From Sports Car to Supercar
David Wilkens has two of the rarest and fastest 911s around, a 964 Turbo and a 996GT2. He tells the story of the 964, Tony Haycock carries on the where David finishes with the GT2...
Ever since I was 10 years old I wanted a Porsche. First I wanted a pre A series 356 and then I had posters of 911s in my bedroom.
Then the movie Bad Boys came out and suddenly I wanted a black 964 turbo. So I started to research them and discovered there were two versions, the rare 3.2L 964 turbo built in the early 90s and the very rare 3.6L version in 1993/94.
At that point I started looking for a 3.6 version but didn’t realize how few were built and came to New Zealand. I looked at a few for sale but didn’t like the interior colours and felt if I was going to spend a lot of money I wanted something I could live with.
Then I found out about the very rare X88 race engine cars that were built and dreamed of finding one. I had pretty much given up looking for my dream car as there were only two built and I was not prepared to compromise. Not only that they were both built for and sold to the Sultan of Brunei. I started to look at other cars as second choice but not seriously. Then one afternoon I got a phone call from a guy who told me of a really rare black 964 Turbo in Wellington which might be for sale.
I quickly phoned and arranged to see the car that night. What I didn’t know then was that this was one of the two black cars built for the Sultan’s collection and had since been sold with only 1084km on the clock in 2002. It was one of the 14 factory built X88 race engine cars, made to special order. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it, my jaw dropped and my wife gave me the look of approval.
The owner was not too keen on selling it but let me look around it and in it. He wasn’t prepared to start it or let me drive it but looking was a great start. We started to talk money and discovered I was short by a considerable sum! I asked if he was open to offers and was given a flat ‘No”. I asked for seven days to come up with the money which he agreed. I begged the bank to loan me money until I sold some of my other cars which took 6 ¾ days to get a decision. Finally I had the money but the guy changed his mind. He said he would flip a coin to see if he would keep it or take the money. He took the money. Finally we swapped the car for cash and I drove her home. Between 2002 and 2009 she had done a total of 9500km. I only drive it on special occasions but really enjoy every drive. She has now done just over 11,000km in total. It is as good as the day she was made with not one stone chip or mark anywhere. I believe it to be the best and possibly lowest mileage 964 Turbo in the world.
I quickly discovered I was too scared to use it in case it got damaged so I borrowed my mates 997 GT3RS a lot. I loved it so much I didn’t want to give it back most times. Then one day my wife said if you’re not going to use the 964 Turbo then why don’t you sell it and buy one you can use. I reached for the soap to wash her mouth out but she ran fast.
So not being able to bring myself to sell the 964 Turbo we started looking for something else. We had seen a yellow 996 GT2 at a Porsche show in Wellington a few months before and both liked it. We found out that the car was currently for sale. We drove to Waikanae to view it and fell in love. Again a price was sorted and we bought that to use and enjoy. It was only after buying it that we discovered what a rare supercar it was too. It is a X52 engined GT2, one of 7 sold new in New Zealand and the only yellow one.
We both drive and enjoy this car and are not scared to use it. At the time I bought it I was given two words of advice. Never drive it in the rain and never lend it to your mates. I have done both, with caution and so far car and drivers have survived, but then, both rules are only broken with caution.
Tony continues... Unlike the 964 Turbo, which is a highly optioned, top of the line car, the GT2 is a barely disguised racer. There is no back seat, just a roll cage. No sunroof, no sounddeadening and apart from ABS, no electronic gizmos to dilute the driving experience. This is an X52 version so it had 40 more horsepower than standard, (taking it to 500 bhp) thanks to bigger turbos and intercoolers. The ceramic brakes have the two-fold advantage of saving weight and being fade-free, at the time it was supposedly the most powerful braking subsystem ever fitted to a production car. To sum it up, the editor of Autocar said of the GT2 “Worth selling your house for.”
And breaking rule number two, Dave handed me the keys and directed me to the nearest, winding and deserted country road. Now I know why he keeps raving about the excitement of taking it out for a wee thrashing. I have driven a reasonable number of 911s, I will not hear a bad word said about ay of them, but this one is something else again. Yes, the hip hugging Recaros are lacking in padding, but when cornering in a suitably enthusiastic manner the hold you firmly in place. No energy or concentration is wasted having to hold yourself in place. The 3.6 litre twin tubo flat six makes no apologies for the noise it makes as it goes about it’s work and with no sound deadening to mute the music coming from the rear, you know exactly what it is up to. Yet despite this being basically a racer disguise, it doesn’t rely on revs to develop its power or performance. The red line is at 6600rpm and it is happy to pull from under 1000 in any gear. It is as happy as a Corolla to waffle around the city in third gear while getting the groceries (which is a duty it has been called on to do) but as soon as the right hand pedal is pushed to the floor... look out!
The six speed gearbox has none of that slightly vague feel of earlier five speed 911s. A flick of the wrist is all that is needed to get the next gear, and if you are starting to push the car hard, the need for another gear just keeps on coming. The ride? At city speeds, rock hard. At the speed limit? Getting better. Beyond that?
The faster you go the better it gets. The steering communicates absolutely everything to the driver. Cats eyes feel like land mines. Run over a mouse and not only could you tell it’s sex, you could tell exactly what it had for breakfast. The more effort you put into driving the car the more it rewards the driver and the more you want to put into it. In my case, the car was far more capable than the driver, which was reassuring. In the hands of the truly incompetent or ham-fisted I get the feeling the GT2 would toy with the driver like a cat playing with a mouse until they were in way over their head, and then proceed to have a most spectacular accident.
What a fantastic car. Now I know the reason for THAT grin when Dave climbs out of the yellow beast.