Ok, if everyones happy with the thread being here, I’ll start at the beginning.
About a year ago at the NEC Resto Show I attended with fellow 914 DDK’rs & watched the cars go through the auction. A very high spec (extended leather, sports int, sunroof, sports wheels, park sensors, SAT NAV, switchable suspension etc, etc) silver 997 Carrera S 3.8 caught my eye & I had a look over it. Sure enough like all auction cars it had had a hard life so I let it be. The car failed to reach its reserve and we all moved on. I wasn’t in the market for one anyway having just got my 67 912 from California it was more wishful thinking than serious.
Move on a week and I was looking through ebay (as you do) and there was the 997 for sale. The seller described the car in 3 sentences & used photo’s of it at NEC complete with Auction stickers in the window! At first I thought it was a scam, but it was cheap…….
Anyhow I looked up the auction results and it transpired the car was sold by agreement below reserve at £14K. Obviously there was a tale to tell.
I did a little digging/cyberstalking on the ebay seller and concluded it was a genuine ad so gave him a call to check it out. He seemed desperate to sell so arranged a viewing.
At the time my daily driver was a late Audi A4 2.0 Sport Avant B8. I’d bought this from a Roadside Albanian Car Wash at 180K miles, NO paperwork and no English for £3K (Yes I know! I can’t help myself) Anyhow I’d done the clutch, belts, brakes, fitted a brand new full red leather S4 interior I got from the former East Germany (ask no questions) & the compulsory genuine 19” S5 Rotor wheels (used). All in all the car stood me in for about £5K but looked pretty.
I drove up to Gloucestershire to see the 997. It was ABSOLUTELY filthy dirty & looked a mess. It wasn’t particularly clean at NEC, but the seller was a bit of a part time motor trader from home and obviously not into presentation. I really wasn’t impressed, but having travelled, I thought I’d take a good look.
Keen to offer a “test drive”, well very pushy for me to drive it actually, which was bizarre, he turned the key & started it up.
OMG!
RATTLE!
CLATTER!
SMOKE
It sounded god awful..”Turn it off!, Turn it off!” I shouted.
“It’s ok, just needs to get oil to the tappets, they all do this when cold” was the reply “Jump in we’ll go for a drive”
Well; I wasn’t sure if this chap was blagging it or just a complete twonk.
He was almost aggressive insistent that I went for a drive as passenger (me having put him out & all by travelling 2 hours to look at the car)
“Stereo’s good” he said turning it up full volume to drown the mechanical disaster
“Blower Fan works too” turning that on to full, as we coughed, smoked & rattled up the road.
You get the idea
Anyway we got back to his and I politely said NO, which seemed to anger him.
“There’s nothing wrong with this, it just needs using, drove to Manchester & back last week in it, all fine. Don’t you want it? Make me an offer.
“Sorry no”
“What about the Audi? Are you part ex-ing it?” Pointing over to my car.
“Sorry no”
“Well thanks for wasting my time!” he replied.
I got in my car started it up and was about to leave, when he came over and knocked on my drivers window. Oh, what now with this fella, I thought….
“Would you swap the Audi for it?”
“Sorry no”
And I left for the 2 hour drive home.
Now, you know how it is when you have time to think… I stopped at Newbury services for a comfort break & coffee. A high spec 997 Carrera S with a fooked engine & god knows what else in exchange for a 180K miles Albanian car wash Audi rolled in glitter?
Hmmm,
I called him back from the services and after having to falsely apologise to him “Are you serious?”
“Yes”
“Ok, I’ll turn around and come back up to you now”
My reasoning was that if I were in a position to buy a nice 997, it’s a ticking time bomb with IMS, liner wear & all those horrors, plus if you pay top money for one that’s been “done” you can never be sure of the quality of work or what has been replaced or not. So why not buy one that someone is desperate to off load, pay little and by the time you’ve invested in it; you know what you have and still haven’t stepped over the cars market value (with a bit of luck and if you are able to do the work yourself of course)
Well I did the deed and gingerly coaxed the 997 over 100 miles home in 6th gear not going over 3000 rpm.
Tomorrow I would start to find out what I'd gotten into
