This purchase represents quite a change in direction for me ...

I had previously gone for the 'one car does it all' approach. A car that was civilised on the road but fun on the track. To anyone with the same aim, I can heartily recommend my previous car, a Porsche 968.

Three things lead me to take a different tack this time. First, the tedium of driving across Belgium. A typical Ring weekend comprised leaving home at noon and arriving at the Ring at about 9pm feeling pretty knackered; spend all day Saturday and Sunday driving on the Ring; leave at 5pm for the long, boring drive home; and get home at about 1am.

The second factor was taking part-ownership of an old Mk II Golf as a backup Ring car. The Ring is hard on cars, and with not much open after Saturday lunchtime, a Ring weekend can be ruined by something as trivial as a puncture or a broken bracket. Eight of us thus decided to club together so that we'd have a Plan B to save our weekend.

The plan was much more successful than any of us imagined. We all, of course, had to try out the Golf - and were amazed to discover/remember just how much fun can be had in a low-powered but decent-handling car. And while the Ring is not somewhere you would want to crash, there is still something more relaxing about a car whose loss would be financially painful rather than disasterous.

Third, driving much less in the UK. Where my work once involved a fair amount of driving around the UK, that is now very rare. That made it possible for me to consider a car which was a little less of an everyday car than the 968.

I have always had a secret lust for older 911s, but the reputation for reversing through hedges put me off the idea when it had to be suitable for track as well as road use. But once it only had to be a road car ...

My tastes and budget met at the 911SC, so I started looking at those. I found my 968 via a Wanted ad in Porsche & 911 World, so decided to try the same thing again. This produced an email from a guy who had rather an unusual 911SC for sale ...

Well, I went to see her, could see that she needed a fair amount of TLC but, oh, that engine! The good news was that I was able to purchase her for a very good price. The bad news is that there is of course no such thing as a cheap Porsche - and the PPI didn't reveal the full extent of the work required.

The restoration thus turned into rather a long-winded affair, including:

- All consumables replaced
- Complete new brake system
- Replacement of non-Varioram ECU with the correct Varioram ECU
- Complete exterior restoration
- Complete interior restoration (with a few minor cosmetics left to do)

But it has all been worth it. The car offers the best of both worlds: the classic looks of the older car, combined with a modern engine. Aside from the power benefit, 993 engines have an excellent reputation for reliability, and have lower servicing costs than an original SC engine. She has endless torque, effortlessly accelerating in all gears, including 5th.