2003 Porsche 911 Turbo £60,000
Restored by Porsche Centre West London in the 2014 UK dealer competition, this car is like a new 996, says Paul Hardiman
This manual 996 Turbo came out of Porsche’s 2014 dealer restoration competition programme, and was produced by Porsche Centre West London. Starting with a low-mileage car with service history, it was stripped to a bare shell and repainted, major components cleaned or replaced, then the lot reassembled using new fasteners.
Seven sheets of internal invoicing detail every grommet, seal, widget and washer that went into the project. The largest numbers are for new radiators (all five), both intercoolers, heater core and control unit and brake discs, totalling around £25,000 in parts alone.
The result is like a new car, with perfect finishes. Under the rear lid the aircon compressor wears a factory warning tag and all the pipework is new, though the undersides of the engine casings are now a little surface-corroded. Coolant is pink and to level, oil only 4000 miles old.
Since the rebuild the car has covered minimal mileage, being serviced by Hofmann’s in 2015 at 24,465 miles, the last of five stamps; it’s currently on 28,525 miles. Supplied by Porsche Centre Guildford, the first two stamps, from Porsche Centre Tonbridge, show services in 2004 and 2005 at 8668 and 9010 miles, then there’s a gap until 2011 and 23,910 miles, some of which time it was in storage.
The original interior went back in as it was little worn. The driver’s seat leather is lightly creased, the passenger side less so, and the rears look hardly sat-in. The dashtop and Alcantara headlining are perfect, the carpets and door trims unworn. Wheels are unscuffed, shod in Pirelli P Zeros all round, 2012-dated and about a third worn on the rear; 2013-dated and almost untouched front. There’s a little roughness under the edge of the front chin finisher where it’s been lightly scraped, but it’s not visible with the car on the floor.
From cold there was a little belt noise, but this disappeared by the time the engine had warmed up. It drives like new – taut and tight, everything working smoothly, without imbalance in the wheels or vibrations from the front end of the fourwheel-drive transmission. You can’t really performance-test a 400bhp supercar on UK roads, but floor it in second and third and acceleration is explosive.
The brakes are smooth (they’ll suck out your eyeballs if you lean on them hard enough), the gearchange typically slightly notchy but working well. There’s no boost gauge but oil pressure is the classic 911 level – just over 4bar at 4000rpm, while the voltmeter reads 13 and temperature sits steady at about 80°C. Both electric windows work slickly and the aircon blows cold after a minute or so.
The money would look on the high side if this was an average car, but this is far above average and of a quality that couldn’t be repeated for the asking price.