New to me (Flat) Six pack....911 content inside
Discussion
As a new member of the family arrived late in 2019 it became apparent that the RX7 was no longer big enough to fit 4 people in (well not 2 child seats at least) so I made the hard decision to sell the car over lockdown and look for a good alternative.
I originally was thinking of sticking with my long list of JDM cars and purchase a Nissan R35 GTR but decided to try something new and naturally aspirated for a change. So with a 2+2 layout in mind that would fit a pair of child seats the hunt was on, I quickly ruled out BMW M cars as to me they just didn't seem special enough for a weekend car, Lotus Evora had zero leg room in the back and Aston Martin was a little out of my price range in terms of maintenance budget.
That narrowed it down to the 911, this is a car that I have loved since watching Bad Boys at 11 and having the engine in the wrong place makes it a bit more unique than the other options.
I did toy on the idea of a 996 Turbo but couldn't get over the front end and rear lights, I finally set my sights on a Gen 2 997 S Manual. This took a fair bit of hunting as not many of the cars were equipped with the manual gearbox with many new owners going for the new PDK, this coupled with the car release date in the last recession kept numbers low.
After a lot of phone calls to Porsche dealers and Specialists I came across the car that I would own.
Due to lockdown I was unable to see the car in person so arranged a company who was recomended by a Facebook group to check it out. This was easily the 2nd largest purchase I have made in my life and I paid it to a person I hadn't met for a car I hadn't seen......to say I was a little nervous was a understatement!
Soooo onto the car, it is a single owner car with 58k miles on the clock, the dealer replaced both air con condensers and the clutch as the company that did my PPI check found issues in these areas, full service history and all the other checks were positive.
Here are some of shots the dealer took:
The car was delivered in the evening so didn't get much time to play, thankfully due to the pandemic I am now working from home so managed to take a 50 mile drive in before work
Over the Summer I managed to attend as many meets and drives out as I could and been very very pleased with the car. Whilst not as raw as the RX7 was it is easily more user friendly and I found myself reaching for the keys much more frequently
One of the first things that was done to the car was a paint correction and ceramic coat, having owned black cars in the past I am aware of how annoying they can be to keep clean.
The biggest disappointment (and something I was aware of before buying the car) is just how quiet it is. You get a very subtle engine sound from inside and amusingly my Focus ST makes more noise, after the RX7 and Tuscan I have become used to a certain amount of drama and so this is currently being addressed over the winter months.
The standard exhaust consists of 3 silencers, these have been swapped out for a pair of valved silencers which I plan to wire into the optional Sports Exhaust button that my car did not have speced (this should make it look OEM) and then the 3rd silencer has been replaced by a crossover pipe making the volume much closer to the gen 1 997.
Taking the rear apart was pretty straight forward, the bumper can be removed by a single person in around half an hour and all the fittings are easy enough to get to without having to jack the car up.
The studs that attach the centre silencer to the manifolds are know to rust but I wasn't expecting anything like this! 4 of the 6 snapped straight away and thankfully 2 of those were able to be hammered out leaving 2 to be drilled.
With that out the way putting it all back together was pretty easy
What I didn't count on was the exhaust tips the originals split due to rust as soon as I removed them it quickly became clear that an aftermarket option was the way to go when I saw how much the originals go for! So a hunt on ebay and I managed to get a 2nd hand set of tips from Topgear for a fraction of the cost.
Then came to fitting them Porsche in their infinite wisdom decided to fit a compression ring inside the exhaust tip that allows you to align them. The downside to this is that this ring shoots inside the exhaust tip as soon as you attempt to push it over the exhausts. It was also at this moment I realised the left exhaust needed to go in by around 20mm so the tip would clear the bumper. So the bumper came off again for the 2nd time and the tips were finally installed after a lot of 4 letter words.
Plans for the holidays is to get the valves wired in, they currently default to the loud setting. There are also a few interior cosmetic issues that I would like to fix the door kick plates are pretty scuffed for example.
All in all it has been a very enjoyable 2021 getting to know this car and I look forward to next year with the aim to attend more events and hope to get it on track.
I originally was thinking of sticking with my long list of JDM cars and purchase a Nissan R35 GTR but decided to try something new and naturally aspirated for a change. So with a 2+2 layout in mind that would fit a pair of child seats the hunt was on, I quickly ruled out BMW M cars as to me they just didn't seem special enough for a weekend car, Lotus Evora had zero leg room in the back and Aston Martin was a little out of my price range in terms of maintenance budget.
That narrowed it down to the 911, this is a car that I have loved since watching Bad Boys at 11 and having the engine in the wrong place makes it a bit more unique than the other options.
I did toy on the idea of a 996 Turbo but couldn't get over the front end and rear lights, I finally set my sights on a Gen 2 997 S Manual. This took a fair bit of hunting as not many of the cars were equipped with the manual gearbox with many new owners going for the new PDK, this coupled with the car release date in the last recession kept numbers low.
After a lot of phone calls to Porsche dealers and Specialists I came across the car that I would own.
Due to lockdown I was unable to see the car in person so arranged a company who was recomended by a Facebook group to check it out. This was easily the 2nd largest purchase I have made in my life and I paid it to a person I hadn't met for a car I hadn't seen......to say I was a little nervous was a understatement!
Soooo onto the car, it is a single owner car with 58k miles on the clock, the dealer replaced both air con condensers and the clutch as the company that did my PPI check found issues in these areas, full service history and all the other checks were positive.
Here are some of shots the dealer took:
The car was delivered in the evening so didn't get much time to play, thankfully due to the pandemic I am now working from home so managed to take a 50 mile drive in before work
Over the Summer I managed to attend as many meets and drives out as I could and been very very pleased with the car. Whilst not as raw as the RX7 was it is easily more user friendly and I found myself reaching for the keys much more frequently
One of the first things that was done to the car was a paint correction and ceramic coat, having owned black cars in the past I am aware of how annoying they can be to keep clean.
The biggest disappointment (and something I was aware of before buying the car) is just how quiet it is. You get a very subtle engine sound from inside and amusingly my Focus ST makes more noise, after the RX7 and Tuscan I have become used to a certain amount of drama and so this is currently being addressed over the winter months.
The standard exhaust consists of 3 silencers, these have been swapped out for a pair of valved silencers which I plan to wire into the optional Sports Exhaust button that my car did not have speced (this should make it look OEM) and then the 3rd silencer has been replaced by a crossover pipe making the volume much closer to the gen 1 997.
Taking the rear apart was pretty straight forward, the bumper can be removed by a single person in around half an hour and all the fittings are easy enough to get to without having to jack the car up.
The studs that attach the centre silencer to the manifolds are know to rust but I wasn't expecting anything like this! 4 of the 6 snapped straight away and thankfully 2 of those were able to be hammered out leaving 2 to be drilled.
With that out the way putting it all back together was pretty easy
What I didn't count on was the exhaust tips the originals split due to rust as soon as I removed them it quickly became clear that an aftermarket option was the way to go when I saw how much the originals go for! So a hunt on ebay and I managed to get a 2nd hand set of tips from Topgear for a fraction of the cost.
Then came to fitting them Porsche in their infinite wisdom decided to fit a compression ring inside the exhaust tip that allows you to align them. The downside to this is that this ring shoots inside the exhaust tip as soon as you attempt to push it over the exhausts. It was also at this moment I realised the left exhaust needed to go in by around 20mm so the tip would clear the bumper. So the bumper came off again for the 2nd time and the tips were finally installed after a lot of 4 letter words.
Plans for the holidays is to get the valves wired in, they currently default to the loud setting. There are also a few interior cosmetic issues that I would like to fix the door kick plates are pretty scuffed for example.
All in all it has been a very enjoyable 2021 getting to know this car and I look forward to next year with the aim to attend more events and hope to get it on track.
Edited by Daston on Wednesday 22 December 21:33
Edited by Daston on Wednesday 22 December 21:39
olliete said:
Great write up. I think these 997s are the perfect balance between looks, performance and reliability.
Did you have to change your driving style at all considering the rear engine setup?
I agree it's the perfect age where it's modern enough to have all the toys but old enough that you still have a lot of driver input. Did you have to change your driving style at all considering the rear engine setup?
Driving style hasn't changed too much, the one thing I quickly noticed was just how much traction the thing has, you can be quite aggressive with the throttle coming out of corners and it just sticks.
Lovely looking car OP, hope you enjoy it. My father in law has an identical 997.2 Carrera S, it’s the same year, colour (inside and out), has the same wheels and is a manual too! I almost thought it was his car for a second when looking through your pics, although his doesn’t have tinted windows.
Paracetamol said:
Beautiful car and looks in great shape buuuut…please paint the wheels back to their original colour. They were grey and would contrast beautifully.
Yeah the black on black was not my first choice, they look to have been recently done (or just kept in great nick) I am thinking gun metal grey or something similar. Thought I'd update this (where did that time go???)
Managed to attend a lot of local meets with the kids and really enjoying the (not so) new exhaust note. Still think it could be louder
It's nice having a weekend car that can be enjoyed rain or shine and can just get in and go.
Over the winter I decided to take the rear wheel arch lining out and give it all a deep clean. I've heard that dirt can build up between the plastic arches and the bodywork and they were not wrong! Probably saved 10kg in weight 🤣
Started doing a bit of minor service work over the last few weeks as some parts needed changing due to the time rather than miles covered. So I thought I'd save myself some £££ and do the belt and brake fluid myself (what could go wrong?)
First thing you need to do is remove one of the engine brace bars from the carrier, the clever folks at Porsche put a hole behind the number plate so you can get an extension bar on there
It turns out that the Tension pulley had ceased up and there was no way I was going to release the tension on the belt, after some googling it turns out this is fairly common on the DFI engine.
So new bracket purchased plus new bolts. Just 2 T50 Torx bolts to undo and then the whole assembly can be pulled out.
Access is a pain so had to cut a Torx bit down by 2/3rds to clear the engine frame and had to purchase an extra long 10mm spanner.
New bracket ready to go in and pivots around the bolt holt with very little effort
Offending part out, took around an hour due to only being able to undo the bolts a fraction at a time.
Was quicker getting it back in although lining the bottom bolt up on feel alone was ummm 'fun'.
Hardest part of the job was ironically the actual belt. Trying to route it past the crank pulley and cage was a total b
h 
Managed to attend a lot of local meets with the kids and really enjoying the (not so) new exhaust note. Still think it could be louder
It's nice having a weekend car that can be enjoyed rain or shine and can just get in and go.
Over the winter I decided to take the rear wheel arch lining out and give it all a deep clean. I've heard that dirt can build up between the plastic arches and the bodywork and they were not wrong! Probably saved 10kg in weight 🤣
Started doing a bit of minor service work over the last few weeks as some parts needed changing due to the time rather than miles covered. So I thought I'd save myself some £££ and do the belt and brake fluid myself (what could go wrong?)
First thing you need to do is remove one of the engine brace bars from the carrier, the clever folks at Porsche put a hole behind the number plate so you can get an extension bar on there
It turns out that the Tension pulley had ceased up and there was no way I was going to release the tension on the belt, after some googling it turns out this is fairly common on the DFI engine.
So new bracket purchased plus new bolts. Just 2 T50 Torx bolts to undo and then the whole assembly can be pulled out.
Access is a pain so had to cut a Torx bit down by 2/3rds to clear the engine frame and had to purchase an extra long 10mm spanner.
New bracket ready to go in and pivots around the bolt holt with very little effort
Offending part out, took around an hour due to only being able to undo the bolts a fraction at a time.
Was quicker getting it back in although lining the bottom bolt up on feel alone was ummm 'fun'.
Hardest part of the job was ironically the actual belt. Trying to route it past the crank pulley and cage was a total b
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