Pinky Lai
Five years after his last interview, the designer of the 996 sits down with Lee Sibley for his most candid insight yet into life at Porsche during the turn of the Millennium
The designer of the 996 gives his most candid interview yet on life at Porsche at the turn of the Millennium
Since we last spoke with Pinky Lai, the 996’s perception among enthusiasts has shifted. The generation is enjoying something of a renaissance in popularity: much like the 964 did seven or eight years ago, the 996 has been thrust into the spotlight as a 911 with a thriving, dedicated culture behind it. No longer seen as merely the ‘first’ 911 you could buy, for some the 996 is the go-to modern Neunelfer, if you favour a water-cooled 911 that’s light, nimble, and devoid of any technologies such as switchable mapping and damping. It seems the game-changer 911 is once again changing the game in Porschedom.
Lai seems relaxed, perhaps as a result of this, but really his place in history is cemented: his
911 design clearly played a crucial part in turning around Porsche’s fortunes. The 996 alone (across Gen1 and Gen2 Coupe, Cabriolet, C4S and Turbo) received, from 1998 to 2003, no less than 11 international design awards (five from Italy, five from Germany and one from Chicago, USA).
Pinky Lai stayed at Porsche for 25 years, working on projects as diverse as the Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne. Before retiring in 2014, he was responsible for all the external OEM projects from China, Japan, Korea and Germany (operating within The Porsche Engineering Services). But he’s still designing, now for his own consultancy business. He won’t say what his latest project is but promises it’ll be eye-catching. “It’s really great,” he says. “The sum of all my career put together.” For now, we’re going back to Porsche and the birth of the 996…
T911: The 996 is nearly 25 years old. How does it feel to describe the car as a classic?
Pinky Lai: The 996 belongs to a different size category of 911 compared to modern-day generations. Of the water-cooled era, for me the 996 is the only one which captures the classic philosophy of the original 911, the original flavour of what a 911 is about. It’s about staying small: no big engine, no big proportions.
What’s it like to design a 911?
It’s an outrageous experience. It was a 24-hour job at times – some days I was turning off the studio lights at one o’clock, two o’clock in the morning, and then I was the one who switches on those lights at 6am the next morning! It was a time of hardship at Porsche for sure but I would have done it again, if I had the chance. It got the
best out of everybody. But I had great support from my team, especially Harm Lagaay in terms of the switch over to a new, digital process. This was with the 996 Turbo project, and hadn’t been done before at Porsche at the time. I remember Harm asked me one day what was going on: the clay modelling team outside were quiet, but I was working all hours inside on the computer room. I explained I was designing a 911 digitally, by computer, as my first digital project. Harm said “okay”, so we went full speed ahead with using digital data, CNC modelling. It was a pioneering experience for a design studio on a clay model. It was very encouraging for me.
How was your design chosen for the 996?
My design theme was one of four full-size models for board members to choose from, with a team behind each one. They picked us! The reason was because our idea was the most progressive: we were the maximum ‘bang for the buck’. The others were too similar to the previous model: circular headlamps, horizontal rear lamp. My design was more sculptural, more revolutionary. It was outside of the usual 911 thinking.
You knew the engine would be switching to water-cooling, and I assume you were also aware that new manufacturing processes were due to be implemented?
During the 986/996 design program, we were aware there were some Japanese industrial consultants around. They were not involved in technical development of the car, it was more to do with how we store spare parts and develop the concept of ‘on-time delivery’ to getting rid of the unnecessary storage space for all the parts. Our job though was to design the best car we possibly could within the given budget of the program.
What particular design struggles did you have with the all-new 996?
We were really struggling to get the desired downforce. With no downforce, you do not have a desirable lap time! We had to have a sloping silhouette, but we were not allowed to have a high trailing edge at the back of the car. If you don’t have that trailing edge, you don’t have downforce. Harm was talking about scrapping the model and going back to the drawing board, starting again from scratch. I didn’t want that to happen: the team had worked so hard to win the project. I asked for a couple of days to work something out in the wind tunnel. We went back to the tunnel with the Coupe the next morning in order to run some tests.
On the engine cover, I picked the last louvre of the engine grille and started doubling up the size of it, in width. I doubled it, and things started happening – the downforce started increasing! I tripled it, and then the whole thing started to look optimistic. I called up the head of project management and asked him to come to the wind tunnel. I showed him what I found: we needed a very smart but very primitive moving grille, which in the parking position was not sticking out. Costing of the part was calculated while we kept going to optimise the downforce, and that’s when we all realised the cost was relatively the same to have a whole moving grille, rather than just
a part of it. We were in business again! And that’s how the 996 gained its moving decklid.
The 996 Turbo had revised headlights when it arrived in 2000. What was the reason behind that?
Initially we were very happy with the 996 Coupe headlight, especially designing the headlamp wash jet ‘punched’ through the lamp. There was no discussion about ‘Fried Eggs’; this initiated outside the design department.
We knew the front fender for the Turbo would be a carry-over from the Coupe, but there would be a new front bumper for sure. So, we knew we could try a different headlamp shape. The headlight design again was an open competition: we ended up with a new shape similar to the 996.1, and everybody was happy about it – it wasn’t just about styling, there was hefty cost reasoning too. There was less than ten-minute assembly time compared to the 993 or 964, where lamps are everywhere. So we were saving money in assembly and having maximum visual impact. The plan to roll it out to Gen2 cars was for further cost efficiency. The 996 Turbo was launched at the Detroit Motor Show and the demand for the Turbo was so positive, and during the show that’s where it was decided to double up the production number.
Were you worried as to the reception of the 996 when it was released, as it was so different to any 911 before?
That’s a very interesting question. Knowing the company might be sold out to another company, it’s a very different case scenario to when you are working on a standard replacement program under normal conditions. We knew we had one last chunk of cash to try a new car. It was our last bullet. We wanted to get that maximum bang for the buck, so we used that term within our team. We didn’t have any other choice.
We also had to deal with the move from air-cooled to water-cooled. This was a huge revelation for the 911, just as serious as any optical change. But again we had to do it: we could see it was the end of the development curve for the air-cooled engine. I think we did okay, we sold more 996s than 993s… and every year was a record-breaking year of sales.
“My design was more sculptural, more revolutionary. It was outside of the usual 911 thinking”