doubleurx

Well, I am jealous of the lift! I would love that in my garage. I just don't have the vertical height.

tvurt

I still miss the brake and steering feel of my 993, and the ability to have "fun" at low speeds of my 964/911's.

The 996tt is a supercar with a few mods, but it is more sanitized. A bit of a numb steering and brake feel, but with massive raw power that is fun in its own right.

I plan on keeping the 996tt and adding a GT3, for a balance of fun.

jpflip

The Porsche turbo was my dream car. If I had the chance of doing it all over again.... The turbo would not be on my list anymore.
I would go for the GT3 without any hesitation.
Turbo are not a reliable car. There is always something to look at. Being a mechanic, I do my own maintenance and this car will never see a garage except for wheel alignment or balancing.
Almost three years since I bought it and I had all kind of problems. Oil pressure sender, window regulator, oil pressure not rising immediately on start, litronic control unit, key loosing his programming, slave internal bypassing of fluid, unable to fuel the car, air leaks in one of the lines in the maze of sense line on top of the engine...
I had so many problems that I spend lots of time on these forums to found cure. And let me tell you, all the problems I had somebody somewhere had the same problem. Most of the time I was able to found a fix from them(thanks a lot guys). Good to have those forums but scary when you look at it from different angle.
I still love the car, the looks, the power but there is a price to pay and may be my financial situation is not good enough to own a turbo.
I cannot imagine somebody who got no clues about maintenance and get everything done at the dealership... You have to be a cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills to pay the bills and the parts at dealer cost!!!
I wrote a list of potential issues and that keep me inform about eventual possible failure. That way I still can manage to keep this beast but sometimes it is really depressing.... But I'm still a Porsche fanatic but more realist now....

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index..._1#entry187317

John D II

Thanks, TRINITONY. I truly enjoy it. Purchased it new in '02 and have 108,000 miles on it...and it still looks like new inside and out.

PAULUNM

A lot of these issues would be possible on the GT3 as well, don't you think?

What was the problem with your oil pressure at start up?

Hoosier_Daddy

+1.

You can see from my sig what I've had in the past. There is almost not a day that goes by when I don't miss something about those early cars. I'll be picking up one again.

IMO, the 996 Turbo is such a fast car in all aspects that it's hard to find places to really enjoy it's capabilities without being WAY over the public's threshold of tolerance. (Except on a race track) To the contrary, I could always find someplace to drive the SC or 3.2, even the 964 or 993, in a spirited manner and garner only the dirty look of being a minor annoyance.

jpflip

Yes I agree with you Paulunm. May be my car was put together the monday after the Octoberfest.
Lack of oil pressure on start up was my main concern. I've found little metal in the filter and was really concern about it. I first replaced the check valve in the bottom of the oil tank as per TSB 1728 without any success. Finally after reading several post decided to replace the Mobil 0W40 for Castrol Syntec 5W40 and to my big surprise , no more lack of oil pressure on start.... It is a complete fix. I am still worried about the little chips (the size of a ball at the end of a pen) There was four of them and one was bronze....

niner niner seven

Kindly care to compare the 996TT to the 993TT?

thanks in advance

Oak

owned most all the air cooled variants from 356's, early 70's carreras, 80's turbos and SC's, haven't looked back since the 996tt.

KNS

Thanks for all the replies guys, keep 'em coming.

John D II

I loved my 993TT and couldn't imagine anything better at the time. I ordered a new 996TT in '01 for '02 delivery and figured I would try it and only keep it if I liked it better. I ended up selling the 993TT a month after taking delivery of the 996TT. I drove them back to back for a month and lost interest in the 993TT immediately. The 996TT does everything better and is a much more comfortable car, especially the climate contol system. Every time I took the 993 it just seemed like an old car and it only had 20,000 miles on it and was perfect! I had no problem moving on. I have had the 996TT for almost 9 years now and I am still thrilled with it. Every other 911 I have owned became a little mundane after about 2-3 years. Personally, I am so pleased with the 996TT, but I also modded it fairly extensively to make it the car it is...IMO the 996TT gets really great with an upgraded coil over suspension, a turbo upgrade and a nice exhaust. 996 GT3 seats are a great addition, too!

horsepowerfarm

I have owned 18 air cooled and 1 water cooled Porsches since 1971. I am a new 996TT owner (Porsche number 20 for me). It's a rough, fairly fast, point and shoot riotous good time.

Every one of my Porsches was different and very enjoyable. The 3 stand outs were, my silver/ red full leather '73 S, an '87 Carrera in Granite Green/ green full leather. My still, all time favorite Porsche is a non air cooled '87 944 Turbo, faster than my 996TT and my Benz in a straight line, (it has heavy mods) and no doubt faster around any dry corner. But it is no daily driver. So, I'll take the 996TT any day.

Here is a picture of the 951, and I will probably never get rid of it.

DaveK

I've had my 996 turbo for about 18 months now, and I've had my 964 for about 10 years.

When I first got the turbo - once the initial excitement about having a new car wore off - I seriously considered selling it back to the dealer. This was for a number of reasons - one of which is similar to jpflip's post above. I seemed to have constant problems with the car (even though I'd bought a 1 owner 20k mile garage queen). Nothing major - but always something, and enough that it really stopped me bonding with the car. It was a case of "fixed that - what will break next?". Fortunately, everything seems to be ironed out now and the car has been fine for the last few months.

I know that for most of us, fast = good, and faster = even better - but one of my other doubts about the car (and this one does remain) is that it's the first car I've had where I really do question if it needs to be this fast. "Cartoon fast" is how I describe it to people, and for once I think all of the people who say "cars don't need to be that fast when the national speed limit is xxxx" have a point! I am quite sure that if I'd bought an NA 996, I would have been happy - in most situations even the 964 power is plenty. I confess I still toy with the idea of getting it mapped - but that's more because I've heard that this makes them even more drievable (less lag) than because I need outright power.

As mentioned in previous posts - the modern cars have a very different feel to the air cooled equivalents. For the first year of ownership, whenever I went down my local twisty road in the turbo - I wished I was in the 964. And whenever I went down it in the 964 - I questioned why I'd bought the turbo.

However - my views changed quite dramatically about 6 months ago. I had the alignment carried out by a well known specialist in the UK - including new control arms etc. The car was transformed. While it will never have the go-cart like feel of a 964 - I no longer wish I was in the 964 when I'm on a twisty road - and in fact, there have been several occasions where I've been on a twisty road in the 964 and wished I'd had the turbo.

The 964 is a much more raw experience, and can be a lot more fun. But, the difference has got a lot smaller since I had the alignment done and got more used to the turbo. The refinement of the turbo is nice, the power is obviously fun when you want it and - if you want to go mad on the twisties - you still can, even if you don't get quite as much feel.

Much as I like the 964 - I do find I'm just not using it now, and I'm considering selling it. The only thing stopping me is it's sometimes handy to have a second car - and if you're going to have 2 cars, you could do a lot worse than have 2 x 911s...... But I am aware that I'm beginning to view it a bit like I started viewing my motorcycles - that I use it because I feel I should rather than because I really want to (which is why I no longer have motorcycles - and funnily enough, that feeling started when I got the 964....).

Since the turbo seems be my preferred choice whatever type of journey I'm going on, I guess I have made the transition to preferring it over the 964. As somebody else mentioned - it's also made the 964 feel old and it's the first car that's done that. I've owned / driven many newer cars than the 964, and was always surprised that the 964 still felt modern (even if the interior doesn't look it) - but the turbo has shattered that illusion.

I've also found that my (daily driver) annual mileage has jumped from about 9k miles a year to around 15k miles a year - so the turbo must be doing something right, because I seem to find plenty of excuses to drive it!

puma

JP, you car is asking for mods. Don't worry, once everything wil be changed, you'll be good as new

Sorry to hear you are thinking about getting rid of it, hope you won't find a buyer

jcb-memphis

+1

And the economics of this model are outrageous....best buy imho if you get a good one and budget accordingly for it .....since I fixed the 2nd gear issue, did the gt2 slave mod from EVOMS, got a lwfw and clutch from Kevin at UMW, and the stereo got replaced...pretty much all the "big" issues are done. Exhaust, engine, seats, susspension..the car is probably 95% what a new car is for 1/4 or less the price. Corner balance and some DE's....amazing car. Great for my track skill and still something I'd drive across the US.


I actually really lucked out and got one with a great interior.....some 996's are frankly boring...but that is the case with 993's as well.


JB