I'm on my journey to buying my first 911 and have found a remarkably similar 996 C4S and 40 Jahre Anniversary edition. I'd love opinions on which to go for.

Use case:
I live in Vancouver, BC, and plan to drive the car year round on weekend joyrides. Our shared "daily" driver only gets about 8k km (5k mi) per year since I cycle commute to work and my partner works from home, so I anticipate the 911 will only get 3k km/2k mi per year of use. I like the idea of taking the 911 on the occasional ski trip with winter tires and skis on the roof (plowed roads with a good car wash after), but would primarily drive the car in good weather. I enjoy the handling feel of a good car on twisty roads and would also consider going to a track once or twice, but don't expect I would push a 911 to its limit often if ever and certainly won't be doing regular track days. I expect mostly to enjoy the car on local day trips through backroads and mountains.

The cars:
As mentioned, they are remarkably similar. Both cars have:
- Clean Carfax
- Manual transmission
- Silver on black (GT Silver with the dark grey leather on the 40 Jahre of course, Arctic silver on Black for the C4S)
- 60k miles/90k km
- IMSB and clutch changed at 40k miles/60k km
- Long-term owners with lots of service records - both claim the car is turnkey ready with no mechanical issues
- Minor cosmetic flaws, but no major exterior or interior damage
- Similar asking prices - roughly 39k USD for the 40 Jahre and 43k USD for the 4S - close enough that it doesn't make a big difference to me.

4S highlights:
- Tech Art intake and exhaust as well as Fuchs-style black wheels

40 Jahre highlights:
- Bone stock as far as I can tell. I'm not sure if the owner has the matching luggage set yet (but I'm planning to ask)

Current thoughts:
This boils down to looks vs. performance for me. I started my 911 search looking for a C4S because of the wide body stance and reflector bar, both of which remind me of the 930s and 964s that turned 6 year old me into a lifelong 911 fan. However, the 40 Jahre appeals to me with the more driver focused package with the X51 powertrain, upgraded suspension, and RWD set-up. I also appreciate the limited edition nature of the 40 Jahre (although one could argue the C4S is also somewhat limited if looking for only silver on black with manual transmission). I had previously worried about AWD vs. RWD during the winter, but most of my reading has suggested the C4S AWD is really designed to maximize traction out of corners, so unlikely to affect winter driving at slow speeds. I'm having a really tough time deciding which one I might like to pursue, especially as I haven't had an opportunity to compare the driving experiences in either of these cars first hand.

My plan is to ask the owners a few more questions about the cars histories and then pick one to send for a PPI and potentially purchase.

Assuming neither owner sends me bad vibes when I chat further, I'm curious which car you would recommend. I know I ultimately need to decide for myself, but would love the community's thoughts on what you think would be the best fit for me or what you would choose for yourself. Do I go for the C4S stunning looks or the driver experience of the 40 Jahre? Or something else and why?!

 

I love the looks of the C4S, but if it were me I'd say all points towards getting the 40J. Cheaper, unmodified, lighter, more powerful, rarer, etc.

 

Both are great cars with two different looks and two different driving experiences. Only you can make the call as to which one is a better fit. Go see them and drive them to pinpoint your preference.

Either way, get the service history to see what's been done and when. But more importantly, to see what hasn't been done to the cars that should have been done over the past 20 years. Unless the owner is an avid 996 guy and has been actively servicing the car and refreshing parts along the way (yep there are many of us), pretty good bet that you will need to spend between $5-15k on parts and service on a 20 year old car to bring it up to condition.

Get a thorough PPI done with a borescope from the sump to check the condition of the sleeves for borescoring. See what bits are in the sump and oil filter. Use the service history of when parts were replaced to cross check with PPI. I would also get a 3 day turnaround oil test kit from LN engineering and have the indy take an oil sample and send it out for testing immediately to get the results to add to your decision making.

Any of the 996s are awesome cars. Get the one that has been maintained the best, that is in the best mechanical shape with the smoothest bores you can find. Then service the hell out of it and drive it like you mean it.

The 996 is an incredible car.

 

What GC996 said + I'll chime in as I was in a similar situation few years back. I was privileged enough to be able to drive my friends C4S for about 3 months and 3k miles so got a good feel for the car. I very much enjoyed the car and looked for one like it but ended up with a 40AE car (#1111) and very happy I did. C4S has it's wide body looks which I loved and with the AWD, it gives you a lot more confidence in the corners. With that, the steering felt a bit heavier and muted to me when compared to a RWD car. Here are a few reasons why I ended up choosing the 40AE:
- X51 package with LSD. It may be only 25HP but the way the power is delivered, especially at the top end really makes it different from the standard M96. The throttle pedal also always felt a bit sharper to me as well. Could be something in the X51 specific ECU map.
- Not sure if the C4S you're looking at has full leather but the 40AE just felt nicer to me. You get full leather everywhere and I really like the natural gray color vs black.
- My car had the sport seats which I adore.
- As sexy as the C4S looks, I really like the narrow body look and you get some of the C4S/Turbo benefits of the bumper and larger radiators with the 40AE
- With the lighter steering of RWD, the car feels more alive and planted at the same time. It's really an amazing drivers car and hope you get a chance to drive it as much as you can.
- GT Silver is a really cool color which is now making more of a come back. At the time 40AE was the only car besides the Carrera GT that was painted in GT Silver from factory. For 997 it was like a $10k option.

No matter your choice, as Glenn mentioned, do a PPI and examine the records. As great as the X51 motor is, it's not immune from bore scoring and other issues a standard M96 would have. The equation is easy - drive it often and hard, oil changes every 5k miles and do the maintenance and you should be a happy owner.

 

To me this is slam dunk Jahre. C4S’s are beautiful but arctic is meh and the Jahre looks better than almost any 996 imo. You get looks plus performance - and the element of “special”. Those interiors are beautiful, that natural leather is amazing.

 

C4S.

Why?:
- Widebody.
- All wheel drive (you live in Canada, bro)
- You and other people (even non-Porsche people) will respond to the widebody. With the 40 Jahre, you have to explain why it's special...even to Porsche people. And like they say, it's like a joke, if you have to explain it, it's not funny.

 

Not that future values should at all be a determining factor in which one you go for, but I'd wager that the 40th Jahre will eventually blow past the value of the C4S as time goes on, should you want to sell the vehicle down the road. The only thing the C4S has over the Jahre is the heckblende, and that's just a visual/subjective thing.

 

I've only had people's interest peak when they saw a narrow body car with a C4S/Turbo front end. The variety of the cars is what typically gets folks excited and variety is the spice of life If you care about the values, keep in mind that out of the 1963 cars only 800 were meant for the NA market. Out of those some have met their end and the registry has never accounted for all cars. Ted has done a great job keeping track but we think it's possible that not all 1963 were actually produced, making it a bit more rare.

 

I agree with the above. The 40 Jahre has the best chance of holding its value or going up. The down side of that is you might be a little more nervous about doing ski trips with it, etc. The C4S might be more care free in that regard.

 

I used to be into sneakers. I literally had over 100 pair of "special" sneakers. I had rare 1/200 pairs made sneakers. I would strut like a peacock when I left to go out wearing them.

One evening when getting ready to go out, I put on some of my most rare kicks. My girlfriend at the time was like, "Why don't you wear those?", as she points to some regular white sneakers that I got from the mall. Nothing special. I'm like, "But, these are 1 of 200 pairs made. Designed by so-and-so in Japan. These logos mean...". And she's like, "Yah. Whatever. The other ones look better."

To me, the widebody C4S looks better than all narrow body cars. For me, the hips and red bar from that back is, [chef's kiss], perfect.

The only thing as good or better are some older generation widebodies with the red bars.

But, that's just my opinion...which OP asked for.

 

You can love wide bodies all you want but I totally disagree in regards to having to explain why the Jahre is special. It pops.

 

I appreciate the anecdote, but the 40th Jahre isn’t just “rare”. It has more power than the standard C4S, RWD instead of AWD, and it has the LSD if that matters for one’s driving purposes.

I personally like the look of the C4S more, but there are meaningful upgrades that the Jahre has that the C4S doesn’t. The fact that the Jahre is probably the “better” vehicle (assuming condition being equal) would make it a no brainer choice… especially since it is cheaper in this case.

 

How is RWD an advantage over AWD for OP?

How much HP are we talking? Anything that anyone would notice?

 

345 vs 320 definitely noticeable plus the lsd.

 

Dude, 25HP is not noticeable. AWD acceleration is noticeable and quantifiable.