I'm back! About 5 years ago I left 6Speed but now I have returned. Story below:

Back in 2009 I felt the need to buy a 911 Turbo. I found a nice black 996 Turbo in San Francisco on Ebay. After some frantic bidding it was mine. I had the car inspected at a San Francisco Porsche dealer and they said "not sure what was done to the car but our tech has a 400 hp Audi and he said this thing would leave him in the dust". Turns out the car had an X50 package with an exhaust and tune.

I lined up a trucking company to bring the car home. It was loaded in December and heading my way. Then I got a call from the truck driver informing me, in a thick russian accent, that the transmission on his truck failed in northern Nevada. A few days later I called him and he said, again in a thick russian accent, "new transmission too expensive. Getting used transmission. Won't get until new year". So I had to wait knowing my new pride and joy was sitting on a car hauler in Nevada.

The car finally arrived at the Sweetgrass border ready for pickup. I took my truck and enclosed trailer to the border. On my way I hit freezing rain near Milk River that had me fishtailing from lane to lane. Thankfully there were no other cars around me and I got it under control. When I got to the car there was no paperwork for importation. No title, no original bill of sale. Turns out the seller sent them by courier separately - I expected them to be with the car - and even with the delay I still had not received them. So I had to put the car into storage at Sweetgrass and go home empty handed. A week later the paperwork arrived and I went down and brought it home.



I had owned the car for about a month when surfing e-bay I found another 996 Turbo for sale. This one was in Tennessee and had a GT2 nose and tail - something I coveted for my car. I always liked the sloped nose of the GT2 over the slightly bulbous nose of the standard turbo. However, since the conversion was $10k it wasn't something I was prepared to do at the time. This car had the stock K16 turbos but a few nice carbon fibre interior pieces, Champion wheels and embossed seats. And the bid was at $37k with the reserve not met and 12 hours to go. I phoned a friend and explained how I bought too soon. I should have waited as the GT2 style was exactly what I wanted. He told me not to bid as I already had a good car. However, before going to bed I put a bid in for $40k thinking there is no way the reserve would be met....and woke up in the morning to a message saying I was now the owner of my second 911 Turbo. I phoned my friend that morning and he said "You bought it, didn't you? Fine, I will buy your old one."

When my new car arrived it had the looks that I wanted.


I took Mary, my wife now, on our first date in the car on a club drive to Moraine Lake near Lake Louise. We also went to visit my relatives in the US taking the car on it's maiden road trip to North Dakota. We had lots of fun, a fair number of people in small towns who had never seen a 911 before and a short blast up to 307 km/hr in Montana proving to a Firebird Firehawk that german engineering was faster than GM of the same era.



A few months later went on a trip together to the Dubai F1 with the Porsche Club - an epic adventure that will have to wait for another thread. When we got back we decided to paint the wheels her favorite color - a burgundy/candy apple red.



I used the car to propose to Mary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyZI8wzLg1E

And it was shortly after that I sold the 911 Turbo to pay for our wedding. I hated seeing it go but figured I would get another one day.

 

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. Remember that friend who bought my first 911 Turbo? Well, he did a bunch of mods over the years. They were documented in European Car magazine back when we had a race track (Race City). He also found and installed a GT2 front bumper. He then sold the car to another friend who did a turbo upgrade, big brake upgrade and some general maintenance. The car dynoed 668 RWHP. The car hasn't seen a lot of miles in the last few years and it came up for sale again. I phoned him up and made a deal. I am getting a 911 Turbo again......one that I was the first and fourth Canadian owner of. LOL

 

Dude, cool story bro! Seriously! And welcome back! I recently returned to the ranks of 996 Turbo ownership as well. And love your wife’s shirt, she’s a keeper!

 

Welcome back. Canada seems like a great place to have a Porsche.

 

congrats on the most recent acquisition.

may all your roads have as many twists and turns as your tale!

 

Nice ride and congrats on getting the old 996 back!!

 

Thanks! I have to get used to the car again. It's gone through some changes since I had her last. First is the KW Clubsport suspension and full GT3 lower control arms with spherical bearings. It rides harsh. Really harsh. Either that or I'm just getting old. Corners like on rails but I feel every crack in the pavement. Any suggestions for softening up the suspension? I think the KW's are set at the factory settings. The car now has methanol injection and when I get on the throttle I get a whining noise that seems to be coming from behind the dash. The meth pump is mounted in the frunk so I think it might be there. But it could also be something like a blower fan in the dash. Any reason why a blower fan would make noise when you are going faster? I have a set of Porsche Recaro kid seats and I was hoping to turn this into a family car for PCA drives. It's fast and loud at the moment. You can sure hear the turbo spool now. I think it is straight piped into a GMG motorsports exhaust. Has a bit of drone at highway speeds. I also can't use my old champion motorsports wheels from the looks of it. They are 18's and with the big stoptech's I don't think they will clear. Too bad since we liked the look and have new rubber for them.

 

Are the wheels currently 19 inch? If so, that is a great source of feeling everything on the road. Go back to 18 inch for a softer ride.

 

I would like to go back to the 18's but I don't think they will clear the stoptech front brakes. They are massive. And I didn't get the stock calipers and rotors with the car. Next summer I will see if the 18's will fit but just eyeballing it tells me no.