My Coupe replacement

I thought I'd share a few photos of my new motor:



I am very pleased with the car; it is a 997 Gen 2 so hopefully free of the engine issues. Car is beautiful to drive with its manual box and big powerful n/a engine (10% up on the Coupe).

First impressions are very direct and precise controls and a smooth and very compliant ride, but considerable road noise which is very surface dependent. The GTV whispers along in comparison.

This is my first Porsche and I purchased the first car I viewed and drove; fingers crossed that I chose well

Very nice!
Happy motoring.

Well jel !!! Great purchase, I hope you have a great time with it Mark. Congrats, it looks lovely mate

Very nice, well done

Delicious! Hope you get to enjoy it as much as possible...!

Nice car ---- you WILL enjoy.

Very nice Mark

Thanks all

Got to love the button for the switchable exhaust that makes if growl and scare small children surprised we never had a Coupe mod like this...or did we?

Very jealous indeed. I can see why you bought the first example you viewed,that a lovely looking motor.

Very nice. Looks good in the blue, make a change for the usual colours.

Contemplating a porches as my next car but will probably opt for a Cayman S.

Hope it’s okay to mention other clubs here …

Mark, if you fancy checking out a Porsche club, have a look at TIPEC. I run their club magazine and can vouch for them being a good bunch.

Thanks for the idea; I have bookmarked the site and will contemplate it. At present I am getting the background info I need of 911uk's 997 forum.

Looks nice...is it fun? Is there an emotional bond developing, like the Coupe...or is is sanitised and 'just does it'? Always wondered.

Too early to say, initial impressions are of course that it just "an appliance" albeit a very capable one. I think only time will tell and I too have the same curiosity on this point.

Porsche 911. Lovely.

One of my all time favourite cars.

Always wanted one, never owned one.

Could never persuade the mrs to let me buy one. She said she'd never drive it. Too fast!

Bought a C class AMG merc for her and kept the Fiat Coupe for me for fun on the weekends so win win situation.

Enjoy

Congratulations!

Hope you serve each other well.

Nice - congrats. I just done the opposite and replaced my 2005 997 S with a 2000 Coupe 20VT.

Lovely Mark Great cars - Liking 911's more and more. I've thought about a 997 to replace the Coupe - price dependent. Are you using it all year round etc?

I think this will be my coupe replacement in a few years time assuming my finances don't change!

Looks lovely Mark good choice!

Very nice - keep us posted - enjoy.

Thanks all for your comments. Certainly will be using the car all year round (4WD key to this) but will be keeping the miles down by using different vehicles. Biannual service is due in October so that will be and event ££££, thus decided to conserve funds and not fit Quaife to GTV just yet.

My wife loves the C4, a really easy car to drive day-to-day, except for the selection of reverse gear that requires technique and some strength.

So much more solid in construction than the Coupe (but the Coupe crash protection is excellent) and you can feel this, but then in some ways this counts in the Coupe's favour in terms of feeling lithe and alive in its driving experience and a tuned Coupe is still immensely fast

Lovely as the 997 is though - with mine it was a car I could never feel very passionate about. Respect and admire it definitely due to its performance and build quality and it does make a splash and sound great with the button pressed.

I had mine 7 years and it was maintained like a baby and improved during my ownership but you had to be doing illegal speeds before you got any sort of driving thrill out of it.

With the coupe pottering around town feels more exciting.

Agree with all you have said.

Mark, that looks smashing. We should meet up with the current crop at PD sometime. How did your service work out? Vantage service is £££.

Service is due next Monday and will come in around £800-900 as plugs are needed on this one; still I got a welcome 10% discount due to a promotion at the OPC.

Always up for a spin down to PD, not been there since I sold the Coupe. Any pics and details of your motor?

Mark Theres a massive difference in price between the Gen 2 997 and the earlier ones. Are bore and bearing issues such a problem on all earlier cars? I could be tempted by these.........

I've been looking at the same myself.

I concluded the gen 2 is definitely the safest bet!

A fella I work with recently had to shell out near enough to 10K on an engine rebuild on his 911.

The Gen 2 takes you away from all of these problems, hence peace of mind and higher price. I think the IMS bearing can be easily fixed by a beefed up replacement (about a grand) but the bore score issue is more of a headache. I read that the cylinder liner used is affected by the fuel, hence with the Gen 2 they reverted back to the tried and tested liner material. When buying I believe a borescope inspection is recommended. Not sure how much it costs to correct the issue

My conclusion too. I was going to buy a 996 turbo when they were £20k because they use a different engine free of issue, but my funds dried up and they have doubled in price

Then I came into some cash and realized I could get into 997 territory, before very long realizing that it had to be Gen 2 to escape the anxiety. I think problems are rare (eg. 5% of cars) but a killer if they happen to you (>£10k).

Hey Mark. That's quite reasonable really. I think my more signficant service is about 800 with the basic being 600. They dont do much for that money though.

There are a couple of pics

here
and here

Steve, that looks fabulous and mean

So you made me go and ebay 997's Mark and I stumbled on this! ............ God help the poor soul who was in that....

Ouch! That would have hurt for sure, but I reckon the driver got out relatively unscathed.
If there was a passenger however....

I like your style

That is shocking

I have a 997 Gen1 C4S, I did as much research as I could about the M96/M97 engines, so I purchased the car from RSJ in Slough, (Mainly for the warranty), had it professionally inspected by Peter Jackson.

The Gen 2 997s with the DFI engine were a bit dearer, but I couldn't find one with the spec I wanted.

I also changed to a Low Tenp Thermostat and, fitted the third/centre Radiator, (mines a manual the Tips came with the third rad as standard), I also use 10/50 Nanodrive oil by Millers and thats changed every 6 months, all 8.4 litres of it....

I had a borescope inspection in July and all good, especially on Cylinder 6. (Tip look at the left hand exhaust tips on a 997, if they are oily/blacker than the ones on the drivers side, worry as Bank 2 is the troublesome side) But I keep £6k spare for a rebuild if required..... I am tempted to go for a Hartech rebuild and take the worry away completely.

I discovered the CSR upgrade by RPM Technik and went for it, (not with them though as despite getting quotes, they promised to get back to me but never did?).
So mine now sits on Ohlins Coilovers, has matt black Ultra Legerra wheels, a Wavetrac LSD (Fantastic improvement ), DesignTek, Titanium Exhaust System (saves approx 46Kg), single mass flywheel etc and has been remapped. It goes pretty well.

The difference in grip from a Coupe to a 911 is night and day, the 911 (before i modified it) gripped like you would not believe. Now? Its in another world.

Its remarkably docile to drive until 4000 RPM when all hell lets loose, it screams like a banshee and the horizon comes toward you fast..... Very fast indeed.

I use it as a daily drive and it really does feel special in every sense of the word.
If I replace it, I can only see a Turbo S ticking the boxes.

Is the Gen 1 C4S the 355bhp version and the Gen 2 C4S the 385bhp version?

Yes although there are Powerkits for both that raise outputs on Gen 1. to 381BHP not sure about Gen 2,

Although traditionally Porsche significantly under report the performance figures of their cars. For example some magazines reported the standard 911 C2/C4s achieving sub 4 second 0-60 times.

I've got some good numbers for both models from Caranddriver that confirm this

Buying guide here:

Classic car buying guide

Well worth a read Engine guide 996/997.1

Both sets of numbers from CarandDriver

Porsche 911 997 Carrera 4 S (2006)
0-30mph: 1.5
0-40mph: 2.2
0-50mph: 3.3
0-60mph: 4.3
0-70mph: 5.2
0-80mph: 6.8
0-90mph: 8.2
0-100mph: 10.2
0-110mph: 12.7
0-120mph: 15.0
0-130mph: 18.2
0-140mph: 23.1
0-150mph: 28.2

Calculated 60ft (18.3m): 2.03s
Calculated 60ft (18.3m): 37.5mph
Calculated 330ft (100.6m): 5.4s
Calculated 330ft (100.6m): 71.2mph
Calculated 1/8 Mile (201.1m): 8.21s
Calculated 1/8 Mile (201.1m): 90mph
Calculated 1000ft (301.7m): 10.61s
Calculated 1000ft (301.7m): 101.6mph
Calculated 0-400m: 12.64s
Calculated 0-400m: 109.7mph
Calculated 1/4 Mile (402.3m): 12.69s
Calculated 1/4 Mile (402.3m): 109.9mph
Calculated 0-1000m: 23.16s
Calculated 0-1000m: 140.2mph

Actual 1/4 Mile (402.3m): 12.8s
Actual 1/4 Mile (402.3m): 111mph


Porsche 911 997 Carrera 4 S PDK (3.8) (2009)
0-30mph: 1.5
0-40mph: 2.2
0-50mph: 3.0
0-60mph: 4.0
0-70mph: 5.1
0-80mph: 6.4
0-90mph: 7.9
0-100mph: 9.5
0-110mph: 11.7
0-120mph: 14.1
0-130mph: 17.1
0-140mph: 20.9
0-150mph: 26.2

Calculated 60ft (18.3m): 2.03s
Calculated 60ft (18.3m): 37.5mph
Calculated 330ft (100.6m): 5.31s
Calculated 330ft (100.6m): 71.5mph
Calculated 1/8 Mile (201.1m): 8.06s
Calculated 1/8 Mile (201.1m): 91mph
Calculated 1000ft (301.7m): 10.41s
Calculated 1000ft (301.7m): 104.1mph
Calculated 0-400m: 12.37s
Calculated 0-400m: 112.8mph
Calculated 1/4 Mile (402.3m): 12.42s
Calculated 1/4 Mile (402.3m): 112.9mph
Calculated 0-1000m: 22.66s
Calculated 0-1000m: 143.3mph

Actual 1/4 Mile (402.3m): 12.5s
Actual 1/4 Mile (402.3m): 113mph

Saw a very nice 997 Targa this morning amongst the traffic chaos of a river that was the A46@Warwick. Looked lovely. I had not realised that the Targa version was available on the 997. I know the 996 and now 997 Targas' do not have a Targa top in the traditional sense of the bodystyle but still.....I'm not so keen on the 911 Convertible varieties as they lose that classic 911 shape but the Targa's are v.nice - especially in the current 991 format with the retro rollover hoop! (OK so they are still big bucks) but they could be enough to make me go all Germanic........