TMc993

I honestly don't know who this is but to be honest, there are days when I look in the mirror and think, "Who the hell is that?"

chaoscreature

Sounds like a case of "more money than sense" to me.
I can see how buying an older car could be frustrating for someone with little/no mechanic skills. Even as an ex-mechanic and an engineer I am sometimes flabbergasted by the lack of thought that went into maintainability (distributor belt, oil filter locations, kinematic clutch levers, starter bolts etc.)

Funny how it just takes one day in a Dodge Avenger to make you realize how luck you are (I rented one too. Yuck).

Pzkw993

David's a nice kid who decided to try living his dream and went about it in a spectacularly naive fashion.

Still, how many of us had their dream car at the age of 23? I didn't own a 993 until I was thirty-one.

It's been a trial by fire for our young friend, to be sure. But if he'd called me ahead of time before his purchase, I don't know what I would have told him, other than to pack a DME relay in the glovebox.

I think he's currently shopping for a 997 GT3.

Quadcammer

thats all well and good, but perhaps he shouldn't be showing of his naivete by writing about it on some popular blog. He just comes off like a ******.

from what I can see, a 997 GT3 isn't the right answer either.

Tim, near Boston

Sheesh, that is brutal!

axl911

Yep. Naive is exactly right. Many people think the 993 is a modern car. Unfortunately, the car itself is not that far from the 911s of the 80s. The technology and engineering is still pretty much the same with some improvements.

Go into a 993 with the expectation of a British or Italian sport car then you would do well.

Go into a 993 with the expectation of a modern sport car and you will be shocked by how archaic, slow, and expensive it is.

I realized this (at least the archiac and expensive part of it) when I asked the price of a maintenance service for a 964 I was PPI'ing. I was driving a newer BMW M3 at the time.

TMc993

...But dead-on.

SonnyT

I guess there are those who buy on a whim and those who do their research beforehand. I bought mine about 10 years ago (coming from a 944) and this forum gave me a pretty good idea of the costs, common issues, DIY requirements, etc.

At the time it was my daily driver, so I heeded the common advise "buy the most modern Porsche you can afford". Of course, it had to be air cooled, so 993 it was even though I was dying for the 930. Now that it's not my DD, I think about the 930 a lot, but have grown too fond of this one to let it go

Pzkw993

He was willing to share his mistakes in the hope of steering other people in the right direction, so I was willing to publish what he'd written. He went into the ownership experience pretty much blind and did some stupid things.

I have a lot of respect for him. Too many people seem to think the purpose of the Internet is to attempt to show other people what a total hard-*** and know-it-all you are and to project some aura of faux invincibility. I've been on Rennlist for a pretty long time and one of the reasons I'm not on more is that attitude from some of the posters. (With that said, I've also had some great interactions/transactions/meetups with Rennlisters.)

Given you comment about the GT3 not being the "right answer" --- what is the "right answer"? Does he need to "earn" the car in some sense other than earning the money (he paid for the 993 himself, no parents involved)? Does he need to run IMSA PayCup for a year or something like that? Does he need to know how to tear down and rebuild a Metzger engine?

XavierLaFlamme

All in all it sounds a lot like my 993 experience...but I have enjoyed almost all of it.

I was prepared to spend time learning about it, fixing it and of course paying ridiculous prices for parts along the way.

In the two times I have been stranded I learned a ton about preparation and makeshift repair.

I enjoyed the blog postings! My C4S would be a total bummer if I wasn't prepared for it.
Michael

Guest89

A friend sent me a link to this. I am the author in question.

I enjoyed my 993 immensely, and made a modest net profit when I sold it earlier this year.

I enjoyed my 997 GT3 before it met its end at the hands of a teenager who learned a very expensive lesson about failure to yield.

And now I'm enjoying my 991 GT3, which hasn't even broken down yet.

AOW162435

As someone born to German parents who saw firsthand the atrocities of WWII, the above comment tells me everything I need to know about you.



Andreas

_snowbird_

..

Shtootgart

Plagiarized P.J. O' Rourke on that one. He earned, on his own apparently, enough to drive a 991 now. Blog on Hemingway

Ed Hughes

Oooooh, so cool you got to drop multiple 99x GT3's in one post.