USA's 'Cheapest' 996 Porsche 911 Dies After Clocking Heroic 248,000 Miles

The 'Apollo 911' we saw getting a dyno test at 243,000 miles last year has bitten the dust, with a seemingly terminal engine problem killing it with 248k on the clock

Matt Robinson

04 May 2017

There’s something cool about mega mileage sports and supercars. All too often cars like these are hidden away in garages for much of their lives, so it’s great to see something like a Porsche 911 with well over 200,000 miles on the clock.

Tyler Hoover’s 996 ‘Apollo 911’ was at 243,000 miles (more than the distance from Earth to the moon, hence the name) last time we saw it, where it was shown to have lost next to no power since new when given a dyno run. At $9500 he reckoned it was the cheapest running 911 in the US when he bought it, but 5000 miles on, it’s bitten the dust.

Brought on by a track day and most likely oil starvation during hard cornering, the 911’s flat-six has now seized, leaving Hoover to mull over what to do next. He’s now left with a variety of options including an LS swap, selling for spares or getting an expensive rebuild done.

Whatever happens next, 248,000 miles is one hell of a run,

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

There’s a 996 turbo that comes to the garage I work at sometimes and it has over 500k miles, it’s awesome

that’s the most important thing ‘’comes to garage’’ haha many people neglect quality service

Its funny how the 996 is the most hated of all 911s and yet the most reliable and the highest mileage 911s on the market are almost all 996s. Just goes to show that the 996 isn’t bad at all.