Loved when new, rejected by purists used, and now on the rise again as a classic - happy birthday, 996 🥳
It’s not like Porsche to be behind the curve on anything, but only now has it seen fit to mark 25 years of the first water-cooled 911, the 996. This is despite the actual debut taking place at the 1997 Frankfurt motor show, which was held in September of that year. Still, better late than never - 996-generation Porsche 911, this is your life.
As we move further away from the 1990s, so Porsche’s predicament at the time become an ever more distant memory. But things really didn’t look so good, with an ageing and expensive line up. Hence a couple of momentous decisions for the 996. Not only would it switch from air- to water-cooling, it would also share pretty much everything up to the B-pillar with the then-new 986 Boxster.
For this big anniversary, Porsche has also interviewed August Achleitner, who has a very long job title at Porsche and was essentially overseeing the 996 project. He has suggested that the old air-cooled, two-valve-per-cylinder engines were “at the end of the road technologically in terms of emissions and power” by the mid-1990s, so had to be changed.
Despite what’s often suggested now, the 996 was received well in the media, and proved a smash hit with customers. Up until the entire 997 range came on stream in 2005, Porsche sold 175,000 of the 911s with the fried egg headlights, from the first GT3 in 1999 to the GT2 of 2001, and the Targa with the big sunroof to the epic all-wheel drive Turbo.
With such a milestone being celebrated, and with so many 996s being sold, it would be remiss not to have a peek in the classifieds to see what might be bought for the big birthday. Sadly, the days of decent £10k cars are gone, though there are nice autos and cabrios around £15,000. This Carrera 4 coupe looks
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