Well, I have the car and it is EPIC!
It was a bit of a saga collecting it, but I got there in the end.
I went up to Paddington on the train on Wednesday and met the lovely gent who was brokering the deal, he picked me up in his 718 GT4 which was an added treat. We drove up to Bushey to view the car and when he opened the garage I was blown away, it looked awesome.
I checked it all over and then we went for a test drive, which is where things went a bit awry...
After a few minutes the car started juddering and a slew of yellow warning lights came on, and my brain went into 'disappointment' mode.
Thinking on the fly the broker rang Porchetech as it had been serviced there only a week or so before and asked if we could come straight to them. We were able to drive it there carefully and then dropped it with them.
The Porchtech guys were awesome - big shoutout to Andy Pam and Gary. They had a 3 week backlog but were happy to squeeze us in.
They couldn't look at it right away as it was too hot, but they did a code read and it was misfiring on cylinder 6.
With that I took a train home again (which the seller kindly paid for, along with lunch), and we agreed to wait to see what the investigation came back with.
Next day around 4pm Porchetech rang and said it was just a faulty coil. They changed the coil and tested the car and all was well. Phew.
I was still keen for the car as I had put so much time and energy had gone in to finding the right spec model. So, I was happy to proceed with the purchase, albeit a touch worried due to the cost of the vehicle.
The next-day I took another train up and purchased the car. Awesome!
Dealing with HSBC was painful and delayed me by a few hours as their 'Fraud Team' didn't want to issue the transaction without doing a lot of checks.
What followed was me doing a 4 and a half hour drive back home, with a baptism-of-fire of driving through central London in Friday rush hour :driving: Which was very daunting for a small town lad, and I did get beeped at once for being in the wrong lane. Oops.
I got the car home safely that evening, and spent all day yesterday applying my 23 year old Autoglym products :grin:
I'm really happy. I can't stop looking at it and popping out for random journeys. The sound of the flat 6 burbling away is worth the entrance fee alone. Beautiful.
Heres some dusk snaps after I buffed off the Autoglym EGP
The jury is out on the PDK. I do love a manual, but was keen to try PDK ownership. PDK makes sense for my daily driving habits so I think I made the right choice, but I do love the purity of a Manual transmission on a deserted B road on a Sunday morning. Perhaps a manual GTS will be in my future...
Cheers! :cloud9:
It was a bit of a saga collecting it, but I got there in the end.
I went up to Paddington on the train on Wednesday and met the lovely gent who was brokering the deal, he picked me up in his 718 GT4 which was an added treat. We drove up to Bushey to view the car and when he opened the garage I was blown away, it looked awesome.
I checked it all over and then we went for a test drive, which is where things went a bit awry...
After a few minutes the car started juddering and a slew of yellow warning lights came on, and my brain went into 'disappointment' mode.
Thinking on the fly the broker rang Porchetech as it had been serviced there only a week or so before and asked if we could come straight to them. We were able to drive it there carefully and then dropped it with them.
The Porchtech guys were awesome - big shoutout to Andy Pam and Gary. They had a 3 week backlog but were happy to squeeze us in.
They couldn't look at it right away as it was too hot, but they did a code read and it was misfiring on cylinder 6.
With that I took a train home again (which the seller kindly paid for, along with lunch), and we agreed to wait to see what the investigation came back with.
Next day around 4pm Porchetech rang and said it was just a faulty coil. They changed the coil and tested the car and all was well. Phew.
I was still keen for the car as I had put so much time and energy had gone in to finding the right spec model. So, I was happy to proceed with the purchase, albeit a touch worried due to the cost of the vehicle.
The next-day I took another train up and purchased the car. Awesome!
Dealing with HSBC was painful and delayed me by a few hours as their 'Fraud Team' didn't want to issue the transaction without doing a lot of checks.
What followed was me doing a 4 and a half hour drive back home, with a baptism-of-fire of driving through central London in Friday rush hour :driving: Which was very daunting for a small town lad, and I did get beeped at once for being in the wrong lane. Oops.
I got the car home safely that evening, and spent all day yesterday applying my 23 year old Autoglym products :grin:
I'm really happy. I can't stop looking at it and popping out for random journeys. The sound of the flat 6 burbling away is worth the entrance fee alone. Beautiful.
Heres some dusk snaps after I buffed off the Autoglym EGP
The jury is out on the PDK. I do love a manual, but was keen to try PDK ownership. PDK makes sense for my daily driving habits so I think I made the right choice, but I do love the purity of a Manual transmission on a deserted B road on a Sunday morning. Perhaps a manual GTS will be in my future...
Cheers! :cloud9:
