Rhode Island man bought his Porsche 996 Turbo new and 2 decades later, is racing towards 1,000,000 miles in it

This Rhode Island man bought his Porsche 996 Turbo new and has racked up nearly 1,000,000 miles on it over the past two decades.

Tom Thalmann has been the proud owner of a 2003 Porsche 996 Turbo since it came out.

In the years since, he’s racked up around 746,200 miles on it.

As he races towards the one million-mile mark, he’s got some feedback on the Porsche.

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This Porsche 996 Turbo is closing in on one million miles

Tom Thalmann landed on the Porsche 996 Turbo after his previous car, an 02 Turbo, had an ‘unfortunate ending’.

When the 996 Turbo first landed in his local dealership, the timing wasn’t right for Thalmann.

But nine months later, he came back and purchased one with 292 miles on the clock.

To quote Matthew McConaughey in The Wolf of Wall Street: “Those are rookie numbers.”

In the 22 years since, he’s wasted no time in bumping up that figure.

“I’ve enjoyed every single solitary mile in that car,” Thalmann said.

With all those miles, some things have changed over the years, which is inevitable.

Whilst the car is mostly stock, there have been some enhancements added for the sake of performance, including racing seats and large intercoolers.

The car has gone through three clutches, each lasting around 350,000 miles.

The original transmission gave out at around 423,000 miles, with the replacement lasting until 715,000 miles.

At that point, it was switched out for a rebuilt original unit.

Remarkably, an inspection of the engine’s internals showed them to appear ‘factory new’.

What’s next for this car?

Although Thalmann hadn’t bought the car with the intention of reaching a million, that soon became his goal.

It was around 250,000 miles that he started thinking this way.

After an interview with Hagerty was published in 2021, someone reached out to Thalmann asking to buy the car.

But he wasn’t interested, insisting ‘the car is not for sale’.

“My final response was ‘You can’t put enough zeros to the left side of the decimal point to make me want to sell the car’.

“I have no intentions of ever selling it. I have two daughters, they will get the car when I am no longer here.”

It’s his hope that his grandkids also get to enjoy the car and that it stays within the family for a long time to come.

It’s certainly a legacy you want to stand by.

Cars with millions of miles on the clock aren’t all that common.

Two of the top three highest mileage cars in the world are Volvos, with a combined five million miles.

The car in second place was a 1976 Mercedes 240D driven by a Greek cab driver.

In top place was a Volvo 1800S is owned by a man called Irving Gordon.

To see Thalmann speaking about his Porsche 996 Turbo in full, you can visit VINwiki’s YouTube channel.

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