So I test drove a 911 twin turbo
 

It's an 08 thats not priced too high. What a great car to drive. Endless power and torque. But pretty high running costs from what I can see. Issues with coolant pipes the biggest problem. It had sports chrono that allows 10 seconds of over boost.

I wonder how many times the previous owner overboosted it too.

I bet that timer breaks too...

It's ECU controlled. So no way to oveboost too long. My issue with the car are the coolant pipes and there are lots of them. Many of them are just glued in to the manifolds. So they do crack and leak. It's a big expense if they go. You can get metal ones and welded in but from what I can see its in the 5k range to do it all. Major service at 60k requires engine out so its tempting but running costs are very high.

I've stumbled over the same issue with buying a Porsche, Maserati and Aston Martin and I've come to this conclusion with the high repair costs. Just because I can afford to BUY it doesn't mean I can afford to OWN it.

Yup, this has been the main reason for my delay in pulling the trigger on another sports car. Everything hot is high maintenance. The Z'S worst expense are tires. Other cars. Tires are only the beginning. Lol.

Well I also delay cuz I wanna see the next Z come out before doing anything.

Well a non aspirated 911 is not too bad IF you get a good one. But a turbo is totally different. The motor and chassis is great, but the cooling system seems to be a weak link and expensive to fix. That's why you see them with low miles and out of warrenty now. I'm not sure enough data has been taken on the 991 series yet. Seems like the 997.2 is the way to go and get a non turbo model. If I can get the Jag dealer to drop the price to 60k I might consider it. It really does bring a smile to your face driving it.

They should have stuck to aircooled.

Well you can always get a Singer Porsche if you want a modern air cooled. But with air cooled you can only get so much HP. I remember when sport bikes were air cooled and and people moaned about them going to water cooling too. Then again a Singer Porsche is 250K or more, and there is a huge wait list for them.

I wouldn't go for a 997.1, period. Way to many high $ problems when out of warranty. A lot got fixed with the 997.2 though (2009 model year).

If your budget is $60k, consider a 991 base or a 981S. Neither one will be quite as fast as the 997.1 Turbo but both are under warranty, much better interiors/technology, and very reliable.

Option B: If you don't care about warranty you could even get a 981S and put a TPC turbo kit on it and be just as fast as the 997.1 turbo, handle better, and probably equal reliability.

Option C: Buy a 981 base and swap in a 991S engine (BGBmotorsports offers this with limited warranty).