We had the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, 6 speed manual and drove it year around except in ice or heavy snow. Living in Little Rock we did not drive it when the roads were salted. Great cars and it was our third but now have gone to more sensible vehicles now that we are retired. Good Luck and have fun.

I guess that you guys over there get cheap spare parts. Here in UK my replacement ceramic IMS bearing [US-made] cost just over $1100 and the replacement RH cylinder head - bare, no other parts installed, was $4000 even.

Total rebuild for my 2.7 Boxster engine and replacement clutch was just under $8300. Even the head gaskets are $40 each...

Cheap? If your name is Vanderbilt I guess it is.

tac

Have had 3 Porsches - a 2007 Boxster S that was traded in (just could never learn to love the Tiptronic transmission), wife now has a 2012 Panamera, and I have a 2010 911 (late 997 series). The 911 started life as a base model but it's had some engine work done by a local tuner that boosted power from listed 345 to something like 400. I live in Southern California so it's never seen snow. A friend in Nebraska had a Carrera 4 (4-wheel drive) and had 2 sets of tires. With winter tires, he never had any traction problems at all. His biggest concern was having some clown slide into him on the slippery roads. As someone else said, maintenance work done in a shop can be REALLY expensive, If you have the skills to do your own work, it's far more reasonable. And, the 911 with a 6-speed is an absolute hoot to drive. A mini-vacation every trip, even just running errands!

come down to the porsche experience in atlanta and drive a few!

One of my bosses daily drives a late 90's water-cooled 911. Fixes are expensive, as one might assume. Another friend daily drives a Boxster S but he is a master porsche mechanic at the porsche HQ down here restoring million dollar cars so he can afford to maintain an older car.

Long time (26 yr) Porsche owner (front engine, mid engine and rear-engine models, plus a new Macan). Pick a price point and try to look for the newest model available at that price and always get a pre-purchase inspection performed by a specialist Porsche shop. Go to Excellence Magazine. They annually published a "Buyers Guide/Valuation Guide" that includes all Porsche models. It is worth picking that up for some indication of what would be available at your price point.

Owned a white 997.1 GT3 - fabulous fun car.

MDS

My dad has a 2008 C4S MT. With snow tires it's unstoppable.

I clicked on this thread thinking it would be about the real 911's, not the later edition boats.

IMO the overweight pigs called a 911 today aren't even a shadow of the original and really shouldn't be called a 911.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
I clicked on this thread thinking it would be about the real 911's, not the later edition boats.

IMO the overweight pigs called a 911 today aren't even a shadow of the original and really shouldn't be called a 911.

Well thank God a REAL Porsche guy finally posted in this thread.

Page two and no pictures? Bummer

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
I clicked on this thread thinking it would be about the real 911's, not the later edition boats.

IMO the overweight pigs called a 911 today aren't even a shadow of the original and really shouldn't be called a 911.

Well thank God a REAL Porsche guy finally posted in this thread.

This is what led many of us into a Cayman. If the OP is less worried with image and model name, he should drive one. Preferably a 981 variant.

Someday. 964 or 993. The last with bumpers or the last air cooled with out bumpers. The new 911's are nice, but the air cooled boxers have the exhaust note.

For many years the 1950's era Speedsters were allowed to race in SCCA class E Production at 1550 lbs, plus the driver. My 1964 SC Cabriolet, fully carpeted, upholstered, stock reclining Reutter seats, lined heavy duty top, 14 coats of paint, steel bumpers w/o overriders but with a fully installed 2" diameter steel roll bar(removed from Janis Joplin's cab) running big heavy wide street tires weighed in at 1734 lbs(certified state scales) with 1/4 tank of gas. No jack or spare tire/wheel aboard however(~40 lbs).

911s have been struggling at well over 3K lbs for many years now!

Just for fun. A Gen 1, 911 Classic weighed: 2720-2760#. That was 1965 to 1989;

964 (1990-1994) 3050#;

993 (1995-1998) 3080-3116#;

996 (1999-2004) 2900# (1999);

997 (2005-2011) 3253-3320#;

991 (2012- ) 3250-3350#

From the Second Gen to present the car has increased in weight 200-300#, and that takes in five of the six generations. Biggest change occurred from Gen 1–Gen 2.

Wonder how the weight of Porsche’s competition has grown over the same period of time, hmm-mm?

I used to be a curmudgeon about "real" 911's. I had a 1988 turbo-look cabriolet when the water cooled cars came out (at the same time had an 1989 944S2, an actual "modern" Porsche). I was outraged. How dare they sully the pristine goodness that was the air-cooled 911! I was able to test drive a new 996 shortly after they came out, expecting to hate it. Much to my chagrin, it was really good. It sounded a little "different", but was still the flat six that made my heart go pitter-pat. It had some of the qualities of the 944 that made sense -- you could actually get heat and air-conditioning out of the vents -- unlike the 88' 911 where after 10 years of ownership I still had not figured out the HVAC system), but still handled amazingly and had that "911-ness" that either you got (or didn't). Fast forward a few years and I give up on my "classic" 911 to get a 997.1 C2S. With sport exhaust it sounds as good, if not better than my 88', handles better and doesn't beat me up (ever try to parallel park a wide body classic 911 (with no power steering). I recently drove a 991.2 C2S at the Porsche Experience in Atlanta, expecting to not like it, compared to my more "traditional" 997. I was shocked at how good it was. While some have described it as a GT as opposed to a "sports car", whatever it is, it was the best Porsche I have ever driven. While I still love the classic air-cooled cars, technology is not the enemy and progress can't be stopped. Just embrace it and enjoy the ride!

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
I clicked on this thread thinking it would be about the real 911's, not the later edition boats.

IMO the overweight pigs called a 911 today aren't even a shadow of the original and really shouldn't be called a 911.

Well thank God a REAL Porsche guy finally posted in this thread.

This is what led many of us into a Cayman. If the OP is less worried with image and model name, he should drive one. Preferably a 981 variant.

I have always been a mid engine fan and if you really want to drive/own the best Porsche that has been produced in the last 30 years you have to look no further than the GT4...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB9qJlpHvEs

That was fun, and instructive; I did not know that the Germans referred to the Nürburgring as “Nordschleife.” The driver was very, very fast. I was struck though by his seat position, so close to the wheel, with both knees up in front of the dash—looks like bilateral femur fractures in the event of a front crash. Obviously, he knows what he’s doing, who am I to question...

ETA: The Nürburgring consists of two race courses, linked at the south end. “Nordschleife” is the nearly 21 Km course shown in Smlsig’s linked video. The Grand Prix track is an appendage, much shorter in length.

quote:

In the 1980s the Nordschleife was classified as unsafe for Formula 1 – the most famous example is probably Niki Lauda’s accident in 1976. For this reason the series was held at Hockenheim alone from 1997 on. To attract Formula 1 back to the Eifel, the then 4.5 kilometre Grand Prix circuit was built between 1981 and 1984, and was extended in 2001 by the "Mercedes Arena" section to its present length of 5.148 kilometres

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TMats,