Why I Sold My GT3 RS for a "Lesser" 911

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NineWorks10 at HeritagePartsCentre.com. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to NineWorks Radio on the road

today. It's the first time we've been out on the road in 2026 and I for one am absolutely delighted.

Honourable mention to Brooksy. He's not here unfortunately. I think he was en route but got lost

somewhere via Leeds, which he seems to think is everywhere, so that's good. But we do have a

stellar guest panellist today, not one, not two, but three lovely people, all of which have featured

on the podcast a greater or lesser extent previously and you're going to enjoy a real deep

conversation with all of them. I'd like to start first by introducing Maz and Roger from

Garage Therapy. Hello boys. Good afternoon, Lee. Welcome to GT. Yes, exactly. GT HQ, an epic

epping. How are you enjoying the roads around here? It's better to be in here. It's nice

and safe in here. Yes, it's a pleasure to be back. Obviously, without the 996 that you guys have created,

quite a successful detailing diary on NineWorks TV to date. We've got a lovely voodoo blue casting

over your shoulder, Maz. Before we dive into that, I'd like to ask if you two ever sat around the

table with royalty before? No, but there's a first time for everything. There is a first time for

anything. So we'd therefore like to welcome to NineWorks Radio Airwaves, his geysership. Guy, how

are you doing, mate? Hello. I heard you call me his geysership a some weeks back and I must admit

I've been laughing about it and I knew that you were going to be calling me his geysership

throughout this. So yeah, afternoon chats. It's good to be here on this sunny day. It is. It is.

It really is. So yeah, it's a nice gathering here between the four of us at Garage Therapy with a

certain voodoo car in the background guy. We're going to hear all about the story on that today

because whilst the personal story that you're going to share is really interesting, I actually think

that there's a wider message that could prove quite pertinent to a bigger audience. All of us, I

think, can empathise with the predicament you've been in and that's kind of the afterlife of

Wrensport ownership. Quite right, yes. I think it's going to be interesting talking about it. It does feel

we're at Garage Therapy but this is therapy. Can we say before we dive into that and on the subject

of all things Garage Therapy, because you boys have been really busy in the fallow months here in

the UK. We're away from show seasons but yeah, you've expanded the premises, a couple of other bits

and pieces. Yeah, we've in the course of last year, as you know Lee, we launched in the US. We also

have launched in Canada with our distribution partner. They're called the House of Rags. As a result

of that, lots more chemical going in and out of the building which results in us needing more

warehouse space and our neighbours have vacated upstairs and we have that now too. We look forward

to doing that up and making that presentable for bigger and better things and more events with you

guys, etc. I tell everybody, you guys, you're not detailers, you're chemists. You make fantastic

products that are well-drilled and tested. There was a prototype product being used on Guy's

car. There's a funny story attached to that which we'll cover shortly. You guys make outstanding

products that are tried and tested by you guys. They're made right here in the UK and then they

go globally, right? Correct. We take enormous pride obviously in what we do. A lot of research

and development, a lot of testing, both synthetic and environmental testing. When we get a lovely

Voodoo blue car in, we're keen to try some of the prototypes on there and if it goes wrong,

well, I will. It can't be any worse than what it came in with. It was great, wasn't it?

Guy, I mean, fair play to you. You know, you can't tip up to garage therapy with a dirty car.

You've had the good grace of cleaning the car prior, including a bit of clay bar work.

So yes, my car is generally in storage. I was just saying to him, it's been years since I've

actually had to properly clean my own car because the guys at the storage do it. I was out yesterday

all through East Sussex and Kent in filthy weather for a legend's meet down at Rye and the car

was properly brown rather than blue. So I thought, you know what, I've got a couple of hours before

we meet up, I'll throw a bucket over it and then as I'm doing it, I'm thinking, well, yeah,

there's a little bit more than that. So I don't know, do I own up now? I thought, oh, I'm sure I've got

a bit of clay bar in the cupboard. So I basically used a clay bar and I didn't follow the correct procedure.

And so I thought, that looks pretty clean. So Maz made a space for me in the garage inside GT.

And under the lights, he went, guy, what have you done to your car? At which point we realised I've

actually introduced a whole load of scratches across both rear quarters and to a lesser degree,

probably the rear of the car and the air. I was mortified. So Maz and Roger to the rescue.

The DAs were out correcting. But if you're going to scratch your car up, it's best to do it in a place like

Garage Scenery. He just wanted the free machine. I did it on purpose outside, I think.

Lovely afternoon now. Free lunch, detailed car and everyone gets to hear the story.

Not bad, guy. Not bad. But yeah, look, there is, as we said, a voodoo car behind, but we need to add some

detail to that story because most people will think of an RS, a voodoo RS when they think of you,

but the car over your shoulder is not an RS. I'll let you take the story from here.

Right. So it is an interesting story. It's a sort of the stars aligned kind of thing.

The more I explain it to people, the more I think there's something quite weird how it all came about.

So go back a few weeks. You may remember I was the first person to do the Nineworks conundrum.

So the first part that Jigsaw was, Lee actually approached me and said, hey, guy,

want to be the first victim for conundrum? I said, yeah, why not? He always knows I'm thinking about selling the RS.

We've talked about it before. Was it the right car? So there was some advice given.

So on that panel was a few of the guys from the winter trip to Monaco.

One of those guys was Paul Presland, I think Ben Bailey, Mark Anderson, Sakeep, there's a few guys there.

So that's the second part of the Jigsaw. So we talked about RS and I said, I'm not really not sure.

The guys said, I think the GTS would be up your street.

So anyway, I won't repeat the conundrum, but essentially that was done on a Wednesday prior to the recording going out on the Monday.

And I get a WhatsApp from a certain Paul Presland.

Geese. I heard your conundrum and I might be able to help you out here.

And I'm like, right, tell me more.

So Paul had been looking for a GTS. It seems to be the 2026 next victim of the car fluffing.

And he said, guy, because I've actually bought a car.

He said, but the way I am, two other cars have come my way as well.

And he goes, so I might not go, you know, I might not actually keep this car.

Do you want to see a photo?

So he sends me a photo of a voodoo blue 911 Gem 1 GTS very late car.

It was actually 10 years old yesterday.

So it was a first of March 16 car and straight away I sort of fell in love.

So essentially he had bought the car.

He said, look, I'm prepared to let you have it.

Send me the money. I love it.

I think it's a great condition car.

And it's a long story short.

I sent Paul the money and he, well, I went and collected it from his garage in Fulham.

So yeah, now it's a man of many talents.

Paul is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, this is it.

But PP has very kind of graced the podcast a couple of times, but for those not in the know,

PP is not in the trade.

It is just the most enthusiastic enthusiast.

And yes, certain cars, I guess, kind of crop up.

And it's just funny, isn't it really in the same week PP was last on the podcast,

your conundrum was sitting there thinking, I'm thinking of twisting out of the RS couple of options thrown up one being a GTS.

And as well as be able to advise someone within the collective was able to provide a solution to the conundrum.

I mean, exactly.

I mean, what was weird, you know, I've been on the nine works marketplace genuinely.

I'd spoken to Danny at Lakeside and we'd sent you a video of their Carmine one.

I was very, very close to pulling the trigger on a silver one at Cameron.

To the point, I've actually got a set of brand new centre locks in my boot here because I was that close to buying the silver car and the centre locks.

You know, weren't they weren't bad, but they weren't great.

And so I actually ended up buying these centre locks.

So but this all came about so quickly.

So Paul literally messaged me the same morning that I was thinking about, you know, going down to Bath to the Cameron car.

So it's quite weird.

And obviously he chose the car.

Nothing to do with the colour, obviously.

Condition, condition, condition or colour, colour, colour.

It saves you a few Bob on your number plate for a start.

You can transfer over.

The links you go to for four on the quick plate.

So it's quirky.

You know, obviously the voodoo thing you're quite well known with and it's a colour clearly that you very much like.

So being able to keep that colour on a non one dot one platform, but albeit wide body, not turbo wide body and obviously losing the fixed wing and everything else.

It's going to be quite interesting to dive into GTS land.

But first of all, if we can split that into two, let's talk first of all about why you decided that RS ownership wasn't for you.

Right. Okay.

So prior to the RS, I had obviously had the 997 Gen 2 GT3.

And again, that was covered extensively on the pod a few years back.

This RS had come up.

I was in a position to make the man maths work.

You know, I traded in two cars for one.

So all these things, I convinced myself that an RS was something that I could make work.

I had actually driven one funny enough from a friend's car.

So I'd had some experience of it, but not a lot.

But I think where you sort of had aspired is probably the word I would use to sort of think, you know, RS is peak.

For most people, you know, you read the mags, you know, you're looking at stats, you're looking at the evolution of what's the best 911 out there.

So anyway, I had an itch to scratch and I did it, you know.

Now, they are fantastic cars.

They are exciting.

They are everything you would hope you would want them to be in terms of performance.

And I don't think anyone would ever deny that they're not, you know, to go well, they stop well, they steer well, you know, they're like a, they're a scalpel, you know.

I know it's a cliche.

They are a race car with number plates, etc.

But here we are in Essex on Pothold roads.

Where can you use 8,800 revs?

Where can you use the performance?

You know, so you find yourself quite often just driving it at normal road speeds.

I think for me, as a one car solution, I think is what the crux of it is.

Obviously, we've got lots of people in the collective and there are people that are lucky enough to have more than one car.

An RS is a toy, you know, it's something where you might have a spider for sunny days.

You might have a Carrera for normal driving.

You might have an RS for your track days.

If you can only have one car, an RS, isn't it?

I think is what comes down to it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like one Porsche, isn't it?

But your journey to get there and obviously you've lived the dream for a little bit.

You've had that car and I think you said 14,000 miles in that time.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny, my daughter showed me a picture today.

She went, Dad, it's two years today since you brought the RS home.

And there's me, you know, standing next to it.

Yeah.

And that's exactly two years.

So I did a fair amount of miles, but we were laughing and we were just chatting just now.

Where have you been, guy?

You know, mate, I haven't been to Europe in it.

I haven't done anything much further than the Peak District.

Yeah, I've used it from cars and coffees and fair miles and Duke of London's and Nine Works and, you know, I've not done Northumberland.

I've been to Wales by myself and I've been to the Peak District and Somerset.

But yeah, I'm not quite sure how I racked up that many miles.

Well, any track days?

Yeah, we did Sneterton.

I mean, that's a good point, right?

It's a nice little segue into how you might use it.

You're driving a car of quite significant value.

And unless you are paying for track insurance, which I know you can do at maybe four or five hundred quid,

I didn't use track insurance that time.

So yes, you know, you're driving the car with a certain degree of nervousness.

You know, whether it's your talent or lack of the weather, other drivers around you, you know, so you're being careful.

You know, you might go do the back straight at Sneterton, flat out and enjoy it.

You know, but I'm braking early, you know, I'm not hammering on the brakes at the last minute and using all that performance.

So it's weird how you've bought a track tool and then you're afraid to actually use it on a track.

Not to mention I had to borrow Matt's track tips.

Right.

Because it's too loud and that goes for a lot of tracks.

Yeah, in the UK at least, definitely, definitely.

I mean, again, you've lived out many people's dream in kind of owning RS, which as you kind of pointed out,

it's kind of Pelican of Porsche really, isn't it?

That's meant to say pinnacle, not pickle.

Pickle.

I mean, a pickle.

It's a pinnacle of Porsche.

Yeah, I mean, you know, just bring the GT boys in there.

I mean, like Matt's obviously, you know, you're a GT owner with like the GT3.

But interestingly, and this is why we thought we'll do this today, you know,

phone call you and I were having a week or two ago and you're like, hmm.

Yeah, I need to have a think on your kind of a bit on the fence with GT3 life.

I have a lot of sympathy with what Guy has said.

Yeah, effectively with the RS.

We all love to believe that, you know, you can get these GT cars and you can drive them every day.

And in most respects, in most of the time, they're just as practical as a normal 911.

That's what 911s are famous for, right?

But I think the realities are that you are certainly with the value of the cars.

You are restrained into what you're willing to do.

You know, if our beautiful oils were slightly different, you know,

we may have a different outlook on that maybe in Europe somewhere.

But in the UK, you know, you have to think, right, do I take it down to the Tesco's car park?

Or do I go and do that track day where, you know, you need silence tips and you might not have them.

You might not know anyone who has them or, you know, do I drive 300, 400 miles up the M1 to go to the meet

because, you know, you may devalue the cars.

And these are very real considerations.

Obviously, you know, we're in the driven, not hidden mantra, right?

So we want to enjoy these cars and drive them as much as possible.

But there are compromises to be made.

But there are obviously massive, massive positives.

You know, the engine is a huge positive.

The chassis, you know, the different specifications and the colors,

that driver engagement that you have when you have that vehicle.

It's a very, very special car.

However, with great power comes great responsibility.

And I was having a conversation with Guy just after we spoke, Lee,

and we were saying that, well, are our roads conducive to getting up to that 9,000 rpm?

Now, in my GT3, it's very difficult to have the room and the space,

obviously driving within the legal limits of the road, to get up there

and keep it up there and enjoy that thrilling engine.

And these cars, the chassis and the suspension gets better with speed.

And if you're not at speed with them, you're not getting the full 911 slash GT,

certainly RS experience, you're just not.

And our conversation, Lee, for the benefit of others, was that, well,

that turbo s, where you can just ride the torque and only need to use a couple of thousand rpm,

or three at most, and you're getting thrilling performance,

but you're also getting the luxury of the top of the range model

and the slightly softer suspension, you can use it more of the time.

And in my 992 GT3, I'm butting up against those compromises at the moment

and I'm thinking, is this really the right car?

In saying that, I go out in it this weekend and I'm like, wow, I love it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's not to poo poo the cars, the cars are absolutely incredible driving machines, right?

And particularly, your GT3 Mazda's 992 Gen 1 product, so many, many layers into it

and the motorsport department at Porsche has been so incredible with its engineering

to build these layers in over the years by comparison, my GT car is extremely one-dimensional.

So the envelope of, yeah, or the scope is a better word, really, of use case is so much wider.

However, the operative word you said right at the start, Mazda, there are still compromises

and what's really important and maybe what we're trying to highlight in this episode is

you have to consider the compromises and work out if the compromises are workable for you and your lifestyle, right?

I fully agree.

One realisation that I've come to and I'm dead certain on this is that just being in a GT model

doesn't get you all the 911 unit you need and what I mean by that is you could have a base carerra

of any generation and that will be 90% of the experience.

And that last 10%, that's where you have to ask yourself, that last 10% that you're chasing

to get that YSAC car, is that really worth the outlay?

It's personalised, isn't it? That last 10% is everyone's different on that personalised, last 10%.

Now some people might be like, absolutely, they'll live and breathe the GT product, they can live with all the compromises

but I'm not saying that I can't and I won't but I sympathise a lot with what Guy said in some of the aspects

of why he wanted to move out of the RS product and go into something like the GTS.

Guy, how soon into RS ownership, be it mileage or time, your own parameter here, did you realise, might have made a wrong choice?

I think, so I bought the car as I said two years ago, I probably was out in it quite a lot in the early days,

I was on Cup 2 tyres, I was excited to be out in it, I had the full season, if you like, the full summer of getting out on about

and enjoying the car, it probably did get to maybe the winter, so it could be as soon as say nine months in.

You can use these cars on Cup tyres, there's plenty of people, good friend James, he's touring for four years, never change your tyres, always on Cups.

So you can nurse the car down the road and you can be aware of rain and cold weather.

But in all honesty, you're nursing the car and the whole time you're going, I'm not going to push the car at speed, I don't want to act complain.

So in all honesty, it probably was the first winter, you sort of think, it's a bit dicey this, do I actually want to go 75 miles down the road to a car meet

whilst actually risking something and it got to the stage of going, no, do you know what, I won't.

Now, that was the first time because the GT3 997 was on PS4S's, I don't know, 997 GTS, they've always been on all weather tyres

and I was taking those cars out in filthy weather, snow, we did the nine works thing at a January Bista scramble

when we were like pushing snow off the, you know, that was a GT car and it wasn't a compromise.

So it may well be that the biggest Achilles heels of these cars is indeed the tyres.

But were they running on the tyres with the four S's and the same capacities?

You can put PS4S's on an RS, but apparently, I mean, people talk about the profile not being quite right, doesn't necessarily look quite as good.

So then you're back to aesthetics.

I mean, performance as well.

Yeah, I mean, look, you're not pushing the car anywhere near the limits of a PS4S tyre, even if you've got 500 horsepower, you know, you can still use the car.

I think to add a slightly different perspective to it, I think what you have to take into consideration is what these cars are built for

and they're obviously built road cars that can go on track and master the track and Porsche give the individual and obviously the mechanics that work on the car,

the ability to dial in the suspension geometry, the suspension itself to tailor the way the car drives to the person and the track.

Now, if you're then putting four S tyres on there and I can speak quite confidently on this is when I took my Turbo S onto the Nurburgring

and I've done half a dozen laps over a course of several days, what you quickly realise is as great of a tyre they are,

what they suffer from after a while is heat soak.

They don't deal with the heat as well as even something like a Pirelli compound would deal with the heat and that's where your Cup 2s come in, your Cup 2Rs come in

and the other flavours of tyres.

So yes, I agree with you.

You can put four Ss on there and that will be a significant investment, right?

It's not four or five hundred pounds worth of tyre, it's four or five hundred pounds per tyre because of the profile of the tyre.

So then you're a couple of grand down in investment in changing the tyres but then you have to make sure the geometry matches the compound you're on, the tyre model you're on

and that changes the way the car drives and then should you then really be in an RS at that point?

You're back to the compromise world again.

Exactly and it's okay not to, you know, I think we all love these cars, right?

We're all massive fans of the GT products and the RSs, they're the halo cars.

But it's okay not to be in one, you know.

And like I said, you get ninety percent of the experience, the Porsche experience, the 911 experience in other models, you know.

And that last ten percent that we're all maybe chasing at sometimes probably isn't worth it but for someone it is worth it.

So again, compromise.

Because conversely, quite interesting there guy, like with your lifestyle if you like and by your own admission on the conundrum you said, you know, I'll turn up to the opening of an envelope, you know.

But all those miles you said, you know, dusting around the M25 and cars and coffees and stuff.

That might be all somebody wants to do and they might not be interested in hitting the red line but with an RS they might just love the visual drama.

Opening the garage door and looking at wow and if that's enough then that's the right decision for them but each decision is nuanced.

That's a long short bit, right?

And again just from a consumer point of view which we always try and look after everybody listening to this podcast and watching the videos is, you know, when you're looking for a new Porsche or whatever car it is,

the first step isn't affordability.

That's point two.

Point one is use case.

Work out your use case.

What would you like from your Porsche?

How does it slot into your Porsche lifestyle to unlock more of it, not to limit it?

Then once you work that out, that will help dictate what sort of avenue you're going to go down and then you look at affordability.

You know, does that work for me and go from there?

But a lot of people just go, wow, GT looks great on the ground but like you said, are you using the car or the compromises that come with it worth the pay off?

That's for the individual to decide.

I think a year would have been enough.

Scratch the itch, exactly what you're saying.

The visual side of it, the cars are very exciting to drive and just to have that experience.

A year with it, I might have overcooked it by an extra year.

Let's not go as far as regret because I've actually ticked a box and it's like an achievement if you're an enthusiast.

I don't regret it but the purpose of this podcast really is just reinforce what people are going to use their car.

I have to say, just to echo the sentiments we've just discussed as a gang here, they're all of the specialists on the Narmworks Marketplace where they are so diligent.

They will ask you that question when you go into a showroom.

I'm quite interested in, as many of us do, I'm quite interested in the GT3, of course you are.

What's your use case?

What helps that slot in?

Any diligent sales team will ask that.

I can echo that and I'll give two clear examples for the listeners.

When I went to Paragon and I had a conversation with them about the various cars that I could go into, the first question they were asking was, what are you using the car for?

How many track days do you do a year?

Have you actually driven the cars?

I think on your previous podcast, I can't remember who it was, was it Jamie or Mark?

Quite often the customer will come in for a GT product and they'll end up walking away with something completely different.

On the flip side of that, speaking to Greg at RPM and I'm saying, I've got a turbo S, I'm looking to get into a GT product.

You can just tell the volume of questions he asked me.

He was gauging, where are you in your ownership journey, in what you use the car for, so he can, in his mind's eye, can place me in the right car.

That's really important, having those specialists that ask the right questions and get you into the right car.

Part of that is that understanding your history and how you use your cars and your behaviour, etc.

Your scenario, for example, you're off to the Nürburgring in a couple of weeks and you and I spoke away from the mic.

You'll almost reserve judgement until you've done that because that's the home for your car and then you'll come back from that and decide,

are the compromises I face when I'm not at the ring worth the payoff when I'm there?

Well, I just want to touch on what Guy said about doing, you've done a track there at Snettersen and you said you didn't pay the money for the track to insurance.

Well, I think most people are in that situation if we're all honest with ourselves.

We all sort of run the risk, don't we, when we take our cars on track that hopefully nothing happens, God forbid.

And when you go to the Nürburgring and you see the joy on people's faces but you also see the dark side of the ring at the same time

and you take your car on track and it does run through your head the cost of these vehicles.

If something does go wrong, it can be catastrophic.

However, the adrenaline rush you get at the end when you come out the other side and you're all in one piece is nothing like you can ever imagine.

It's absolutely thrilling and you really know why Porsche developed the cars at the Nürburgring because it really showcases what these cars are about.

And again, whether you're a base 911 or you're in the GT product, you really find out all of the engineering paris that they put into these vehicles and you really understand them.

And I guess that's why I'm in the conundrum because having experienced both ends, you question yourself in that aspect.

Like I'm doing now on this podcast. What should I do, guys?

Well, hopefully we're all sitting there and going, yeah, you know, does that work for me and whatnot?

At that point, Roger, I'll be interested to know what you make of all of this really.

You've got a lovely C4S, you know, we all aspire for other things, but where are you thinking next?

I have the fortunate ability to watch Maz unravel as he does things so I get to see where I could not do that and then not have the problem or the conundrums.

But upon sitting in Maz's GT3, you can understand the conundrum.

It's a vehicle that I think you don't get in any other vehicle is the sound.

And that's the thing that catches you.

And that's the thing that makes you hang on for dear life and think, oh, I could just deal with this.

But it is a big dilemma.

But I think, and I said this to Maz yesterday when we were out in the GT3.

I think, like I said, you've owned it.

You've had it.

You've tried it.

And then I think once you get to that pinnacle, you've got a couple of choices.

You ever go, right, this is a car for me.

I'm going to keep it.

I'm going to keep this now.

This is mine and I'll forever cherish it.

Or you say, OK, I've done the lot.

My favorite actually isn't this one.

It's another one I've had before.

And then you go chase that rabbit again.

You go and chase that car you want back again or that car that you had and you wish you'd never solved.

I think it goes along along the way.

But some people will go, no, actually, I'll just buy another Porsche, which will, you know, I'll use on the weekends.

And then that test case or that conundrum that you have is no longer a conundrum because you use that when you need to go to a track day.

Or you're going to go on a big trip and then use the other one as a day-to-day basis for your 90% you need every other day.

And then keeping one as a special.

But some people can't afford that.

So it's just, I think, like I said, it's 90% and the last 10% is your personality.

If your personality can take that extra conundrum, then you can just go with all in.

And then others you can't.

For me, I'm sitting in my 996 just looking and waiting and thinking,

I'm waiting till it all calms down and everyone picks out what they want to do with it.

It's a great show.

It is a great show.

All right, well, a guy will flick over then into this GTS ownership.

You've got a smile on your face.

I'd like to say that for people at home.

So it sounds like it's working out.

Is there a little bit of ego to swallow and jumping out of an RS and going into a GTS?

I think I'd be a liar if I said it wasn't.

It doesn't help that I put myself all over Instagram for everyone to see.

So yeah, there was an element of that.

But that wasn't enough to keep me in that car.

The fact that P&P came up with this car has really taken the edge off it.

I'd say I'd seen two silver ones.

I had an off-market Agate grey one that was very, very nice.

But when he sent me the picture of this, I thought,

this is going to be enough to actually dull the pain.

Allow me to help Guy out here and do some GTS fluffing.

So my experience of Guy and his previous RS and now when he came to see me last week

to buy some GTS products, I recommend everyone goes out and buy some GTS products.

I saw his new GTS and these are the things that popped out to me.

The specification is amazing.

His GTS didn't have a leather dash.

The RS didn't have a leather dash.

This one does. Alcantara everywhere in your GTS.

Okay, you had the 918 buckets and stuff in your RS, but he's got the sport seats.

His GTS is specced up to the 9s and some of the luxuries that you may have missed in the RS

is now has in this GTS and you can just see the smile on his face that he really loves

that transition going from the RS to the GTS because he doesn't...

I don't think you feel like you've lost out on much because of how good the specification is on this GTS.

And it's blue.

And it's blue. He loves it.

He loves it.

You're just envious of my rear wiper.

Exactly.

Well, I can't remember if I said to you, Guy, when we were speaking on the phone

and you were letting us kind of know very kindly what you're up to.

And I can't remember if I said or not, like jumping out of the RS into the GTS,

but there needs to be a car in the middle of that, just like a little paté

that's like a high-end iconic or whatever it's called.

Just something else that's completely numb because an RS is so scalpel and so perfect.

You know, there is no way you can jump straight from an RS into a GTS

and not feel, you know, slightly...

Deflated.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just because of the...

Everything has turned up to 11 on that car.

You almost need just like a quick diversion.

And that just highlights how good the RS is.

It's not to poo-poo the GTS still.

It is a fantastic car.

And as you rightly point out, it will be...

It's already the car of 2026, far as I'm concerned.

I think four people in the collective already bought it,

but it is so good and it really is coming into its own again

because it was always popular from launch.

But yeah, it's quite interesting.

Maybe you could take us on that journey, jumping from A to B.

How'd you find it?

Well, for the first part, my sort of a sandwich car, if you like.

I've been driving my daughter's Audi A1 because she's learning to drive.

So I do the school runs.

I've been driving that backwards and forwards in manual.

I did start to think about I should have a manual car, actually.

Yeah, so I hadn't used the RS for basically December and January.

So when I did actually get back in it, you know,

oh my God, this is good.

But yeah, I mean, look, it was just a pill

I was always going to have to swallow.

You know, haven't done the weekend.

You know, about 250 miles this weekend.

You know, not some nice roads in sort of Kent and Sussex.

You know, firstly, straight away, the other one had ceramics.

So, you know, you're never going to steal was a great and if you stamp on

and they're going to stop the car perfectly adequately,

but you don't have quite the same bite and the front enough.

Maybe it's the rear wheel steer.

You all know better than me.

But the rear wheel steer on an RS, it actually, you know,

felt like it went around corners better.

Okay, you know, whether that's pure grip.

I mean, these have got fat tires.

I mean, the RS has got, what, three, two fives on the back.

So, yeah, I mean, look, this is a fabulous car, the GTS, you know,

and so I think to a degree, I've been spoiled by the RS

because as you just use the word scalpel,

that's exactly how I describe it.

He's so pointy, so fast, quite a bit more power.

And strangely, it feels a bit lighter again.

I mean, I think it is in kilos, but there's not a lot in it.

Yeah.

So obviously, no, like fixed wing on the back,

you're flat back now and there's no, like,

a Rattle on startup, if you like, from the flywheel and stuff.

So it is a very different.

You're more kind of cosseted in that GTS.

Oh, I mean, look, it's been lovely.

I've had the heated seats on, which some of them didn't have.

Again, I mean, it's a benefit, like Mads said.

It's a luxury.

We've had a bit of sun.

I've had the roof open, you know,

must give a shout to Nick Jeffery and Karen.

They were both there.

He had me on speaker.

And when I was looking at the silver one,

we've got a glass roof or it makes the car, you know,

so Nick gave me an awful lot of advice and actually he gave me

an awful lot of support or comfort almost.

But having had his car for 30,000 miles,

he must have put on that car.

And he loves it, you know.

And so I rate Nick's opinion up there with, you know,

a lot of the other owners have used their cars and had a variety.

Yeah.

I will say, yeah, big, big shout out to Nick and Karen.

And it's great that they've shared that advice so willingly with you

as I know they would.

I think I mentioned, you know, with Nick,

you've been on a few nine works tours.

If it's in the UK, the car of choice tends to be a spider.

If it's on the continent, it's always the dot one GTS.

Just perfect car.

We'll do everything that a multi-thousand mile road trip

will throw at you.

Yeah.

So that one car solution as you were saying.

And the other thing, again, speaking to you in advance,

you remember the nine and seven GTS, which I absolutely loved,

had a couple of years in that.

And you went, geez, he goes, this is all of that and more.

You know, you said it was a step up.

You know, and I look back fondly at that car, you know.

That's why the values are so high on those GTSs.

Definitely, definitely.

And, you know, it's not so compromised in terms of like ground clearance.

So, yeah, again, like for a big road trip.

And this is what I'm kind of terrified to find out.

That's not the right way of saying it.

I'm eagerly awaiting to see what the GT3 is like on the trip to Germany.

You know, 1500 miles there around trip is like because every time I've done

that trip has always been essentially in a turbo S or a 997.1 turbo

or a 997 variant of some kind.

And they've been relatively comfortable and, you know, you have all the mod cons with them.

But this time I'm going there with no heated seats and the cage rattling in the background

and uncompromising suspension.

So it'll be interesting to see if it can soak up those miles

and whether or not I'm fresh at the end of it or not.

Yeah, you can suck shut the miles into it.

That's what's going to be.

Well, if that's OK, then we'll touch base on that on a future episode.

It'd be quite interesting to get that ownership experience

because it's all kind of just feeding into the pool of knowledge

that we're all finding useful to carry us on our portrait journey.

And I think like particularly, yeah, Roger and Guy have pointed it out today.

You know, it's not about making a wrong decision, really.

It's, you know, everything is of a time and it's like you said, nice to scratch the itch.

I think, you know, I just would like to, again, from a consumer point of view is

there's often a lot of money tied up in these decisions.

So, you know, for some more than others, it probably does matter to really get it right first time out.

Yeah, I mean, I would say it's been an expensive lesson.

And I keep, again, reminding myself, you know what, you could have bought a new BMW

and done that sort of depreciation in a year.

So I'm sort of convincing myself that, yes, it was expensive, but it could have been worse.

Oh, yeah, I'm A-levels in man-mats, mate.

Well, obviously, that car behind you there, Guy, the 911.1 GTS,

that's one of the last power kits in that car, by the way.

Yeah, you told me that.

After that, the gen two is a turbo.

So, yeah, it's, I mean, I don't know if you want to touch on the driving experience.

Please do, yeah, please do.

It makes a lovely noise.

3.8, normally aspirated, PDK.

It goes down the road very well.

I mean, you can leave it without sports mode and it just purrs along like a gulf.

But you put it into sports or sports plus.

And sports plus is very aggressive.

It literally holds every gear to the red line.

It's probably a little bit too much.

I mean, I'd say it's more aggressive than the RS in sports plus because, you know,

it really, first gear will go all the way around to 7000 in the GTS.

It's just too much.

But it adds a bit of drama with a bit of sort of snapping pops on the overrun.

But yeah, I mean, it drives very nicely, you know, grips well, goes well.

Still a four second car.

I found myself yesterday driving it on paddles.

Was more rewarding than just leaving it in PDK on the country lanes.

Yeah, it's a nice, nice thing.

Guy, tell us about the center of gravity treatment that the car had.

But I know that you haven't driven it too much since then.

But obviously you drove it initially, right?

And then you took it down to center of gravity and they've done their magic on there.

So what's been the differences?

So it was a weird story.

So me being glued to Instagram as usual, Holly had put a story up saying a unicorn appointment this Friday,

because basically these guys booked three months ahead.

It's the RS track day at Alton Park very soon.

So they're always very booked up for that.

And I thought, you know what, let's check that this car is set up as it should be now.

Let's not wait a year or two of ownership experience.

Let's go and see what they have to say.

You know, if I could drive up there and Pete says, no issues, then great.

I've got the reassurance.

As luck would have it, he put it on the ramps.

And if this was a video podcast, I'll show the picture.

I'll put it on the WhatsApp chats.

But basically the front wheels were pointing outwards, which explained why the steering was heavy.

I thought it was actually a design feature of the car, but actually it was heavy.

It was heavier than an RS.

It was quite null around sort of the midpoint in the steering.

It wasn't much going on and it didn't have any kind of drift to it at all.

And basically what happened is Pete had said it had been aligned consistently across the wheels, if you like, but badly.

So he explained why the wheels were pointing outwards.

So he did it.

A couple of hours were no new parts or anything needed, just purely adjustment.

And it was wearing its tyres.

He said, I'll put your fingers on the tyre blocks.

One side of the tyre block was round.

The other side of the tyre block was square.

He went, that is because it's pushing the tyres down the road and scrubbing them.

He goes, you'll go through tyres in no time.

So it paid for itself.

It saved me front tyres.

But now it's much better turning.

What they're good at, these cars have a certain amount of adjustment from the factory.

They're obviously set up quite neutral with understeer.

What centre of gravity and I'm sure other alignment experts are available.

But they will dial out a bit of understeer.

So he made it a little bit pointy.

He said, do you want to go GT3 pointy?

I want to use it more.

So do you know what?

Just go a little bit that way, but not the full way.

But it's much better.

Quality.

That's a really good ownership synopsis of where you're at so far.

Obviously we'll stay checked in on it and see how your story develops.

It'd be nice to hear from somebody in the industry to give their view on none on 1.1 GTS.

And just, yeah, maybe the viability of other products away from RS.

So with that in mind, we'll quickly cross to Henry at Lakeside Classics.

It's Danny from Lakeside Classics.

I did say in the tee-up for this earlier in the episode, it would be Henry at Lakeside Classics.

But I know Henry slightly poorly.

Yeah, he is.

So I am, I'm deputising for you.

More than able, Danny.

It's a pleasure to have you back on our works radio.

How's things, first of all?

Yeah, all good.

Thank you, you.

Very good.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely sound.

And as I said, I'm highly appreciative of the fact that you're going to dedicate some time at Lakeside Classics to chat to us about.

It's a car that I think you personally are holding really high esteem, to be honest, the none on 1 GTS.

Yeah, that's it.

They're a properly special car.

And I think the last of the properly special GTS, those power kit engines and those cars are what makes them so unique and special.

And obviously, last of the naturally aspirated is always going to be how it is something special going forward.

Yeah, yeah, they certainly from like an enthusiast point of view.

And I remember testing them from new, they have always been popular.

But for you guys in the specialist buying side of the industry, how difficult or easy is it to find good examples these days, 10 years on?

They're difficult to come hold of in a volume of cars.

We'll always have one or two throughout the year, but that's because we were specifically looking for them.

We want those cars, but they're not, they're not massively readily available.

They were end of production run, weren't they?

So they were truly special cars.

Whereas today, like with 992.2, they actually launched the car as a GTS.

Yeah, yeah.

It just becomes a model line as such.

Whereas with these cars, 997.2 and 991.1, they were truly, truly special cars at the end of production run, throw everything at them, make a halfway house between a GT car and a Carrera.

It just didn't get better than being able to jump into a GTS.

So yeah, there's not the volume of the car available, which makes it difficult, but we'll always be in the market to buy one if the right ones available.

Yeah.

Excellent.

You make such a good point there because yeah, it was kind of bought out for the last 18 months of production of that model year.

And if you, if you expect a Carrera S accordingly, it would be way more than what a GTS was.

This is like when new, but then also the GTS gave you things that you couldn't spec on a Carrera S or 4S.

For example, like the Centelock wheels, you know, so you're dead right.

It's a real sweet spot right from the factory in terms of just great all-round 911.

Yeah, that's it.

That's it.

And they were, they're truly, truly special cars.

I mean, if you look at those rear-wheel drive cars, wide-body rear-wheel drive first before you just, you can't do that.

So that was unbelievable that you could have that better traction from the car for it.

You got all the special little trinkets on it, like you said there, the Centelock wheels, the little grille where the light bar would normally go.

The upper grille, all of those things mark the Carrera as something special, the Alcantara leather inside.

So they really did feel like a halfway house to a full GT car, but without compromise.

Yeah, definitely.

Definitely.

Manual variants, obviously they kept the seven speed, but I'm sure you're going to add some meat to the bones on this.

A manual 911 GTS is like a unicorn.

You can't find them.

That's it.

Super, super rare car.

We did two last year, one for GTS, one rear-wheel drive GTS.

Before that, didn't see one available.

And again, going into this year, how I've not seen one available.

So there are super, super rare cars, unicorn cars, true enthusiasts car with a manual gearbox.

And an actual fact, I know that gearbox, I think with anything new with Porsche, it's never loved when it first comes out.

Go down the line a little bit and then it becomes revered as something special.

And in actual fact, if you drive that seven speed, like a six speed, the gearbox fantastic in those cars.

The shift action is lovely, the position of it, it's like Carrera GT on its rising tunnel.

So it's a really nice place.

And you know, my car's a manual 991.1.

So I've spent a lot of time with that gearbox.

I absolutely adore the gearbox.

And to have a seventh gear on the motorway to cruise is fantastic.

But yeah, super rare.

Well, I think less than 5% of total 991 production as manual.

Really?

Even less than that.

So yeah, they're unicorn cars.

Yeah, it's fascinating really that for, you know, yeah, that GTS as you rightly pointed out from launch was meant to bridge the gap between the Carrera derivatives and the GT3s, right?

So you would think a manual gearbox would play handsomely into that.

But I think there's a mixture of people unsure about the merits of the manual at the time when the cars were new.

But also, I think possibly more importantly, it's a sign of just how good the PDK gearbox is.

Yeah. Yeah, that's it.

PDK.

Well, it's the first time when PDK has arrived that the automatic transmission wasn't a compromise on performance.

Yeah.

It could deliver the same, if not better.

In most cases, it was better with chrono package, your launch control, it was faster.

The gear changes were faster, sharper, crisper, you couldn't get it wrong.

And I think it always comes down to that debate of feel versus the clinical precision of what it can do.

You think in the manual car and you have to road, you have to make the car do what you want it to do.

The PDK car will just deliver it every time for you.

So both are just as special as one another.

It's just one is particularly rare.

Yes, yes.

But pertinent advice these days is absolutely don't dismiss that PDK gearbox, right?

It's such a great way to put down the car's 430 horsepower.

So definitely try it.

Don't wait for a manual because you might be waiting for a very long time.

Don't ever come.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's the biggest thing, Lee.

I think you're right.

The PDK does not take away from the engagement of the driving experience of that car whatsoever.

Because of everything else it delivers, because of the noise it delivers from every other aspect of what the car does.

It having an automatic transmission does not take away from the driving experience at all.

Yeah, yeah.

I just want to touch on like the rear wheel drive versus four-wheel drive as well.

As you rightly pointed out earlier on, the GTS was available in both configurations.

Roughly, if you could put a percentage on it, what's the split that you see through the doors at Lakeside?

Probably 85 to 90% rear-wheel drive cars in certainly in Coop and Cap.

Yeah.

And to be fair, the majority of the cars were Coop anyway.

But four-wheel drives are, again, super rare cars.

Probably did two in the whole of last year, four GTSs.

Yeah, yeah.

So compared to the volume of what we did in rear-wheel drive, or we probably did 10, 11, 12, 13 of them.

Yeah.

So, but then I do also think some of that comes down to that enthusiast market.

The enthusiasts always want something that's, they generally tend to want something that's rear-wheel drive, don't they?

Yeah.

So I think it comes down to that.

And GTS is an enthusiast car, I would say.

Definitely, definitely.

That's really interesting to get that kind of handle.

And I know that's only an approximation, Dan, as well.

We won't hold you to that specific.

Yeah, again, just testing the cars when new.

Porsche was really keen to push the all-wheel drive cars as a more than viable and not even alternative, but an option, you know.

So, and again, as you've rightly pointed out, GTS for the 911.1 generation available for coupe, cab and targa, like, for the first time.

But as you've intimated, open-top GTSs, yeah, not so popular, but there were a lot of 997s.

I know a lot of 997 cabs, but it didn't really trickle into 991, did it really?

No, that's it.

We see very few GTS, 991 convertibles at all.

The majority of cars tend to be the coupe.

But I do also think the electric sliding tilt glass roof probably takes up some of that because you can get so much more of that open-top experience out of a sunroofed car.

They feel that bit more rigid and it just adheres more to that GTS profile of car, I think.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

And the 991's sliding roof mechanism, it kind of reminds me a bit like a 993, 996, 997 targa, like with the coupe with the glass roof.

It's a fabulous option, it has to be said on those cars.

Is there any, yeah, consumer advice that you'd care to pass on, Danny, if you're in the market for a 991 GTS, aside from the fact they should obviously look at late-side classic stock.

That's it.

The normal things we would talk about is just making sure that all of that routine maintenance has been taken care of.

You don't tend to get into anything drastic with those cars.

Sometimes we see, at this kind of age, gaskets are starting to fail, so uppersum gasket might fail.

The thermostat housings on all 991's, one of the seals on the elbow, they've started to fail on cars more recently now.

We see sometimes the link pipe between the thermostat housing and that can sometimes start forcing itself out with corrosion where the two metals are touching.

But I would say all those things are routine maintenance.

You're not looking for a horror story in one of those.

It's just have the routine maintenance items being kept up to date with those cars if they have.

Then, great, generally, you're going to buy a really good car.

And the rest of it, like I say, is just age-related wear and tear as opposed to the car having something catastrophically wrong with it.

It's a really robust platform.

Superb knowledge, Danny. Superb knowledge. Really grateful for you sharing that for us here on NineWorks Radio.

I'll look forward to visiting the showroom soon, no doubt with many GTS's in there.

You rightly try and hunt them out if you can because they're such an exquisite Porsche 911, so good work.

Yeah, that's it. And we'll look forward to having you here soon again.

Nice one. Cheers, Danny. Take care.

Take care. Thanks, Lee.

Before we wrap this up, Guy, it would be remiss of us to not ask you to mention Porsches by the lake.

Yes, so this weekend just gone.

We set it up so for the last Saturday of February to open up the ticket line, we were pretty blown away, to be honest.

We sold 300 tickets in five minutes.

Everyone was picking my WhatsApp game, which I mean you sold out.

So I've messaged or James messaged the events lady, she put 200 more tickets on and they went within 10 minutes.

So we've done 500 of our 1000 tickets.

We will put some more on sale at probably the 28th of March and then we'll see where we're at.

But encourage everyone to set their alarms and I've already got the output for the tickets.

There's an awful lot of familiar faces on there. A lot of nine works, guys.

And so, yeah, it's on the Saturday, the 27th of June.

Yes, and by which lake is it resided?

Little Eastern Manor, which is basically near Dunmoe, which isn't far from Stanstad.

Yeah, yeah, the stop before Stanstad.

Well, the wheels dropped down, you know, it's time.

Yeah, excellent. We will look forward to that.

Personally speaking, that's my favorite show in the UK, particularly this year with the unfortunate demise of Flat 6 for 2026.

So we'll definitely see you by the water that's posted by the lake in June as well.

Everybody should know by now about garage therapy products.

You can head to actually the Nine Works website has a selection of GT product.

But if you want the full selection, you need to head over to the garage therapy, of course.

Yes, www.garagetherapy.co.uk, obviously, support Lee.

And you can shop at Nine Works as well for quite a wide selection of our stuff as well.

You're very kind. We're always gagging for a little exclusive here on Nine Works.

So that prototype product that you were fixing, guys, car with earlier on.

Can you talk about that or not really?

Yeah, why not? So we're developing at the moment.

I guess we're famous, if that's the right word, for our liquid chemicals and ceramic coatings.

But we're also now developing some polishes and compounds coming up.

So the compound we used on Guy's car is called a silica primer, effectively.

So what that will do is you'll have a little bit of cut.

It will lay down some SiO2, so silicon dioxide protective product on there.

But it also will allow ceramic coatings to be laid on top of it.

And the reason for that is because it's water-based.

So we've avoided the use of silicon oils in there.

Okay, interesting. And can we expect it to come to market then?

Yeah, it's going through thorough testing at the moment.

We've had amazing feedback on it.

So we're just waiting on effectively final sign-off, really, from our certified professionals

who've been playing with the products since the start of the year.

Yeah, excellent. We'll keep our eyes out for that, as we said, on the website and elsewhere.

It's worth mentioning the Garage Therapy podcast when you're not listening to Nine Works Radio.

Yeah, yeah. We thought we'd try and dabble our toes into the podcast world.

The need, effectively, is that we try and give as much information as we can about the products.

It's a bit of a deep dive into the various products that we do.

It can be quite heavy on the science aspect of it, as well, for people that like that sort of thing.

We're not at your standard yet, Lee, in entertainment value and discussion.

But if you like detailing and knowing more about our products, then please do check out our YouTube.

Remember, we've also uploaded our first four episodes on Spotify, as well.

Excellent, excellent. Thank you very much for sharing that.

Guy, really appreciate your time today. Congratulations, it goes without saying, for Voodoo Mark II.

All over Ask Guy's on Instagram, just ready to bore people since this coming season.

No, it's great. Particularly within the collective, and maybe we can continue the conversation on social media, as well.

What do you think, at home, listening about GT, but especially RS ownership,

and we'd love to hear everybody's stories, whether they resonate with his Giza ship,

or whether they contrast with, we'd love to hear it all.

As I said, it all goes into that melting pot of knowledge, really.

So, thank you to Roger. Thank you to Manz for allowing us to do this podcast here at Garage Therapy HQ in Essex.

We'll see you soon, guys, on Alex Radio.

Bye, bye bye.

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