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997 Carrera C2S, UK spec car in Germany

sonic

Active member
Joined
4 Oct 2008
Messages
25
So after much to and fro, i ended up committing to buying a 997 Carerra 2S here in Europe. It is a UK spec RHD 2004 model (Oct 2004) with 61,000 miles and a rebuilt engine by Hartech and new clutch.

Back story:
Originally i was looking for a 996 C2 as they rediculously good value in the UK, was going to buy a UK car to bring over to Germany where i'm living here, with the intent to import back to Australia.

One thing led to another and a narrow body car wasn't good enough, so I started looking at 996 C4S cars. Next minute more scope creep and i found myself looking at 997 C2's and then 997 C2S's... and then i looked at Carsales in Australia and realised i could buy a 997 C2S, use it for a year of autobahn blasting in Germany, import it back to Oz, register it and still be a bucket load ahead. So that then became the plan. This car will be a keeper and given values of 997's in the UK are basically at the lowest they'll ever be, it is a good time to jump in.

Now:
So i flew to the UK, paid for the car and then began the drive back to Munich from London. It's a great drive, i went thru Belgium and stayed in Trier on Saturday night which is an amazing and historical little town in Germany near the border of Luxumbourg. Then on the Sunday it was autobahns most of the way to Munich where i got to play with an Audi R8 for part of the way which was fun :)

Some of the main specs on the 997 C2S are as follows:
Midnight blue paint
Grey interior
manual
wide body ("S" models have the same body as the turbo, which you want)
Pirelli tyres all round
New engine 7,000 miles ago (engine was rebuilt due to bore score and included 3 new pistons), IMS bearing and clutch were also replaced at the same time. It was a £10,000 exercise for the poor chap.
Full leather interior

This was the ad text: "This car had a full engine re-build in August 2015 by Hartech, giving any prospective owner additional peace of mind. Hartech replaced cylinders 4, 5 & 6 with new Nikasil-plated aluminium alloy cylinders, pistons, gaskets and seals, crank shaft bearings, etc. Hartech also fitted a new intermediate shaft (the post-2006, larger bearing version), and a new clutch. This car has a full service history, and is an incredible car to own and drive. 5+ owners, Next MOT due 30/06/2018, Full service history, Blue, £24,750"

The car was advertised for £24,750 GBP. I wanted a darker colour ideally or red would have been my 1st choice but being so rare the only red car was way out of my budget range and overpriced. Colour wasn't my highest priority, my biggest preference was low miles and a rebuilt engine to take care of the IMS and bore score gremlins that tend to plague early 997s and all 996s.

After negotiations we agreed on a price of £24,000 subject to inspection. The inspection included a bore scope and cost me a significant £330. It picked up some issues incl a busted A/C and heated seats control unit (£550 fix) a non N rated tyre which would have caused me issues getting TUV in Germany and N rates tyres aren't cheap (about £250 for the Pirelli i needed to match the others). There was also another £300 worth of bits and bobs and a few other minor issues i let go. The specialist who did the inspection (9Excellence) actually remarked how good and strong the engine is, they said the car is very solid and the engine very strong, just needed a few mainly cosmetic bits fixed which the seller dutifully did.

Can't believe i own a Porsche, my favourite marque of all, although it isn't a GT3 it is a very nice piece of kit and i hope to enjoy it for a long time. The fact i get to use it to it's fullest on the unlimited autobahns whilst i'm living in Germany is all the sweeter. Although i am not planning on buying 1000+ Euro's worth of winter tyres so i won't be able to drive it on the road between mid October and mid March. But my e46 M3 does have winter tyres so i think i'll cope :)

Here are some pics from the ad:

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Here is my garage thread: http://911uk.com/garage.php?mode=view_vehicle&CID=1118
 
I arrived in the UK at 11am Friday 22nd Sept, my uncle and Aunt picked me up, we drove 30 mins from Gatwick to the sellers house, went for a quick test drive and to the bank. I was very lucky my relo's were fine with me transferring 24,000GBP direct from Australia to their bank account in the UK using Transferwise. It made things very easy for the funds transfer and saved me a good grand or two in money changing commissions.

So by early afternoon i was driving back to the relo's stayed there the night then hit the Eurotunnel at 8.45am the next day. I stayed in Trier on Saturday night which was about half way between London and Munich where i live. Trier is pretty close to the Nurburgring and also is the Parc Ferme for the WRC Deutschland when it's on in August each year. In is an amazing old town, quintessential German medieval town. Walked around the town, had dinner and beers just chilling by myself no wife and kids!

Next day i hit the road around 10am and much of the trip was unlimited Autobahns so i gave it a bit of stick. The first 200km between Trier and Stuttgart was winding forest Autobahn, quite bumpy and winding. The road quality was quite bad actually and as a result i didn't get much over 230kph. As this was my first time ever driving a Porka, let alone at speed i was feeling the car a bit and found the push understeer on high speed sections a bit unnerving, suppose it's better than oversteer when doing 200+ with other cars around lol. But i had to really modulate the throttle on the windy sections coz if i stepped on it too hard the front would rise ever so slightly losing grip and tended to understeer toward the barrier!

Once i hit Stuttgart the Autobahn opens up a lot, much straighter and wider but unfortunately there was heaps of Sunday traffic on the road. I also saw two crashes on the other side of the Autobahn between Stuttgart and Munich, once was a bad fatality, i am unsure how many cars involved but 50km+ traffic jams and it was on the radio every 15 minutes, talking about injured kids etc, real bad. There was another crash on the other side with a car sandwiched sideways in the fast lane between a car and the barrier, about 5 cars involved. When it goes bad on the Autobhan here, it goes real bad.

So with all that in mind i took it pretty easy most of the way, had a nice play with an Audi R8 hitting up around 250kph on a few sections but most of the time just cruised along at 160-200 which was a nice comfortable speed in the car. The steering feel on the Porsche is very direct, much more direct than the e46 M3. The direct steering and not great road quality actually made the car quite skittish at high speed. I think i will have to buy a 997 GT3 steering wheel for the Porsche coz i quite dislike the thin wheel.

I am very lucky to have a Porsche specialist less than 1 km away from me so i dropped in to see them on the following Monday and they said no problem to drive the car unregistered on their red plates, sweet! So i picked the guy up on Tuesday and brought him back to my house and he took the car. I had already bought some used Xenon headlights from a guy in Poland ($1300AUD for used headlights - ouch - but still much cheaper than from Porsche). The Porsche specialist changed the headlights for me, re-wired the rear fog light to the other side and that was all that was needed, TUV is sorted! All for 580Euro including the labour and TUV paperwork.

I might try and get away for a weekend with the kids to spectate a racing event somewhere before i have to put the car away for winter in 2-3 weeks. I don't have winter tyres and given i'm only here for 1.5 more winter seasons i can't justify $1200+ Euro to buy a set of tyres that i'll barely use. I may try and get some used ones but we'll see.

Here are some pics of my trip from London to Munich:

The Car:

c2s-6.jpg


c2s-4.jpg


c2s-7.jpg


c2s-3.jpg


c2s-1.jpg


c2s-2.jpg


c2s-5.jpg




Trier:

trier-1.jpg


trier-2.jpg


trier-3.jpg


trier-4.jpg


trier-5.jpg


trier-6.jpg



I think i'm pretty close to achieving my dream garage: e46 M3 track car and Porsche 997 road car

c2s-8.jpg
 
What a great story. :thumbs:

Fantastic pics too. :thumb:

:welcome: to 911 ownership.
 
Thanks heaps guys, i am still pinching myself!! I have lusted after a 911 for over 10 years!! I almost bought a 993 turbo 5 years ago, talk about the one that got away i would have tripled my money lol, oh well i have a 911 now and i'm wrapt with it.

Upon more researching and driving i have a feeling the skittishness of the car is a bad alignment, feels very much like too much toe out on the front wherls coz over 200kph the car really is not much fun, very hard work. The seller had an alignment done a day before i got the car but he got it done at his local tyre place so i have a feeling they had NFI. So its booked in to my local specialist this Friday to get a proper alignment, i am hoping it will transform the high speed handling.

That event in Germany looks great, all going well i will be there for sure, its in my calendar :thumbs: i am really keen to meet up with some enthusiasts and do some driving and to be honest it's much easier speaking English coz mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut lol. I am heading back to Australia in January 2019 so next year is going to be full of trackdays in m3 and Autobahn blasting plus alpine passes in the Porsche :grin:
 
Great read sonic, My old gen1 was midnight its a really nice colour especially after a few layers of polish have got the depth in the shine. Mine was also stone grey interior I added a bit of colour by getting the centre console painted, midnight would be nice ,I got carried away and did mine acid green lol.
I think your right re the skitishness get a full geo done you should be sorted.
While your in the part of the world where parts etc are cheaper good chance to get stuff done before heading back to Oz . It is bizarre that Porsche bits and cars are actually cheaper in the UK than in Germany but it is the case. :thumb:
If after you have had a full geo done you still feel it needs something else I have been reading about the DSC module and although a bit pricey everyone thats got one says it transforms the handling

http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=123535

Also consider some spacers as I found that helped as well. I look forward to reading more about how you get on before returning home. And catch up with you for a beer at Dinslaken 2018. :cheers: :cheers:
 
Thanks Phil, that DSC module looks very interesting actually, from the description it really sounds like it fixes all of the handling shortcomings of these rear engined cars. I will certainly look into it thanks :thumbs:

And i know it is crazy Porsches and parts are more expensive in Germany!! Actually pretty much everything is more ecpensive here, apart from food and beer which is cheap :D
 
sonic said:
Thanks Phil, that DSC module looks very interesting actually, from the description it really sounds like it fixes all of the handling shortcomings of these rear engined cars. I will certainly look into it thanks :thumbs:

And i know it is crazy Porsches and parts are more expensive in Germany!! Actually pretty much everything is more ecpensive here, apart from food and beer which is cheap :D

:floor: Well you can always rely on an Aussie to go where the beers cheap :thumb: but your a long way from any surf mate :grin: :thumb:

you cant accuse me of stereotyping as I never mentioned barbies or shrimp :floor: :thumb:
 
Phil 997 said:
sonic said:
Thanks Phil, that DSC module looks very interesting actually, from the description it really sounds like it fixes all of the handling shortcomings of these rear engined cars. I will certainly look into it thanks :thumbs:

And i know it is crazy Porsches and parts are more expensive in Germany!! Actually pretty much everything is more ecpensive here, apart from food and beer which is cheap :D

:floor: Well you can always rely on an Aussie to go where the beers cheap :thumb: but your a long way from any surf mate :grin: :thumb:

you cant accuse me of stereotyping as I never mentioned barbies or shrimp :floor: :thumb:

You're right about the beer :) It doesn't get much better than German beer, and German food for that matter!! The only food i really miss is fresh seafood, we are spoilt for that in Australia. No surf here but i survive on the snowboarding and mountain biking.

Love a good shrimp on the barbie :floor: but they are called prawns in Oz :thumb:
 
sonic said:
Phil 997 said:
sonic said:
Thanks Phil, that DSC module looks very interesting actually, from the description it really sounds like it fixes all of the handling shortcomings of these rear engined cars. I will certainly look into it thanks :thumbs:

And i know it is crazy Porsches and parts are more expensive in Germany!! Actually pretty much everything is more ecpensive here, apart from food and beer which is cheap :D

:floor: Well you can always rely on an Aussie to go where the beers cheap :thumb: but your a long way from any surf mate :grin: :thumb:

you cant accuse me of stereotyping as I never mentioned barbies or shrimp :floor: :thumb:

You're right about the beer :) It doesn't get much better than German beer, and German food for that matter!! The only food i really miss is fresh seafood, we are spoilt for that in Australia. No surf here but i survive on the snowboarding and mountain biking.

Love a good shrimp on the barbie :floor: but they are called prawns in Oz :thumb:

:grin: :grin: :thumb: Nice Prawns at the buffet when you go to Dinslaken next year , freshly cooked in front of you , I seem to remember they also had kangaroo meat to add to your Chinese which I did think was strange at the time a Chinese restaurant in Germany doing Kangaroo meat :dont know: but it was nice anyway :thumb:
 
Took your advice and am booked for the Dinslaken trip, Sun - Wed incl the Spa track drive. Looking forward to an epic Porsche experience 😀
 
Good to see another Strayan on here. Quality Motors mate. There are 3 or 4 on here but sporadically so get involved :thumb:
 
Haven't updated this for some time. Nothing much new to report, attended the recent Dinslaken event which was great fun.

Did a spot of 'Bahnstormin recently in the 997:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tLk-yhFNVk

Man i'm going to miss the autobahns when i move back to Oz in January :sad:
 

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