New Owner in NC saying hey.

Jul 13, 2015 | 07:05 AM

mxracer

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Joined: Jun 2015

Posts: 150

From: NC

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New Owner in NC saying hey.

Just wanted to say hey to everyone and share a bit of my story. Been lurking for a bit and finally found the car I wanted so figured I'd speak up.

Just bought an 01 996 turbo from St. Louis Mo.

Like many, I have been waiting since I was a teenager to own a Porsche. (read 30 years). I can vividly remember looking at pictures of the late 80's 911s and just dreaming of owning one. (even the slant nose) Even now, or up until recently, when I saw one on the road I'd always check it out. My wife now says "ooo a Porsche" before I get to say it most of the time since she's trained to spot them (and I'm driving).

Anyway fast forward to about 2 months ago and I realized I am in a position right now to own one of my dream cars.

I originally started looking for a 964 or 993. I quickly found out (and no offense if you recently bought one) but there are some crazy people out there. I have no issues paying for a toy, and I understand supply and demand just fine but the prices of those (especially the 930 turbos) is stupid IMO. ALL someone is paying for is nostalgia. Again not that it's bad per-say, just not where I want to spend my $$$.

So that led to "what is the best bang for the buck" in the Porsche world? At first I was looking at the 997.1 Carrera S. Nice car, seemed to be in my price range, and was a modern Porsche 911. I then started digging deeper and read about the potential issues, which were ok as long as prepared for. Then I stumbled upon a 996tt listed somewhere. WOW I thought, a 911 turbo for the same kind of money....what's wrong with them? I quickly found out that the answer is not much in reality, but a lot in association. So I set my sights on a 996tt.

I looked for a couple of months and it seemed the only thing I was finding was medium mileage, modded out the wazzo, "ok" examples that were overpriced IMO. Not grossly overpriced but I'm not paying retail for someone elses choices of modifications. If "joe" paid 4K for his coilovers, that does not translate to a 4K price bump in the car, not for me anyway.

About 2 weeks ago I was doing the daily (usually hourly) search on the web and stumbled on what looked to be a nice example on classiccars.com. A 2001 996 Turbo, 48K miles, 2 owner, seal grey with graphite interior, and only 3 things had been done to the car. Forgeline Wheels, AWE exhaust, and (crappy) radio. I called to inquire and got really interested. The car was on consignment at the St. Louis Car Museum. I spoke to Jon Faust there and he gave me some of the back story and actually read me service records over the phone from 48K back to about 20K, I stopped him at that point cause I got a good picture, he'd have kept going all the way back to 4K where they stopped.

The records told a story of an owner that was "no muss, no fuss" on maintenance and repairs. i.e. He took it in for a "hard clutch". They diagnosed the accumulator and replaced it, they also at the time diagnosed the spoiler hydraulics being "sluggish". So he had them replace the entire system. The rest of the records are such, if it had an issue it was addressed and always at the dealer.

I knew it was somewhat of a risk but I took it anyway. I bought it. I know I should have gotten a PPI, flew up there and looked at it etc. but I just took the risk and did it. Jon, the salesman at the dealership was awesome, he sent me the paperwork, wire instructions, and booked the transport. Three days later I was meeting the transport guys down the road to unload the car. It does have a few battle scars, as I expected having 48K on it. There are a couple of stone chips on the front end and some interior spots where the dye has been rubbed/scratched off, but overall the car was exactly what I was expecting from Jon's description. IMO a nice clean well kept example.

Now 2 weeks later and I'm loving it. I have done a couple more things to it and have a couple more in store. Nothing drastic, I'm not building even the occasional track car, it's a weekend warrior but I do want to do a few things of my choice.

I told my wife the other night as we were driving that it's great (and like being in a great marriage) that I can now see other nice cars on the road including Porsches and simply take a look and check them out, not ogle them and dream. I am in fact driving my dream car now and can be satisfied in that fact and just enjoy it.

Here's a couple pics from the online ad, I haven't shot any myself yet cause I've been driving it.

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