June 29 2024
Back in 2013, I was insanely lucky enough to find my dream car, a 2002 Honda NSX in Grand Prix white. The whole buying experience was literally a dream come true and somehow, the timing was on point for everything. From the seller finding me, giving me 3 weeks to ask a million questions about the car, lowering the price when it was already low, a group of friends driving up to Norcal with me to retrieve it, so on and so on. It was an absolute dream purchase in every single way. (Go check out the story that was documented on NSX Prime back in the day: https://www.nsxprime.com/threads/2002-gpw-nsx-build-up.178957/).
I met Andrew or aka Lloyd (a story for another day in person) back in 2010, when things were a bit turbulent in his life but I bonded with him because his upbringing was so much like mine and many other immigrant families. I always considered him a younger brother and tried to guide him in his life where I could but in the last 7 years, he carried on a lot of my hoarding and car loving nature which has brought us to this blog post.
Partly I think I ended up in aircooled 911s when Lloyd first sent me a link to Tamir's documentary of Urban Outlaw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdvPwr_77A0) featuring Magnus Walker in 2013. The world was recovering from a terrible economic collapse after the 2008 housing crash and people were starting to get into social media and the economy was starting to pop off. I saw the practicality of 911s and that I could still be a family man and eat my cake too. My wife reminded me at the time I needed to focus on having less two seaters and more cars with back seats and pretty much lead me into a rabbit hole of 911 love.
Sometime in 2018, as I was deep into 911 ownership with multiple 911s, Lloyd joked around about picking up a 996 since no one liked them and they were cheap as hell but it always was a running joke until it wasn't. Aircooled cars were jumping about $10,000 a year and the idea of owning a 911 became more and more difficult and even the 996 started to gain momentum after the new decade. We would also send each other 996 ads in hopes that one day it would actually happen but these things go from nothing happening for many years to seriously looking to buy in a flip of a switch.
About a month ago, everything got way more serious and so a group of us sent any leads with 996s to Lloyd. Our main target was a 996.1 Carrera 2 because of the more raw nature of the car with its cable throttle (no Drive by Wire), boxster headlights, dual row IMS and price point. We went to go look at a few locally but they all had issues that didn't pan out until my buddy Frank Warren sent us a Facebook Marketplace ad that look super promising. First off, it was in Norcal, it was white and rare, price was looking good and the seller was super responsive.
Luckily for Lloyd, I sent my boys in Sacramento, Quan and Ian to go check it out for us the weekend prior. They came back with a good report and noting things that needed attention but fairly minor. The car did need maintenance but the super rare white on black combination pretty much sealed the deal. Also the seller adjusting the price to $19,500 made it a no brainer for us.
Early last week, we booked a one way flight to Sacramento in hopes that we could close on the 996 and come home safely without dying of heat exhaustion in 105 degree central California heat wave. So the morning of, Lloyd and I woke up at 3:45am, jumped in a Uber and headed to Ontario airport where we landed just an hour later to get picked up by the boys.
The seller Andrey agreed to meet us at the Chase bank where we could check out the car in person and if all went well, we transfer the funds right there and go on our way. We go on a 10 min test drive and it was a wrap after that. Honest car, honest seller, honest price. This was a huge win win. Not even sure if I have ever seen this boy smile so big in my entire life!
After we wrapped up the transaction, we were thankful that Andrey refilled the AC so that we wouldn't die of a heat stroke driving down and got the smog all wrapped up for us. We then headed down to our buddy's shop aka Morris Motors for us to do a PPI (not a PRE purchase inspection but a POST purchase inspection lol). Love that the Sacramento boys came through to help support this day with us and make it that much more memorable. If you guys don't know about Morris Motors, get on it. Thank you Sutton for the help broski!
There are always some amazing gems to be found at MM and a back lot full of cars that will become future projects and future trade deals. A dream for guys like me but also a nightmare since I don't have anymore space to hoard such things.
Quan and Ian sweeping floors hoping that they can get labor swapped for a vintage car. They gonna be sweeping for decades lol.
From what we could see, the car was in good shape especially it having 158,000 miles. The rubbers were all still intact and soft and there was no leak and a spare bottle of AMSoil in the frunk was all great signs that it was cared for. Now that we settled all of that, we crossed the river delta on a draw bridge to have lunch at a local spot called Fat Lou's where the chili verde is chef's kiss.
After lunch, we took some additional photos and then it was the trek down to Socal. Most of it was a blur to me since I slept 80% of it but we made it down safely and coldly with that AC blasting coldddddd!
What a blessing to have been able to enjoy this purchase, experience, journey with you Lloyd. May this car bring you lots of miles, driving pleasure, new friendships and slammed modded fuckery that we all love and enjoy so much. Love you <3
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