We've had 911s before, but never an air-cooled one…
By Mike Duff / Saturday, October 10, 2020
Hindsight never needs to go to Specsavers, and its fair to say that given a working car-sized time machine with a range of about two decades most of us would be heading back into the recent past clutching rolls of period-appropriate fifties. When confronted with a vehicle that is worth considerably more now than it was a few years ago the natural instinct of the bargain-seeker is to see it as being overpriced, and to wonder when it will fall back to its previous level of affordability, or even below it.
Such an attitude can be short-sighted and, for those wanting to realise a long-delayed dream, self-defeating. The secondhand market has always been hard to second guess, and some cars seem very unlikely to ever fall by nearly as much as they have risen. Which is why the question a cheap-for-2020 993-generation 911 should trigger isn't the one of how little it might have been possible to buy it for not very long ago, but rather how much value it offers now. Which, in the case of this week's Pill, is 'lots'. For anyone with a suitably adventurous sprit, this is looks like a compelling near bargain.
Critical reaction to different generations of 911 often takes a while to settle down. Every fresh iteration of the world's most famous rear-engined sports car has been regarded as being inferior to its immediate predecessor by a percentage of reviewers. But when the 993 arrived in 1994 it had faced a bigger issue – journalists knew that Porsche had already started work on the water-cooled 996 that would replace it just four years later. Meaning it got outflanked on both sides: hairy-chested critics were regretting that the 993 was quieter and less oversteery than the 964 – thanks to the combination of European drive-by noise limits and less-lethal suspension; the more timid commentariat were predicting it would be turned obsolete when the all-new car turned up.
The very fact that Porsche had managed to stick with air cooling for as long as it did was down to a combination of stinginess and bloody-mindedness. The 911 had been starved of significant development spend for many years as Porsche persisted in the belief that buyers would ultimately switch to the front-engined models that had been developed to replace it. When the company finally realised this wasn't going to happen it faced a struggle to get the air-cooled flat-six through increasingly tough emissions standards, having to deal with the cost and complexity of fitting catalysts, while simultaneously starting work on the water-cooled future.
Developed under the technical leadership of Ulrich Bez – later Aston's renaissance era boss – the 993 was more than a facelift of the 964, but less than an all-new model. Only about 20 per cent of components were shared, with the long-serving 'M64' flat-six was largely carried over. It got lightened internals, enlarged intake valves and a reinforced crankshaft, making 272hp in standard form, but it took the arrival of the clever intake-length juggling 'Varioram' system in 1995 to boost driveability by raising low-rev torque and also boost output upwards to 285hp. All manual 993s got a six-speed gearbox as standard, something which really helped to keep it on the boil at higher speeds.
This was something I discovered on my first trip to the Nurburgring in 1996 for the Oldtimer race weekend. I'd travelled out with a friend in his MG Maestro, the car proving willing but some way short of fast when taken to a Nordschliefe touristfahrten session. (Our attempts to gain advantage by pacenoting the track resulted in almost everything being called as either "flat" or "absolute.") A more affluent member of our group had made the journey out in what must have been a nearly-new 993 Carrera 2, and was willing to both unleash it on the Nordschliefe, but also to give passenger rides. Nabbing one of these was my single most impressive automotive experience up until that point, the Porsche achieving what felt like impossible velocities and chassis loadings when compared to the lumbering Maestro, and indeed pretty much everything else it shared the track with.
These days the 993 has pretty much been sanctified, but it actually spent a considerable amount of time in the critical backwoods after the 996 arrived. The appeal of fatter but much more technically advanced water-cooled car was always to a slightly different audience, but for a long time the values of both overlapped. As late as 2007 I wrote a story comparing Carrera 2 versions of both cars – a very late 993 and a very early 996 – when good examples of both were in the low-20s. (I also suggested the 996 was a better buy; d'oh!) Earlier and less desirable versions of the 993 troughed considerably below that; some changed hands for low teens.
Which seems pretty crazy now. Our Pill looks very cheap at £33,500, that valuation down to both a 171,000 mileage and the obvious need for some cosmetic tidying. But while autos and cabrios normally sit at the bottom of the 993 tree, this is a manual coupe and carries both a period-appropriate combination of purplish Blue Pearl metallic with a grey cabin and good spec. In addition to sports seats and split-rim style alloys it has air-con, although this is currently hors de combat. On the plus side, the sunroof is working according to the pictures.
The seller admits the front bumper and scuttle area are in need of tidying; the available images show what is either lacquer peel, or a very linear bird poop, at the left-hand trailing edge of the roof. The advert's claim that this is the cheapest 993 manual in the UK with an MOT was doubtless true when it was first submitted, but no longer as the ticket expired in August. The official history isn't terrifying – there's no mention of rust, which can get its teeth into 993s – but it does reveal an appetite for tyres, wheel bearings and ball joints, as well as a semi-permanent oil leak the seller admits requires attention. There's also a conspicuous lack of any mention of a full and comprehensive service history.
Fifteen years ago, you could have picked up a 993 in this condition for probably not much of a third of what is being asked for this one, but that doesn't make it overpriced. With prettier low-mileage manual coupes often going for twice as much there's plenty of headroom to get this one fully sorted. Or just use it as it is, and enjoy the novelty of an air-cooled 911 you can park anywhere.
See the original advert here
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