Hi All, long time lurker on these forums as my Dad owns a 996 and I've been dreaming of a 911 since I can remember.
I currently have a very well looked after and sound Boxster 986s (may be for sale soon, PM if interested) which I enjoy as a second car to my company car (Golf GTE) have always wanted a 911 but due to being between London and the Northwest doing ~10k per year had thought that it wouldn't be a good idea. After a bit of man maths and with my company car coming to an end soon I've deiced to entertain the idea and see how it goes. It won't be a daily driver as I don't need to do commuting miles but will be used weekly in one way or another.
Although I currently really enjoy getting the roof down on the Boxster for leisure driving I felt like I wanted the 'quintessential' 911 and therefore was after a manual coupe rather than a cab or PDK/TIP (even though I'll be doing London driving and motorway miles). With doing the miles and parking in London my primary concern was finding a 997 which had a strong mechanical foundation which I could rely on, therefore a Hartech engine was highly desirable.
I made a quick purchase on this Black 997 C2S, which had £10k of Haretch work done ~30k ago.
Some quick pictures of the car are below after driving for a few days and not having cleaned it yet so it's filthy, plenty of better pictures will be on the way!
Still crunching man math figures in my head about running this as my only car, the current plan is to do that but I may decide to have it as a second car or even just to enjoy it over the summer and replace with something else to commute, nevertheless it was the right car at the right time when I bought it and my dream has always been to own a 911.
Unfortunately, I'll be away from the car for the next few weeks so it will be in the custody of my father who will sort out the first major service etc. The detail etc will have to wait until I can spend a weekend with it ïŒ
The below is a brain dump of what I'm thinking of doing with the car, some will be a priority, some will happen in slower time and some I may never get round to. I'm wanting to share my ownership experience and progress against the below in this thread as I have enjoyed reading other people's threads and hope I can benefit from the forums experience and wisdom along the way.
Mechanical: This is largely dependent on what comes out of the Gold major service / inspection by Haretch, these are some things I've identified thus far:
- Investigate brake shudder when braking high speed
- Possible new shocks
- Knocking from rear, possibly control arms
- Driver's side window doesn't always drop properly - DONE
- Get 3rd party opinion on gear shift, believe it has a short shift kit on it
Exterior:
- Full detail by myself including machine polish and multiple layers of Autoglym HD
- Wheels off underbody and wheel arch cleaning
- Change wheels, probably to 997 Turbo wheels or other Porsche OEM (PM me if anyone is interested in a swap or to purchase) - DONE Purchased 997 Turbo wheels
- Possibly change tailpipes
- Put my private plate on
Interior:
- Deep clean of carpets, clean and treatment of leather - DONE
- Plastidip / respray of center console to spruce up possibly get in on the group buy ( http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=132379 )
- Replace door sills which are scratched in parts
- Replacement air con switches ( perhaps from https://www.climaterepair.co.uk/?page_id=65 )
- Refurb of Gearstick and Handbrake
- Fix sat nav reception issue or replace with newer Carplay headunit ( prev owner believes that when the windscreen was replaced it wasn't plugged back in to act as an aerial, hence sat nav thinks it's in Belgium and radio reception is poor ) any thoughts on this?
- LED lights throughout
Possible Modifications:
- Topgear switchable exhaust
- Hubcentric spacers, 15 rear, 5 / 7 front
- Possible removal of H&R springs for OEM, undecided
- Maybe ARBs?
I currently have a very well looked after and sound Boxster 986s (may be for sale soon, PM if interested) which I enjoy as a second car to my company car (Golf GTE) have always wanted a 911 but due to being between London and the Northwest doing ~10k per year had thought that it wouldn't be a good idea. After a bit of man maths and with my company car coming to an end soon I've deiced to entertain the idea and see how it goes. It won't be a daily driver as I don't need to do commuting miles but will be used weekly in one way or another.
Although I currently really enjoy getting the roof down on the Boxster for leisure driving I felt like I wanted the 'quintessential' 911 and therefore was after a manual coupe rather than a cab or PDK/TIP (even though I'll be doing London driving and motorway miles). With doing the miles and parking in London my primary concern was finding a 997 which had a strong mechanical foundation which I could rely on, therefore a Hartech engine was highly desirable.
I made a quick purchase on this Black 997 C2S, which had £10k of Haretch work done ~30k ago.
Some quick pictures of the car are below after driving for a few days and not having cleaned it yet so it's filthy, plenty of better pictures will be on the way!
Still crunching man math figures in my head about running this as my only car, the current plan is to do that but I may decide to have it as a second car or even just to enjoy it over the summer and replace with something else to commute, nevertheless it was the right car at the right time when I bought it and my dream has always been to own a 911.
Unfortunately, I'll be away from the car for the next few weeks so it will be in the custody of my father who will sort out the first major service etc. The detail etc will have to wait until I can spend a weekend with it ïŒ
The below is a brain dump of what I'm thinking of doing with the car, some will be a priority, some will happen in slower time and some I may never get round to. I'm wanting to share my ownership experience and progress against the below in this thread as I have enjoyed reading other people's threads and hope I can benefit from the forums experience and wisdom along the way.
Mechanical: This is largely dependent on what comes out of the Gold major service / inspection by Haretch, these are some things I've identified thus far:
- Investigate brake shudder when braking high speed
- Possible new shocks
- Knocking from rear, possibly control arms
- Driver's side window doesn't always drop properly - DONE
- Get 3rd party opinion on gear shift, believe it has a short shift kit on it
Exterior:
- Full detail by myself including machine polish and multiple layers of Autoglym HD
- Wheels off underbody and wheel arch cleaning
- Change wheels, probably to 997 Turbo wheels or other Porsche OEM (PM me if anyone is interested in a swap or to purchase) - DONE Purchased 997 Turbo wheels
- Possibly change tailpipes
- Put my private plate on
Interior:
- Deep clean of carpets, clean and treatment of leather - DONE
- Plastidip / respray of center console to spruce up possibly get in on the group buy ( http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=132379 )
- Replace door sills which are scratched in parts
- Replacement air con switches ( perhaps from https://www.climaterepair.co.uk/?page_id=65 )
- Refurb of Gearstick and Handbrake
- Fix sat nav reception issue or replace with newer Carplay headunit ( prev owner believes that when the windscreen was replaced it wasn't plugged back in to act as an aerial, hence sat nav thinks it's in Belgium and radio reception is poor ) any thoughts on this?
- LED lights throughout
Possible Modifications:
- Topgear switchable exhaust
- Hubcentric spacers, 15 rear, 5 / 7 front
- Possible removal of H&R springs for OEM, undecided
- Maybe ARBs?