THE ULTIMATE AIRCOOLED PORSCHE - THE 911 TYPE 993 - CAN BE YOURS FOR R30 MIL.
You either love Porsche, or you hate Porsche. This here writer loves them, all of them, even the weird-looking ones like the 944. Modern Porsches are amazing with their sublime twin-turbocharged powerplants and PDK transmissions, the ones at the top of the model range are pure automotive porn, but they’re not the best Porsches to come out of Zuffenhausen. There are a couple of older Porsches that I’ll bite someone in the face for, the first is the famous one that Mike Lowry piloted in Bad Boys in 1995, the 1994 964 911 Turbo. It’s a stunner in every sense of the word, it’s one of those cars that everyone stares at. Even those who don’t like Porsche. As cool as the movie star car was, it was the tamed-down version of the best Porsche ever created, the 1995 993 GT2 Coupé. This version looks like the Bad Boy Porsche on steroids with an attitude problem, and besides the looks, it’s also a properly fast car and is sought-after for being the last of the aircooled Porsches. This means they don’t come up for sale very often, and when they do, they change hands for huge amounts of money, so much money that you could buy a few brand-new models from the top of the model list. It’s mad how old tech without a water-based cooling system can be worth more and run so well. Many air-cooled Porsche engines, including the 993 GT2, use aluminium for critical engine components such as cylinder heads and crankcase. The cylinders are often coated with a layer of nickel-silicon carbide (Nikasil), which provides a hard, wear-resistant surface that also aids in heat transfer and the cylinders and cylinder heads are designed with extensive cooling fins. which increases the surface area exposed to air, allowing more heat to be dissipated, The cooling fins are strategically designed to maximize airflow around the engine and the shape and orientation of the fins are engineered to direct the air effectively, ensuring uniform cooling. There’s also a powerful engine-driven fan at the heart of the air-cooled system that draws in air and directs it over the cooling fins of the cylinders and heads through a carefully designed shroud. The fan speed is linked to engine speed, so as the engine works harder and generates more heat, the fan spins faster, providing more cool air.
Air-cooled Porsche engines incorporate an oil cooler to supplement the cooling provided by air. The engine oil circulates through a radiator-like cooler, which is also exposed to the airflow generated by the fan, and to further manage internal temperatures, some models feature oil squirters that spray oil onto the underside of the pistons. This helps to draw heat away from the pistons and improve overall thermal management. Tuning makes a big difference with an aircooled setup, it must be perfect. Of course, there’s also extensive use of high-strength, heat-resistant materials in the construction of critical engine components ensuring durability and resistance to thermal stress. Back to the one for sale, according to Bonham’s, the Porsche was supplied new on 28th September 1995, 1 of 17 cars delivered new to Japan and is one of only 172 road cars built. This one was produced to Japanese spec with left-hand drive, wears Porsche Polar Silver Metallic A8A8 paint and has black leatherette bucket seats with dark grey leather inlays and has the highly sought-after earlier Sports steering wheel also used in a GT1. The GT2 was Imported into the UK in February 2020 and it was acquired by the current owner in February 2021. Since then it has been driven regularly, attending the Le Mans Classic in 2022 and various local Porsche events. The car also has a full professionally-fitted PPF to protect the best shade of paint Porsche has ever made. The car comes complete with handbooks, tools, a jack and the original exhaust system. The Porsche will go under the hammer at the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed where Bonham’s is running it’s typically amazing annual big-ticket automotive and memorabilia auction. The chaps who know more about car values than we do have pegged this aircooled awesomeness to sell for between £1,100,000 and £1,500,000, which if you translate to our amazingly strong local currency, is between a mere R26,000,000 and R35,000,000. Not bad considering the Bad Boys 964 was sold to local collector Rushil Singh for a reported R22,000,000.
Take a look at the YouTube video from when Mr Harris put one of these iconic Porsches through its paces to prove why it's one of the best ever 911s to come out of Zuffenhausen: Chris Harris - Quick Steer | The Ultimate Air-Cooled 911 | Porsche 993 GT2 | Collecting Cars
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