Talking of 993TT's reminds me of an embarrassing occasion involving one of these cars..I can remember the exact date too 11th Sept 2001...or as the Americans say it, 9/11 I was working with an American film crew so needless to say, later that day work filming came to a halt. Anyway, back to the car...the studio was a converted warehouse with large shutter doors which were on the side of a one-way street in Perivale, during breaks we used to hang around outside these doors enjoying the catering. On this day there was a large roar heard coming towards us and this 993TT shot past and then braked hard before the 'T' junction perhaps a 100 yards up the road. Of course, this gained everyone's attention, not just a few of us petrolheads... the next sequence you'd have to see to believe. The car then floored it in reverse, we are talking a very narrow street hear, just before it reached us it the engine hit boost and the thing veered towards us, hit an old escort, the escort hit the producers new A class. Escort was a write-off as it snapped the rear wheel off as it hit the curb, A class was badly damaged too. But, this wasn't the end of it, the Porsche hadn't finished yet, after bouncing off the escort it veered across the other side of the road hitting another couple of parked cars, luckily my 951 and a friends Griffith were parked on the pavement to the side of these cars.
The 993TT was a total mess, not only were both rear wings, rear panel, and bumpers a write-off but so was the rear wheels and drivetrain, I would expect the engine to be damaged too by half shafts being forced into it.
The story doesn't end here, I later mentioned this incident to my body shop guy Chris whose premises was about 2 miles away in Wembley. He knew of this car, in fact, he had refused to repair it recently for other damage that it had previously sustained as the owner wanted to bodge it for a quick sale. The car then went to a less reputable garage who did the worked, this company was in the road we were working in and where this new incident occurred. The story goes that it was the owners hired driver who wrecked it the first time, on being fixed at this dodgy outfit the same driver was tasked with collecting the car, you know what happened after that. The only thing that I can think off is this fool as he got to the bottom of the road had forgotten something and decided rather than going around the very long winded one-way system that he'd stick it in reverse and floor it backwards...a bloody stupid thing to do in a turbo with 4wd.
Anyway, so if you come across a very cheap, hidden history, purple (sorry not sure of colour name) 993TT, walk away although, to be honest, I doubt very much if it survived the damage, especially considering it had been badly damaged before...
BTW, that particular model is the only one that I liked in the 911 range...so sad
Pete
