Anthony Coyne
Tampa, FL @elferusa
Up until now I’ve been an air-cooled 911 owner; a 964 followed by 993: 1990s cars late in the development lineage of the original 911 before water was added. I’m such a fan of these cars that I shipped one to America for the road trip of a lifetime (Total 911 issues 184 and 185). So why am I now here, writing from America, with a watercooled car? I will explain.
Last year my wife Renée and myself bought a house in south Florida from one of the Miami Dolphins NFL players who’d been transferred out to the San Francisco
49ers. It may sound bougie, but the reality is a small house by American standards, one that’s been in need of some work for many years. Our plan was to move here in summer 2021. The plan rapidly changed after discovering our dog Alfred had a brain tumour. Without specialist treatment only available in the US he would die within weeks. We battled with the current travel restrictions and arrived here in February (Alfred’s surgery was a success and he is doing well. For a detailed update see www.elferusa.com).
Our attention then turned to the US Autotrader website, Bring a Trailer, and the Rennlist forum to find a suitable
911. Another air-cooled car was out as although Renée can drive them, she is a petite 4’9” meaning the clutch is a struggle. I didn’t fancy an older Tiptronic on what would be a daily driver, and being honest, I didn’t much fancy an air-cooled car as a daily driver in Florida at all. The carport has already been torn down from our fixer-upper and Florida gets very wet in hurricane season. It made sense to get a newer PDK car. I like the look of the 997.2 cars; unassuming enough to fit in most places, pretty, dimensionally small, starting to look like a modern classic, yet very usable.
Our car turned up on Rennlist; Carrara white, PDK, Bose, sun/moon roof, and the
almost impossible to find black Exclusive optioned Carrera Sport Classic wheels and folding carbon bucket seats. Without commissioning a PPI, relying solely on a Carfax report and photographs, I took a leap of faith. $54,000 plus local fees transferred to a man I’d never met and the car bought blind.
Weeks later we drove to Miami to collect it from an Aladdin’s cave warehouse full of interesting cars. After taking a few photographs I put my camera on the front seat only to be stopped by the seller, my new friend Nahuel, who chided how easily leather buckets mark. I moved the camera to make Nahuel feel better but I knew what was to come. Try telling a Boston Terrier to be careful with anything!
Driving home I detected the alignment out – I’d already planned to drop it into Porsche for a service so this will be rectified then. Also a chip in the windshield that once seen cannot be unseen. Small stuff, and nothing whatsoever to take the gloss off the excitement of finding ourselves back in the States, driving another 911 in the country famous for road trips. But mostly because we were doing it with our dog whom we feared would never see the garden we chose for him at our new home. Let the adventure begin!