Neighborhood watch: the various cars we found on a street Car News

One car that is sure to stop lawn mowers and turn heads in an estate is a Porsche 911. Much like a Waitrose popping up, I’m convinced that the arrival of one is driving up house prices. . Laurence, the owner of the 911 Carrera S who recently started purring in and out of our neighborhood, bought the car three months ago at the local Porsche center without, he says, trying it out first: ‘C’ was locked out so things were a bit awkward, but I thought a 911 would be just a step up from the Boxster I owned, so I had no worries.

Laurence enjoyed his Boxster, which he describes as fun and surprisingly practical, with enough space for cases in the front and golf clubs in the back, but he says the larger 911 is more spacious, more comfortable and, above all, faster. He also likes the noise he makes – a kind of barely suppressed rage. He can’t criticize it. Instead, his eyes light up when he remembers his best ride so far: “The first. I will never forget him.”

Tim Olivier

Owns: Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205, 1997, 130,000 miles

I first glanced at Tim’s Celica several years ago, when he was transferring much of the interior from a tired old Celica GT. It was a long-term project, he told me, so I was happy when, recently, I started to see him come and go from the estate. Obviously, he had made good progress.