PORSCHE 996
It’s been overlooked for too long. So how can you buy a good one?
Right now you can get a 911 for the price of a brand new, very nippy, small hatch. A flat-sixengined, 300bhp-plus, great-handling, loadsof-life-left, unfeasibly practical, bona fide Porsche 911 – for the cost of, say, a Vauxhall Corsa VXR. The catch? It’s the 996 model, the one lots of people ignore because it’s not a ‘proper’ 911; because it’s not air-cooled; because it shares too much with the Boxster including those funny headlights; or because it’s got an engine that will blow up.
Well, guess what. There is no catch. Googly headlamps apart, the 996 is a darned good 911.
Yes, there was some gnashing and wailing from hardcore 911 enthusiasts when 993 production ended in 1997, and with it both the air-cooled flat-six and the original, compact and near-sacred bodyshell, but truth was they were both past their sell-by dates. The 996 introduced a brand new water-cooled engine, with modern features such as four valves per cylinder and variable valve timing, and it made more power and torque from less capacity.
It was a bigger, roomier car than the 993 and, yes, it shared lots of parts with the Boxster – it was the same from the doors forward, essentially – but the bodyshell of the original 911 dated back to the early ’60s. The new, bigger body was 45% stiffer torsionally than the 993’s weighed a substantial 50kg less, while under it was a development of the multi-link rear axle which had made the 993’s handling more predictable and exploitable than that of its predecessors. And the engine issues? We’ll clear that up in a bit.
Much to like, then, although what the 996 definitely did not have was as much character as the 993. It lacked that unmistakable air-cooled rasp and whirr, and the way you had to let the steering wheel do its own thing on bumpy roads and trust the car to go straight. But I’ve seen five generations come to market, from 964 to 991, and each has been criticised for being ‘not as characterful, not as engaging’ by press and fans. And then whatever generation it was would then go on to win every group test because, while it might not be as vocal or characterful or dangerous as the previous one, compared with its rivals the 911 was always the most compelling, character-rich car available.
So while a 996 might have seemed a bit pale after a 993, no-one getting out of a modern car and into a 996 today would complain that it was bland. It has taken Porsche the best part of 50 years to tame the rear-engine layout, and the 996 was a significant staging post on that journey. Most drivers will find enough classic 911 charm, foible and challenge here to warrant slipping from under a warm duvet early on a Sunday morning to go for a blast. This is a 177mph car that’ll get to 60mph in under five seconds and to 100mph in 11, and if you want to ramp up the excitement and engagement, there are plenty of specialists happy to oblige.
By the end of this year, the prices in this story will probably be out of date. Now is the time to act if you want to get a perfectly usable 911 for £16,000. Sure, there are mega-milers, scruffy ones and undesirable variants selling for less, but do your homework, buy the right model, buy the best you can afford and you won’t have any regrets. The 996 sold well, and there are still enough out there that you can afford to hold out for the right one. Or, at less risk, warranted, specialist-dealer cars start at around £20,000.
So, let us guide you through the issues, the models and the options, and take you through how a 996 should drive. For this we have a pair of 996s – a standard, late-model Carrera 2 plus a mildly-modified GT3 – and some tasty, testing roads up on the North Yorkshire moors.
We’ll start with the basics. The car you see here is a typical affordable 996 in what Porsche specialists will tell you (and the classifieds will confirm) is one of the most desirable specifications: a 3.6-litre 2004 Carrera 2 with the six-speed manual, in silver with a grey interior and 60,000 miles on the clock. So, how does it wear those miles and those 13 years?
From the outside, very well. It looks smooth and clean on its original Turbo-look five-spoke 18-inchers, the paint is in excellent condition, the panels are free of dings and scratches, and it’s on quality tyres with plenty of tread. The last is always a good sign; it’s said that if you want to know how clean the kitchens at a restaurant are, visit the toilets. I reckon an owner prepared to keep a car on good tyres probably won’t have skimped on maintenance.
‘Regular maintenance is a must,’ says Darren Anderson, boss of specialist RPM Technik. The company has been championing the 996 for a number of years now, sourced the Carrera 2 for this feature and even lent it to Octane in its raw, not-yet-prepared-for-sale state. So, do the engines blow up?
‘On a car we will be selling, the first thing we do is change the intermediate shaft bearing if it hasn’t already been done,’ he says. It might be fine, but Anderson’s view is that it’s simply not worth the risk. (Everything else you need to know when looking to buy a 996 is at the end of the story, in the ‘What To Look For’ section.)
This car is clean on the outside and very ‘slipon shoes’ grey inside. The look of the interior is
‘There was gnashing and wailing from hardcore 911 enthusiasts when 993 production ended in 1997’
very similar to the Boxster’s, but with a more comprehensive cluster of five round dials featuring that reassuringly bold Porsche typeface and orange needles. It’s rather blandly styled, and a downside of the one-colour interior is that some surfaces are finished in soft-touch paint which is now feeling tacky to the fingers. Certain features date it: the fourCD stowage (there’s a six-disc stacker in the front boot, along with an upright space-saver spare), and a CD-based navigation system that hasn’t seen an update since the late 2000s. So it defaults to pointing in the general direction of the destination when it encounters a new road.
The fundamentals are great, though. The standard ‘tombstone’ seats offer both longdistance comfort and hard-cornering support, and the driving position is square, with seat, wheel and pedals all aligned. All-round visibility is excellent and it’s not a big car, just a few inches longer than a current Golf but narrower, so you’re at ease when positioning it.
The water-cooled flat-six was originally a 300bhp 3.4 but from the 2002 model year became a 320bhp 3.6. It has a melodic, pulsing character at idle, and on pulling away the whole car thrills gently to its distinct, guttural, flat-six drawl. I’d like more of this character in the midrange, but recognise that when the engineers at Weissach were creating the 996 they had everyday use and cruising refinement in mind. A sports exhaust offered in period gave a