Thanks for taking the time to reply Maurice, I agree that colour can come and go in terms of popularity with the passage of time. While I do like red, I am not sure it suits the 993 as well as it does the earlier air cooled, 964 included..however my favourite 993 colours are the metallics in light blue or red.
Being a stalwart of the 993 register Maurice, I would have thought you would have simple access to the PP issued at the time of the 993 launch, but as that seems not to be the case I will attempt to provide a rough resume of that which I typed at the time in the hope you or anyone else might find some interest in it.
November in my part of the world can be a tad damp and grey, perhaps not thought to be associated with the imagined normal glitz and glamour of a new Porsche model launch, but I sure was not complaining. The early hours of the morning of the launch day was indeed misty and damp, fortunately the sun broke through to dry things up a tad, which helped with the photography and hopefully improving grip on the roads.
As I drove down the drive into Cameron house and into the car park I was greeted with a row of the new 993`s, the registrations of which seemed very familiar, almost like old friends, 911 HUL and A 911, the latter of those two I became very friendly with during the rest of the day. On parking up and heading into the hotel I was introduced to Kevin Gaskill, MD of Porsche Cars GB, a very pleasant and welcoming chap and who thanked me for bringing my old SC to the event, additionally informing me that I would be the first private individual to drive the new 993 in the UK..!!! A couple of Porsche GB staff in suits equipped with cleaning materials turned to, giving my old SC a rub down before the photographer got to work, all of which was a tad embarrassing as my 911`s paintwork was less than perfect in places.
Static photography completed we took to the road, initially using the SC as the camera car under the instruction for positioning from the photographer as we drove along the more open stages of the A 82 loch-side road. At one of our stops the journo asked if I could suggest another road that might be suitable for him to compare the differences between old and new.... I think the photographer was a tad disappointed in my choice as I suspect he was looking for more open and faster roads for his shots, whereas I thought quite the best road for a challenging driver experience was waiting a stones throw from Cameron house in the rising and falling twists and turns of that great streatch of Tarmac, the Journo seemed to enjoy it greatly, providing him him with the opportunity to fall into the unavoidable trap of mentioning Porsche rear end break away in his article, and to refer to my cheap tyre choice of funny Fulda`s on the rear of my SC.. (-: By comparison when I initially saw what seemed like ultra low profile tyres on the 993 compared to the tall sidewalls of my considerably higher aspect ratio tyred SC, it triggering memories of the SC sport which had felt a harsher ride than my SC, and caused me to expected the 993 to bump and thump a bit over the road surface of The Dukes pass.... Boy was I wrong...!!!
Now behind the wheel of the 993 and leading the way I headed into the first of many tight bends on my favourite local road, the low down torque caught me by surprise on exiting the apex, causing the rear end to marginally step out on the lose surface and creating just a hint of wheelspin, there was no fuss, no bother, the revs rose marginally out of proportion to road speed, the 993 twitched, I smiled, and we carried on "together," this new Porsche became part of me very quickly, or was it the other way round..? I don`t know, but on climbing back into my SC it felt a tad cumbersome and strangely it took some time to get used to the "feel" of it again after spending time sampling the advantages the new 993.
At the end of the day the journo asked of my impression of A 911 and he told me of his thinking on my old SC. He was unhappy with the tail twitch which he put down to the tyres, the gearbox had little or no syncro on second but none the less felt good, no problems with the clutch, but I think he liked the engine performance most, at circa 100k miles with marginally sloppy timing chains, a leak in the crossover pipe and a small hole in the silencer, it appeared to him to be a tad noisy but ran without power loss. I think he was most impressed to find that the heads had never been off, thus no major work done to date other than the replacement clutch along with a couple of broken outer valve springs which I replaced (only just possible with the heads in place- but that is another story).
My thoughts when asked by the journo to make comparisons...? I used an analogy of one of the Wright Brothers being let loose on a Supermarine Spitfire. The day passed all too quickly, we said our goodbyes, walking away from A911 towards my old SC as darkness fell, I felt as if I had been a tad unfaithful to it, on climbing back in and turning the key I was welcomed by the usual instant fire up and familiar wail in the tail, having spent much of the latter part in the day in A911, things still felt a little awkward for the first few yards along the hotel driveway until we hit the main road, the speed rose, familiar roundabout ahead, dropped three gears- braked then-throttle up on exit, speed rising fast on to the dual carriageway - were back together, 993 affair over but never to be forgotten.. (-:
I closed the PP article by typing that I wished Porsche every success with their wonderful new 993, and I hoped theywould sell many of them in order that perhaps in ten years or so further on, there may be quite a few available on the second hand market for me to choose from. (-:
Unfortunately much more than ten years have passed since that memorable day, and as yet I have not managed to get my hands on another 993. )-:
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