mooty

OP has been around a long time with p cars.
if he wants DD, the GT3/2 is fine. they are very cushy, may be on par with993
if he needs room, cayenne turbo is phenomenal and I have chased down many many GT3 GT2 even on tight canyons.
but sounds like he wants to have a taste of air cooled. if that's the case. then nothing will replace that desire.
993 and 964 are both modern enough to fit that bill.
I would suggest to drive both, very different cars, and immediately narrow down to one model then try the variants.

mooty

if you are hankering for the AC experience, then you got to hit it.
993/964 try them out.
and drive a G body as well
you may not like G body, but a test drive will know for sure. leave nothing to doubts.

Mike J

I live in Vancouver, lots of rain, and liked the AWD on the Turbo - primarily you can get the power down easier. If on throttle, I could often feel the front tires pulling on the pavement. However, if does give the front end an heavier feel, and it's easy to get over confident since the stopping is not any different and the car is designed to understeer. :-). That being said, I thought I would use the AWD more often, but then did not take the car out in the rotten weather much due to its high value - as you know the 993TT's are through the roof right now and from recent BAT results they seem to climbing still.

After driving pretty well any GT3 and then jumping into the 993TT, you notice the heaviness and lack of "life" to the steering that the GT3 seems to have in spades. I was going to convert the 993TT to rear wheel drive, but decided against it because, again, of its high value and that will impact its originality. Also, the 993TT is heavy compared to the 997 GT3's, that might also explain some of the difference in feel.

I was thinking about tires recently, and how modern 911's with 2wd can do so well in crappy weather - well the tire tech has greatly improved in the last 25 years since the 993TT launched, so I am sure 2wd ala GT2 would be fine in that car with proper tires.

To summarize, for me it's all about steering feel and response - the AWD systems are the heaviest and dampened but still with good feel, the 2WD air cooled are much better and have better textual feel of the road, but the sharpest and best turn-in are definitely the GT3's, which is 2wd combined with superior suspension design.

Sorry for the rambling, hopefully I answered your questions sort-of lol.

Cheers,

Mike

widers911

^ OT, but how did you get a sunroof delete in your .1 gt3? Factory spec or after the fact?

rsabeebe

clearly a lot of great info and experience here on the topic. with the market where it is, i think your idea of a 993 C2 is a good choice. right now, the C2 is [possibly] undervalued and certainly a good buy when compared to the WB 993 and the 964. the high demand models are the WBs and the NB 964, so a 993 C2 is at least the potential best value of the bunch. for me, they're both amazing examples of the air-cooled era and wonderful fun. they feel rather small in comparison also, which i really like - more like a real sportscar.

Mike J

In Canada we have a 15 year importation rule so my GT3 is a Japanese ROW version lol. We have a 10 year window before it opens up to the USA so we can chose .... and yes it's left hand drive.

Jrtaylor9

Buy a 993. It's a great car along with everything mentioned on here. Drive it. If you like it, keep it. If you don't or tire of it, swap it for something else in the Porsche lineup. They make good stuff from each era. Man, it's really all personal preference. and in my experience even that changes with individuals over time. The things I like today are different than 10yrs ago.

E-Man

Steve, you're welcome to drive my 993 C2S sometime. Like you, you know i'm a hardcore 997 GT car fan. Best car ever territory! But I will tell you if I drive my 993, I want to drive it again the next day, and the next, and this really doesn't stop. Then when I get in a 997 GT3 it feels borderline luxury'ish... just not as connected. Then I start driving it faster and after a while that feeling comes back of why I love it so much, but the aircooled car changes your perception on things, which amazed me. I had a stock 993 turbo many years ago and it felt like I was driving a marshmallow with earplugs on. I mean it was soft.... I'm sure a stock 993 Carrera feels pretty soft compared to a 997 GT car too. My 993 happens to have suspension, exhaust, short shift etc..so a lot of it has to do with the setup of each car...makes a big difference. But I will tell you a good aircooled car, like a 993 is a wonderful distraction.

Steve Theodore

I want to take a minute to thank all of you for responding. Based on the current market 'heat' for 993s and 964s and the fact that I lost one at auction last week that I really wanted, I made the decision to call off the search for now. If anything I have many of you to thank for saving me a lot of money...so definitely appreciate that part of it too. As for @E-Man and his kind offer, I will gladly take you up on it (he and I are personal friends) and I look forward to seeing you soon for that fall weather drive we talk about!

seis-speed

I have considered selling my GT3 to get an AC car, but I am worried I would regret it down the road (my GT3 is a flawless example would be hard to duplicate) but there is the nagging feeling that I should go for it. The other thought was going "all out" on a backdated car - engine, paint, seats, suspension, etc... but it gets pretty expensive and selling it would be more nuanced.

Typical car guy - thinking about the next cool project/purchase.