TWO’S COMPANY
Buying your next Porsche doesn’t mean you need to spend all available cash on the car — consider a lower priced purchase and invest remaining money in a process of personalisation…
When pulling this issue of 911 & Porsche World together, and during the course of conversation with the various specialists asked for their opinion on the Porsches worth considering when working with a budget of between £4k and £40k, one of the themes repeated time and again was the benefit of spending much less than you can afford and then earmarking the remaining cash for upgrades, ultimately resulting in a more personalised — and arguably more satisfying — ownership experience than if splashing out top whack on the newest Porsche available in the given price bracket. A contingency budget is always a good idea when buying a used car, no matter the badge it wears, but there’s huge satisfaction in putting your hard-earned cash into a treasured four-wheeler through choice, rather than necessity.
Having said all this, we’ve all seen Porsche restomods assembled at high cost, especially when it comes to air-cooled cars, but many owners simply don’t want to shell out vast sums of cash to achieve their dream drive. As far as Porsche sports cars are concerned, there is often little written in mainstream media about an alternative approach. As regular readers will know, this magazine seeks to champion the everyman Porsches often overlooked by other publications. Moreover, we’re keen to promote the idea of owning and personalising a Porsche without breaking the bank.
News flash: the 996-generation 911 is amazing value for money, performs brilliantly as a daily driver and is available in a variety of flavours to suit your tastes and budget, with standard Carrera coupes (some would say the purest form of a 911) currently changing hands for as little as £10k. Believe it or not, you can pay less for a base model drop-top. Even a 996 Turbo (with its sublime Mezger engine) can be picked up for under thirty grand, though many of the marque experts we spoke to namechecked the all-wheel drive 996 Carrera 4S as pick of the range, in terms of value for money and how well suited the 4S is to British roads.
Four-wheel drive is key to the 4S philosophy, though the primary transmission hardware underpinning the 996 and early 997 models is identical to that used by Carrera 4 machines of the same generations. The arrangement acts as an addition to the rear-drive system used by all 996 and 997 Carreras — two and four-wheel drive variants — and uses a Cardan shaft to bring power forward into a ZF assembly driving the front wheels. The construction contains two major components: an open differential and a viscous coupling. It’s the latter of these which gives allpawed 996s and 997s the ability to vary percentage of power sent to the front axle. An entirely automatic process, these changes are brought about by any speed difference between the front and rear shafts, which are connected to a dense collection of vanes within the viscous coupling, rotating inside a bath of heat-sensitive fluid. As driveshaft speed increases, the liquid begins to warm, becoming increasingly firm and sending energy forward from the faster-spinning rear vanes to the front.
The Porsche system always transfers a minimum of five percent power to the front wheels, but this slowly rises with speed, reaching thirty percent at 155mph and spiking to forty percent when the rear tyres lose traction.
OUTSIDE THE BOX
The coupling’s front axle location is a change from the centre-mounted allwheel drive systems used in the 964 and 993 Carrera 4. This alteration allows the 996 and 997 system to dovetail with either a six-speed manual or five-speed Tiptronic gearbox. Current values vary little between the two transmission types, showcasing the adaptability of the Carrera 4S platform. The biggest challenge you’ll face is trying to find a C4S with manual transmission — Tiptronic is much easier to come by.
With the fundamental technology explored, we can dive straight into what makes 996 and 997 Carrera 4S machines so special. To answer this question, we backtrack to the late 1990s and hear howls of complaint over the new 996-generation 911 and its ‘fried egg’ headlights. The work of factory designer, Pinky Lai, and head of Style Porsche, Harm Lagaaij, early examples of the water-cooled model exhibit flowing lines and share front end styling with the 986 Boxster, much to the annoyance of owners, reviewers and many marque enthusiasts who wondered why the new premium Porsche looked the same as the manufacturer’s lower priced, entry level offering. Not unaware of this criticism, when the time came to design the range-topping 996 Turbo, Porsche took a very different route. Out went the soft shapes, replaced at the front by angular front headlights, a redesigned front apron (with three deep, distinct vents and a lip spoiler) and, at the rear, tweaked taillights and a low-slung arrangement with triple slatted vents. Better still are the sides, which combine sculpted skirts with rear wheel arches a full six centimetres wider than those of the standard Carrera.
From 2002 onwards, Porsche fans didn’t have to fork out top dollar for the new, aggressive look. Retailing for just £2,610 more than the 996 Carrera 4, the Carrera 4S adopted almost all of
the Turbo’s styling changes. Visually, only the electronic Carrera spoiler, the full-width rear reflector and the loss of both rear wheel arch vents differentiate this imposing, naturally aspirated machine from a full-blooded Turbo. Even now, almost twenty years after its introduction, the 996 Carrera 4S looks like it means business.
Styling isn’t the only similarity between the Turbo and Carrera 4S. The naturally aspirated car also borrows the eighteeninch wheel styling of its force-fed cousin. The twisty five-spokes measure eight inches wide at the front and eleven at the rear, with Turbo-equalling 225 and 295-section tyres respectively. 330mm drilled discs and four-piston calipers also occupy the corners, while the suspension uses Turbo parts to sit firmer and 10mm lower than any other Carrera.
Power comes from a 320bhp version of the familiar 3.6-litre flat-six. While both this engine and the restyled headlights feature on every 996 Carrera built in and after 2002, only the 4S has the hardware and hips to claim a legitimate relationship to the Turbo. Offered as a coupe in 2002 and 2003, the Carrera 4S could be bought as a Cabriolet in 2004. This four-wheel drive drop-top would act as swansong for the 996 Carrera 4S, as well as the entire 996 range. What if, however, you wanted the best of both worlds: the purposeful stance, Turbo styling and aggression of a 996 Carrera 4S — the Carrera 4 carried a standard Carrera narrow body — but in a twowheel drive package? Well, you were out of luck.
Chris Lansbury, head honcho at Suffolk-based independent marque specialist, PIE Performance, has sought to create the missing link through his company’s PIE Performance Tuning (PPT) brand, which seeks to upgrade and personalise Porsche sports cars with a lid kept firmly on customer spend. “There are many specialists with their own line of bespoke Porsches, but the price of what’s on offer is astronomical, certainly beyond the reach of most owners,” he says. “The thinking behind PPT is to afford enthusiasts the opportunity to create a Porsche suiting their driving style and the environment their car is likely to be used in. We can source the 911, Boxster, Cayman or whatever model a PPT customer wants to drive, though PPT is also available to owners already in possession of a Porsche, but, perhaps, like the idea of mixing things up in a bid to fall back in love with their car.”
DIFFERENT STORY
It’s true to say changing your car is as refreshing as changing your car — the owner of the 996 on these pages has confirmed the updates made to his 911 have given him what feels a like a new Porsche, but at a fraction of the cost. When attempting to guess what alterations have taken place, those deep dish HRE multi-spokes and the stickers
BUYING A NEEDY 996 FOR LESS MONEY THAN THE OWNER PLANNED TO SPEND ON A ‘PERFECT’ PORSCHE FREED CASH TO INVEST IN A COMPLETE ENGINE REBUILD
on each door are the biggest clues. “I could never understand why Porsche didn’t create a 996 Carrera 2S,” shrugs Chris. “The Carrera 4S system is all mechanical. There are no electronic toys at play, meaning switching a 996 Carrera 4S to rear-wheel drive is a fairly straightforward conversion requiring little more than ditching the front prop and utilising different driveshafts. You’re
then left with what’s essentially a Turbobodied Carrera pushing from the rear.”
The idea appealed to the car’s owner, who took PIE’S advice and allowed them to upgrade key suspension and mechanical components to complement the new driving experience and altered chassis dynamics. To this end, Bilstein B16 adjustable coilovers, adjustable top mounts and a front strut brace were added, along with polyurethane bushes to replace tired rubber in the control arms. Thicker anti-roll bars (with accompanying polybushes) were also installed, noticeably reducing body roll during cornering.
Aside from the layout, the biggest change came in the form of the car’s
THE DROP IN RIDE HEIGHT AND THE FIRMNESS OF THE BEEFIER SWAY BARS AND BUSHES TRANSFORMS THE WAY THIS ALTERED FOURBY TACKLES TWISTIES
beating heart — buying a needy 996 for less money than the owner planned to spend on a ‘perfect’ Porsche freed cash to invest in a complete engine rebuild. During the process, Chris suggested increasing displacement to 3.9 litres, a significant hike in cubic capacity, but one not costing a vast sum of money when already engaged in the process of rebuilding an M96/M97 water-cooled flatsix. As you’d expect, the resulting closeddeck oversized engine produces more torque, power and driver satisfaction throughout the entire rev range, while Nikasil-coated aerospace alloy cylinder liners offer superior resistance to wear. All the usual M96/M97 fixes (point your browser at bit.ly/911pw202104 and order the April issue of 911 & Porsche World to read all about the five areas of concern when dealing with these units), such as Intermediate Shaft Bearing (IMS) and Rear Main Seal (RMS) were carried out during assembly. Bespoke pistons deliver reliability and longevity.
This 996’s full-fat flat-six was still in the ‘running in’ phase during our time behind the wheel, meaning its full potential will only be realised after an impending update to its ECU
software is applied. The installation of a free-flowing Quicksilver exhaust system and the subsequent rumble from the rear announces the arrival of revised hardware, nonetheless. Even without lofty power figures to publish, the 3.9-litre unit delivers noticeable increase in midrange torque and is certainly quicker through gears when benchmarked against the standard 3.6, though the inclusion of a 997 GT3 short shifter (vastly reducing throw) perhaps emphasises the fact in far more pronounced fashion than we’d otherwise be able to appreciate.
Regardless of extra grunt and whether power is being sent to all four wheels or just those at the back, the 996 isn’t exactly ‘wallowy’ in standard specification, but fine-tuned camber and caster, along with the drop in ride height and the firmness of the beefier sway bars and bushes, transform the way this altered fourby tackles twisties. On rural Cambridgeshire B-roads, which act as excellent suspension proving ground thanks to undulation, inconsistent surfaces and frequent tight, high-speed bends, this fettled 4S delivers a compliant ride, absorbing bumps without compromising feedback through the steering and, importantly, remaining pleasingly level when hurled into corners. Sticky Michelins wrapped around the anthracite-centred HRES help to keep the car planted, of course, but there’s no twitchiness, no threat of the back end shifting unless promoted to do so, even when traction is challenged by
IT’S DIFFICULT TO SEE WHAT ELSE PROVIDES THIS MUCH SOPHISTICATION AND STYLE WRAPPED UP IN AN EASILY OBTAINABLE SPORTS CAR PACKAGE
way of sudden dips in the asphalt while hammering on.
Save for new aftermarket performance pads, the brakes remain standard Porsche fayre and are perfectly adequate for the job at hand. “Everything applied to a car through the PIE Performance PPT service is available off the shelf,” confirms Chris, reinforcing PPT’S message regarding sensible spend. “Nothing is specific to the host Porsche, other than the combination of parts — what might suit one owner might not suit the next. We change things up to cater for each customer, producing a car truly tailored to their requirements.” He tells us a larger throttle body and plenum will be fitted to this silver stunner in advance of its forthcoming remap, and that other PPT projects currently in progress include a 1991 Guards Red 964 Carrera 4 Targa. You’ll have to wait until a future issue of 911 & Porsche World to discover what changes the PIE Performance team has made to this air-cooled classic, but rest assured, they’ve been configured with a sensible, limited budget in mind.
Enter the Carrera 4S market today and it’s best to arrive forewarned. Both the 996 and first-generation 997 have the same unfortunate association with engine issues as any early water-cooled, flat-six-propelled Porsche. Don’t let exaggerated horror stories published on online forums put you off, though — now that air-cooled 911s are beyond the reach of many enthusiasts, the 996 and early first-generation 997 are special Porsches allowing entry into 911 ownership at relatively low cost, though amongst the wider 997 market, a Carrera 4S will command a few grand more than the equivalent two-wheel drive car. Even so, that’s a verifiable bargain for the performance and specification on offer. There’s more clear air between the 996 Carrera 4S and more humble same-generation models, but a budget of £19k still buys a super-tidy example of an early 996 Carrera 4S with manual transmission. Higher-mileage cars will empty your wallet for much less, but may come with a requirement for a renewal of suspension components. Either way, for the money, it’s difficult to identify what else provides this much speed, sophistication and style wrapped up in an easily obtainable sports car package. And if you’re feeling particularly shrewd, a 996 with a faulty engine can be bought for peanuts — run it over to Chris for the PPT treatment and you can be in possession of a 911 with a new, 3.9-litre powerplant and a host of considered chassis upgrades for far less than you might think.