Andre Santos By Andre Santos 4 months ago

My Porsche story: buying my first Porsche!

André Santos, founder of Legends Driver's Club, explains his early foray into Porsche ownership, with lessons learned on why you shouldn't let the moment pass to own your first Porsche

My Porsche story starts in 2022… without a Porsche. I had always had an appreciation for the brand but never thought It would take me down my current path. Let me explain. After lockdown had ended, I was eager to get back into the automotive community. 
Unsure of where to start, I found an event on Instagram called ‘Exclusively Porsche’ organised by fellow member of the 9WERKS Driven Not Hidden Collective, Nick Jeffery. I jumped from event to event, learning and soaking in all I could about Porsche and the community. However, it wasn’t until attending shows like Flat Six where something in me clicked, and I knew I wanted to organise Porsche events myself. 
The idea of actually buying my own Porsche never crossed my mind whilst organising meets – my goal was to create something for myself and, if done right, the car would follow. Fast forward a few months into ‘Legends Drivers Club’ and the comments and jokes started getting under my skin. “You can’t run a Porsche club and not own a Porsche,” according to the usual quips, so from there the hunt was on…

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    Being limited to two parking spaces at home, I knew I would have to sell my car, but that didn’t stop me trying to convince my parents to let me use their car port for a Porsche. It almost worked when I found a local science teacher selling his 1999 Speed yellow 986 Boxster. With 180,000 miles on the clock and a meticulous service history, it was a bargain at just £3,000.
    Did I buy it? Of course not, I was a fool and hadn’t grasped the idea that an older, high-mileage Porsche isn’t a bad thing. Shortly afterwards I decided to sell my car with the hopes it would make buying a Porsche easier, emotionally and financially. 
    The second car I viewed (and almost bought) was a lovely Lapis Blue on Savannah 996 Carrera, which the previous owner had bought for £1. It sounds ridiculous but the same car was a giveaway from an old Fifth Gear episode! The gentlemen entered the competition but instead of paying £1 per minute on the phone line, opted to enter by post. One first-class stamp later, he had won it. Did I fumble the deal? Yep… 
    I couldn’t make my mind up and someone else had come in and paid the full asking price for it in the meantime. I was eager to buy a 996 and had learned about Aerokits thanks to Danny James, who offered to source me one.
      We loosely agreed on a car he was viewing. It was a Silver 996 Aero with a Terracotta interior, absolutely perfect! So perfect, in fact, that Danny couldn’t part with it.
      So, three failed Porsche purchases later, I see a Cobalt Blue 987.1 Cayman well under my budget. It was low mileage with only three previous owners, so I assumed it was a scam. I sent the seller a message as I was curious (or maybe desperate, I couldn’t tell), asking to view the car the following weekend with the hope it was genuine. 
      On arrival, it was exactly as described, a low mileage and low-owner car. The previous custodian had passed away so the wife wanted it gone as soon as possible. Was it the smartest purchase? Absolutely not: the car had sat for over a year and, being untaxed, I couldn’t test drive It. My head was telling me to walk away but my gut knew it was the one. A few texts and emails later, it was mine.
      So what’s next? I’m still to drive and experience other Porsches, so I can’t say for certain. But in the meantime, I’m driving my first Porsche as much as possible, slowly improving and modifying little things to make it mine.

      With thanks to David @DLS_105 for the pictures supplied in André’s column. 

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