Saquib Ramday
Hampshire, UK
The 997 GTS is the ultimate anonymous, everyday sports car. Its capabilities are so broad that in the first five months of ownership I’ve added 25 per cent to its mileage. The odometer facts are: 13,532 miles on collection (4 August, 2023); 17,095 miles as of today (15 January, 2024).
The car has slipped into my life so easily that I pick up the keys by default over the RS4 Avant. Heated Sports seats and thick carpet, a cavernous frunk that swallows two school kit bags, NM Automotive wireless Apple Carplay retrofitted into the factory PCM. There has been a change in grocery shopping habits, too. Tesco and Sainsbury’s don’t allow the engine to warm up sufficiently, while the parking spaces at Waitrose are too tight. Lidl offers a compromise that affords extra spend on Esso Synergy Supreme 99. I still insist on ordering the bagels from Ocado, though.
Packed with wrapped gifts and two cocker spaniels, I drove it to the in-laws in the Midlands for Christmas. Not to mention numerous events, which have recently necessitated pre-dawn departures in freezing temperatures. As a coffee lover, I’ve appreciated the cup holder placement, absent in my previous 993 and poorly located in the 992. Rather like the blisters that accompany a new loafer, I was expecting a beddingin period of minor niggles with this car given the low mileage in recent years. No such thing – a testament to Paragon and its selection and preparation of cars.
One interpretation could be that the car lacks the excitement we ‘enthusiasts’ are looking for. The reality is that the 997 handles much like a classic 911. A recent 90-minute Sunday morning blast across the A and B roads of Hampshire, Sussex, across the South Downs to Shoreham proved the point. 408hp enables the loafers to sink sufficiently deep into accelerator travel that you feel you’re pedalling instead of tapping, balancing a symphony between moments of weightlessness from rapid acceleration and the acoustic drama from the factory PSE and Milltek rear silencer delete that sits between 4,000 and 7,000rpm.
Piloting down narrow, undulating, poor road surfaces has benefitted from geometry set up by Centre Gravity and a DSC Sport Controller enhancing the dynamic performance of the active dampers. The sports seats are low and snug, the steering wheel – devoid of any buttons or controls – gently follows camber, allowing you to feel the road surface through the tyres. I was on the rifle-team at prep school, every change of the short-shift six-speed reminding me of the sensation of locking the bolt handle in place before taking aim.
To be clear, this car isn’t a Gt3alternative, which is a different use case and ownership proposition. I would describe it as pushing the envelope of modern performance standards and everyday ownership wrapped up in an analogue package.
The appeal to me of a low owners and mileage car is that it’s as close as I can get to buying a new one. Knowing that a lot of value is wrapped up in its mileage, I’ve promised myself that the moment I don’t drive it to keep the miles down,
I’ll hand it back to Paragon. This coming summer will be the litmus test.
I’m considering some modifications to bring it closer to what I would have specified from the factory. As a car that flies below the radar, pleasingly it doesn’t attract any attention, other than an acknowledgement from the few that are aware of its rarity. The silver centre-lock wheels have generated a fair bit of conversation, including DMS on Instagram, universally praised as an improvement over the stock black examples. Rather like a Margherita pizza, beauty is often in simplicity.