Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Green and brown is like chocolate and peanut butter to me. Smooth all the way. If I ever went the route of actually spec’ing a car from new, it would be a nice dark green, over some kind of tan of brown leather. I’m sure I’m not alone in this, so when this 2006 Porsche Cayman S popped up for sale, I naturally had to take a closer look. Forest Green Metallic over Special Cocoa Leather. Yes, please. However, once I started taking that closer look, it didn’t seem so lovely anymore. Let me explain.
Say what you want about the Porsche Cayenne, but without its emergence in the early-2000s, there would be no special Porsche cars that we all enjoy. The easy-to-produce SUVs that platform share with the other VWAG SUVs was not only easy to scale, but saved a ton of labor costs as the majority of it was built at the Volkswagen Bratislava Plant in the Slovak Republic, rather than in Germany that is just used for final assembly. Because of this, Porsche now had the cash to dump into RS cars, Speedsters, and other fun things that Porsche really weren’t forced to build. Just to put it into perspective, Porsche sells as many Cayennes as they do 911s, 718s, Taycans, and Panameras combined. The Macan? Same numbers. So the next time you see a 2006 Cayenne Turbo chugging around with a blown out suspension and blue smoke pouring our the tailpipes, give it a little thanks for funding the 997 GT3 RS 4.0s that exist because of it.
The 1998 model year was the swan song for the 993 generation, along the air-cooled engine. For some reason, Porsche skipped on the 1998 911 Turbo for the US, so we were left the Targa, Cabriolet 2 and 4, Carrera 4S, and Carrera 2S to chose from for the last of the run. All models were wore the wider body shell, supposedly because Porsche had an abundance of them they needed to use before switching to 996 production. But “abundance” doesn’t necessarily mean there were a lot destined for North America. For the most desirable Carrera S, that meant 1,292 for North America. However, there was some funny math from Porsche on these. All of them were technically manufactured in 1997, but Porsche held some of the supply back and rolled them out as 1998 models. Today’s car was built in October 1997, so it would have been considered a 1998 model year anyway, but I’m guessing this was near the end of the run.
Now as we are well over 20 years-old on these C2S examples, demand for them is high. It is totally understandable. It’s the last air-cooled naturally aspirated, manual gear box, rear-wheel drive Porsche 911. They can even sell for Turbo money if the spec is right. The thing is, just because they are in demand, doesn’t mean you shell out the money simply because they exist. This car in Texas is a perfect example why.
Early Porsche 911 Turbos are a sight to behold. A raw and dangerous car if there ever was, which is a major plus for some, but also can be a turn off for those who have to provide for their families. No, I’m not talking about crashing and dying, but rather when it comes time to pull the engine and split the case for a rebuild. That will put you out on the street real quick if you don’t have the cash set aside. Generally, unless you are getting an absolute steal of a deal on buying one, this is not a car you want as a project. It is much cheaper and faster just to spend the money to buy a completed example and be done with it. If you want an early 3.0L Turbo Carrera model like this one up for sale in Texas, start looking. Just around 700 came to the US for the model year, and I’m willing to be much less survived given how many crashed or cut up for racing duty.
As you might of noticed, this is not your typical earth tone color 930. Although they did have some really great colors from the production line, Signal Green was not one of them, so a color change was required. Still, is it worth buying? Or maybe spend your piles of money elsewhere?
Last week’s 718 Cayman T was a good option at what I think is a great price, but maybe the turbocharged flat-four wasn’t enough grunt for the people who want to hear their Porsches when they drive them. The answer to that without selling out the $85,000 for the used 918 GT4? The GTS, of course. The GTS still packs a 3.4-liter flat-six with 340 horsepower and looks the part with a lowered suspension, the Sport Chrono package, sport exhaust, and some interior dressings. A run to 60 is in the low four second range and even less with the PDK gearbox, like this 2015 is equipped with. Worth the dough, or still going for 911 at this price range?
