Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
I’ve looked at some cheap Porsche 911s over the years, but never a “rebuilt title US-spec car exported to Eastern Europe” cheap Porsche 911. The 1999 Porsche 911 is generally the cheapest 911 you can buy, with prices in the high-teens for a decent one, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one this cheap that is being offered up in Georgia. The other Georgia, that is.
Modifying a modern Porsche is a tricky thing for a few reason. First, it is really expensive as you might expect. Second, a lot of times it is really hard to improve on what Porsche gave you in the first place, at least cosmetically. The devil is in the details and rightfully so, but you never tend to see major changes without really going off the deep end. Today, this 2005 Carrera S has a fair amount of cosmetic modifications, but not too many as to upset the purists.
Fresh off last week’s red car, I bumped into another car that just happened to be a much different shade of red. This 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 is finished in paint-to-sample Arena Red, which technically is a custom color on the 991 GT3, but this isn’t this first time we’ve seen it on a 911. Arena Red was the launch color of the 993 Turbo and featured on the ironic Kills Bugs Fast poster that we all probably had a chuckle over when remembering it. It isn’t a historic color like some of the other paint-to-sample options we’ve seen, but actually more modern as it launched in 1995 on the already mentioned 993, as well as the Boxster and very early 996 cars. Does it fit well on the 991 GT3?
Just when I thought I’ve found the most unique color on a 996 Porsche Carrera 4s, along comes this. “This” being a 2004 C4S up for sale in Japan that is painted in the always lovely Ruby Star. We’ve seen this color before on the 964 and 991, but this is the first time I’ve seen it on the 996 body. Even crazier, they took the Ruby Star inside too and painted the center console, trim, and gauge cluster surround. Too much? Or classic Porsche?
When is a “base” Porsche 911 good enough? The conundrum with the 991.2 911 is that while the base car, a twin-turbo 3.0L, is really good on its own, you have all the other models above it. And there are many. Carrera T, Carrera S, Carrera GTS, GT3, GT3 RS, GT2 RS, Speedster, Turbo, and Turbo S. Suddenly, at least on paper, the base model would seem inadequate. I’m here to tell you it is not. It is very much a pure 911 whether you get the PDK gearbox or the 7-speed manual, and the possibilities you gain by having that twin-turbo 3.0L are about endless in terms of making power. This 2007 up for sale in Texas is a perfect example why.
