2007 Porsche 911 (997) C4S

Finished in Basalt Metallic Black, ‘EF57 XOX’ is not your average Porsche 911 Carrera 4S.

Oh no, because it left the factory with a manual gearbox, 19-inch SportDesign alloy wheels finished in the same colour as the coachwork, and a GT3 Aero kit.

It also benefits from the rear wash/wipe delete option (code 425 in case you were wondering) and nor has it been burdened with a sunroof (652). Enthusiasts will also recognise that the C4S has the same reinforced gearbox tunnel as the GT3.

And we aren’t finished there either because it’s also got the extended red leather pack plus the Sport Chrono and aluminium packages, Adaptive Sport Seats with silver backrest shells, and its instruments and stopwatch dial finished in silver.  

In fact, the 911’s full specification runs to four pages, but the headline is that if you were starting from scratch, you’d have chosen this specification too.

His quest to create his ideal fast-road car included lowering it by 10mm using H&R springs, adding a Spyder Performance one-piece induction system with a BMC air filter (“gives a great howl!”), fitting Pagid yellow brake pads (“unbelievable power and stops on a dime”), and installing a ten-stage Xtros throttle controller that “takes the lag out of the throttle response time - best only used in the first F1 to F3 settings”.

To beef up its already impressive looks he added RS centre caps to the alloy wheels, RS decals along the sides, a 911GT badge on the engine cover, and a Porsche sun stripe across the windscreen to complete the look.

Interior modifications might be minor but they included commissioning O’Rourke Coachtrimmers to redo the steering wheel in grey Alcantara to match the headlining. This was clearly an even bigger job than it sounds because the hand-stitching took 16 hours to complete all by itself – but then “Rob O’Rourke is regarded as the best in the business” according to no lesser authority as Octane Magazine.

After a decade of getting it just so, he’s decided to rationalise the fleet, keeping only those cars he drives a lot – and 17,000 miles in a decade being used for the occasional ‘sunny Sunday’ blast plus the odd European trip (but no track days) just doesn’t cut the mustard.

He describes it as running “perfectly” and says it doesn’t use any oil but then given its service history and the odometer reading of 56,000 miles, you’d expect nothing less.

After spending so much to get it into the condition you see here, he knows he’s going to lose a lot of money but he’s a pragmatic man who appreciates that any hobby has a cost, and this is his.

Besides, he will always be able to tell himself that he created his perfect 911, and how many of us can say that? 
 

Buying a car finished in Basalt Metallic Black takes care, because while it can look sensational, that same hue will highlight any flaw, no matter how small, leaving indifferent curation with no place to hide.

No worries here though because the metalwork underneath is every bit as good as the paintwork that Porsche applied on top; they’re a marriage made in heaven, and all you’re going to need to do is to keep it looking this good.

And it does look very good; squat down and squint along the flanks. Of course, the first thing you notice are the red RS decals that have been so carefully applied along the length of the car, and it’s only when you can bring yourself to look past them that you realise there are no ripples or car-park dinks.

The same care has been extended to the four corners, which are free of any evidence the car has ever been parked by feel. The door cappings are free of scuffs and chips too, so the owner’s clearly got a handle on the width of his car, something you’d assume would always be the case but, sadly, is not.

The 19-inch SportDesign alloy wheels (option code 407) that Porsche fitted back in 2007 are also free of scrapes. Finished in the same colour as the body (option code XD9), the design allows you to admire the ventilated brake discs and red calipers that lie behind them.

As for the tyres, they’re Michelin Pilot Sport 4S on all four corners and we will never get tired of telling you that matching high-quality tyres like this are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly.

Of course, all this merely provides a suitable backdrop for the immense GT3 aero package (option code XAA). Comprising a front bumper and splitter plus that massive bi-plane rear wing, few cars have more presence.

NB: That deep front splitter might look fantastic, but the seller cautions care must be taken with steep driveways and speed bumps; best to approach them at an angle, he says, and take it slow. No, even slower than that…

As for flaws, the edges of the sun stripe are a bit untidy. That’s it.  
 

The visual drama continues with the bright red extended leather interior (option codes 981, 936, 991, 998, and 983, as far as we can tell), which makes a helluva statement with both the vibrancy of its colour and the ease with which it has shrugged off 18 years of use.

As you can see, the adaptive sports seats (P01) are still excellent, with little more than a slightly softened outer bolster to the base of the driver’s seat; the rest of the leather that covers them is no more than lightly creased and still impressively taut.  

They’re also supremely comfortable, as supportive as anyone needs in a road car, and yet still remarkably easy to get in and out of. Electrically adjustable too, of course, and they’re joined by a pair of folding rear seats (685), which can accommodate people or luggage with equal aplomb depending on how they’re configured.

The use of leather extends to the dashboard, door cards, rear quarter panels, gearknob (X97), and handbrake (X98), while the red hue is taken up by the rest of the trim, including the carpets.  

The hand-stitched grey Alcantara steering wheel is covered in the same material as the headlining (554). Its colour also matches that used for the instruments (023), including the chronometer (640 and 026). The steering wheel itself is in a stunning condition but then, as we mentioned earlier, it did take two full working days to stitch…

Other nice touches include some delicate but intricately engineered cupholders and built-in CD storage drawers (option code 424).

The frunk is as neatly presented as everywhere else, and even still contains the warning triangle, which is held in with two rubber straps, as well as the DVD player for the sat-nav (672), and a six-disc CD multichanger (692).

We are told that everything works, including the air-conditioning, which was recharged in January 2024.

As for flaws, the silver finish to the back of the front seats has some marks on it,  there’s a scratch to the trim to the right of the headlamp switch, and a minor indentation to glovebox lid.
 

As a later model, the M9701 Engine does not have IMS bearing issues, but the seller asked Northway Porsche to check it anyway.  It did and found no issues, boxing it all back up with a new seal and a clutch kit (and much more) in January 2024 at a cost of almost £5,000.

The seller tells us that “it doesn't have any issues, uses no oil whatsoever, and nor does it produce any smoke. It runs perfectly.”  

The video certainly appears to support the claims; we note it also revs very smoothly and shows good oil pressure on the dashboard.

But then it does have a rather good service history, with all the service work having been undertaken by either a main dealer or an independent specialist:

•    05.08.2009 and 10,369 miles – service by Porsche Centre Colchester including fresh brake fluid 
•    13.09.2011 and 20,311 miles – service by Porsche Centre Aberdeen including fresh brake fluid
•    19.03.2014 and 31,336 miles – service by Bavaria Aberdeen
•    04.01.2016 and 38,778 miles – service by Diablo Engineering including fresh brake fluid
•    14.04.2016 and 40,206 miles – service by eporsch plus an H&R spring kit and new dampers all around and a Dansk exhaust system 
•    04.05.2018 and 45,706 miles – service by eporsch
•    16.12.2020 and 50,628 miles – service by eporsch
•    15.01.2024 and 54,820 miles – service by Northway Porsche including fresh brake fluid and much more; please see the £4,813 invoice for details

eporsch also fitted six coil packs in February 2021, and a new starter moor a month later.

Of course, given the combination of the additional throttle control system the seller fitted and the factory fitted Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) set-up, you can now tailor the 911 to suit your mood; fast and taut when you want to play, and cossetting and economical when you’re just ambling around.

Not forgetting the difference the Pagid yellow brake pads have made, which the seller sums up in just one word: “amazing!” As we said in the introduction, this is a semi-supercar you don’t have to make allowances for.

The engine bay is neat and tidy without being obsessively so, and the underside looks tidy, with just the usual surface rust visible on the steel components.

However, given the proliferation of covers, it might be worth removing them to assess the condition of the floorpans, just to be sure. 
 

The Porsche’s MoT certificate is valid until January 2026 and it, like the previous two, was issued with no advisories.

With just four previous registered keepers, the recent Vehicle History Check is clear, and it comes with two keys.

The history file also contains the Porsche wallet and book pack, old MoT certificates, and a bunch of invoices for the work that’s been carried out on the car.
 

The seller tells us that he’s only selling his beloved Porsche 911 C4S because he’s rationalising his collection.

We suspect there may be a little more to it that that though; given he enjoys the fettling and modifying as much as he does the driving, he’s left himself with nowhere to go because he has made it his own. He’s made it, for him, perfect. Every detail, every change, no matter how minor, was carefully considered before being flawlessly executed.

Which means it’s time for him to move on.

And it could be your turn to enjoy the fruits of his labour – and given our estimate is somewhere between £27,000 and £32,000, you’d be getting all that hard work thrown in for little more than the price of a similarly well-looked-after 997 C4S – and you’ve gotta admit, it looks like a helluva lot of fun for the money, doesn’t it?

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