H old on tight, because this is going to be, er, tight. A theoretical maxed-out budget of close to sixty-two grand and two of my favourite 997s are at hand. Indeed, GT models aside, these are two of the best 997s in anyone's book. Spanning early to late 997 production, the Turbo was launched in 2006, while the GTS reared its head in 2011. Our sample cars are presently being offered for sale through our good friends at Suffolkbased Porsche indie, William Francis. The weather at this time of year is, for once, on our side — it's going to be an interesting day at the coalface of Porsche fandom.
Where to start? With the Turbo, of course. I mean, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly twin-turbocharged kind of bear. Besides, in terms of 997 chronology, the Turbo came before the GTS, the latter being a secondgeneration 997 model. Plus, I have plenty of history with the 997 Turbo, not limited to the model's 2006 launch in Cadiz and epic drives across Europe and the UK. Additionally, long-time readers will recall my 218mph Autobahn blast in an 850bhp Sportec-modified 997 Turbo for the two-hundredth issue of 911 & Porsche World, published back in 2010.
The launch of the 997 Turbo was a big deal. Before the Global Economic Crisis of 2007-2008, Porsche had massive budgets to fly plane-loads of ligging journalists to product launches all over the globe. Some of these scribes took the job seriously. Others, not so much. In fairness, the latter mainly applied to hacks invited from mainland Europe.
Me? Without wishing to sound like a swot, I'm in the former camp, which is why, to maximise Turbo seat time and get our photographs in the can nice and early, a sun-rising start at six o'clock was deemed essential. It was no hardship — being high up in the hills, we looked down on gorgeous mist-filled troughs and valleys. Two other UK-based journos were along for the thrill of the early morning drive, each of them happy to assist with getting a three-Turbo tracking shot for
