He Found his Dad’s Porsche 993, Sold Years Earlier, Online

Owner: Vincent Mui

Year, Make, and Model: 1994 Porsche 911 (993)

Location: Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong

Photographer: Rupert Procter

My dad bought the 911 new from Porsche Hong Kong in 1994 as he was replacing a purple 964, his first Porsche and also the first Porsche I was acquainted with when I was just eight or nine years old. After buying the 993, he joined the Hong Kong Porsche club, got more involved with the car and club through regular local morning drives and the occasional track meets in China and around Hong Kong. Eventually he got himself a track-only 964, all stripped out, just for the track. At that point the 993 became for street-use only.

The reason that all of this matters is because I fell in love with the car growing up: I could recognize his Porsche’s sound instantly because of the Gembella exhaust he installed. I remember the feel of the seat because of how the A8 Recaro bucket wrapped around me from shoulder to just above my knee, the smell of the leather, the turbo-look 18 inch rims along with the 265 tyres, which in the mid 90’s were huge, and how the body kit from Porsche techquipment gave the car a unique and more aggressive, yet sleek look. He eventually kept the car from 1994 to 2007, put about 50,000km when he traded it in for a 997 GT3. Of course I wished that he had kept the car so I could drive it eventually. Back then, I was still completing college and I figured it was his car, his money, and his decision, so I didn’t really share my thoughts with him. But ever since he sold the car, I thought about it a lot, and missed it. Every time I saw a yellow 993 on the street, I tried to see if it was the car he had sold.

Five years had passed and still I thought about it and how I’d like to buy it back. Then one day I was browsing online on a second-hand car site and I saw this Speed Yellow 993 that looked remarkably similar to my dad’s old one. It was on an ad from a private garage website along with a good handful of other air-cooled 911s. I immediately called the guy, asked a few questions about the car, and scheduled an appointment to look at it. Then I called my dad. I was thrilled, excited, eager to find out whether it was the same car he had sold. When I got to the garage, it was filled with 911s and it turned out the owner was a porsche collector. He restored them, drove them, and sold them from time to time; there must have been over twenty Porsches there. The cars in the space were stacked five-wide and four-deep. I noticed the Speed Yellow 993 sitting in the back row looking exactly the same as last time I saw it. Turns out my dad had sold it to this guy through a salesman at Porsche. The car had been kept and maintained really well by the same guy, and he had only added about 10,000km over the last five years. The Porsche was perfect and sounded exactly as I remembered. Everything was the same: the distinctive smell of the leather, the seats, everything had remained unchanged except for the suspension which he had swapped for a KW. As you can imagine, it was an emotional day for me too.

Two weeks later, we agreed on a price, and my dad bought it back. It would wind up costing twice as much as he received five years ago and I told him that I’d pay him back when I have the money, but I think he meant to get it for me as a present. I’m grateful and lucky to have a dad like him, who sort of indirectly introduced this love for Porsche and this particular 911 I have. I’m also very lucky to have been able to find it and get the car back after all this time. I treasure it dearly, and I plan to keep it with me and the family for as long as possible. I drive the car almost everyday as it’s my only car, and it still runs smoothly like when it was new.

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