7 cars we wish we had from new

As good as TheCarGuys.tv car collection is, and as strong as our manufacturer relationships are, there are still some cars that got away…

Sometimes, it’s just timing.

Sometimes, it’s intentional.

But more often, we are just not eligible - we haven’t bought enough or the right cars in the past. And that pisses us off!

Not because we want every cool car that’s released. But because for those really special cars, we want to be the first names in the log-book, and to keep those cars forever. In our experience, cars that we have ordered from new, specced ourselves, and in some cases, collected from the factory, are more special.

So here are the ones that, for whatever reason, we didn’t get.

PORSCHE 911 GT2 RS

If we’re being really honest, this is the one that hurts the most. Porsche’s most exciting turbo-charged 911 yet - perhaps the last hurrah before electrical intervention. The most raw, uncompromising, brutal 911 ever!
We had one promised from a lucky recipient, who didn’t want his. But, annoyingly, that was sold out from under us before it was delivered. And what about the authorised Porsche dealers (ADs)? Unfortunately, we didn’t stand a chance. Not enough humdrum cars bought - Macans, Cayennes, 911s, Boxsters. Or simply we picked the wrong dealer who had too many high profile clients. In a nutshell, we were just too late starting our Porsche collection.

GT2 RS.jpg

PORSCHE 911 GT3 TOURING

Okay, so we missed out on the mighty GT2 RS, but surely we’d manage to get a regular GT3, right? After all, we’d just bought a Carrera T? And we owned an original 930 Turbo? Er, no. Despite expressing interest early on, we couldn’t even get a GT3 slot, let alone the more exciting manual gearbox, wingless ‘Touring’ edition. “We’ve used up our allocation”, we were told. “Maybe they’ll make some more, we can get you one of the later ones” came the reply. But no. Not a sausage. So we had to pay a £70k premium to some car-flipping bastard to get our black on black example.

GT3 Touring.jpg

FERRARI F12 TDF

This one was different. When the TDF was announced at the Finali Mondiali event at the Mugello circuit in Italy, we couldn’t have cared less. We didn’t lust after the V12 near-800bhp monster, and made no effort at all to get one. Then for some reason, two years later, we wanted one more than a chocolate-covered Cheryl!
And boy did we pay for our delay…

F12 TDF.jpg

PORSCHE 935

As soon as we heard about this track-only modern recreation of the legendary Porsche 935, based on the GT2 RS - we were on it! A letter of intent was sent to Porsche’s motorsport department in Germany, and a questionnaire duly arrived, which we filled in with gusto. Yes, the questions did point to prospective owners having heavyweight motorsport pedigrees, but that didn’t deter us one bit. In fact we were utterly convinced we were going to become 935 owners - right up until the moment we got the rejection letter.

Porsche 935.jpg

PORSCHE 911R

We really wanted a 911R. No two ways about it, this would’ve been the start of an epic Porsche section of TheCarGuys’ garage. If we owned a 918 Spyder it would have been an automatic invite. But we didn’t. And because the R was limited to 991 units, we stood little chance of getting one. Our local Porsche dealer in Portsmouth got one. And it was flipped straight away. 911Rs have been £425k, but fortunately the prices are now down to the slightly more reasonable £300k mark. Pretty soon, we may have one. But we won’t be the first owner. And that’s f****** annoying!

Porsche 911 R.jpg

FERRARI 458 SPECIALE

This is another self-inflicted one, like the TDF. When the Speciale was launched (yes we were there), it didn’t really feel like an essential purchase. We thought it would be too hard and uncompromising for the road, and we just wanted the softer, more road-focused 458 Italia. So that’s the one we opted for, and we ignored the Speciale. And then it doubled in price - doh!

458 Speciale.jpg

PORSCHE 911 SPEEDSTER

Yes it’s another Porsche (a theme emerging), but this one was really painful. We had a letter of interest in early (over a year). We had pestered the dealer for months to make sure we weren’t left behind, in many cases informing them about the specs of the incoming Speedster (thanks Spike’s Car Radio :)), and we felt sure we were first in line. And then the allocations arrived and so few were coming to the UK, we got stiffed again.

911 Speedster.jpg