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

Since no one is saying it Ej205 swap it 😂😂

So… The way I see this, this guy is to blame for the engines demise. It’s very commonly known to at least upgrades the oil baffles before tracking the 996’s. Also, what kind of idiot notices a serious engine issue and just keeps driving it until it dies? Seems like he was purposely trying to kill the engine…

Why is everyone ignoring this? It’s clearly the most obvious issue. Not really sure what went wrong, but if he pulled over and shut the engine down when the first noise started, he would probably have been able to fix it. Not sure about race track rules, but at least stop driving it until you know what’s wrong. He clearly states he has no idea what that error code means, so he didn’t even bother to do a proper diagnose. Poor 911…

Time for a LS swap.

how ‘bout no?

what your Porsche suffered was a ims bearing failure and your cylinder cracked. which requires you to do engine rebuild. I wouldn’t buy used Porsche engine because the motor is most likely blown.

And you diagnosed this through the video, how…?

A failed IMS would of bricked the engine right then and there instantly. Not let it limp along as he kept progressively making the problem worse until it seized.