I had a vision of what I wanted to end up with, which was a daily 911 that handled like a GT3, so maybe kind of a baby GT3 Touring.

I was coming from a B8 Avant Prestige S-Line after having a couple track prepped EVO VIIIs. With a 911, I wanted the best aspects of both cars (e.g. the B8 was a real snoozer but sooo comfortable OMG, an EVO is just a rickety lancer even if it has recaros, momo steering wheel, brembos, and a 2.3 tuned to 465hp/tq).

As mentioned in previous posts, I had driven 996, 997.1, and 997.2 GT3s enough to want one really bad but not as a daily because of the harshness of driving them as well as the cost for a daily.

I also have strong opinions on how one should spec a sports car (but just opinions). For example, a GT3 with LWB, Roll Bar, fire extinguisher, and other track/performance options makes sense without sound/extended leather, and etc. but some of the more robustly optioned GT3s stop making sense to me. For example, I recently poked my head into a 997.2 GT3 with 18-ways, extended leather, all the fancy stitching and etc. but also with an extinguisher and some other track spec stuff like a roll bar that had scuffed up the (painted) seat backs of the 18 ways a lot. To me, that kind of doesn't make sense but it's cool if that is what you want, it just isn't for me. The car was really nice but kind of seemed confused as to what it's role is.

So that being said, what I really like for a daily driver is the C2S with 18 ways (which are the best seats I have ever had in a car), extended leather "sport" interior, the Bose (which looking back isn't as great as I thought it would be), Sports Chrono Package+, and other "dentist spec" options BUT I knew I would do GT3 PASM suspension and GT3 spec wheels rather than previous set ups I have had, like KW Clubsports/all hard bushings... My goal was for the car to retain it's daily drivability as a really nice sports car to get around in and carve up and down the mountains in LA with the option to pull some POC DEs but not blow away any records with lap times, or to try to keep up with Cup Cars or anything like that.

My cousin daily drove a 997.1 GT3 for 12 years. That is really cool but it is just on the other side of what I want. I noticed when he sold his GT3, he is now daily driving a 718 GTS and reserves his funtimes for his air cooled Porsches. Regardless, TBH I get stressed about parking and etc. even with my C2S. Besides the GT3 being a bit rough for sitting in LA traffic day to day, I also stress on my car being parked in work parking lots and public parking lots. With the C2S, I do not have that stress (as much) because of the lower cost of the car. This is kind of silly but it is how my own psychosis works.

These opinions are after having a bunch of cars that were track specs on all accounts. Some times they were crappy track beaters and sometimes they were well optioned Japanese sports cars. Sometimes I would have a daily driver and a track car, and sometimes I would just drive a car set up as a track car as a daily. When I would have a daily driver and a track car, I noticed the track car would get driven once or twice a month. When I would daily the track car, I noticed I would complain about it, people riding in it would complain after a while, and I would constantly think about selling the car. I also noticed I was driving a track car as a daily only to do a couple canyon runs a month and hit the track a few weekends in a year. I have also had some really nice daily drivers that are just straight up boring boxes that get me from A to B comfortably. Getting a 997 was my attempt at getting a car that has all the best features of my best cars with none of the worst features of my worst cars. I think I have gotten that.

I really like seeing how other people option and set up their cars, even if it is a Prius. It is so personal, and every car is different after options and the owners get into them and change some stuff.

 

3 must haves for a .2S: 6MT, full leather, adaptive sport seats.

 

Must haves:
Black interior
6-speed
SPASM w LSD
4-way sport seats with heat
no sport chrono wart

Nice to haves:
PSE
Forged wheels (Turbo IIs)

 

Initially shopping for a cab with auto for months, until my searches steered me towards a wider spectrum of 911.

Suddenly I needed 4 for the wide body and didn't care wether it was an S or not. The tiptronic really turned me off so looked at 997.2 with PDK. Then the horor stories and polls about PDK were becoming more and more present, so that became a no no.

So I convinced the wife to go with a stick, and given the price difference between a 997.1 and 997.2 with stick, and the rarity of the 997.2 with stick, I decided to buy a 997.1 and save almost $20K compared to a .2. It had to be a 2006-2008 to get the bigger ims.

So, in short, it had to have:

1- had to be a 4
2- had to be a 6spd manual
3- had to be a Targa
4- had to have, or I was gonna install a infoaintment system with apple car play and android auto.

The fact that it is Guards red was a bonus.

It could not have:

1- Cabriolet
2- tiptronic
3- PDK
4- be black

Taste is in nature.

 

Interesting reasoning. Yes, PDK's fail. I had one failure myself but they are rare. And the larger IMS bearings fail too on rare occasions. So which is the least common rare failure of these two components? PDK or the larger IMS bearing? I don't have the answer and I don't know that anyone does except Porsche and good luck getting those statistics from them. Based on posts here and elsewhere, a wild guess of mine would be that the failure rate of either one is extremely low and comparable in frequency.

 

I'm really enjoying reading all the responses. It's interesting that one guys must have, is another guys don't want. Keep em coming!

 

OK.......mine was $128,000 new and the must haves were:

• It had to be a 4 since I drove it all year round in snow
• an S
• PTS (wound up with Turquoise Blue when I originally wanted Champaign Yellow and was turned down after many months). I absolutely wanted no Silvers or blacks....I didn't want to see my color every day on 15 other cars and I didn't want a color I would grow to be bored with.......didn't happen with TB even after 9 years
• Full leather (Natural Brown (not LTS but still an expensive option)
• Heated seats and Steering wheel
• 6 speed
• Convertible
• Bose

 

1. Manual
2. S
3. Only interested in Blue or Grey exterior
4. Low miles and no accidents.

 

We had the same requirements. The color was more important than the spec, although we didn't want center locks or PCCBs.
Ventilated and heated seats were a plus, as was the heated steering wheel (useful at a WGI DE a couple of years ago when it was in the 30s)

 

Though we may be in the minority, I couldn't agree more!

 

Well, I came here to learn and for that, I did quite a bit. I owe most of my Porsche knowledge to the great folks here.

With this said, if you back up the recent pass, there were threads started with polls on both the ims and PDK failures.

So, ims speaking, it seems that if you take away the most problematic 997 which was the 2005, the 2006-2008 997.1 had less than 1% ims failure.

PDK speaking, the few polls revealed a flabbergasting >10% PDK failure rate.

So the math are easy to do..... and should I run out of luck and my ims goes, well, I saved close to $20K on the purchased price compared to a .2 that I can put towards fixing it. I won't be a happy camper, but I'll at least have that argument to convince myself.

So my knowledge and decisions all came thanks to Porsche websites and this one here in particular. It helps me make decisions, helps me diagnose problems, gives me great tutorials and help me avoid making mistakes.

Thanks guys.

 

Must haves- under $60k, low miles, MT, widebody, AWD, heated seats, 19 inch wheels

Wanted-PSE or Fister/Gundo, lowering springs or coilovers done, black or mocha or natural leather, aero kit or at least acceptable rear wing, full leather, Bose, SC, a color besides black silver gray

Got- most everything except exterior color-black and interior color-2 tone black and sand beige. Most cars with options I wanted were black, silver or gray or cabs but very happy nonetheless.

 

S
Manual tranny
Full leather
Also Bose was a plus
Sports exhaust or PSE

 

I went to the Porsche museum again in May and bothered to open and close the carbon fiber door of one of the race cars just after a guided tour of dentists and housewives did it. (yeah - I got yelled at) the damn thing must have weighed less than a few pounds and it closed with the same satisfying thunk my 100 + lb door does. That kind of lightness makes a mockery out of nylon door straps and weight saving decals.