Ever since I was a little kid, the Porsche 911 has been my dream car. I remember the Porsche calendar I had on my wall in high school - I kept it on the month with the red 959. I'm pretty sure this is the exact picture that was on my wall.
I was in high school in the 90's and just as I was graduating they released the 993 model of the 911 which was produced primarily in 1994-1998. This model is generally recognized as the classic Porsche and the pinacle of the line. It was the last of the air-cooled engines, being replaced with a water-cooled engine in the 996 model that just didn't sound or act the same (the current 997 model sounds more like the 993, even though its still water-cooled). It's also generally accepted as the most beautiful Porsche model they have produced. This is the kind of car you'd expect James Bond to pull up in.
Ever since high school, I swore that the first car I bought would that Porsche 993. Technically it was - I bought a Jeep Wrangler right out of college but that's a Jeep, not a car, right? Then the next vehicle I bought was this beautiful 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera in Polar Silver with black leather interior.
I spent a few months searching around online to find this car. I wanted to find a 993 with low miles that only had one or two owners and was meticulously cared for. I finally found one with 40,000 miles and a single previous owner that was at a car dealership in San Antonio. It was the same car I had dreamed of for a decade.
Polar Silver is an amazing color. It's a light silver with a bit of a blue tint. They don't make it anymore, instead switching to Artic Silver which is more of a white base.
I loved this car and was very particular about who I let work on it. When I first bought the car I had it serviced by David Wostarek at Northwest Imports on Pond Springs Road. They handle lots of older Porsches and were really great to work with. Then I moved to West Lake and found David Moore at Moore Speed. He focuses on Porsche and Ferrari race cars and besides his expert attention I loved getting to walk through his shop and look at whatever amazing cars were in there at the time. I took it to Roger Beasely Porsche a few times as well, Tim and his team over there are always amazing to work with.
I remember driving the car home for the first time and just being amazed by its acceleration and handling. It's a magnicifent piece of German engineering that has been refined over the course of decades. It sounds great too... the 993's air-cooled flat-6 makes a low growl that is very distinctive.
Over the years I have owned 4 different Porsches and while they were all incredible, the 993 will always be my first love. I also owned a 1970 911 Targa, a 2006 911 4S Cabriolet, and a 2006 Cayenne Turbo S. It was really cool being able to compare the evolution of the 911 from 1970 to 1996 to 2006.
One of the coolest, easiest modifications you can make to a 993 is to rotate the tachometer 90 degrees counter-clockwise. This moves the redline from the far right to the top and just looks wicked cool. With a 911, you always want to keep the RPM's above 2,500 and generally drive in the 4,000-6,000 range so this arrangement makes more sense to me. You know without looking at the numbers that the limit is when the line is vertical at the 12 o'clock position.
One thing that's unusual about the 911 is that the engine is in the tail of the vehicle behind the rear wheels. The bonnet (trunk) of the 911 is located up front in the hood. This moves the center of gravity to the back and creates a unique driving dynamic. It puts a lot of weight on the rear-drive wheels which is good, and if you're an experienced driver you use the engine weight to "drift" around corners at high speed. You have to be extra careful though, because if you break into a turn it's very easy to go into a flat spin as the front stops and back keeps going.
This happened to me once soon after I got the car. I was coming up to a light that was red and then it went green as I pulled up so I never came to a complete stop. There was a lot of sand on the road and as I went around the corner I sped up and then slowed down and combined with the sand it was the perfect condition to push me into a spin. I rotated 540 degrees (almost 2 full circles) before coming to a stop on the side of the road. I was very fortunate that I didn't run into anything and the car wasn't damaged. Now I'm always concious of my speed going into turns and try to make sure to break when the car is moving straight forward.
Once you get used to it, the rear engine weight is one of the factors that makes the Porsche so fun to drive.
I didn't take it to the track often, but I was able to get it down to Harris Hill Road a few times. It's a gentleman's track down in San Marcos that I just love. This track isn't about racing competitively - it's a place for people with great cars to take them out on the track and stretch their legs. The 911 was made for the track. It loves to be driven. In fact before deciding to sell it I was going to just keep it as a track car but that turned out to be unrealistic because I don't have time to go to the track these days.
Somehow I was able to request custom plates for the car that were simply "993". I loved passing other 911's just to show it off. It was the kind of thing that only made sense if you were really into Porsches. Almost a secret code - if someone made a comment about the license plate then I knew they "got it".
The 0-60 on this car is about 5 seconds. 15 years later its still one of the faster cars on the road.
I think the top speed I got it to was 145. I won't tell you where. But it handled it great and seemed very happy at that speed.
One of the best drives I ever had with this car was a trip that my friend Rick Westervelt organized. He has a white 993 and our friend Michael Vivio has a red one. One Sunday morning we drove out towards Fredericksburg and just tore up the countryside. It was a total blast.
I'm sad to say that I'm going to sell the car I swore I never would sell. It's the last Porsche I have left, but I'm sure it won't be the last one that I own. Right now with little kids I just don't get the opportunity to drive it enough and need the garage space. If you know anyone who would be interested in an amazing car that was truly loved and cared for meticulously, please send them to http://bit.ly/josh911
Recent Comments