Elon Musk is a bit of a secret car guy.
He doesn’t really talk about it that much, probably because he thinks it might be a conflict of interest since he owns a car company, but he’s a huge car fan.
And the car he drove before starting Tesla proves it.
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When people mention Elon Musk and cars in the same sentence, it’s almost always because of Tesla.
On the odd occasion, some people may mention the ‘James Bond’ Lotus Esprit he secretly bought years ago.
Or perhaps the McLaren F1 he bought in his 20s.
However, no one ever talks about his Porsche.
In the mid 2000s, right before starting Tesla, Elon Musk used to use a Porsche 911 997 as a daily driver.
He mentioned that during a podcast with Joe Rogan, and it’s clear he was absolutely besotted with it.
He calls it ‘incredible’.
Musk particularly admired the way Porsche still managed to make it fun to drive and great around the corners, despite the physics of having a rear engine and rear-wheel drive.
The Porsche 911 997 was introduced in 2004, and was available with three different versions of Porsche’s iconic flat-six.
The ‘base’ models were all powered by a 3.6-liter with 321 horsepower.
Then there was the 3.8-liter with 355 or 376 horsepower.
And then the fastest ones were powered by a different 3.6-liter, with or without turbo, with up to 523 horsepower.
We don’t know what model Musk owned, but it was probably not the base Carrera or the track-focused GT2 or GT3 – probably something in the middle.
These days, a 997 in good condition sells for about $90,000.
Interestingly, that makes it cheaper than some versions of the Cybertruck.
