RC18B 911 turbo
New member
I had my S2 when I was 18 and I was quoted £6.5k a year to insure (didn't have any NCBs) but I loved it, and eventually it came down to £2.5K a year. When I'm 21 I'll be able to insure a 996 turbo for £3k I can't wait.
a Porsche as a First Car?
- Thread starter Jarama Beige
- Start date
Interesting thread and some valid points.
I think some may be a bit optimistic on the Mk I & II Escorts. Mk I's had problems with rust 30 years ago, you will only find a restored car or special now. Either way they will be a bit too special to be let loose with a learner at the wheel.
I'm afraid I think a Porsche of any sort will be a bad first car. As a new driver you want something simple, cheap, innocuous and slow. Anything with a bit of grunt, or even aspirations of power, will make you a target for your piers - inevitable races will follow and people will become dead.
On the road performance cars are often less fun than something slow. Something slow you have to work at and learn how to drive. The limit on a slow car is often very much slower than in a performance car. You would never learn about handling in a performance car as if you every came near the limit you would be going very fast indeed and the lesson would, most likely end up with people becoming dead.
I am trying to think what the modern equivalent of a Mini or an Escort might be. Nova, Fiesta, Ka perhaps? If you could find a Sierra you would be laughing. Lots of room, simple, cheap, exceptional ballance and handling and rear wheel drive. Job's a good'n.
I think some may be a bit optimistic on the Mk I & II Escorts. Mk I's had problems with rust 30 years ago, you will only find a restored car or special now. Either way they will be a bit too special to be let loose with a learner at the wheel.
I'm afraid I think a Porsche of any sort will be a bad first car. As a new driver you want something simple, cheap, innocuous and slow. Anything with a bit of grunt, or even aspirations of power, will make you a target for your piers - inevitable races will follow and people will become dead.
On the road performance cars are often less fun than something slow. Something slow you have to work at and learn how to drive. The limit on a slow car is often very much slower than in a performance car. You would never learn about handling in a performance car as if you every came near the limit you would be going very fast indeed and the lesson would, most likely end up with people becoming dead.
I am trying to think what the modern equivalent of a Mini or an Escort might be. Nova, Fiesta, Ka perhaps? If you could find a Sierra you would be laughing. Lots of room, simple, cheap, exceptional ballance and handling and rear wheel drive. Job's a good'n.
I don't disagree with much of that, except that a 2.0 924 is not a fast car in today's terms. Much like a mid-range or diesel shopping car in performance I imagine (I've never driven a base 924 to be fair, but the Turbo I drove didn't exactly leave a trail of molten Tarmac in its wake, so I am extrapolating). You are right that it would attract a certain amount of attention, but then that needs to be mixed into a cocktail with inexperience and even then a catalyst of immaturity is still required to create a lethal brew, and as I said earlier the OP sounds suprisingly mature for a 15 year old.
In terms of simplicity the 924 is perhaps more complex than the Escorts and Minis etc. we grew up on, but compared to a Saxo or Corsa? I think the 924 would be the easier one to work on. I'm not even conviced Porsche spares are significanly more expensive than Citroen ones would be (based on my Peugeot experience), and a decent proportion of the base 924 is VW/Audi.
If a 924 turns out not to be "the go" as they say down here then what about a Golf? Last time I looked serviceable Mk2 GTIs could still be picked up for sensible money and if insurance is a concern there they made the Driver that looked like a GTI specifically for the purpose or lowering premiums and the GTD is a remarkably underrated car - I'd snap one up tomorrow if a nice one came up here; seriously. By Golf I pretty much mean Mk2 - the Mk1 is nice but you'd be paying more for less and the Mk3 is poo. Later than that is just a modern car; yawn.
In terms of simplicity the 924 is perhaps more complex than the Escorts and Minis etc. we grew up on, but compared to a Saxo or Corsa? I think the 924 would be the easier one to work on. I'm not even conviced Porsche spares are significanly more expensive than Citroen ones would be (based on my Peugeot experience), and a decent proportion of the base 924 is VW/Audi.
If a 924 turns out not to be "the go" as they say down here then what about a Golf? Last time I looked serviceable Mk2 GTIs could still be picked up for sensible money and if insurance is a concern there they made the Driver that looked like a GTI specifically for the purpose or lowering premiums and the GTD is a remarkably underrated car - I'd snap one up tomorrow if a nice one came up here; seriously. By Golf I pretty much mean Mk2 - the Mk1 is nice but you'd be paying more for less and the Mk3 is poo. Later than that is just a modern car; yawn.
RC18B 911 turbo
New member
I disagree with that as I never had a race with any of my piers as I felt I was better than them and had nothing to prove, thus leaving them to drive off making lots of noise and very little progress off the lights in their little French snotters. I never once felt the need to go and race anyone no matter who tried it on at the lights or offered me races at work.
A fair comment. I can't remember any races myself - my first car was a 1600GT MkI Capri. But I do remember doing 100 mph (on the speedo) with four up in my mums 1100 MkI Escort, and plenty of handbrake action, and going rallying in the woods, driving home stoned from the late night pictures after breathing everyone elses wacky backy smoke, playing in icy car parks, taking the car out in the snow just to play and sundry other adventures. Granted this was 30 years ago and traffic and the police were different.....and perhaps I was a bit of a child......I wonder what I will be like when I grow up [
]In retrospect I am going to go with Fens 2ltr 924.
Actually my top choice I didn't suggest; that would be a 914, but find one in the UK that's RHD and with no rust.
Where I grew up we had quite an extensive WW2 airfield that was largely disused. The runway was where we all learned to drive (until Plod decided it was public highway a few years ago [8|]) and there used to be effectively a squared off figure 8 with an extra loop that I imagine was taxi-ways between some hangars and the runway. One memorable snowy winter we were out there every day in our 'Scorts (4 of them) learning how to drift as the worst that would happen was going off into some long grass and possibly getting stuck. We finally got moved on as the surface got so polished some ditzy old bint walking her dog went backside over breast and complained to the BiB. One of my mates bought a full-house rally prepped Mk2 a couple of years later and we trashed a set of Colway forest remoulds in about 2 hours doing the same on a dry day.
Strangely I can't for the life of me remember what happened to the rally Escort though I vividly remember what it looked like and even how it drove. Possibly it made way for the reasonably new Manta coupe that fairly quickly had a Senator 3 litre with triple Del-boys dropped into it and that remained in my circle of friends for long enough to know that it pi55ed all over my 3.2 Carrera from anything but a standing start. My first trackday experience was as a passenger round Knockhill in that Manta and I don't think we looked out of the windscreen the whole way round except to switch from one side window to the other. Those were the days....
Where I grew up we had quite an extensive WW2 airfield that was largely disused. The runway was where we all learned to drive (until Plod decided it was public highway a few years ago [8|]) and there used to be effectively a squared off figure 8 with an extra loop that I imagine was taxi-ways between some hangars and the runway. One memorable snowy winter we were out there every day in our 'Scorts (4 of them) learning how to drift as the worst that would happen was going off into some long grass and possibly getting stuck. We finally got moved on as the surface got so polished some ditzy old bint walking her dog went backside over breast and complained to the BiB. One of my mates bought a full-house rally prepped Mk2 a couple of years later and we trashed a set of Colway forest remoulds in about 2 hours doing the same on a dry day.
Strangely I can't for the life of me remember what happened to the rally Escort though I vividly remember what it looked like and even how it drove. Possibly it made way for the reasonably new Manta coupe that fairly quickly had a Senator 3 litre with triple Del-boys dropped into it and that remained in my circle of friends for long enough to know that it pi55ed all over my 3.2 Carrera from anything but a standing start. My first trackday experience was as a passenger round Knockhill in that Manta and I don't think we looked out of the windscreen the whole way round except to switch from one side window to the other. Those were the days....
how about an e30/e36 bmw 3 series as an alternative?.. if you're after RWD theyre pretty much the commonest cars available, and relatively reliable. No ideas about insurance but im thinking a 316 E30 or a 318 E36 will be cheaper than a 924.
Having said that my first car was a 1.1 fiat Punto and I loved it anyway.
Having said that my first car was a 1.1 fiat Punto and I loved it anyway.
Hilux
New member
Very optimistic on the escorts but due to there huge (and growing popularity) there are now loads of well restored Mk1`s well worth the money as they are done so no money needs to be spent however I can recommend very highly the Mk 3 Polo GT (there`s even one with a supercharger) but I`m not sure if it qualifies for classic car insurance and I dont think the insurers consider Mk II`s are classics.
If you dont go `classic car` route then you make a choice and stump up accordingly but I cant really think of anthing else to advise you on.
Classic car insurance is OK but will come with the added frustration of limited mileage (7.5K maximum in my experience).
This may sound fine at the start but, if you enjoy driving the car, get to a few national events and go on holiday in your car 7.5K soon runs down. You then end up budgeting your mileage which is no fun at all. You also have the added excitement of needing new insurance early if (as I did) you run over the miles without noticing. "Sorry Mr Sims we can't increase the mileage...No, we can't sell you another policy until the 12 months have expired..... You will need to find another insurer within the next five days or your car will not be insured...[]..It doesn't matter if you leave the car in the garage, you have exceeded the mileage so you will not be insured....It may be ridiculous Mr Sims, and three months locked in a garage would put us at next to no risk, but you were the one who exceeded the mileage so you need to find alternative insurance by the end of the week......Yes we did price for 12 months cover against fire and theft and 7500 miles.....Yes we appreciate that you didn't claim in the 7500 miles and the probabillity of you claiming in the remaining 3 months are less than they would have been as you wouldn't be using the car but you still won't be insured.... No Mr Sims, you don't get three months fire & theft cover back ....." []
This may sound fine at the start but, if you enjoy driving the car, get to a few national events and go on holiday in your car 7.5K soon runs down. You then end up budgeting your mileage which is no fun at all. You also have the added excitement of needing new insurance early if (as I did) you run over the miles without noticing. "Sorry Mr Sims we can't increase the mileage...No, we can't sell you another policy until the 12 months have expired..... You will need to find another insurer within the next five days or your car will not be insured...[
]..It doesn't matter if you leave the car in the garage, you have exceeded the mileage so you will not be insured....It may be ridiculous Mr Sims, and three months locked in a garage would put us at next to no risk, but you were the one who exceeded the mileage so you need to find alternative insurance by the end of the week......Yes we did price for 12 months cover against fire and theft and 7500 miles.....Yes we appreciate that you didn't claim in the 7500 miles and the probabillity of you claiming in the remaining 3 months are less than they would have been as you wouldn't be using the car but you still won't be insured.... No Mr Sims, you don't get three months fire & theft cover back ....." []
Posts made and opinions expressed are those of the individual forum members
Use of the Forum is subject to the Terms and Conditions
