Porsche 911 997.1 Daily Driver

[adean22]

After doing up an MG TF over lockdown that I bought myself for my 21st birthday (insert headgasket jokes here) and then using it as a daily, I decided it was time for something a bit nicer and prestigious for use everyday.

This lead to a few months of weighing up various different cars including e92 M3's, Maserati Granturismos and various other sporty dailys.

No Matter how much I was looking I kept going back to looking at Porsche 911 997.1s.

Cut long story short I am now the Owner of a 2007 Atlas Grey 911 (997.1) Carrera 2 S. Iv owned it for just over a week and I'm loving it so far. The cars sitting at over 90k miles ( a bit on the high side I know) but with myself doing 15-20k miles a year I just couldn't justify taking the depreciation of racking up the miles on a lower mileage example.

The car has a sunroof, alcantara headlining, sports chrono package, heated seats so spec wise is a pretty nicely specced car, not to mention the colour and wheels which are both stunning

Edited by adean22 on Monday 25th October 11:22

Edited by adean22 on Monday 25th October 11:26

[adean22]

Here's a better picture showing the car

Edited by adean22 on Monday 25th October 11:41

[adean22]

ballans said:

Excellent, really pleased you are enjoying it.
The wheels and colour look great!

It makes the commute to and from work an absolute dream, thankyou yet again and don't worry, I'll take good care of her!

[adean22]

LordHaveMurci said:

One of the best colours for a 997

Sorry but also not a huge fan of those wheels.

Great car, great achievement, enjoy.

Thanks, before viewing the car I wasn't a fan of the wheels in the pictures, but iv got to say, in person the wheels are stunning and come across a lot better than they are portrayed in photos.

[adean22]

Mr.Jimbo said:

Incredible achievement - fair play to you. Can I ask what the insurance is like?

10 years on (32) here and admittedly the 997s I'm looking at are GTs but still, I've never had a 911!

Enjoy it

Iv just started getting quotes for my renewal and its coming in around £1.5k, may sound a lot to some people but when others my age are paying the same for a fiesta ST, I think that's a pretty damn good price.

[adean22]

Gad-Westy said:

Excellent! That's a really nice looking example. I must admit I've never liked those wheels (from the turbo right?) but I know I'm in the minority and the colour is fantastic.

Thanks , the colour (Atlas grey) was something which really made the car stand out and appeal to me .Iv managed to find the original build sheet using the serial number and iv learnt that it was specced with the turbo wheels from factory (which until looking into this wasn't something I was aware could be done)

[adean22]

ChocolateFrog said:

Nice.

I'd imagine the costs to do 20000 miles a year will be considerable, fair play to you.

The age thing is mostly borne out of jealousy/envy. I'm sure plenty are crashed by middle aged bankers.

When I bought my Bandit 1200 as my first bike after passing my test I got some patronising spiel about taking it easy off the seller, after 10hp for 2 years the ride home was a giggle. My brother had a VX220 Turbo at 21 too.

There's no doubt that the costs will be rather high, even if nothing breaks (14 year old car so lets be honest, things will break and it will be dear when it does break)



But life's too short for me to drive around in a boring car and wish I was in a 911

Edited by adean22 on Tuesday 26th October 10:01

[adean22]

CornedBeef said:

Very nice! Any more pics of the interior etc?

I've semi-recently sold my old 996, I bought that at 27 which I thought was good going! Loved the ownership of that, it was of course expensive at times but that's cars for you. As long as the repairs can be afforded then you'll be fine, and I doubt it'll depreciate much as you've mentioned. The flat 6 howl really gets under your skin!

Ill try get some pictures of the interior later or over the weekend.

Repairs will be dear but I'm fairly competent at repairing cars myself so the extra cost of parts should be offset a little by no labour costs.

[adean22]

Thought id give people a 2 week update.

So iv had the car for pretty much 2 weeks now, its been used everyday since purchase. The commute to and from work has been a dream, I have about 15 miles of open limit roads between my house and the office so the 911 makes for a fun commute.

Over the 2 weeks iv averaged about 22mpg, iv got a fairly heavy right foot and this also includes some traffic, so I personally think that the economy is fairly good for the kind of car it is. I can also add that on my way home from collecting the car I averaged 32mpg on a 300 mile motorway run.

In regards to how the 911 is coping with daily duties, I'm coming from an MG so anything's an improvement. But I am loving the heated seats (never had them on a car before). Having everything wrapped in leather also makes me feel like I'm in something nice.

My new engine mounts should arrive today, so tonight's job is changing engine mounts (meant to be an easy job but we will see) .

[adean22]

Both engine mounts replaced and upgraded to semi solid ones, rather than the oil filled oem ones that always seem to sag.
Old mounts didn't seem to badly worn but they were dated as the original ones so atleast these new ones will last another 14 years.
Not test drove the car yet but I'm hoping it will of stiffened up the feeling from the back end a little bit.

[adean22]

Shermanator said:

Flipping heck, what a lovely car to have at 22! I thought I was doing well having an Abarth 124 and an MGB GT at the same age (currently). Frankly beautiful, correct wheels and colour as well. What are your previous/first car(s)?

Only other car iv had is an aygo ( still have it, was my first car).
The 911 has basically replaced the aygo, just a little step up😂

[adean22]

adean22 said:

Both engine mounts replaced and upgraded to semi solid ones, rather than the oil filled oem ones that always seem to sag.
Old mounts didn't seem to badly worn but they were dated as the original ones so atleast these new ones will last another 14 years.
Not test drove the car yet but I'm hoping it will of stiffened up the feeling from the back end a little bit.

I can say that after about 100 miles with the new engine mounts being installed, the gearchanges feel better and the car feels tighter, so I'm classing the first bit of DIY maintenance on the 911 a success. Unfortunately , due to the engine now sitting a bit higher due to new engine mounts I now need to realign my exhaust tips so that thy sit where they should, but that's a task for another day and definitely not when the weather is like this.

[adean22]

CornedBeef said:

Very nice! Any more pics of the interior etc?

I've semi-recently sold my old 996, I bought that at 27 which I thought was good going! Loved the ownership of that, it was of course expensive at times but that's cars for you. As long as the repairs can be afforded then you'll be fine, and I doubt it'll depreciate much as you've mentioned. The flat 6 howl really gets under your skin!

Just remembered about this so iv just quickly taken a photo of the interior. Excuse the mess, it does get a good clean every week but its used everyday with the occasional trip to a construction site. The picture doesn't show the Porsche crest in the headrests (one of my favourite parts of the car)

[adean22]

J51dhu said:

997 at 22. You legend! Enjoy it before we’re forced into electrification is what I say..
What you’ll be spending on maintenance is what people generally pay for their pcp/leases so hopefully its not too ruinous on the wallet

That's one reason I bought it, I reckon I can maintain this for less than what some of my friends pay for 2 year old base spec bmws on pcp/ finance, and I know which car id rather be driving around in (only time will tell). I always like to be really pro active with preventative maintenance on all my cars anyway so I expect to be changing bits out at any sign or wear, so this should hopefully prevent a huge maintenance bill once a year.

[adean22]

BIFCAIDS said:

Hats off to you buddy, looking forward to seeing an update where its spotless ha ha ha.

I'm very jealous, been looking at 997's myself recently (however I'm 34), once my house purchase has been and done I'm going to actively start looking and thinking about selling my 340i.

I look forward to more updates on this, irrespective of whether its clean or not ha ha ha.

I do clean it, it then just stays clean for all of 5 minutes in this weather . Hopefully I'm taking it to a show on Saturday (Late Brake Show Live in Manchester), so it should be gleaming and spotless for that.

[adean22]

Mr Tidy said:

A 911 at 22 - well done!

I thought I was doing well when I got a P6B Rover 3500S when I was 20! It's probably just as well I couldn't afford a 911 then because I doubt I would be sitting here now. Thankfully some people understand restraint - I didn't.

Anyway it looks fantastic, and while I'm not a fan of those wheels if that is what it started life with I'd keep them.

Well done for getting stuck in with the spanners too - enjoy.

Thanks, the wheels really are a lot better in person. I really didn't like them on photos before purchasing the car, but after seeing them in person there is no way they are ever being changed.
Being used to the mg, working on the 911 felt so easy, everything made sense and came apart' went back together with ease.

[adean22]

Over 3 weeks and 1200 miles into having the car, I'm still loving every minute in it.
I took the 911 to its first car show on Saturday. (Late Brake Show Live Manchester).
The show was really good and special guest Colin Furze was a fascinating person to have there.
There was a fair few 911's at the show, all in varying specs and models. There was even a 997 with over 100k miles , so this gives me hope for mine as I expect it to hit that mileage in the next 2 years.
I saw/heard a 996 Carrera 4s with a miltek exaust that sounded amazing, it has got me thinking, it had the perfect sound but wasn't too loud.
It was really nice to share the car with others and see many other great cars. Id recommended the show and I'll definitely be going back to it if they do another one.

[adean22]

Iv now had the car for just over a month and in that time I have covered about 2000 miles.
I had chance at the weekend to fetch the car on some nice windy roads in the peak district, one of the nicest things about the car is how the steering feels, its not too heavy, nor is it too light.
I'm still getting used to the car (this has over 220hp more than the car I was previously used to, so I'm taking it very slow and don't plan on pushing the car too much until the weather gets gets better next year) but it was a delight on the twisty roads, and more than enough power for me, if anything too much.

Current plan is to go up to Scotland in may/june next year to replicate the 2k mile road trip that I took the mg on this summer.

But untill then the 911 will continue with daily duties on the way to 100k miles, my MG is being put away for the winter so I'm down to the 911 as my only car (we wont count my old daily Toyota Aygo that is currently in pieces in the garage) , so it might be time for some winter tyres/wheels.

Edited by adean22 on Monday 15th November 16:33

[adean22]

I'm about 3000 miles into ownership now, including some trips to work in the snow (my MG is currently in for a new clutch and my aygo ran out of MOT so had no choice but to use the 911).

Now iv had the car for a while there is a few things that I want to improve on the car. These are:

1. Reduce Road/tyre noise - tyre noise in this car seems really loud - Car has pilot sport 4s on so could just be noisy tyres?
2. Change bushes in the shifter mechanism (I feel like after 96k miles the shift isnt as precise as it once was)
3. Install some Bluetooth connectivity - I want to keep the oem headunit so I'm thinking something like the mobridge unit that will give me bluetooth on the oem headunit
4. Install some DRL's on the front. I like the look of the ones that replace the standard fog lights/indicators.

[adean22]

ballans said:

Well done on racking up the miles. Must be interesting in the snow!
I agree on the road noise, if I had kept it longer that would have been top of the list. There are some good threads on 911UK covering the topic. There is next to no soundproofing on the rear arches or firewall and people have good results covering the area with dynamat or similar. Reasonably easy job too.

It was better than I expected in the snow, but still terrible. I was silly fetching it out really but it was that or walk to work.

Thanks for the info about sound deadening, iv had a look online and have now ordered these:


Ill see how it improves it, hopefully it does.