s one of the few I trust. As he approached the onramp to the freeway, I told him not to be shy. He punched it and my first reaction was “Holy Crap” – I couldn’t pull my head forward and it reminded me of my first single turbo conversion on the rx7, 2900lbs and 500whp, the 996tt packed a similar amount of torque that I totally felt. I was pleased.

The drive was pretty normal until we reached the LA area, getting on the 60 toward I-10. The weather was a nice 69 degrees, the car really came alive. The cold weather made it a completely different beast. Giving it a tap on the pedal in 5th, it accelerated with ease. Adding 10mph to the speedometer is nearly effortless. We were both really enjoying the cool weather, its 100+ in AZ for half the year, so this was a nice change. The tone of the europipe was beautiful; you can hear the twin turbo spool as it quickly puts the road behind you.

As I was trying to get a bit of shut eye in the passenger seat I was awoken by that damn bomb siren again, I knew what it was set to and when I woke up, I just looked over at my buddy and smirked and attempted to go back to sleep.

I have big plans for the p-car, but it’s under CPO until October. As soon as the warranty is up, it’s mod time! I daily drive the car and I love every second of it.

TLR – I picked up a p-car in San Jose, drove it home, and enjoyed it.
I’ll throw some pictures up when I have the shoes on it, here are a couple from the original sale thread:






Thanks for reading and thanks to Tony for allowing me to purchase this fine machine!

 

She is a beauty; enjoy in good health. Also, great story and welcome to the club .

 

Awesome story, I really enjoyed it and I can almost feel your excitement during the drive home. Congratulations! And white looks amazing on the 996TT (I have white too). Really nice. What color is the interior? I'm still learning how to "drive" the car to its full potential and trying to come to terms with its stiff steering - at least in my car -which makes it feel heavy and not-so-easy to drive, especially in parking lots, but other than that I love mine too. They're addictive. :-) Enjoy it!

 

Cool story, bro
Doing that drive in one day is brutal. I bought mine from a member here in Sac-town. It's a while further north and did the drive myself, but no way I could have done that one in a single day.

 

Has the dark blue interior, but the whole interior was done very tastefully.

-White seat backs
-White Center Console
-White Gauge Faces
-White Stitching around seats and cluster cover
-Carbon inserts on the steering Wheel
-Carbon inserts on the shifter / brake

Yes, the front end is a bit heavy and I would imagine it's due to the front axle loaded with the differential, etc. I hear that it's much lighter when the AWD is converted to RWD.

 

Yeah, we flew in around 9am, so we were up around 4:30am that morning. By the time we left San Jose it was 3pm. Met up with a good friend from the military, walked around down town, got some mexican food and caught up for a bit. The last couple of hours were brutal, but much easier with a bud.

Thanks

 

Congrats! I'm finding it tough to have fun at legal speeds in mine as well.

 

Haha- Glad you are liking it Darren. I took some video of you driving it away as I've never seen it in motion before. White is indeed the best color for the 996TT. It looks and sounds sooo nice and I really do miss it... :-(

I had set that LIMIT to 100mph not long after I got the car for exactly that reason. It takes so little effort to get up to speed and I needed an audible warning to 'wake' me up and realize my how fast I was going!

You are correct about the Bilsteins as well. The stock shocks are really terrible if you ask me and the PSS9's make the car much better. The Europipe is also something I'd highly recommend for all 996TT owners - the exhaust note is just right.

So in summary, you got a white 996TT in great condition, with a couple months of CPO, X50, PSS9's, sway bars, Europipe, SSK .... no wonder there's a huge smile on your face!

It was a pleasure dealing with you, thanks for making it easy from my side as well.

Enjoy the car and I'll be following your mods and threads with interest.

-Tony

PS Now if I can just hold out for a few months - argh. I really need another 911 but trying to wait for the 991 and then choose which will be right for me... 991, 997TT, GTS....GT3??

 

Thanks Tony I'm sure you'll find another car that is right for you. What are your thoughts on the 997? I'd stay away from the GT3 unless you plan on tracking the car or you enjoy linear power. They won't have that kick like the turbo does. Plus, a reflash on a 997 turbo will get you some crazy power.

We'll see how she does at the track this weekend, very much looking forward to opening her open in a safe atmosphere.

 

I had a very similar experience last week picking up my first p-car but I had a 20+ hour drive from Texas to NJ where the car performed flawlessly and was able to get 27.7 mpg's on the highway. Amazing!

Goodluck with it.

 

Congrats glad you like it...she's a beaut!

I remember driving my x50 home...awesome time! Then driving my GT2 home...WOW is all I have to say on that one...both were fairly short trips only crossing over state lines once...

longest trip was driving my SL55 AMG back accross country from Los Angeles to Baltimore, after modding and tuning in AZ and LA respectively. It was the PERFECT car for a long distance haul...high speed comfy uber torque grand touring beast!

 

Wow - very interested in how it does at the track.

Regarding the 997 turbo - I think the 997.1TT's are priced too high right now (for me). Dealers are asking crazy high numbers for 2009 CPO models ($100-110K) that are three years old - Heck a 2010 TT with PDK is too close to that price for a whole different (better?) car - the 997.2 TT is the perfect car for me but out of my price range right now.

Ideally I'd like a daily driver PDK car as my weekend solo drive opportunities are getting too random and I want the Pcar experience every day! Like others I am hoping the 991 intro and the upcoming cooler weather will open up some better buying opportunities. Just hard to wait is all....

 

A picture is worth a thousand words ;-)

 

Gorgeous car! White was a great choice

What part of AZ are you in? Come see us some time, we've usually got a handful or P cars around here.

-Matt

 

Allow me....

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-x50-cpo.html#