Porsche 911 Carrera (997)

THOSE EARLIER 911S may well be out of reach now, but for £100 per week you’ll have your pick of its modern alternatives. In some ways the 997 was an echo of the 993, for it too heralded some 911 ‘lasts’; it was the last 911 to have hydraulic power steering and the last one to be truly compact, the way 911s used to be. For those reasons and more besides, the 997 is reckoned to be a high point in the five decade-long saga of Porsche’s rear-engined sports car.

Today you’ll need to tread carefully because the normallyaspirated flat-six isn’t as durable as it might be, although neither intermediate shaft bearing failure nor cylinder bore scoring are as common as legend would have you believe. At £25,000 you’ll even find plenty of low-mileage cars.

ONE WE FOUND 2007 911 Carrera, 67,000 miles, £24,950