Save, save, save

911's aren't cheap so for the past 6 months I've been saving real hard looking at loans. I figure I want a 911 now so credit is ok, but I'll put in as much as I can.

Just been reading the Streather book on 993's

See 5th November post, I've been casually reading the Streather book and I think I know lots about 993's now - at least enough to spot the usual problems when I start looking at cars. It's winter now and I won't really be looking until the summer. I do keep an eye on the usual dealers to see what's available and what they are asking. Carrera S (RWD) seem expensive and on a par with Turbos approaching and into the £30K mark. Carrera (just rwd), Targa and Carrera 4 models are about the same, ranging from high £10K's to mid £20K's depending on condition and mileage. Cabrios soom to be a few thousand less then the others too coming in sometimes at the mid teens.

Porsche 911 993 dealers in the UK

Discovered the list of usual dealers for 993's include:

http://www.911virgin.com/
http://www.eporsch.co.uk/
http://www.camtune.com/
http://www.paragon.gb.com/
http://www.911box.co.uk/
http://www.specialistcarsltd.co.uk/
http://www.autobahn.co.uk/
http://www.strasse.co.uk/
http://www.cameronsportscars.co.uk/

There are of course many more if you look through www.autotrader.co.uk and I made a Google map which shows you the locations of dealers of older Porsche - this is very useful.

Bought the book: Porsche 993 - King of Porsche

Discovered that this book it well cited by many as being very useful, particularly when looking at 993's for the first time so I bought it on Amazon:

"Porsche 993 - King of Porsche: The Essential Companion"




It's a very useful book packed with identification data and what to look for as well as being useful for routine maintenance. It's probably as close to a Haynes style manual that you will get for the 993 and in many ways better. Lots of pictures to go with the text that's in there too.

Internet forums and help sites

Whilst trawling around on the net I found several important DIY support sites for the 911, namely:

P-car - http://p-car.com/diy/diy.html

Rennlist - http://forums.rennlist.com/

and

911uk - http://www.911uk.com

These are clearly important places to know about and worth lurking on for a while to get the feel of the car and the kinds of problems which occur. I will be browsing these sites over the coming months.

The hunt begins

My hunt for a Porsche really began when I started looking at the various 911 models on offer. Whilst I wanted modern features such as engine management, air bags and on board computers, I wanted a car which retained the 911 character.

I found the solution was a 993 model produced from 1994-1998 which was the last of the air-cooled 911's and cited to be the very best enthusiasts 911 to date.

I needed to find out more about this model...