‘Incredible’ car Elon Musk drove before switching to Tesla vehicles
Before Elon Musk championed Tesla electric cars, he had a soft spot for another vehicle.
Elon Musk has a passion for traditional cars, a fact that's not widely seen in the public eye.
Given his leadership in the electric vehicle industry, it's not something Musk's admiration for traditional cars is not something he shares easily.
In fact, the only time we hear 'Elon Musk' and 'car' mentioned together, it usually means Tesla.
Back in the mid-2000s, just before he launched Tesla, Musk used to cruise around in a Porsche 911 997 as his daily driver.
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During a chat with Joe Rogan on a podcast, he admitted to not only calling the car 'incredible' but also considers it one of his 'favourite cars of all time.'
Musk was particularly impressed by how well Porsche handled 'given its physics.' The founder of SpaceX explained his enjoyment of going around corners in the vehicle despite its rear engine and rear-wheel drive setup.
Porsche's 911 997 was introduced in 2004 and came with various flat-six engine options, ranging from 321 to 523 horsepower. The specific model Musk owned is unknown, but given Musk's love for speed and quality engineering, it was unlikely to be the base Carrera or the track-focused GT2 or GT3. It was probably one of the high-performance variants.
The 911 997 came in three available versions, offering a mix of power and agility. The 'base' models were powered by a 3.6-litre with 321 horsepower.
Musk explained before there was 'turbo lag' that he didn't enjoy as much. 'The moments of inertia are so messed up,' the Tesla CEO said.
Today, a 997 in good condition sells for about $90,000, making it cheaper than some versions of the Cybertruck.
This is not the only spectacular ride that Musk owned before Tesla. Legend has it that in 2007, Musk bought the $1 million F1 McLaren - one of the rarest supercars in the world today - after he sold his first company, Zip2 for $22 million.
However, the Tesla CEO has since felt that he needed to let go of some of his traditional cars with combustion engines in order to maintain 'brand image continuity.'
Furthermore, Elon Musk has given grief to other tech billionaires in the past for not exclusively choosing Tesla as their electric vehicle provider.
A couple of years ago, Musk lashed out at Microsoft's Bill Gates because he admitted to choosing a Porsche as his first electric car - despite the praise he gave Tesla.