What was that? You wanted a quick update? Oh, go on then!
So I'm now (counts on fingers) 10 months into 911 ownership, and I'm just about getting a feel for Porker ownership now. Let me start with the not-so-good stuff.
I've spent a fair bit of time in my local OPC in the last couple of months as the old girl has been a tad temperamental, i.e. she keeps breaking down! The first time was absolutely horrendous, as it was completely unexpected. I'd left my mate's house in Welwyn where we'd been working on the race car all day and was about to hit the fun twisty country roads, so I got myself settled and started to open her up. Upon nailing the the throttle the whole car lurched like buggery, couldn't find a gear and practically gave up on me. On a set of blind corners wasn't the best place to stop so I managed to baby her to the next village on what felt like 3 cylinders and 27bhp, where she settled into an incredibly rough idle with all kinds of flashy warning lights on the dash. I took a breath, stopped the engine, waited for a minute, and then re-started. She struggled to fire but eventually did so and drove perfectly the hour drive back home, although it still felt slightly down on power. Spoke to Porsche the next morning who arranged (via Porsche Assist, their own European-wide breakdown service) for the RAC to come out and pick the car up from my house within the hour and drop it off at Colchester for them to have a look at it. They did so, and couldn't find a fault with it at all. Their conclusion was that some coking from within the cylinders had dropped off and temporarily blocked either the injector or the spark, which was why it was running rough and why it sorted itself out when I restarted it. Fairy nuff.
Fast forward a couple of months later. On my way to Welwyn to see the same mate to work on the same race car (there's definitely a pattern emerging here), I'm cruising along down a hill to a roundabout at the bottom I know well, when I get a message on the OBC saying that I have 'Reduced Engine Power'. Ah. Reduced engine power I can live with, however if it had told me that it had actually stalled and I had no power at all I probably would've stopped before the roundabout, rather than coasting onto it and finding I had no shove to get me up the steep hill the other side. I got some funny hand gestures from the cars behind when I was stopping... Anyhoo, I restarted (as before) and carried on my journey, and I was almost at my destination when it happened again. However I was in a better stopping place this time so pulled over and restarted, and prayed it would get me to my mate's house. It did, and I promptly rang Porsche Assist again. This was Saturday at 9:30am. By 11:30am the 911 had been collected by the RAC, taken to Colchester and I was picking up a brand-new Merc C220 CDi as a courtesy car at the local Enterprise car hire place in Hatfield, which is where I'd been taken after being collected by one of their drivers. Seriously impressive stuff.
I spoke to Porsche on the Monday who diagnosed a faulty High Pressure Fuel Pump, which I was already aware that was probably going to be the cause as there is a recall out for them right now, although my car was made a month before the recall dates so that explains how it slipped through the net. Two days later the car was ready, so I dropped the Merc off in Colchester and made my way back home in my newly-fixed 911. Okay, so it broke down twice, but given how awesome the Porsche Assist people are I actually didn't mind that much. By the way, Porsche Assist is an option you can take out with the warranty for about £300 PA and covers you for all breakdowns and courtesy cars across all of Europe, so it's certainly something I'll be getting again when my warranty expires next year.
I did spend one more time at the OPC Colchester though, and I've mentioned it elsewhere but I'll still bring it back up here. I've had the PSE (sports exhaust) and Sport Plus modes retrofitted to the car too now, which were the only other things missing from the spec when I first saw the car on the forecourt back in October last year. Frightfully expensive, but frankly amazing.
The exhaust is switchable from loud mode to normal mode on the fly via a button inside the cabin, however I can't believe that anyone would bother having it on anything other than loud all the time as it's perfectly acceptable on the motorway: Think Nismo exhaust on a 350Z and you're there. There's a lovely little growl as you pull away from standstill, through a shallow whine as the revs build, then finally a fully metallic bark as you wind it up past 6K toward the redline. It's beautiful, and certainly gives some character back to the slightly soulless DFI engine. The PSE replaces not only the two side boxes behind each wheel, but also the centre silencer too which I suspect was a major cause of noise removal on the original exhaust. It's only going to get better with age too, once the cans have a little more carbon through them.
The Sport Plus mode is specific to the PDK cars, and gives you a bonkers auto setting for track or when you're really on it. In short, it won't change up until the redline so 60mph in 2nd gear cruising along a NSL road is perfectly happy for the car! It's a bit over the top for me though, which is why I leave it in the more friendly Sport mode 90% of the time now. You get a sharper throttle response and a doubling of the PSM leeway before it starts bringing everything back in line, which means that as I'm now far more comfortable with the car I can really get the boot in early when coming out of a corner. If it swings out I'm happy catching it myself, but if I do balls it up then the PSM catches it smoothly for me without me looking an arse or being in serious danger of putting the car into a ditch. Now I've got both the PSE and the Sport Plus mode on there she feels far more sports car than GT now, and until they bring out a PDK GT3 it's as close as I'll get to one. It's rorty and stupidly quick and above all else, fun.
I also now have launch control. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE IT'S AMAZING WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
As far as slightly more dull ownership stuff goes, I'm getting roughly 28mpg out of it split 50/50 motorway and fun roads. It actually works out at about 38mpg when cruising at 70mph and about 16mpg when I'm nailing the arse off it, both reasonably accurate numbers I've been able to pinch off the OBC. Everything is holding up nicely inside too in terms of quality, which is good to see. There's no marking or anything on the seats or dash or plastics, and this is a 26000 mile car now which might not seem a lot (and in truth it isn't), but stuff like that will be expensive to fix and I do want to try and keep some kind of value to the car if possible! Tyres are still looking good, and I reckon there's probably another 5000 mile worth in the rears at least, which will bring them up to 9K on my ownership alone. Fronts still look brand new, which is the benefit of no weight in the nose I guess.
Am I still happy with the car? Very much so, and the little things I've done have made it feel more like my own 911 rather than just another 911. That said, looking at other fast cars available I'm not sure that financially it was a very wise decision especially with the imminent introduction of the 991, and I suspect I might have other priorities in the future that will make this my last silly-fast car for a while. That said, when I get in it and drive and hear the flat-six roar away behind me, and nail the perfect corner in a way I could never do in the Zed or any other car I've owned, it still feels worth every penny. I do still get embarrassed when people ask me what I drive though, as you get one of three reactions:
1. "HAHAHAH NO WAY seriously what do you really drive?"
2. "Oh. Right. A Porsche. Anyway, talking about something more interesting like paint drying..."
3. "Oh cool, what one?" [i give details] "Oh brilliant, let's have a look then!"
Number 1 is the very common one, like about 70% or so. Number 2 comes second with 25%, and only a mere 5% of people actually give you a positive response. In that respect, I got far more positive reactions over the Zed, even if most people didn't know what it was. That said, I've had more random people come up to me in the street and pass nice comment than I did in the Zed, so that's a nice thing. The other trouble I find is not knowing when to stop describing the car: It's easy with a Zed, you just say "It's a Nissan 350Z". Piece of cake. Not so with mine, as technically it's a Porsche 911 997 Carrera S PDK. Trust me, you sound an utter c*nt if you say that our loud, so I kinda stop after Porsche 911, and then wait for either the conversation to go elsewhere, of (if it's a petrolhead I'm conversing with) the slightly patronising "Yeah, but which one?!" Honestly, it's a social minefield this ownership malarky!
So yeah, it's still good and you should sell a kidney for one. Apologies for waffling too!
