One year ago whilst driving around Europe in my 997.2 cabriolet, I decided that I was not getting any younger, my back was killing me and I should sell the 911 (it was the 8th Porsche I've owned in 27 years) and buy a GT car. Although not just any GT car. If I was to get rid of my beloved 911 it could only be for my childhood dream car, an Aston Martin. After all I could still use my wife's 987 Boxster to scratch the Porsche itch when needed.
I knew I wanted either a dark grey metallic or black volante with a light shade of leather and a piano black dash. I was discussing it on a 911 facebook page when a member contacted me regarding one he had just seen at the Chiltern Aston Martin centre. "its dark grey and cream, one owner, very low miles and looks brand new" was his review. Price? he didn't know.
I called Chiltern and they gave me all the details. It sounded just as the facebook chaps review and exactly what I wanted, It was even in my price range! Whoopy blinking doo - it's too good to be true. I instantly arranged to view the car first thing on Tuesday morning. The only issue... I was in Rome. It was Saturday afternoon and I had just 2 days to pack up, check out the hotel and drive 1,500 miles in my 997.2.
Today is the first anniversary of that visit to Chiltern, where I took the car for a test drive and fell in love with my DB9 Volante.
Being an Aston Center, They didn't really want to PX it against my 911 (covered in euro road grime), so I gave them a nice deposit, and put the 911 up for sale privately at a reduced price so I could sell it quickly. A few weeks later the 911 was gone and my wife and I turned up to collect the Aston.
As soon as the Bank transfer, handshakes and flowers (for my wife) was complete, we stepped into the car and prepared for the journey home.
As soon as I pressed the start button everything died... With embarrassed looks on there faces, the chaps from Chiltern got the car back into the workshop where they found the battery had died - just one of those things - but perfect timing all the same.
10 mins later the car (with a shiny new battery) was ready to go. I pressed the big red button and this time it fired up. I quickly bluetoothed my phone to the car and headed off.
I had my playlist ready for this momentous occasion - After all, I'd been planning it for weeks, and due to that silver birch DB5 I saw as a kid, the first song I queued up was the James Bond theme.
As we headed off down the country lanes John Barry's finest started to play and my wife slowly turned her head towards me and said "you sad git". True, but I didn't care, for I had just realised one of my 2 childhood dreams. Now I'm 51 and married, I don't think the other one involving Claudia Schiffer, Steffi Graf and a tub of ice cream is going to happen somehow.
Two weeks after getting my Aston, My wifes 987 Boxsters IMS bearing decided to eat the engine. We replaced the engine.
This was the 5th Porsche engine we have had to replace out of 8 cars.
All of them were OPC serviced.
All of them were well looked after,
None of them were revved over 3K until the oil was hot,
All of them allowed to cool down,
All of them had the oil replaced every 5K with the best available at the time (millers nano was in the Boxster),
None of them were over revved (3 had tip boxes) and
ALL of them were due to "Known Issues".
We sold the Boxster and brought and Range Rover and I've been Porsche free now for a year.
Since then I've driven the DB9 to the swiss Alps twice and visited more petrol stations than I could ever imagine. Its been 100% reliable, and I still get excited when I get in it.
I'm still in love with the whole Aston experience (See my other post) and I'm looking forward to next years road trip to Monza with 15 other Aston Martins (Redbull are giving us access to the pits etc)
Every now and then I miss my 911, but then I think of the money they have cost me over the years and the feeling goes away.
I may well get another Porsche in a few years time but it's probably going to be something like a Tacan, to use as my daily keeping the Aston for when I want to stir my soul
I knew I wanted either a dark grey metallic or black volante with a light shade of leather and a piano black dash. I was discussing it on a 911 facebook page when a member contacted me regarding one he had just seen at the Chiltern Aston Martin centre. "its dark grey and cream, one owner, very low miles and looks brand new" was his review. Price? he didn't know.
I called Chiltern and they gave me all the details. It sounded just as the facebook chaps review and exactly what I wanted, It was even in my price range! Whoopy blinking doo - it's too good to be true. I instantly arranged to view the car first thing on Tuesday morning. The only issue... I was in Rome. It was Saturday afternoon and I had just 2 days to pack up, check out the hotel and drive 1,500 miles in my 997.2.
Today is the first anniversary of that visit to Chiltern, where I took the car for a test drive and fell in love with my DB9 Volante.
Being an Aston Center, They didn't really want to PX it against my 911 (covered in euro road grime), so I gave them a nice deposit, and put the 911 up for sale privately at a reduced price so I could sell it quickly. A few weeks later the 911 was gone and my wife and I turned up to collect the Aston.
As soon as the Bank transfer, handshakes and flowers (for my wife) was complete, we stepped into the car and prepared for the journey home.
As soon as I pressed the start button everything died... With embarrassed looks on there faces, the chaps from Chiltern got the car back into the workshop where they found the battery had died - just one of those things - but perfect timing all the same.
10 mins later the car (with a shiny new battery) was ready to go. I pressed the big red button and this time it fired up. I quickly bluetoothed my phone to the car and headed off.
I had my playlist ready for this momentous occasion - After all, I'd been planning it for weeks, and due to that silver birch DB5 I saw as a kid, the first song I queued up was the James Bond theme.
As we headed off down the country lanes John Barry's finest started to play and my wife slowly turned her head towards me and said "you sad git". True, but I didn't care, for I had just realised one of my 2 childhood dreams. Now I'm 51 and married, I don't think the other one involving Claudia Schiffer, Steffi Graf and a tub of ice cream is going to happen somehow.
Two weeks after getting my Aston, My wifes 987 Boxsters IMS bearing decided to eat the engine. We replaced the engine.
This was the 5th Porsche engine we have had to replace out of 8 cars.
All of them were OPC serviced.
All of them were well looked after,
None of them were revved over 3K until the oil was hot,
All of them allowed to cool down,
All of them had the oil replaced every 5K with the best available at the time (millers nano was in the Boxster),
None of them were over revved (3 had tip boxes) and
ALL of them were due to "Known Issues".
We sold the Boxster and brought and Range Rover and I've been Porsche free now for a year.
Since then I've driven the DB9 to the swiss Alps twice and visited more petrol stations than I could ever imagine. Its been 100% reliable, and I still get excited when I get in it.
I'm still in love with the whole Aston experience (See my other post) and I'm looking forward to next years road trip to Monza with 15 other Aston Martins (Redbull are giving us access to the pits etc)
Every now and then I miss my 911, but then I think of the money they have cost me over the years and the feeling goes away.
I may well get another Porsche in a few years time but it's probably going to be something like a Tacan, to use as my daily keeping the Aston for when I want to stir my soul
