There’s never been an insignificant 911. I think whichever variant you go it’ll prove a good investment over time.
Never started this project with the view to make money, this was a keeper always, but trust me, I will never will sell it for anything close to final costs Don’t ever start nut &bolt job on 911. I’ve done some but even Jag’s don’t get close to 911 parts costs. Current condition is here, on suspension now
I never thought I’d get one, as I always thought they’d be too uncomfortable, but I can sit in mine for hours in supreme comfort. The 18 way comfort seats have definitely helped!
In January 1987, at the tender age of 24, I won, for a whole month, the exclusive use of a 1985 911 Carrera Targa 3.2L non sport, which meant it had no rear whale-tail spoiler. I worked for a data comms manufacturer based in Watford and I was their Global top sales person for the previous month, so I got the keys to the well abused company Porsche. Much like this one shown below. I was flipping well hooked - 232Hp, no traction control and most of that month was below freezing overnight. I really liked doing donuts in the frozen supermarket car parks late at night until we got chased off by security and multiple standing starts with wheels spinning until the stink of burnt clutch plate inside the cabin nearly made us vomit. I decided to buy my own 911, so in September 87 I bought myself a 1980 911 SC in Dolomite Grey with a flexible rear spoiler at the rear, rated at 180Hp, it was dark grey with a silver reflective fleck in the paint which sparkled in the sunshine, I absolutely loved it. I lived in Twickenham and I got registered and insured at my parents house in north Kent as it was "only" £1,600 per year to insure there. I bought it for £12,750 with 78k miles on the clock and sold a year later for £13,250 with 89k miles on the clock. Compared with most other cars on the road at the time, it went like a scalded cat up the road. I was always cautious with it in the wet and loose surfaces as it had the reputation of swapping ends with lift-off oversteer rather easily if you panicked mid-corner. My company car at the time was a 95Hp Mk I Escort XR3i in which you had to lift-off mid corner when it started to understeer, to get the nose back in line with the direction you wanted to travel. Taken in October 1987, the new company Porsche 911 Carrera 3.3L in red won by my teammate next to my 1980 911 SC. I cried for weeks after I sold it, to use as a house deposit, it remains the only car I sold for more money than I paid for it. The plate was separated from the car and now apparently resides on a blue Mazda. I have no idea if the car still exists, I hope so, I'd like to think that our paths will cross again in the future. Truth known, the gear shift was a tractor like long throw movement and the clutch return spring was heavy, but when you had her running wide open, close to the red line and at full chat, shifted up the box from 4th to 5th, a shiver of absolute delight always ran down my spine. I managed 140 on the clock on the M2 going uphill between Gillingham and Sittingbourne before I had to lift to turn off at my exit junction, she would have given some more if we'd had more room. In 2015 I bought a 986 Boxster 2.7L, sold that after a year with a failed big end after the IMS bearing let go. In 2017 my wife ordered a brand new Boxster S 2.5L with the flat four engine in Lava Orange, not quite the same sound but i still love driving it as it does make progress rather nicely and steers beautifully. We still have it.
Thanks folks, lots of fond memories of that car have come flooding back to me. Here's another you might enjoy. The big thing in the 1980's was to have a factory fitted electric fitted sunroof in your car - no air con in those days. My 1980 911 SC electric sunroof would either tilt upwards about 5cm at the rear, or, completely retreat inside the bodywork with a clever little spring loaded mechanical air deflector popping up on the leading edge of the hole left in the roof, presumably to deflect the wind from rushing into the cabin. Like a Gurney strip on a racing car rear spoiler. Anyway, just after I bought the car, I was trying to impress a stunningly gorgeous new girlfriend by taking her out for Sunday lunch in my 911 SC. She was nice and tall at about 5' 11", very slight and was a delicate Swiss-French girl with a soft voice who took a great deal of trouble in her appearance, hair, makeup, outfit etc.. She arrived at the kerbside waiting for me to get out and open the door, looking like the fairy from the top of a Christmas tree. She wore a snow white coloured cotton mid-length dress with adorning lace on the front, showing off just the perfect amount of thigh to tease me when sat next to me. She looked an absolute vision, and to me, was gorgeous. The sun had come out as we arrived at the first set of traffic lights and she asked in her sweet sexy French accent if she could have the sunroof open? I duly obliged as we were waiting for the traffic lights to turn green. With the sunroof wide open, she looked up towards the sun through the hole where the sunroof had once been and closed her eyes with a beautiful and happy smile on her face, she was a bit of a sun lover. I was looking at her as a vision of great beauty as I lifted the clutch and pulled away gently, surrounded by the other traffic. Meanwhile, many litres of the coldest, dirtiest dark brown rainwater, mixed with leaf mould and road dust, dumped itself on her lap in a great tsunami coming in from around the hole where the sunroof had previously been. It fell down on us both, but not in my lap, only hers.... Feck! Sh1t! Holy Cow! After she stopped screaming, I was ordered to turn around and take her home. She looked a disaster! We survived that episode, just. A few weeks later when I tried to make light of it, she scowled at me. "That stupid Car!" What nobody told me when I picked the car up for the first time only a couple days previously, was that the sunroof drain tubes for the collected rainwater needed attention a couple of times per year. Rain water would collect in the sunroof surround around the outside of the sunroof and it was supposed to drain on each side of the rear of the sunroof mechanism. Tubes moved the rain water from the sunroof down to exit through both rear wheel arches. These drainage tubes needed 'clearing' regularly with a either a 2m long piece of stiff nylon or a long piece of sheathed copper cable as the sunroof drain tubes would get blocked with leaf mould and dust and the rain water would collect in the sunroof surround. We didn't last long in any relationship after that and she went back to Geneva, never to be heard from again. Love me, love my car. But first, make sure you clean those pesky drainage tubes........
After you’d got the description of the sunroof mechanism out of the way, that started to read like one of the letters in a porn magazine like Razzle or Men Only from around the same period.
Here’s mine. Had a couple now. Absolute sledgehammers. She’s getting on a bit now but definitely a keeper. Rocket ship fast and unbeatable for the £ I have in it. Had it Lanoguardred last year. I keep tax, test, insurance live all year but it doesn’t get much use in winter. Running on Cup 2’s. Bit sketchy in sub optimal conditions…
You should be able to secure a tidy 997.2 for ~£30k. The 997.2 is the sweet spot imo. Lovely looking things. Look after one and it’ll hold its dough nicely.
nah. im all in on the gen 1 and gt3 variant. not that im biased of course whatever it is, they are great and get under your skin. ive had continuous pron in some form since my first divorce many years back and now both my teenage sons are infected
Will you ALL please STOP discussing affordable used 911s, as it is making me browse Autotrader and perform Advanced Man Maths in order to justify getting one again. This is a vulnerable time for me as my R53 Mini Cooper S just failed its MOT, so I’d appreciate a little more understanding and support. Thank you.
