This is the saddest goodbye.

[Johnny C]

Not to any of you in particular, though Mo, you've always been helpful, thanks.

But I think you'll all understand why.
I've had 3 911's
D911UJH was the first. I absolutely loved it. Black 3,2 whaletail with a sunroof. It was a tank, it didn't have power steering or aircon, but it got me from Islington to Snowden in 4 hours on a Saturday morning, the Isley Brothers 'Summer breeze' on the CD player, sunroof open, 10mpg. Llangynog - Blanaeu Ffestiniog - one of the best drives in the world. At 8AM you can see if there's anything coming down. Once you're up on the moors it doesn't matter, but you have to remember the dip which will scuff your petrol tank, Then the hairpin at the end, when you know it and someone in a Ford ST is chasing you, you use engine braking to drop from 100 mph to 2nd gear so your brakelights don't go on. No sign of the Ford after that, possibly lodged in a wall. They resurfaced the road so you can go round corners sideways. Then when you get to Blanaeu Ffestiniog. Everyone stares at you, a black 911 whaletail with windows down and music blasting out and when you look in your mirror they're still looking at you.

Then I got a 993. It was a bit dangerous, I'd be sitting cruising along on the motorway and realise I was doing 100mph. I live in the North West where that's not unusual (a little on the slow side if anything) but I want to know I'm going that fast. Anyway that 993 was a Friday car. Always something expensive wrong with it.

So that got traded in for a same year less miles 993. I've owned it for 11-12 years? Much longer than I thought. Apart from engine/gearbox rebuild, it's been a lovely car to own. Not much went wrong.

But 2 years of working from home took over. It was a daily driver. Liverpool-Manchester mostly. But sat on the driveway, under a bloody big willow tree that sprays sap,, did it no good. And now, I'll be mostly working from home for 6 months and then I'm retiring.

So, and I'd never have thought I'd have done it, I've sold the 993 and bought something else more practical.

I have had so much fun in 911s, and so many happy memories. I cried after it was taken away. But I thought, if you don't cry when your last 911 is taken away, you didn't deserve to own one.

Have as much fun as you can! You only get one go at life

 

[johnbray]

So, and I'd never have thought I'd have done it, I've sold the 993 and bought something else more practical.

Have as much fun as you can! You only get one go at life

Great story, but we need to know what replaced the 993?

 

[Johnny C]

Nothing can replace a 993.
And, weird as it seems, I've had 911's for so long (1997) I can't drive a big car. I wanted an Audi S4/5 but it was like flailing around it was so big inside and no-way could I have parked in Morrisons.
I've got an Audi A3 35 TFSI S-tronic. It's a bit weird, it starts up in 2nd gear but steps down after a second and goes once it's going. 0-60 is 7.5s, so it's not too shabby.
First trip to work tomorrow, in 2 years. I've only driven once more than 10 miles in one go in the last year.

I looked at a Golf R briefly. If I'd have got in I'd have bought it. But they just have 'Steal me' written all over them.
I looked at a Golf GTI, lovely to drive but it looked like someone had kept chickens in it, it hadn't been looked after in any way.

 

[Peter_Bull]

Not to any of you in particular, though Mo, you've always been helpful, thanks.

But I think you'll all understand why.
I've had 3 911's
D911UJH was the first. I absolutely loved it. Black 3,2 whaletail with a sunroof. It was a tank, it didn't have power steering or aircon, but it got me from Islington to Snowden in 4 hours on a Saturday morning, the Isley Brothers 'Summer breeze' on the CD player, sunroof open, 10mpg. Llangynog - Blanaeu Ffestiniog - one of the best drives in the world. At 8AM you can see if there's anything coming down. Once you're up on the moors it doesn't matter, but you have to remember the dip which will scuff your petrol tank, Then the hairpin at the end, when you know it and someone in a Ford ST is chasing you, you use engine braking to drop from 100 mph to 2nd gear so your brakelights don't go on. No sign of the Ford after that, possibly lodged in a wall. They resurfaced the road so you can go round corners sideways. Then when you get to Blanaeu Ffestiniog. Everyone stares at you, a black 911 whaletail with windows down and music blasting out and when you look in your mirror they're still looking at you.

Then I got a 993. It was a bit dangerous, I'd be sitting cruising along on the motorway and realise I was doing 100mph. I live in the North West where that's not unusual (a little on the slow side if anything) but I want to know I'm going that fast. Anyway that 993 was a Friday car. Always something expensive wrong with it.

So that got traded in for a same year less miles 993. I've owned it for 11-12 years? Much longer than I thought. Apart from engine/gearbox rebuild, it's been a lovely car to own. Not much went wrong.

But 2 years of working from home took over. It was a daily driver. Liverpool-Manchester mostly. But sat on the driveway, under a bloody big willow tree that sprays sap,, did it no good. And now, I'll be mostly working from home for 6 months and then I'm retiring.

So, and I'd never have thought I'd have done it, I've sold the 993 and bought something else more practical.

I have had so much fun in 911s, and so many happy memories. I cried after it was taken away. But I thought, if you don't cry when your last 911 is taken away, you didn't deserve to own one.

Have as much fun as you can! You only get one go at life

Lovely story and so sad to hear your sold your 993.

Happy retirement.

 

[993C2EX]

Good story, well written but pretty sad.
Ive had a 986 from 6 months old, 21 years. I drive it to the garage for maintenance more than anything else. Can't ever imagine selling it as its not worth as much as its worth if you see what I mean. Its a beauty. I'll be in a home and some distant relative will sell it "for me" to cover care costs.....
I also have a 993 for four years and have grown to love it. Its a guilty love. I don't deserve it but its my boyhood dream car. They say never realise your dreams. Its a garage queen really but it does get good use sometimes. 2,000 miles from Devon to do the NC500 was a drive to get to know it and a track day at Castle Combe were highlights last year. I constantly consider selling it especially as the E5 fuel becomes difficult to find but I have no real reason to do so. I feel guilty that its worth so much but hardly gets used. Then I remind myself, as my pension pot drops, my investment apartments have EWS issues and inflation spirals and the "cost of living" grows that actually its possibly my best investment. I once ran a billboard ad for a business where I put a photo of my Alfa Romeo up as my worst investment, what a contrast. My daily driver is a VW Caravelle so the contrast is considerable but I can fit my life in the van but only my heart in the 993.
You do only get one life and as I reach autumn in mine I have realised that I have started refining the things that I have in it or at least those I have control over.
Im fortunate to have two garages and I hope that even when I'm to old to drive they will both still have Porsches in them. Someone else will have to sell them and Im sure they will not think twice!

Thanks for sharing your story and I hope that you will find your way back into a 911, possibly the best investment that a man can make.

 

[Gazoak]

One great story morphed in to another from Geoff.

 

[kasspa]

Great stories & I 'get' both..... live life while health permits.....

 

[Zeusy]

Hello 993 playmates.

So, I was fifty five years old and had been working hard since my teens. I had accumulated a few savings in the bank - put to one side for that rainy day that would probably never come. The MP's expenses scandal had kicked off big style and the more I read about the shameless antics of this despicable bunch of unworthy grasping shysters and just what they were doing with our (the publics) money (.....and very probably they still are) the more I realised how utterly disillusioned I was becoming with things in general.
Then I read about The Right Honourable Sir Peter Viggers MP and his splendid duck house complete with moat to boot ..... and that's when I had my epiphany moment as they say.
So it was that later the same day I learned about good old Sir Peter (it was o.k. for him to do it because it was in the rules) ..... I went out and bought myself the first Porsche I ever owned - a 993 C2S.
More than a decade on I still work (almost as hard) and I still have my C2S ...... and despite all of the terrible heart break that is going on in the world to day and probably will always continue to do .... I can now sometimes manage to convince myself that perhaps it's not such a bad place to be ..... in spite of it all?

Best regards.

Zeusy.

Duck soup anyone?