So, I drove down to Walsall this morning from Edinburgh. Gave the M140i a last good go over the Borders to Moffat on some clear A/B roads. Was a bit of snow about but the going was good for an appropriate send off.
Got to Marshall’s at about 1600 and Kenny was really helpful with the cars, the sale details and me generally getting distracted by all of their interesting stock, and by me not having a clue about how CarPlay works. If you are looking for a C4s or a 997 C4 check out their stock, they are a proper outfit and a really decent group of people.
So, the car. Well what can I say, I pootled back to the M6 toll and it was just, you know, an ordinary car. Did normal car stuff and did it boringly well. If I wasn’t so overwhelmed and excited to be sat in a Porsche that’s mine, I would have been, well, nonplussed in a really impressed way?
Popped on to the M6 Toll and just took it steady, cruised between 60-70 as traffic was heavy and just got to know it and what all the buttons did. As we got up to the North West I had calmed down a bit and had started to relax into the driving and the car and thinking about how it drove. I had also just about got used to CarPlay.
This CarPlay idiocy made me realise how elegantly simple the controls in the 996 are. The wheel is a great size, just right. The thickness of the wheel is wonderfully thin. The ancillary controls are intuitively where they should be on a car. It’s so simple, but that’s so hard to do. It like the difference between your local new hyped “small plates” restaurant and a place that’s low key had a star for 25yrs. They both create fantastic meals, one just has 25yrs of consistent improvement and learning behind it and is now, scintillatingly simple and satisfying. Through these mental ramblings , I really stared to connect with the car.
I was cruising along thinking how much of a shame it is that we have automatic everything on cars now. It’s great tech and has its place, but somehow it’s taken something away from the driving experience, for me anyway. Anyway more thoughts on that in time I’m sure.
In short, through some small commutingy bits and some motorway cruising, over a combined 110ish miles, I got to know the car and, well, god it’s good.
The engine is, as you would expect, brilliant. Having driven a turbo B58 down, I could compare the 3.9 M96 to it quite accurately on the motorway. Yes the turbo B58 gives a massive slug of torque and you can sit in 6th and just poke it around like an auto over 2500rpm , but the torque of the 3.9 is so so so much better. It ticks over around town and then it just keeps coming from low down all the way up, in all the gears. I haven’t even attempted to uncork it and have just driven it “normally” and I am really taken with it. I am looking forwards to some fast Borders A roads tomorrow, to sensibly have a little bit more of a poke, when I think it’s going to show me what the point and shoot, brake, point and shoot, brake Bimmer was really missing.
The rest of the car feels tight and new and there is nothing to really comment on so far. But more thoughts tomorrow when I get off the motorways.
Nice Suprises
- The lacquer spots really are tiny and have been touched in already. So less to worry about there
- Stone chips are minor and the one spot of surface rust on the arch is also, tiny.
- generally the interior is in superb condition even more so for the mileage.
- The Hartech list of works in the last 13k miles is extensive (photo at bottom)
- The sound system and head unit are really good and the hands free is wired in very subtly, even with a power source for a dashcam
- The paint really is a bit daft and cannot make its mind up
Bits that need work
- The sunroof works, but the ‘front’ button of the three isn’t working so I have to “shimmy” it into place with the other two buttons. It’s not quite perfectly flush either but appears to seal. But we will see tomorrow morning!
- the trim panel for the sunroof needs to be re fixed.
Research bits
It seems to have been serviced and looked after at Reading but also Chiswick OPC’s and is on Park Lane plates, which is also mentioned in the paperwork. So its history is a bit opaque. The service history is also all marked as ‘replacement’ with some services down south in early 00’s, then all of the Hartech stuff from 2021 onwards. But all MOTs were done at Reading OPC and mileage is consistent. So some fun digging to do there!
Codes
Decoded it
C16
XSC - seat crests
288 - H lamp washers
425 - R wiper
446 - coloured crest wheel centres
567 - top tinted windscreen
601 - Xenon H lights
635 - Arse beepers
650 - Sun/Moon Roof
662 - PCM
09991 - exclusive manufacture
That’s probably enough for tonight. Hartech works lidyno read out and a car park shot attached below
Now, to sleep
Enjoy!
