Porsche 911 Owners, Just Fuel It Up And Drive It

A chance twitter exchange today between myself, Adam Towler and Dan Prosser has stimulated me to write about something that’s been coming and going inside my tiny brain for a while now. Dan tweeted a link to a used 1980’s Porsche 911 on Pistonheads with the comment, ‘I wonder how much for an engine and suspension rebuild?” Thinking I would be clicking through to look at a barn find project, I took a look. The car was in fact a 1988 3.2 Carrera with 171,000 miles. Sounds a fair old mileage I guess, but it’s really only around 7,000 miles per year. And the description showed a full catalogue of maintenance at Porsche facilities that are household names. Well, they are in my house, anyway. Perhaps the only thing against it was the color, which was a grey/green shade that had a bit of a British Army look to it, but was quite typical of the genre. The kind of color that looks far better in the flesh than photographs.

So what am I banging on about?

Well, the thing is, Dan was worried about buying a money pit. And whilst I fully understand his reticence, if I was in the market for a Porsche 911 of that era, that’s the very car I’d buy. It had obviously been cared for, used regularly and was pretty unlikely to go bang. Apart from some vigilance in the usual corrosion points, that car was good value. I hope he’s on his way to take a closer look.

Full service history? Well perhaps not quite like this one…

And the thing that I’m kind of getting around to saying is that when I browse the Porsche ads in idle moments, I see time and again descriptions of Porsche 911’s of all ages that come with descriptions such as “I purchased this car from ZYZ Porsche specialists, them immediately booked it into ABC Porsche specialists for a full engine rebuild.” What? Why? It’s a question I’ve asked some of these very owners over the last few years when I’ve met people in person. “As a precaution, I might use it on a track day” is often the reply. And it’s one that baffles me.

What these guys are saying is that they’re buying a car with a fifty year old reputation for bullet proof engineering and build quality, a car engineered to pretty much outlive it’s owner, constructed by a company that has won more endurance races than any other manufacturer. And then you’re ignoring all that and rebuilding it. Well, it’s your money, feller.

An example of what I believe Porsche ownership should be all about, I have a contact who is a Porsche 993 C4S owner. Pretty car, not a garage queen, but well maintained by a good workshop. He used the car regularly on track and as his skills developed he drove the car pretty hard. Not abusive, but getting on with the job. The car had turned over 200,000 miles on it’s original engine, never rebuilt. He eventually decided to upgrade the performance so it was agreed that a rebuild would probably be wise. They pulled the engine. It was immaculate inside. Had it not been for the lightweight flywheel, cams and other engine work he wanted, this Porsche engine was good to go for many miles to come.

Now. They’re not all like this. For sure, some go bang. Some are indeed money pits. But if you’re buying, then in my view take along an expert. Not a mate. An expert. Get it looked at and read, really read, the history. And chat to the owner with your gut instinct turned up to eleven. And when you buy one, as you will, then just drive the bloody thing. Warm it up properly, drive it regularly all over the place and enjoy it. I promise, the chances are, it’s not going to break. Monitor the oil consumption and all the other stuff and enjoy owning probably the only car you’ll ever own that you’ll not blow money on.

And if it ain’t broke. Don’t fix it.