I guess much depends upon your personal ideals for your car vs those of Porsche..?
I suspect applying a degree of acceptance of reality to some extent, over whatever degree of OCD you might suffer could help.?
I also suspect there many easily justified reasons to wish to pamper one`s Porsche as most of us are inclined to, at least to some extent but there is possible risk in letting a bit of imbalance enter the scene and which can perhaps both limit and devalue one`s ownership experience..?
I bought a non-Porsche sports car which had been bought by a garage business owning marque enthusiast after years of storage with 8k miles on the clock, he stripped it down totally and rebuilt it to his personal ideals and used it to display the quality of his workmanship, but given all the effort it takes to take such a machine to that standard of finish... I suspect every time a stone was heard to hit the bodywork may have sent a shiver down his spine, as it might for many finding their self in his position...?
All of which worked for me, as I guess his idea of perfection perhaps limited his enjoyment of the car, and at the time he was looking to sell, I was looking to buy a nice sports car. First day I had it home I drove it up an unmade road with stones flying, better to get it over with in one go, rather than suffer a degree of torture every time a stone hit.... Now 20 years later it still looks pretty smart, though in truth I have only really done under 30k miles in that time as other of life`s priorities demanded, thus it has lead the life of a bit of a garage queen.. though it has been no stranger to much enjoyed adventures on unmade roads... (-:
I have a pal who has been a Porsche enthusiast for more than 30 years having owned quite a few over that period of time He has a 997.1 C4S with aero kit which he bought new and a 964 both of which have been rarely used but much enjoyed, having recently fitted a full stainless exhaust system on his circa 20k mile 997 to pretty up it`s underside, he has also fitted all sorts of goodies to his pretty as a picture 964, all of which seems to feed his Porsche passion well enough.. Each to their own for sure.
I drove my recently acquired Porsche over one of my local favoured narrow and twisting roads, on which after a few miles into I found myself on a section of it which had been resurfaced with a really over the top amount of granite chips, even at the suggested 10 MPH limit there was a machine gun number of hits being heard by me... Fortunately it was early morning, and I only met one vehicle coming the other way and at somewhat over the advised speed limit... It`s a great road and in a great car but those are the risks are they not, living in fear of usage seems less than an ideal strategy, well at least for me, an undesirable dose of reality perhaps..?
Yeah, I do want to look after my 9 year old and 43k mile C4S, so much so that I paid out to have it accepted into the OPC warranty scheme and jumped through the hoops to do so given it`s last owner had it`s last and intermediate serviced performed by a specialist indy, which added a degree of complication and cost to me in that it required to be submitted to the OPC service it 5 months and 2k miles after the indy`s service. Those hoops jumped through relative to my desire to retain a degree of my cars financial value, and insure myself against possible expensive component failures, which may be judged as a tad OCD, and perhaps more so when it has been suggested that in some cases a full OPC service history might only be worth circa £500 extra to a dealer buying the car in and which is less than I paid out to have it re-serviced and match the requirements of the OPC 111 point inspection... and does not bother me one bit.
Value retention...? I paid that which I suspect is an over the top amount to buy my C4s because it was close to my perfect spec for a second hand water cooled Porsche, thus without further expenditure to the purchase price on market value I suspect I lost out to some degree before I bought the GAP
Insurance, along with cirac £500 cost for a bit extra spit and polish... Yeah I just wanted it...!
As for salt on the road, I share your concern to some degree, as I know well the effects of corrosion on old air cooled Porsches I have owned over the years, though however much has changed relative to corrosion resistance and it is worth paying attention to cooling and brake pipes, air con heat exchangers, I suspect there is not that much to be concerned about and that that a wash down might dilute many potential salt related issues..? I too share many of the pleasures of living in Scotland and in recent years it seems there are ever fewer days when there might be found salt on the roads, and on such occasions there seems to be no shortage of rain to wash it down the drains within a day or so..? I do suspect trying to tie in a salt free day with the need to pre-book a service might be difficult, but it may just be down to acceptance of a bit of risk management...?
On the other hand putting it on a trailer does not necessarily insulate the car from road spray, unless it is a fully boxed trailer, but how far is too far to take things I wonder..?
As I typed earlier each to their own, and good luck in your choices..
Sorry to ramble on as is my habit, but you did request feedback...
