Harold Gan

Perth and Sydney, Australia @drivenbytaste

I confess I have a bit of a serial 993 addiction that has resulted in a garage that has three

993s and one 964. Within this group there is one that stands above. One that I could never sell, nor even swap – not even for a hallowed 993 GT2.

Air Kuhl, a 1995 Aventurine green wide-body Carrera 4S with Cedar green interior, is about as green as they come, being the only example in that colour combination delivered into Australia.

It’s well-optioned from the factory too, with the rather rare Nokia sound system hidden in the driver’s side door cabin being the one thing I always like to point out. This car is a very original yet unique Australian-delivered example. But none of that in itself makes Air Kuhl the priceless car it is to me.

No. What makes Air Kuhl so special is far simpler. It was my father’s car. His daily driver for many years, it was the last sports car he ever bought. Witnessing my passion for Porsche eventually convinced him to buy a 911 for himself, and he tasked me with the pleasurable duty of hunting one down. After a fair bit of effort, Air Kuhl was found in a Melbourne dealership.

Timing always coming to the rescue, it happened that my parents were in Melbourne at the time on a conference, allowing them to immediately inspect and test the car. Air Kuhl became a family member the very day I pointed them to it. I am still surprised at the speed of that purchase, and even more that my father and mother both liked the Cedar green interior instantly.

Years used as his daily driver under what he terms as sufferance, he only recently admitted to me that he drove

Air Kuhl because I kept telling him to keep it and not sell it, in spite of it never really being his cup of tea. Fatherly love for sure. When he finally decided to spoil himself with another Mercedes he asked if he should trade Air Kuhl in with the Mercedes dealer. That would have been around 2011… I said a resounding ‘no’. Thankfully he listened.

Air Kuhl was put in storage while I remained overseas driving another

993 in my work country. She was only taken out of storage two years ago when I finally made the homeward journey to Australia after over 25 years working in southeast Asia.

Now pushing just over 103,000 kilometres, she may not be the most exhilarating drive out of all the 993s in the garage, but Air Kuhl is still a whole lot more engaging than modern machinery. This was cemented recently when I was lucky enough to spend a week with a 991 Targa 4S while on holiday in the UK. Driving the 991 through the countryside made me realise just how excessively competent cars have become over the years.

For this guy going through his midlife crisis, technology, while wonderful, has reached a stage where I feel the redundancy of such additional progress. The manner in which the 991 shuttled me from one point to the next, not allowing me to truly exploit its full potential on narrow country roads, only served to make me realise I may as well be driving an SUV or other generic car.

I never had the opportunity to press the loud pedal fully to the floor for any extended period of time. The car was also just a little too big to place in the narrow lanes to maximise my progress or provide any fun that didn’t begin to feel dangerous. It also made me imagine what it would take to ship Air Kuhl over to Europe for an extended driving holiday, given she is truly an amazing compromise of grand touring and sportive driving. But I’m getting ahead of myself. That further discussion will be for a future submission.