Andy Brookes Poole, UK

@993andy

9WERKS Radio

I began my story to Porsche ownership last month and left you with a few photos of the 993 I found. Produced on 5 October 1994, it’s a German specification 1995 model year car with the non Varioram engine M6405-635 and manual short ratio two-wheel-drive gearbox G5021-20. The car came with possibly my perfect specification including aircon, no sunroof, LSD, computer, cruise control, left-hand-drive and black interior. The Guards red was not my ideal choice, but I decided to compromise; I actually love it now and can’t imagine the car in one of the more staid colours of the time.

My first taste of the car was an advert on ebay; it was advertised by a garage called Marque 21 in Bridport, Dorset, and they were advertising it for their customer who had owned the car for 16 years.

I suggested to my wife that I would take her for dinner in Bridport to a lovely restaurant, oh, and as we were there, we’ll take a look at a 993 that I heard was for sale! The plan worked and after doing a full inspection the deal was done.

The car came with a huge amount of history. I wanted to dig a little deeper into its earlier history. I found the name of a previous owner in Germany amongst the paperwork, I managed to trace him and after a little persuading he let me know what he knew about the car. The 993 was registered in Stuttgart and owned by the Porsche factory; it is believed it was a press/demo car until June 1996. He purchased it from the factory demo sales location in Stuttgart; he owned the car for four years until August 2000, and then sold it to a local car dealer.

From there I managed to discover that within a few days the 993 had made its way to London and was registered to an Italian lady, who owned the car until August 2002. It was then purchased by the guy I bought it from, he entrusted Marque 21 to carry out all services during the 16 years and carried out some great modifications. The seats were converted to sports seats by Southbound Trimmers, an RS steering wheel, red seat belts, lowering springs, refurbished Cup 2 wheels with red centres, tuning chip, motorsound air filter housing, big oval tailpipes amongst others. The owner completed many trips to Europe over the years. The sale of the car was due to the owner having a knee operation that made driving a manual difficult.

I wanted to make it my own and improve an already excellent condition 25-year-old car. The first stage of my modification trail was to have the wheels refurbished in satin platinum. I fitted RS air ducts and smoothed the front bumper, and fitted a magnetic front number plate mount. I refurbished the oil and aircon radiator mounts and underside access panels. The engine fan and housing were refurbished. I fitted an RS single fan pulley conversion, RS engine mounts, RS centre console cubby and red tachometer dial with redline at 12 o’clock by Carbone.

All plated underbody and engine bay brackets were replated and fixings replaced with stainless steel. I built valved bypass pipes added to standard exhaust mufflers with black slash cut exhaust tips and S bumper surrounds. Orange indicators, side repeaters and yellow headlights were fitted. All fairly subtle modifications, but they added up to more than the total, OEM plus in my eyes.

Next month, I’ll show you the second stage of the modification trail…