My old 993 stands & delivers yet again -

We have just returned from vacation up to the Colorado cabin - it is about 15 miles south of Estes Park on the St. Vrain river. From Dallas, the distance is 976 miles approximately (depending on what route you take through New Mexico). I drove up and back in one day each, by myself, as Mai cannot drive a gearshift car.

Once again, the old 1996 993 Targa came through with flying colors - made the entire trip at about 26mpg and good speed & comfort with nothing to report. The Targa rolled up to 111,111 miles (kind of a cool number) on the way up and is showing about 112,300 today as I drove to work this morning.

I just thought I should write something about how great a car the air-cooled Porsche 911 really was and is - my first one was a new 1969 911T Targa and that was over 40 years ago. The last of the breed, the 993 still feels very much like the first ones in many ways - bigger, heavier, yes -- but still a 911.

My stepson just bought a 997 aero S this last year - a nice car too, but I am sticking with the old 993 for as long as it will last just to have the traditional air-cooled Porsche 911.

 

That is absolutely right - the 993 feels a lot more like the early narrow tire cars than the 1980s wide tire models, for some reason. Probably that new rear suspension and the power steering settings.

I had a new 1982 911SC Targa for only a few months before I sold it and bought my old 1975 911S Targa back because I did not like the road feel of the SC.

The 993 was a fitting end to the classic 911 production series.

 

Good bang for buck now, but nice low-mileage ones are getting more scarce and expensive.

I think mine has one more rebuild in it at maybe 175K miles or so.

 

Like I said, my family has both my 993 and the stepson's new 997. I would not trade him.

As a matter of fact, I bought a 2004 C5 Z06 Corvette for daily driver and was going to give him the 993 as a college car back then - but couldn't stand the Z06 every day to replace the Targa. He then ended up trading that Z06 for the 997.

Not saying there is anything wrong with the 997 - but it is an air-cooled tradition thing with me now after all these years.

 

And they don't leak oil like the old ones - provided you do the maintenance.

 

That was evil, Bullfighter.

However, my sister-in-law just spent $2,000 fixing seals in her Boxter...