Capt. Obvious

This is a fascinating conversation with Pinky Lai (chief designer of the 996, and E36 BMW). He goes into a lot of detail about the design process of the 996 and his battles with the bean counters and engineers at Porsche to design the car.

manimal

Thanks for sharing!

Freier

Nice find Darrick, thanks for sharing. Great to hear from Pinky himself on the development of the 996. I'm curious what the other 3 potential 996 designs, that his team beat, actually looked like.

TrillyPop

I'm gonna start calling it the 9-96.

SOS

The last bullet. I like that.

Wish the interview was longer. It seemed to cut off suddenly.

2fcknfst

Very cool, thank you. I have a pair of those sunglasses...

PiB993

My e36 M3 was fantastic - missed

And I like the 996 headlight design.

Mezger Man

After hearing this, when will the 996 get the praise it deserves? As owners we know how wonderful our cars are. These are the first water cooled Porsche ever. We should be sitting on 6 figure cars here like the 993. We're the red headed stepchild.

Carlo_Carrera

Tough to say. The 964 was the red headed stepchild of the air-cooled era and now they are loved. Not sure why, I never liked the one I had.

The 996 generation overall is tainted by the IMS and cylinder scoring issues of the non-Mezger cars. Add on the unique headlights and there is lot for people to disparage. Another weird drag on the 996 is contrary to popular belief the cars were very popular when sold new. There are a ton of them out there while the 964 and 993 did not sell in large numbers when new and thus are now rare. 964 Turbos produced - 5097, 993 Turbos produced - 6282, 996 Turbos produced - 22062.

I see the 996 being much like the G-series cars of 1976-1989. They are great cars but there is a ton of them around so they will never be highly coveted, still desirable, but not lusted after.

Mezger Man

I was talking about the Turbos not the non Mezger cars.

Carlo_Carrera

They are interlinked. Can't discuss one with out the other.

In the end it all comes down to rarity. 964 and 993 Turbos are rarer than 930, 996 Turbos.

Mezger Man

Sure you can, two different animals. It's like a Mustang GT and a Shelby GT350R.

Carlo_Carrera

911s are not like Mustangs. There is a direct correlation in the prices of base 911s and their high end siblings Turbos and GT3s. They rise and fall pretty much as a group. Don't take my word for it. Look at sales on BaT or Hagerty's price guide. `

Mezger Man

If you can understand what I said you will see my point. That was an analogy. I didn't mean Mustangs and Porsches are the same. Low mileage turbos sell for much more than medium to high mileage ones. Carreras have the IMS stigma and are much cheaper to buy. The engineering in the Turbo was more robust. How do you base your comment on them not being highly coveted, only time will tell. Look at other makes that had humble beginnings and now are collectible. Even my 928GT was scoffed at back in the day, now people are falling in love with them.

Carlo_Carrera

You asked for opinions and I gave mine based on dealing with 911s, buying selling, for 40+ years. I am sorry if you don't like the answers.

I see the 996TT increasing in value over time but it will most likely never reach the value levels of the 964T and 993TT.

IMHO the 996TT will see valuations much like the 930. Mostly because they were made in similar numbers. But is will take quite a bit of time for the 996TT to get there.

Also if you check the sources I listed, the valuations of every 911 generation is intertwined throughout that entire series. Sure base 996s are cheap but so are 996TTs and 996GT3s relative to the 993 and 997 cars. That is just how it is with 911s. The entire model range of G-series cars are not as valuable as the range of 964 series and 993 series. Certain series of 911s are just more desired than others.