It’s the Saturday before Christmas 1992. I’m on a train from London down to Gatwick airport to meet a close family friend. He has just bought this spectacular Porsche 911 Carrera 2 coupe.
This particular 1990 Carrera 2, metallic silver with blue leather interior, was of extra special interest to me.
Why? Because this 911 was actually for me. Oh yes. Nick, my family friend, had bought the 911 on my behalf and now here I was, about to see it for the very first time and pick it up. Quite a moment.
To explain, 30 years ago, I was living and working in Tokyo. Every day I was being tormented by the sight and sound of this guy in a red Carrera 2 as he came down the narrow road by my place.
The sound of that naturally-aspirated 3.6-litre flat-six as he downshifted, then accelerated past my apartment was doing my head in.
I absolutely adored that sound. And that fantastic compact 911 shape…thus I began to formulate a plan to buy a 911 of my own. I began by looking at classic 911S models from the sixties, as you do….
Or more realistically perhaps, what about a later 911 SC, actually the first 911 I ever drove? More modern, more useable everyday. Hmmm, tempting.
Then I remembered the curious clutch action of that 911 SC and reckoned it might not be all that great in heavy Tokyo traffic, of which I was very familiar.
I then decided to try and buy the best, latest, most absorbing 911 I could afford. This turned out to be the then current 964 edition and in particular, one with semi-auto Tiptronic box.
A year earlier, Porsche GB had decently arranged to lend me a Carrera 2 Tiptronic while I was over in the UK and I was sold. So two pedal Tiptronic it was going to be.
With long experience of sourcing cars, Nick spent some time looking at different 911s. Faxes buzzed between the UK and Japan.
Eventually, this silver 911 Carrera 2 Tiptronic came up. The spec, price, colour were good.
It had just had a Porsche main dealer service, Nick said it drove really well. Two years old, one previous owner. Like new. So OK deep breath, let’s do it…
Result! The 911 turned out to be all I hoped it would be. It looked and felt amazing. I was elated it had all come together so well. My slightly hairbrained long distance purchase plan had actually worked out fine.
My original idea had been to keep the car in the UK for a while, have some fun with it, then eventually put it on a boat to Japan.
But after driving the 911 extensively in the UK, taking it to Scotland and across to France, Italy and Germany a number of times (including the Nurburgring), that boat trip to Tokyo somehow never came about.
Tokyo is a brilliant place, don’t get me wrong. But I’d never owned my own car there. The whole business of shipping, registering it and finding somewhere to keep it in the end spooked me, I have to confess.
So in the UK it remained, year after year, waiting for liberation on my next trip over.
So much of that car was just brilliant. I couldn’t get enough of that classic 911 shape or the deep, basso rumble of that gorgeous 3600 cc flat-six. The car was intoxicating and fast, but in true Porsche tradition, only really got into its stride once you’re committed, past 4000 rpm.
The narrowness of the 964 body made it super manoeuvrable and wieldy on the road. It felt so good, solid and machine like, absolutely built to last, with superb quality throughout.
