this thread reminds me definitively of the adage:

"i can explain something to you, but i can't make you understand it".

some people will always resist the truth.

 

So your saying in still doesn't exist?? Agree some do not have it but later models do.

 

I wrote that on MY '01 it does NOT have the bracing.. Fact..

There are early and late production 2001 cars..

 

Sorry Kevin your post does not read that way.

 

Edited 2001 and 2002..

 

Yes, and it's even more than that: were the additions to the chassis made to improve safety, or the improve stiffness? If they were made to improve safety and the addition(s) also somehow added stiffness to the chassis, how much stiffness are we talking about (answer = nobody knows)?

The bottom line is that the forum go-to replies to the questions that go something like: "What were the major changes made in '02", or "Which 996 Turbo to get, the '01 or the '02?" can not be the blanket answer..."The '02 is 25% stiffer than the '01", or even "The '02 is stiffer than the '01", because neither of those answers would be true.

 

For some its an honest attempt at being accurate but for most its a pecking order syndrome that makes them feel good about their car= wish this would transcend into owners stopping the practice of undermining the value of our cars with low ball promoting..

 

I agree with you; however, at some point the number of these cars that are flipped enough times and continuously exposed to the "drive them hard/modify them hard, and put them up wet" style of ownership will mean that the number of well taken care of cars will eventually be small enough that the prices for these cars will really go up significantly.

 

That is a fact and can be proven by numerous examples. There are cars that I keep an eye out for that are hard to find in good condition just because of this.

 

Dock, as was pointed out in a past post, there are legal consequences for manufacturers misrepresenting facts in nearly all jurisdictions Porsche sells in. Why would they lie? Do you have any proof - no, any qualified sources that say the figures Porsche provided were wrong? It is, after all, Porsche and not just Joe's Race Car Shop that made the changes and the statements.

As for this being strictly for safety purposes - I do not buy into that either. Porsche is interested in providing a stiff chassis for handling purposes. They are also interested in making their cars safe. But making a car torsionally stiff does not necessarily make them safe.

As 02996ttx50 says, some people will alway maintain that the sky is pink. I actually think it's not a case of 02> owners making themselves feel better by pecking on the lowly 01 owners, it seems to me to be a case of 01 owners with inferiority complexes

Just for the record - and to lay to rest once and for all the notion that there are no differences between an 01 and an 02>:

My 03/01


A later shell



Add to all that a seat pan stamping made "aus einem anderen Stahl" (of a different steel) as my Porsche source told me, and a large increase in stiffness becomes understandable.

The funny thing is it looks like the hole for the tube in the rear seat base was already there in the early cars. Porsche was probably just waiting for the 02MY to spring the change...

 

Yes my 12/00 build is a transition of the shell has the rear seat tube form shape without the tube going through it. Obviously they made the shell change to fit in some time in the future but later builds they started putting this tube in as well prior to 02 model year.

I have own both a 02 and a 01. There is no way I can tell there is a handling improvement between them. What really makes a handling improvement is a good alignment and coilovers. I have coilovers on my 01 which feels and handles much better compared with my stock suspension on the 02. I do believe now after so much posts and discovery that this tube does provide better safety for side impact. Some lucky 01's that got them, 02 and newer cars does provide increased safety vs the 01's that don't have it.

 

They did not intentionally lie. They made a mistake in their literature.

Yes; a friend at PCNA. And no, he isn't just a pencil sharpener. He is a Vice President.

There are differences. It's just a matter of: 1) what those differences actually mean in terms of chassis stiffness and 2) making the mistake of grouping ALL '01 996 Turbos into a single chassis arrangement (you'd have to have either been on this forum awhile or spent some time searching to understand what the conservation regarding "what are the differences between the '01 and the '02" is all about).

 

...and dock's turbo is highly unique in that it is equipped with some massive backpedals with which he pedals furiously, all to no avail LOL

 

I don't remember ever saying that there are zero ("no") chassis differences between all '01 builds and all '02 builds. The issue has always been about whether or not all '02's were 25% stiffer than all '01's.

 

Total thread jack, but which coilovers do you have on your '01?