First time forray into Porker Ownership
Discussion
Growing up in a small Scottish village in the 1980s, anything remotely exotic was a rare sight. Supercars lived in magazines, not on our roads.
Then a new lad joined the school. His family moved into a very flash bespoke house on the edge of the village and, more importantly, his dad was a proper petrolhead. For the first time in my life I saw a Porsche in the flesh. I was about eight years old, and there it was: a Guards Red Porsche 944 sitting on the driveway.
To an eight-year-old boy, it may as well have been a Ferrari F40.I stood staring at the thing in complete awe and made myself a promise there and then. One day, I'd own my own red Porsche.
Fast forward almost forty years and I've owned more cars than I can properly remember. Some were bought, some leased, some arrived courtesy of company car schemes. Yet somehow, despite all those years of motoring, not one of them had ever been a Porsche.
There have been some absolute crackers over the years, and there have also been a few automotive crimes against humanity.
among the highlights:
1986 Nissan Sunny 1.4 Surfer
1994 Nissan Sunny 1.6 SR
1999 Peugeot 106 GTI
2000 Fiat Punto HGT
2001 MG ZR 160
2004 Toyota Celica T-Sport
2005 Hyundai Coupe V6
2008 Corsa VXR
1990 BMW 325i Cabriolet
Two Saab 9-5 Aero wagons (2002 & 2005)
2008 Fiat Panda 100HP
2014 Abarth 595 Competizione
...plus several others that have been lost to history, or perhaps intentionally forgotten.
With family life taking priority, sensible transport became the order of the day. For the last six years daily duties were handled by a BMW 5GT. Comfortable? Absolutely. Practical? Undoubtedly.
Exciting?
Well... let's move on.
At the start of 2024, I finally decided it was time. The target was simple: a red Porsche Cayman. This wasn't going to be a daily driver. It would be a third car, used sparingly, so dropping huge amounts of cash on one wasn't something I could really justify. I spent months browsing adverts, viewing cars, and occasionally convincing myself that maybe silver wasn't that bad after all.
The goal was finding the sweet spot between affordability and avoiding a money pit full of age-related Cayman problems. After looking at what felt like half the country's Porsche inventory, I found a promising candidate.
A 2008 2.7 Cayman. Guards Red. Huge history file dating right back to when the car was new.
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There were a couple of concerns. It was located in Sheffield, several hundred miles away, and was being sold by a relatively new and very small dealer. On the other hand, it was a 16-year-old sports car with 145,000 miles on it. Perfection wasn't really on the menu.
Deciding it was worth the gamble, I booked the train. A day off work, six hours of public transport from Ayrshire to Sheffield, and a healthy dose of cautious optimism later, I arrived. To be fair to the dealer, they couldn't have been more prepared. The car was ready, clean, and waiting for inspection.
The test drive lasted around half an hour.
No warning lights.
No concerning noises.
No overheating.
No leaks.
Everything worked.
The paint wasn't perfect, with some lacquer peel on the boot lid and paintwork that had lost a bit of its shine, but overall the car was exactly what I expected for the age and mileage. A deal was agreed for a little under £9,000. I set off for home grinning from ear to ear. That grin lasted approximately twenty minutes.
Travelling up the motorway, I glanced in the mirror and noticed what can only be described as an alarming quantity of smoke behind me.
I pulled over and discovered the entire rear underside of the car covered in oil. Not ideal. I called the dealer expecting an awkward conversation, instead, they were brilliant.
The car was recovered back to them, they refunded me in full, and even covered my train fare home.
At that point I thought the story was over. The dream car had lasted less than half an hour.
Two days later the dealer rang. The culprit had been identified as a failed rear main seal and the repair had been completed. They asked if I was still interested.
I was... sceptical, very sceptical. The car had effectively marked its territory across a sizeable stretch of motorway. The dealer offered another discount and free delivery to Scotland, eventually I agreed on one condition: "If it survives the 300-mile journey to my house, I'll buy it."
A week later the delivery driver arrived. We went for another test drive. Everything worked perfectly.
No smoke.
No leaks.
No drama.
Deal done.
The red Porsche promise had finally been fulfilled.
Thankfully, the last two years have been largely uneventful, I've added roughly 2,000 miles to the odometer and the old girl hasn't missed a beat.
Maintenance hasn't been too frightening either. So far she's had:
Partial front suspension rebuild
Major service
Android head unit replacement
New component speakers
Replacement windscreen (following an unfortunate garage incident entirely caused by the idiot writing this article)
Front arch repairs and paintwork
Respray of both front wings and sills
A full 3 stage paint correction and polish that took me forever.
The suspension work and major service came in at just under £1,000.
The audio upgrade cost around £350 all-in and has dragged the interior from 2008 into at least the late 2010s.
The bodywork refresh cost approximately £700 and removed the beginnings of the dreaded corrosion around the arches and sills.
Most recently, the original 18-inch Cayman S wheels have been retired in favour of a set of 19-inch Carrera wheels that I managed to pick up for a bargain.
url]
|https://forums-images.pistonheads.com/228679/202611024231221[/url]
Was It Worth It? Absolutely. Is it perfect? Not even close.
It's sixteen years old.
It has 145,000-plus miles on the clock. The paint has had its battles. The interior shows its age. And I still occasionally find things that need attention.
But every time I open the garage door and see that Guards Red Porsche sitting there, I remember standing in a Scottish village all those years ago staring at a 944 on someone's driveway. Sometimes childhood promises take a while to keep. This one only took me forty years.
I'm hopeless at taking photos, but here is a picture of the old girl as she sits today. 🚗❤️
Then a new lad joined the school. His family moved into a very flash bespoke house on the edge of the village and, more importantly, his dad was a proper petrolhead. For the first time in my life I saw a Porsche in the flesh. I was about eight years old, and there it was: a Guards Red Porsche 944 sitting on the driveway.
To an eight-year-old boy, it may as well have been a Ferrari F40.I stood staring at the thing in complete awe and made myself a promise there and then. One day, I'd own my own red Porsche.
Fast forward almost forty years and I've owned more cars than I can properly remember. Some were bought, some leased, some arrived courtesy of company car schemes. Yet somehow, despite all those years of motoring, not one of them had ever been a Porsche.
There have been some absolute crackers over the years, and there have also been a few automotive crimes against humanity.
among the highlights:
1986 Nissan Sunny 1.4 Surfer
1994 Nissan Sunny 1.6 SR
1999 Peugeot 106 GTI
2000 Fiat Punto HGT
2001 MG ZR 160
2004 Toyota Celica T-Sport
2005 Hyundai Coupe V6
2008 Corsa VXR
1990 BMW 325i Cabriolet
Two Saab 9-5 Aero wagons (2002 & 2005)
2008 Fiat Panda 100HP
2014 Abarth 595 Competizione
...plus several others that have been lost to history, or perhaps intentionally forgotten.
With family life taking priority, sensible transport became the order of the day. For the last six years daily duties were handled by a BMW 5GT. Comfortable? Absolutely. Practical? Undoubtedly.
Exciting?
Well... let's move on.
At the start of 2024, I finally decided it was time. The target was simple: a red Porsche Cayman. This wasn't going to be a daily driver. It would be a third car, used sparingly, so dropping huge amounts of cash on one wasn't something I could really justify. I spent months browsing adverts, viewing cars, and occasionally convincing myself that maybe silver wasn't that bad after all.
The goal was finding the sweet spot between affordability and avoiding a money pit full of age-related Cayman problems. After looking at what felt like half the country's Porsche inventory, I found a promising candidate.
A 2008 2.7 Cayman. Guards Red. Huge history file dating right back to when the car was new.
[
There were a couple of concerns. It was located in Sheffield, several hundred miles away, and was being sold by a relatively new and very small dealer. On the other hand, it was a 16-year-old sports car with 145,000 miles on it. Perfection wasn't really on the menu.
Deciding it was worth the gamble, I booked the train. A day off work, six hours of public transport from Ayrshire to Sheffield, and a healthy dose of cautious optimism later, I arrived. To be fair to the dealer, they couldn't have been more prepared. The car was ready, clean, and waiting for inspection.
The test drive lasted around half an hour.
No warning lights.
No concerning noises.
No overheating.
No leaks.
Everything worked.
The paint wasn't perfect, with some lacquer peel on the boot lid and paintwork that had lost a bit of its shine, but overall the car was exactly what I expected for the age and mileage. A deal was agreed for a little under £9,000. I set off for home grinning from ear to ear. That grin lasted approximately twenty minutes.
Travelling up the motorway, I glanced in the mirror and noticed what can only be described as an alarming quantity of smoke behind me.
I pulled over and discovered the entire rear underside of the car covered in oil. Not ideal. I called the dealer expecting an awkward conversation, instead, they were brilliant.
The car was recovered back to them, they refunded me in full, and even covered my train fare home.
At that point I thought the story was over. The dream car had lasted less than half an hour.
Two days later the dealer rang. The culprit had been identified as a failed rear main seal and the repair had been completed. They asked if I was still interested.
I was... sceptical, very sceptical. The car had effectively marked its territory across a sizeable stretch of motorway. The dealer offered another discount and free delivery to Scotland, eventually I agreed on one condition: "If it survives the 300-mile journey to my house, I'll buy it."
A week later the delivery driver arrived. We went for another test drive. Everything worked perfectly.
No smoke.
No leaks.
No drama.
Deal done.
The red Porsche promise had finally been fulfilled.
Thankfully, the last two years have been largely uneventful, I've added roughly 2,000 miles to the odometer and the old girl hasn't missed a beat.
Maintenance hasn't been too frightening either. So far she's had:
Partial front suspension rebuild
Major service
Android head unit replacement
New component speakers
Replacement windscreen (following an unfortunate garage incident entirely caused by the idiot writing this article)
Front arch repairs and paintwork
Respray of both front wings and sills
A full 3 stage paint correction and polish that took me forever.
The suspension work and major service came in at just under £1,000.
The audio upgrade cost around £350 all-in and has dragged the interior from 2008 into at least the late 2010s.
The bodywork refresh cost approximately £700 and removed the beginnings of the dreaded corrosion around the arches and sills.
Most recently, the original 18-inch Cayman S wheels have been retired in favour of a set of 19-inch Carrera wheels that I managed to pick up for a bargain.
url]
Was It Worth It? Absolutely. Is it perfect? Not even close.
It's sixteen years old.
It has 145,000-plus miles on the clock. The paint has had its battles. The interior shows its age. And I still occasionally find things that need attention.
But every time I open the garage door and see that Guards Red Porsche sitting there, I remember standing in a Scottish village all those years ago staring at a 944 on someone's driveway. Sometimes childhood promises take a while to keep. This one only took me forty years.
I'm hopeless at taking photos, but here is a picture of the old girl as she sits today. 🚗❤️
Bonefish Blues said:
Good choice. You need to drive it more though 
I wish I could but at the moment the opportunities are few and far between. I work from home during the day and coach a youth football team which takes up evenings and every Saturday. I do try and get it out for a run every week just to keep it running well as these cars don't really like to be left unused but most of the time it's between 10 and 20 miles then parked back up.
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