Guy bought cheapest Porsche 911 he's ever seen from Craigslist but has absolutely no idea what's waiting for him
- Content creator bought the ‘cheapest’ Porsche 911 he’d ever seen
- He bought it from several states away, sight-unseen
- However, the route to making it roadworthy wasn’t a smooth one
Published on Jan 12, 2025 at 6:00 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Jan 08, 2025 at 8:12 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
A Maryland-based content creator fulfilled his goal of buying the ‘cheapest’ Porsche 911.
The 1999 Porsche 911 (996) was listed for $6,000.
His plan was to restore it for $10,000.
However, the road that followed wasn’t entirely smooth.
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The ‘cheapest’ Porsche 911
After trying to buy a cheap Porsche 911 ‘for years’, Lee Carter from ScrapLife Garage, US, found the manual transmission car on Craigslist.
It was a steal at just $6,000 – and bought sight unseen from several states away.
While it was clean both inside and out, it had some mechanical issues – and the engine was the biggest challenge.
These problems ranged from coolant contamination to a cracked cylinder head.
He wasn’t the first content creator to take a punt on a Porsche.
Edwin Klinkenberg Evans and Alex Kersten, the two Brits behind the Top Dead Center YouTube channel, bought a fire-damaged Porsche 911 for £5,000 ($6267).
Able to do most of the repairs themselves in the end it cost them a total of £10,692 ($13,413) to repair the Porsche 911 and make it track-ready.
The restoration
The goal was to avoid costs escalating and restore the car for under $10,000.
Despite Carter’s optimism and some parts of the car being better than expected for its age, setbacks included broken components and unforeseen repairs.
This resulted in the initial budget being blown.
He was still able to replace non-serviceable parts like the IMS bearing and address oil and coolant leaks.
Damaged steering components and engine wear proved complicated, but Carter was able to leverage DIY tools and techniques to tackle the issues.
When its major issues were resolved – it was time to fire it up.
The car started and drove flawlessly, exceeding all the content creator’s expectations and making the gamble he’d taken a worthwhile investment.
Similarly, a 1977 Porsche 911 Targa that had been abandoned for 20 years in a forest was restored to the work of art it once was.
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
