Phil Farrell
Cheshire, UK
It was unfortunate that the offer to write these short pieces came just a few weeks too late and I couldn’t therefore cover the original Fried Egg meet that I enjoyed so much. It was well covered at the time, but for those who missed it, the Fried Egg meets were set up by Lee Sibley as an opportunity for 996 owners to celebrate their cars together.
Having recently attended Part 2, it was great to again see so many beautifully kept examples of arguably Porsche’s least-loved 911. As ever, the morning started with a drive out with friends, this time through some inclement weather. Our destination was RPM Technik in Hertfordshire. Our group was lucky to have Andy Brookes (@993andy) and Joe Williams (@joewilliamsuk) acting as support vehicle in a 991 Carerra T, which meant we got great shots for the scrapbook/instagram.
FE2 was the first time I’d been to any of the, what I would call, ‘leading’ independent dealers and I was seriously impressed.
The cars for sale were all well prepped and the workshop was more like an operating theatre than a garage. Very much up there with what the service areas at any main dealer would look like. Having spoken with the team I’m not sure why I was surprised by any of that. I’m learning quickly that, and I’m by no means knocking the excellent OPC network here, there are brilliant third-party options to get knowledge and enthusiastic support for your 911.
The most interesting part of the morning was the Q&A hosted by our own Lee Sibley and the team. One of the questions related to the highest mileage 996 the RPM team had seen. The answer? Just shy of 200,000 miles. Again, why I was shocked by this I’m not sure. I have friends with earlier generations well past 100,000 and when well looked after don’t seem to deliver too many nasty maintenance bills. The answer did get me thinking in another way though. I’d heard a few people talking about a rather lovely Riviera blue 997.2 GT3 in stock and one chap used the term ‘leggy’. This is a ten-year-old car with 46,000 on the clock. It struck a chord with something Lee had said a few weeks previous at another event about seeing fewer 911s on the road being used. I wonder whether owners have fallen into the trap of coveting their cars to keep the mileage down, and presumably the value up, over just getting out and using the cars. I really hope not.
Last month I mentioned an issue I was having with a newly fitted windscreen. I took an opportunity to take it into OPC
Bournemouth who fixed the problem.
The car’s now actually much quieter and definitely not letting go of the windscreen seal at anything like motorway speeds. The issue was that there is a seal within a seal which keeps the main seal tight up against the pillars. This simply hadn’t been fitted when I had the screen replaced and hence the seal wasn’t a good one.
While at the OPC I mentioned to the service team that because of a house move earlier in the year I think I’d stopped getting the Porsche Christophorus magazine which I enjoy reading once a quarter. A couple of days later a pile of them turned up in the post. Great service all round and very thoughtful. It will give me something to plough through during these times of uncertainty in case me and my 911 need to self isolate some time soon. On that note I wish everyone the very best of health, and let’s hope we still get some summer to get out and stick some fun miles on our 911s.