Last month we had a 997 special in PP and it was great to hear so much enthusiasm for the model from the editorial team. Adam had a fantastic recollection of the 997 press car from Porsche, saying that, as it was such a great car to drive, they were forever booking it out and travelled hundreds, if not thousands of miles in it. And I agree of course!
At time of writing my own 997 was due its dreaded MOT again just yesterday but went through with flying colours - a clean pass. I don’t know why I worried, as I had checked it myself. I knew the tyres are fine, the brakes are in great condition, the lights worked, the seat belts were operating correctly (I don’t think the rears have ever been used to hold someone in!) and the car had no warning lights. But please beware; some garages do not check this before it has an MOT, possibly leading to a minor failure or advisories. In this day and age, it is so easy to bring up the MOT history of a car, and to have something trivial like a low tyre depth failure might make people think it is not a looked after car.
Only 100 miles from new! How many does your 997 have?
So, all clear with another 12 months of MOT! I headed home, an hour’s drive for me, and it was fantastic. You don’t have to drive fast to enjoy these cars, just marvelling at the ability to position the car in a corner with pinpoint accuracy is amazing and the steering feel is delicious. At the end of the drive my car is now 40 miles from 100k, so I will get a picture when it passes the magic number. Please let me know the mileage on your cars. The lowest in the UK will be the fantastic 997 owned by Porsche Classic, which has just 100 miles on the clock - as close to a new 997 as you can get! But who has the highest? I recall from a few years ago a member telling me their car had 220k miles. What is it now? Any one else close? It just shows that the cars can be driven regularly and over distance.
Steven Cheetham’s beautiful 2004 997
I mentioned in a previous article about early cars and Steve Cheetham kindly emailed me with a picture of his after we met at a couple of events earlier in the year. He has a beautiful Seal Grey 2004 997 Carrera 2S, which he is enjoying. We managed to get him in the 997 line up at Donington Historic.
We are well into the events season, and I hope to see many of you at Silverstone where I will do my best to put Register parking together.
Let me know what you are up to in your 997, always great to hear your story, just email me.
Happy driving everyone and enjoy your 997!