Philip Raby

Here’s a photo shot on my iPhone during a trip to Reims. See more at www.total.com

Paul Stephens is well known for his retro-style 911s and it’s always good to see – and drive – one.

Paul’s just put this one up for sale.

It’s a 3.2 Carrera that’s been ‘downdated’ with RS-style panel work. Of course, it’s not a true RS replica – it’s not meant to be – but it is a distinct and good-looking car – inside and out. It’s also a more practical car than a true 1970s 911 and something you could use every day if you really wanted to.

Is it worth £45,000? Hard to put a value on such a unique car. However, knowing the work and money Paul puts into his creations, I’d say that’s a good deal.

Here’s an interesting advert.

The first thing that struck me was that it’s a 964, not a 993 as stated. Then looking at the engine and the Tiptronic gearlever, it is obviously not a Turbo.

I suspect it’s an America Roadster – the US version of our 964 Turbo-Look – although they don’t usually have a Turbo rear wing or ‘Roadster’ badging. However, I think both those things were options. I’m doing some digging to see if I can find out more, but that’s my current thinking.

Now, a UK right-hand drive 964 Turbo-Look Cabriolet is a tricky thing to value, but around £22,000 is realistic. Which means £50,000 very optimistic for this US import unless I’m missing something.

There’s a website all about Turbo-Looks here.

Browsing through online classified ads for Porsches, I’m amazed at how poorly worded many of them are. A quick scan today revealed the following howlers:

Porssche, Suspensin brace, photographic recored, Competion rear wings

And they were all in one advert!

Regular mistakes include Artic Silver (that’ll be a big lorry colour, then), Porch (somewhere for your wellies), Zenon headlamps (sounds like a rock musician) and Unique Numberplate (I thought every one was unique).

And then there’s the lack of capital letters (tiptronic, carrera, targa)or, even worse, too many capitals (PORSCHE FOR SALE), plus a liberal sprinkling of apostrophes just for good measure (Fuch’s, MoT’ed, £1000’s spent).

And these aren’t ads for £800 Ford Fiestas but Porsches costing up to £80,000. How can people earn enough money to buy cars like that if they can’t string a sentence together?

Finally, there’s the plain unhelpful. Here’s a real advert for a £37,000 911 but it’s not really selling it to me:

Only 13,9000 KMS from new, huge specification including Sat Nav,bose sound system, sports exhaust and sunroof.All usual extras.One owner car,as new.

And that’s it. I’ve no idea what ‘all usual extras’ are – wheels and engine, perhaps?

So, if you’re writing an advert, make an effort to get the terminology correct, describe the car accurately, in reasonable detail and make it sound appealing. It will increase your chances of selling it.

Oh, and if you don’t want the bother, I offer a brokerage service and can sell your Porsche on your behalf; dealing with potential buyers and even writing the adverts!

A fellow motoring writer Adam Towler sent me this classified ad.

A 911 for under £10,000 can be a gamble but first impressions are that this is an honest car. I’m sure it’s not perfect but it does look original and unmessed around – which is becoming increasingly rare with SCs. With buyers preferring original cars, something like this will become increasingly sought after in years to come.

So why the price? Well, it may be full of rust which would be sad, but 911 prices are mileage sensitive and this one has over 100,000 miles on the clock. Not much for a car of this age but so many buyers are – misguidedly – looking for what they call low mileage examples and are put off by anything over 100,000. You see this effect even more with 993s – if you want a cheap 993 get a high mileage one.

The good news is, the SC engine (and the 993’s for that matter) is a tough cookie and is good for many more miles than this, so long as it’s been looked after. If the bodywork checks out on this example then I reckon it would back a good buy and, if you keep its service history up, it’ll hold its value and maybe even appreciate over time.

I’ve always insisted in stunning photography in Total 911 – great cars deserve to be portrated beautifully. My friend Ali Cusick is our favoured photographer and, seeing that’s he’s just bought a shiny new Mac and Aperture 3, he’s been playing around and come up with this great slideshow of his favourite images from Total 911. Hope you enjoy it!

Annoyingly, my server won’t let me upload the file so hop over to Total 911’s site to watch the video.

One of my guilty pleasures is browsing through Porsches for sale on Pistonheads. Partly dreaming of cars I’d like to own, and partly looking for bargains that I could own.

This early 911 Turbo caught my attention for two reasons.

First, because these first 3.0-litre Turbos are relatively rare cars – only about 1500 were built between 1975 and 1977 (of which about 500 were US-spec). They can be identified by their whaletail spoilers which have a main grille that follows the line of the original engine lid plus a secondary grille behind, on the tail itself. It’s a sleeker wing than the more chunky, intercooler-housing teatray that followed.

Today, these early cars aren’t considered the best Turbos – by modern standards, 260bhp is modest and, by any standards, the brakes weren’t great. But in the mid-1970s, the 911 Turbo created a storm. Here was one of the first turbocharged road cars, with astonishing performance, announced in the middle of a fuel crisis.

With its flared wheel arches and wild rear wing, the 911 Turbo soon became an icon – the poster car for a generation of schoolboys. It’s an important piece of motoring history.

With all that in mind, it’s no wonder that the second thing that caught my attention about this car was the price – £14,995. That’s not a lot of money for a world-changing icon, is it.

But is it any good? Hard to tell from the photos, although the interior looks a bit ropey. However, the ad says that the car’s had £6000 spent on it recently – a photographed receipt suggests a top-end rebuilt and a gearbox rebuild. I’d like to think that money had not been poured into a rust bucket. Without seeing the car in the metal, it’s impossible to comment further. What I will say is, that if you’re local to Gloucestershire, it’d be worth checking this one out.

You can find out more about the 911 Turbo and other Porsches here.