About a year ago while I was searching the web for a '70s muscle car for a good friend, I stumbled across a small, rural Classic and Custom car dealership with some hidden treasures. A blog note on a Classic Chevy web site pointed me to the "Hooked On Classics" dealership in Watertown, Minnesota. A quick Google search of their name surfaced a web site and off I went...
At that time I was in the early stages of research for my next car, which I had hoped would be a 2002 to 2005 996 Turbo. Preferably a low mile, unique color and a well equipped car.
After looking through the Hooked On Classic's site listings of "Classics, Muscle Cars, Street Rods, Hot Rods" etc. and seeing a mix of domestic iron, some very nice, some not so nice and some at project level, I noticed and clicked their link for "Exotics". I'll admit that I really had no idea what I would find.
Along with a '60 Rolls Royce, a late '60s E-Type Jag V12 convertible, this is what I found:
After a quick call and short discussion with the contact at Hooked On Classics, I learned this car was a consignment car and it had an equally interesting sister car from the same owner.
The Porsche was a 2003, 32,000 mile 996 Turbo equipped with X50, PCCB, sport seats and several other desirable options. No accidents, no winter use and completely unmolested. Described as "Newish".
The Vette is Atomic Orange with Lambo doors, an 1000 hp twin turbo engine upgrade and it has only 8000 miles. Crazy....
Not ready to buy anything at that time, I pressed on learning more about 996 Turbos. Many months passed as I continued to look for the right car and I was convinced I could find a southern car, similar this one and much closer to home.
Through the late summer and fall of 2014 I looked at hundreds of candidates on the web and closely at 15 cars. Of these 15, only two were equipped close to the HOC car. Car one was an '02 coupe with X50, tiptronic and the factory Aerokit option. A very nice looking, two owner car (both doctors) and advertised as well maintained and 100%. Unfortunately it was not as described and would have required a significant investment to get it to the level I would feel is correct. Car two was a one owner '05 Turbo S cab. with 13, 200 miles. The car was very nice but it has some "no use" issues and was $10K above Turbo S market value.
This Turbo hunt story ends well and the Carrera White, 2003 996 Turbo from Minnesota is now at it's new home in North Texas.
During the purchase process I had a CPO level PPI done a Carousel Porsche (great guys) and looked the car over very closely. With the exception of needing a new battery and the rear wheels balanced, it was as nice as I would have hoped it to be.
Minnesota is in the heart of the SALT belt and this small dealership was an extremely unlikely place to find a highly optioned, rare color 996 Turbo more so one that was fanatically cared for by it's previous owners.
The moral of my story is to spread your net wide when looking for special cars. You never know what you will find, nor where....