Porsche 911 (997) Carrera GTS: PH Carpool
The finest non-GT 911? This PHer thinks so
Car: Porsche 911 Carrera GTS (997)
Owned since: December 2013
Previously owned: BMW M135i, a couple of 3 Series company cars, Toyota MR2 Rev 2, Citroen Xsara VTR
On one of many early morning blasts
"My dad had his own garage for many years and I grew up around cars, from washing his stock on a freezing Saturday morning to balancing wheels during the school holidays. A trader friend of his bought a brand new 911 (which I now know to be a 964) and ever since the day I clapped eyes on it, I said that one day I'd own a Porsche, ideally a 911.
"I found myself in a fortunate enough position to be able to do it and decided that if I didn't do it then, the chances were I never would. With a budget of £20K, I set out to initially buy a Cayman S. This quickly turned into a test drive of an Aston Vantage V8 (for me, a far better looking car than any 911), a Gen 2 997 Carrera S, Gen 1 997 GT3 and finally, after some interesting man-maths, a 997 Carrera GTS.
"Why a GTS over a GT3 though? Well, at the time the GT3 was priced similarly to the GTS and if I was buying to make money, clearly the GT3 would have been the sensible purchase. Like many of us, I wasn't aware the market would go the way it did but even if I had have been, it's likely I'd have still gone for the GTS. I really liked the GT3, but just wasn't what I was after at the time."
Andy's 911 gets used properly!
"Not too much really - I spent a long time doing my research and one of the reasons of moving to the Gen 2 variant of the 997 (and dismissing Gen 1 Caymans) was the dreaded IMS. Like a lot of things online, you only ever hear about the horror stories but I'm the first to admit that they got to me. Owning a 911 has been a dream of mine since I was a kid, so I just didn't want to have that tainted by what, for me, would be something of a constant worry."
Things I love:
"Everything. I'm clearly biased, but it just feels a special car to me. The noise at 6,000rpm is sensational, particularly in a long tunnel. PDK. There, I said it. If I had the driving ability to heel and toe followed by a nice progressive drift, maybe I'd have gone for the manual, bucket seated GTS that was £3K cheaper than my PDK variant. But I don't. If this doesn't make me a 'purist' or makes me one of these people that buys a Porsche to pose in rather than drive properly, then so be it. I still get excited about my 5am drives out in the summer months, which is surely what it's all about whether you have three pedals or two."
A childhood dream that hasn't disappointed
"I wouldn't say I hate it, but the rear wheels (despite using 305-section tyres due to the wider track on the GTS) don't fill the arches well enough. Both the offset and gap between tyre and arch are just that little bit out from some angles. Unless you're willing to bypass the official warranty by fitting some GT3 wheels (which I believe a fellow PHer has done), there's no easy fix to this."
Costs:
"The car came with the official warranty for two years, which means it must go to a main dealer for servicing. I had the first major service in May 2015, which was just over £1,000, and just had a second MOT with new tyres all round that came in at £700. All things that were budgeted for when I first bought it. I do an annual oil change, simply because two years just feels too long to me, and that sets me back about £140. The warranty is due in May, which I will be extending at a cost of around £1,300 for a year or £2,500 for two.
"I checked the PCM over the weekend and have been averaging 23mpg, but I'm not too bothered about fuel consumption; it is what it is really. Insurance is £700 per year (34, but in central Manchester) and annoyingly the 'specialist' insurers were all over £2K. I got the rear badge caught on my wash mitten the other week; a replacement was £100 from Porsche or £60 from a supplier in America (so the same after shipping)."
A tough one to replace by all accounts!
"The normal weekend blasts and a few trips down to the Cotswolds and North Yorkshire. I try and plan any trips away around decent driving roads, which is always an amusing conversation with the other half. Most of the time, I just get in, drive and see where I end up. I'm thinking of a Euro road trip next year, taking in France, Austria, Switzerland and so on."
What's next?
"Tough one. The 991 GTS looks appealing, but after having one for a 24-hour drive, I just can't justify the additional £30K for one over mine. A 991 GT3 would definitely be well up there, but not in the current market. An MP4-12C looks an awful lot of car for the money and is probably the next purchase.
"I called into my local Porsche dealer the other day, who took a letter of intent for the new GT3, despite not being able to confirm if there was even a car on the horizon. If I'm completely honest, each time I park mine up, turn around and look at it, it makes it that little bit harder to think about parting with it."
Search for the Porsche 911 GTS in the PH classifieds
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I've toyed with running one of these as a daily, but when you can contract hire golf r's for peanuts it's doesn't make much sense even when doing the man maths. Also not sure the 997 would fit in the garage, the 993 is pretty tight
I've toyed with running one of these as a daily, but when you can contract hire golf r's for peanuts it's doesn't make much sense even when doing the man maths. Also not sure the 997 would fit in the garage, the 993 is pretty tight
Absolutely friggin love mine....its a manual and not used as DD but for me the flexibility of being able to take more than one passenger means it gets used more at weekends and I think the chassis is just great for B roads/country lanes.
Both colours I dislike.
I too had a 991 GTS for a weekend and to be honest felt the same, why spend so much more on a car which is slightly bigger and imho not as attractive.
It is a dilemma though, I've had it for 4 years now and just can't imagine anything which can replace it....
I'd really like a GTS but will likely go for a Carrera 4S due to cost & availability here in the US. What are your opinions on the AWD versions? The old 997.1 system apparently had nothing on the electronic system in the 997.2.
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