Hold on to your horses ladies and gentlemen. What you are looking at is a Porsche 911, 997 generation Targa 4. This little nugget of gold has to be one of the best kept secrets in the Porsche world with somewhere around 9,000 produced globally. Enjoy the practicality of a hatchback and the open air enjoyment of a convertible with no sacrifice to the looks of the curvaceous body lines. Lacking confidence? Take a ride in red and soak up the compliments. Looking for the exclusive life at cars and coffee? No one is showing up in one of these. Let me tell you more about Ruby. Before I found her she had a rocky past living in the shadows. She looked to be the victim of insurance fraud. All the interior was pulled out, everything was disassembled and in disarray. However for the most part all the parts were there and labeled. This mystery only Scooby doo would be able to solve. The insurance paperwork does not initially show the car as salvage, but there is a later appraisal that totals it due to the targa roof wiring being compromised/cut. As the targa roof is more expensive per pound then pure gold the insurance people had no choice but to total the car. What I found was a couple of wires that were clearly deliberately cut near a pigtail which are for the map light not the targa roof. I concluded that in order for the prior owner/shop/evil villain to get that insurance check they needed something to total the car. One of the appraisals list fresh water intrusion which I can only guess was from the windows being down and rain getting.
This is where I step in like a night in shining armor riding a black stallion at full trot to save Ruby from being sold in pieces across the continent. I rebuilt her as close to her former glory as possible. During the journey I could not find any evidence of water intrusion however the original carpets were long gone. I have installed new carpets from Stuttgart. My eyes bled tears or pain when they told me the price. I also decided to change all the front suspension control arms, get an alignment, and repair the map light wiring. This is where the real fun began as Massachusetts state inspection is like being flagged for a cavity search before a 22 hour flight to Tokyo. Needless to say after a clean bill of health from Porsche Burlington salvage inspection was complete and a rebuilt title was issued. This rebuilt title has also become a superpower. The tax value for RMV purposes is equivalent to a flintstone car but being it was rebuilt the insurance value is essentially the book value of any other 997, #win.
For the past three years Ruby has been nothing but exceptional used mainly as a means to drive to the driving range on Sundays to fire off rockets like Dechambeau. She also has been on an epic road trip to the blue ridge mountain parkway in South Carolina to do legendary driving. I don’t really have a reason to sell Ruby except for the fact that it is time to embark on my quest to continue to save abused cars from becoming recycled an my garage only has so much space.
Ruby is a tiptronic but before you loose your minds and rant about 6 speeds. Unless your name is Michael Andretti you are not shifting faster and your left knee and wallet will thank you when you google the cost of a manual clutch replacement. She is optioned with the Bose stereo but who is listening to that when you have a howling flat six wailing away.
Ruby is not perfect museum piece there are certain areas where the paint correction could be applied, minor rock chips and clear coat damage exist (pretty much looks like the average 911 at the miles). I tried to capture as much as possible in the pictures. Interior is also not perfect but I tried to capture everything in the pictures. Most people who see the car don't notice half of what I see but the car presents very well.
Happy to answer any questions or book in person viewings.