Paint Respray
Was called out to repair a beautiful red Porsche 911 last week. Such a shame to see its paintwork in such a mess. We sourced manufacturer specification paint to match the Porsches otherwise immaculate bodywork. A bit of taping, prepping and painting then it was as good as new. See below.
Car History
For those of you who don’t know too much about this particular car. Its a 996 model sold between 1998 and 2005. This was the first time Porsche ran a water cooled flat six, having previously run air-cooled flat sixes. Despite not being that well received by the motoring press due to its “unique” fried egg type headlights, it was a sales hit for Porsche. It sold over 175,000 996’s, smashing all previous 911 sales records.
Car Review
The driving dynamics were first class. Whilst some customers may have criticised the unique front end looks, very few questioned how well it drove. The guys at Top Gear Magazine clearly liked it:
“A lengthy stretch of derestricted autobahn now lies between here and Munich. The speedo’s needle is squirreling upwards yet the car remains reassuringly stable, having shrugged off the lightness at the front end that could be felt in previous 911s. Finally approaching the exit road, the four-piston brake callipers over cross-drilled discs haul it all in with complete confidence. Just 58 minutes after setting off, we’re there.
There’s one last obvious addition that I need to briefly mention. Gone are the headlamps shared with the Boxster and arguably modelled on a bloodhound’s peepers, replaced by the more aggressive units sported by the Turbo. The cleanly spherical headlamps of the last ‘993’ generation of 911s still do better it for me, but in all other respects the 911 you’re looking at here is just a nose away from perfection.”
Thinking of Buying One?
Those high sales figures mean that you can now get one of these beautiful Porsches for as little as £10,000. At these sort of prices you may have to factor in a few thousand in maintaining the car. Honest John warns on these cars:
“Watercooling has proven to be a mixed blessing with lots of engines mixing their oil and water and needing to be replaced. Wet-sump 996s can suffer oil starvation when driven hard round corners. Can lead to problems with road as well as race cars. (Dry-sump GT3 and GT3-based Turbo not affected.)”
and
“Major Warning. Any mayonnaise-like emulsion or scum in the radiator header tank or under the oil filler cap, don’t touch the car. It probably needs a new engine. Check rear brake discs carefully as they tend to rust on cars not subjected to regular hard braking. Steer well clear of early 3.4 996s with low mileage.”
Go check auto trader and tell me you’re not tempted…
