1996 Carrera CabrioletPorsche 993

This is my 1996 Porsche 911 (993) Cabriolet. It's finished in Turquoise Blue Metallic (K1V9), a special-order color so uncommon that most Porsche owners, even a lot of dealers, have never seen it in person. Fully documented, numbers-matching, and equipped with Porsche's Tiptronic transmission, so it's just as much fun for someone who wants an automatic as it is for purists chasing the last of the air-cooled 911s. Thirty years on it's still rust-free, still drives like new, and it's never left California. I still take it up Malibu Canyon to the PCH on Sundays whenever I get the chance.

Its story starts in early 1996. The first owner, Mr. J Tomkinson, special-ordered this 993 Cabriolet for his wife through Newport Beach Porsche, choosing a color that wasn't even on Porsche's standard palette. That meant waiting longer and paying more, with no guarantee it would look as good as he hoped. It did. The car rolled off the assembly line in March of 1996 and was delivered on June 29th of that year, a gift built around one person's taste instead of whatever was on the factory's option sheet. If you want the full list of equipment, the original window sticker is in the document section.

The Turquoise Metallic K1V9 was never a standard catalog color for the 993. The 26-step paint process, though, is real and well documented as part of Porsche's factory build. It's a big part of why this car has held up so well. Here's the short version, based on how Porsche explains its own anti-corrosion system:

Porsche starts with a fully galvanized steel body. Every 993 shell gets dipped in zinc, which helps "heal" small scratches and protects the welded seams. That's the first layer of defense. On top of that, Porsche runs the cars through a 26-step paint process: primer, corrosion protection, color coats, clear coat, each cured to a precise thickness. It's a big reason 993s tend to hold up so much better than a lot of their contemporaries.

I bought the car in August 2001 from a dealer in Newport Beach, California, with about 39,000 miles on the clock. For the twenty-five years since, it's lived almost entirely in Woodland Hills, in the western San Fernando Valley just outside Los Angeles, garaged and looked after like it was more than just a way to get around. Two owners in thirty years is rare for any car. It shows in how well this one's aged. It's sitting at about 95,000 miles now.

The window sticker on this car was $82,473. Out the door it was $101,195 (that sticker's in the document section too), well above a base 993 Carrera. It was ordered with real intention, not pulled off a lot. It's still numbers-matching: the engine and transmission are the same ones it left the factory with, which gets harder to find every year these cars age. Living its whole life in dry California weather, with no road salt or winters to deal with, has kept it free of rust and structural repair.

I've got over two hundred pages of service records going back to August 1996 for whoever buys it next. The big one is the engine reseal and repack, done in late 2022 through mid-2023 at TRE Motorsports, one of the oldest and most respected independent Porsche shops in L.A. Their letter documenting the work is in the document section. The convertible top got replaced too, with a new original Porsche canopy and headliner, back in June of 2022.

The 993 is the last of the air-cooled 911s. It's a real icon, the final generation before Porsche switched to water cooling in 1998, and for a lot of enthusiasts it's still the last "real" 911. Values have climbed steadily as that history has settled in. This car adds a few things on top of that: a factory special-order color, one family's ownership going back to its first year, and a life spent entirely in one of the best climates in the world for keeping a car alive. It's a well-preserved 993 with a real story behind it. I'd like to see it go to someone who'll actually drive it, not just park it.