In my life, I've always wanted to come across a rare abandoned gem on the side of the road, with a sign that says " If you can fix'er, you can keep'er". So far, this fantasy hasn't come to fruition, but this fixer-upper Porsche 996 Turbo is as close as anyone's going to realistically get. Can it be saved from its inevitably grim, junkyard fate?
This 2001 Porsche 911 Turbo was among the fastest cars in its day, bar none. Its 415 horsepower, twin-turbocharged 6-cylinder boxer engine and all-wheel-drive got the car from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about 4 seconds, with a lot of room for improvement. This example leaves a lot of room for improvement, as it requires some cosmetic reconditioning to get road-worthy.
From the pictures provided, it looks like it hit another car with the driver's side rear quarter panel, and mangled the air intake vent and wheel, but it's unclear if anything else, perhaps internally, was damaged. As the wheel looks to be straight, there may be little to no damage to suspension components underneath the observable damage. It does have a "rebuilt" Georgia title, but honestly, if it passes an inspection that clears it from frame damage, and at around $16,000 with a Best Offer option, it would indeed be the cheapest running Porsche 911 Turbo in the country.
No airbags were deployed, signifying that the hit wasn't enough to trigger the car's SRS system. If one were to check out the car and find it to be in serviceable order, you could have a seriously cheap and fun Porsche 911, as these engines were not prone to the IMS bearing failure that the naturally aspirated engines were subject to. This car would certainly be a gamble, but not a huge one if you knew what to look for. Bring a mechanic and buy a cheap Porsche that makes all the right whistling sounds. It's the right thing to do.
(H/T to @SwiftStanda)
Tavarish is the founder of APiDA Online and writes about buying and selling cool cars on the internet. He owns the world's cheapest Mercedes S-Class, a graffiti-bombed Lexus, and he's the only Jalopnik author that has never driven a Miata. He also has a real name that he didn't feel was journalist-y enough so he used a pen name and this was the best he could do.
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