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Hah. I tried to do it in a tasteful way with the "996.2 owners nows your chance" thread. Seems that the owners are a pretty low key bunch. But the reality is the 996.2 is a hell of a car with a great engine, if you change the oil.
Not to mention, the 996.2 headlights are the only 996 headlights that ACTUALLy did win Lemans. 2005 GT class.
OP, @bdronsick has a a very very long thread all about the unique qualities, some real, some subjective, of the early '99 cars. That will tell you all you want to know, and then some.
I just spent some time looking through his thread... it definitely would've convinced me to NOT make this thread, for oh so many reasons
Me thinks we need a "What makes late builds so special anyway" thread
I have a belief that it's cyclical, like anything else. Like 90's kids wearing their parents tie-dye; and now 90's kid's kids wearing their 90's clothes today. If we are well past the acceptance revival and now we've got focus on early model superiority... I'd say 'round the year 2027 we will see a thread titled "Holy crap did you guys realize that 996.2's have the same headlights as Turbo's?" and the 2nd dawning of the late build shall see light.
Quite a few things are the same between the two generations and quite a bit are different. Bumpers, aero kits, engine, rigidity, etc.
Attached from google books is a link with the first 100+ pages of the Porsche 996 The Essential Companion, which is an expensive book, but a must have book if you want accurate info. Too much BS circulates on RL and other forums on both generations.
For any 911, its not about which one is better, its about the one that you prefer.
They are not actually.
Even if you want to consider them "special" because they were manufactured together with the 993 (even all the 996 after were also produced in the same line), as you can read in that piece of text, that was just until early in the year 98, what applies for MY98 cars (second column in the table)
Model year for the 996 changed around July, meaning that most of the US cars that you see in the US as manufactured in 98, are in fact, MY99 (they will count in the third column) and there is nothing special in those numbers.
Special are definetely the first 14 MY97, and the MY98 if you want, because is the first full year of production and because is the year with less production, but none of them made it to the US (where they started to arrive in MY99 format, meaning manufactured from mid 98 to mid 99)
Interesting table!
I didn't know the 99 was the most common car. Always thought 99 (my year) was unique in it's awesomeness
99 is the best however, that is been agreed by the experts.
The 996 is the last chassis that will be "federally" legal to LS swap... 06 is the cutoff for mixing brands..
after 06 must be same year or newer and SAME marque.. If I read it correctly...
Also if you dig around and look at assembly line pics, I believe with Toyota consulting, once they dedicated the line to the 996,
the trolls for the cars changed to computer trolleys and a lot of the support systems became robotic assist.
Toyota was big on Hybrid lines at that time, using human controlled robotics to place parts. So there were human eyes keeping quality in line.
It also reduced conflict with the unions..
I’ll never get why a hand built car is better than a computer built car. As mentioned before, computers don’t have bad days.
Now I have had a 00 box S, a 02 C4S and now a 99 Box Base. The 99 has the cheapest interior of the bunch but I prefer the plastic since I can spill stuff on it and not worry about the leather drying out. I also like the steering which is a little different and last but not least, the cassette player. 😜. Anyways, I the reason I picked the 99 base was the dual row bearing and almost zero bore scoring. But there is that 5 chain thing. Damm it. As someone mentioned above, drive them all and decide for yourself. There is no bad answer.
OP, @bdronsick has a a very very long thread all about the unique qualities, some real, some subjective, of the early '99 cars. That will tell you all you want to know, and then some.
he also told us like 623x how the 408 wheels were 9 inches in the rear.
There are so many available Options that there are hardly ever two alike..The closer you look the more differences you can see.,and when you own it, you see even more differences...Hence ALL Porsche are special...
04-04-2023, 12:20 PM
