Living with a 996 turbo - the good, the bad......the turbo

Living with a 996 turbo - the good, the bad......the turbo

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g7jhp

Original Poster:

6,958 posts

237 months

Wednesday 22nd August 2012
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The beginning
Back in 2010 I fancied a change of car and a Porsche 911 turbo looked just what I needed. I’d been running a lovely 3.2 Carrera as a daily (and a Caterham 7 HPC as a weekender) but using a 20+ year old car although fun was getting harder to maintain and I didn’t want to run her into the ground. A 996 turbo was top of the list.

In June 2010 I started to look (thread is here), but with no nice examples coming up and the arrival of daughter No.2 I didn’t have time to spend and decided to take a break from looking and ended up buying a BMW 535d Touring to tide me over!

The hunt
Roll-on to September 2011 and the itch had returned and this time needed to be scratched. My second search began (thread here) for my elusive 996 turbo.

My ideal spec was:

• Seal/slate grey
• Manual
• Sports seats
• Black leather
• Below 50k miles
• 2002 onwards (facelift with glovebox)
• Unmodified

When you’re not looking there always seems to be a glut of good cars for sale. The minute you start to look that rich supply of cars seems to dry up. There’s only so many times you can click and refresh the Pistonheads classifieds and the extra time in the holiday season only made the hunt harder.

By January 2012 I decided a new course of action was required and put a call in to all my local Porsche Independent Specialists (JZ Machtech, 911Virgin, RSJ Sportcars, Northway and Portiacraft) with a brief for my ideal car.

Nothing had come up by late February when I went skiing to France. After a few days away and whilst sitting at Geneva airport on the way back I spotted RSJ Sportcars had just added a slate grey 996 turbo to their stocklist. There were no pictures as it hadn’t been prepared yet. By the time I landed at Luton airport, Joel from RSJ had already called me and left a message. As it was late I emailed back and arranged to drop in at lunchtime the next day.

The One
After a test drive, inspection and a bit of haggling I’d bought myself a Porsche 996 turbo (X50).

My cars spec:

• Slate grey
• Manual
• Standard seats
• Black leather
• 36k miles
• 52 plate
• X50 pack

I picked up the car in early March. The level of detail the RSJ team goes into preparing their cars in fantastic, my car had new disks, front bumper resprayed and the rear wheels repainted plus a detailing and waxing before I picked her up.

I'm a perfectionist with my cars and in the past 4 months I’ve had a few minor issues resolved. A rattle around the dash was cured (an occasional creak from the rear window/sunroof has stopped but Joel assures me they will take a look again if it restarts). I picked up a puncture in one of the rear tyres and on removal of the tyre the paint hadn’t taken properly when the rear alloy had been resprayed so that was refinished. A month later whilst cleaning I noticed a slight ripple in the paint on the rear bumper, which I had noted but hadn't raised, but felt needed attention (probably caused by heat from the exhausts) so I asked Darren to repaint the bumper which he did to sort it out.

The aftersales service has been nothing short of remarkable, especially for a used car.

Living with a 996 turbo
Role on 5 months and 4k miles my 996 turbo has really grown on me. You learn how to use the power to best advantage, the car can be a relaxed cruiser but always has the burst of X50 pace when required. Even then there’s little drama and the way it has coped with the wet weather we’ve had is stunning.

The lack of sports seats hasn't bothered me, the standard seats are very comfortable. The X50 pack was a nice extra which I hadn't bargained on getting as part of the deal!

Here are a few photos I’ve taken since we’ve had the dryer spell of weather:













The only downside to date that nobody tells you about the lack of original tyres for these cars. This generally means you have to buy a pair of tyres with the same size and N rating. Other than that it’s been hard to fault.

Anyone thinking about buying a 996 turbo, just do it there are good cars out there and buying from a good independent makes life a lot easier.

A special thanks to Joel, Darren, Martin and the team at RSJ who’ve gone out of their way to make sure my car is a true pleasure!


***************************************************************
UPDATE - Living with a 996 turbo, one year one - 22nd May 2013!

Well I've now put circa 12k miles on in 14 months and loved every minute of it.

The 996 turbo really is an amazing car to live with. On a nice day it's a pleasure to stretch it's legs when the opportunity arises and it devours the tarmac. It really excels when the weather is bad and you want to get from A-to-B quickly without any drama, it's simply unflappable. With other cars you wish you were in a normal car, the turbo sticks to the road and doesn't put a wheel out of place.

I haven't had too many surprises, a couple of rear tires (due to a nail in one of the rears), a clutch cylinder and regular oil top ups.

After sales service and support from the team at RSJ has been great. The couple of jobs, service, MOT have all been booked in and carried out drama. Thankyou

Hope everyone is enjoying their 996 turbo as much as me! smile

***************************************************************









Edited by g7jhp on Wednesday 22 May 13:37

FeelingLucky

1,082 posts

163 months

Wednesday 22nd August 2012
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Isn't it mandatory on X50s to add the "S" badge curiously offset to the right? wink

Porkupine

1,709 posts

164 months

Wednesday 22nd August 2012
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Nice write up. Let's hope this doesn't end up same way as all the other RSJ threads!

Ps is yours slate or seal? Can't quite tell on iPhone browser.

markcoznottz

7,155 posts

223 months

Wednesday 22nd August 2012
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Get it remapped!

LeighB

3,858 posts

224 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
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Happy days G7. I know myself that bonding with one of these after an oler one can take some time, but it's worth the wait!

Rockster

1,508 posts

159 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
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After living with my 03 Turbo now since June 09 and putting around 85K miles on it all I can say is someone can have the car when he pries my cold dead fingers from around the steering wheel!

The 996 Turbo is an absolutely amazing automobile.

Sincerely,

Rockster.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
quotequote all
Nice car and nice write up. Glad you found one in the end.

Fwiw, I posted a question about replacement tyres on the 996 forum on 911uk. Some quite useful information was given, and the name of a supplier.

g7jhp

Original Poster:

6,958 posts

237 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
quotequote all
This is just a bog standard X50 in Slate Grey. No 'S' badge unless Porsche offers to add some ceramic brakes FOC and insisted!

Greg66 can you post a link to the tyre thread on 911uk?

Edited by g7jhp on Thursday 23 August 08:18

FarQue

2,336 posts

197 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
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You ski'd to France? Impressive.

Dynamo69

122 posts

189 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
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Welcome to the X50 manual 996 T club. I have had mine from new in June 2004 & covered a massive 19,000 miles.

It's an easy motorway mile muncher when needed, a great turbo thrusting sports car when required & very sure footed at all times.

Enjoy !

g7jhp

Original Poster:

6,958 posts

237 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
quotequote all
FarQue said:
You ski'd to France? Impressive.
Flight to Geneva, drive to Morzine, France. biggrin

Homer J

789 posts

217 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
quotequote all
markcoznottz said:
Get it remapped!
Good write up, but must agree with the above.

Release the car it should always have been. smile

stubbsy996

782 posts

212 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
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Great write up g7jhp and lovely car!
After 18 months I'm still well chuffed with my turbo - great cars. Only thing I really need to sort is sports exhaust smile

mrfunex

545 posts

173 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
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Bought a blue X50 about 2 months ago. God knows what I could ever replace it with. It's the most capable and exciting car I've ever been in. Guess I'll just have to keep it.

It's got that rare blend of practically, day to day usability and the ability to scare you a little when you'd like it to. Outstanding machine!

mez3

356 posts

218 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
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I love mine too and it sounds lovely to me with the standard exhaust.

monthefish

20,439 posts

230 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
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Nice write up. thumbup

Signed,

Another happy 996t owner.





p.s. What's the exhaust?


g7jhp

Original Poster:

6,958 posts

237 months

Thursday 23rd August 2012
quotequote all
monthefish said:
Nice write up. thumbup

Signed,

Another happy 996t owner.


p.s. What's the exhaust?
As far as I'm aware it's a Porsche exhaust, but probably an option rather than the standard no cost oval tips.

ZeroH

2,904 posts

188 months

Friday 24th August 2012
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Why does your turbo have a C4S front splitter?

If it came with it then this is the second turbo I've seen from RSJ with the incorrect front splitter on a turbo.

monthefish

20,439 posts

230 months

Friday 24th August 2012
quotequote all
g7jhp said:
monthefish said:
Nice write up. thumbup

Signed,

Another happy 996t owner.


p.s. What's the exhaust?
As far as I'm aware it's a Porsche exhaust, but probably an option rather than the standard no cost oval tips.
Sticks out to far to be completely standard. You may well have got a sports exhaust free! Bonus!
smile