knfeparty

Had the opportunity to drive another 996 back-to-back against mine at the autocross Saturday.

Mine is a 40th anniversary, so it has 3.6L, x51, and a (very worn out @ 91k miles) LSD. My mods include muffler bypass pipes, konis, and a rear swaybar. Tires are RE71R and BFG Rival-S, although they are over a year old and the Rivals are on their last leg.

The other car I drove was a MY2000 996 Cab, so it's the 3.4L. It had some sort of air box mod (I didn't look, probably a K&N or fabspeed or something) and I believe some sport mufflers too. Stock everything else, on Pilot Sport twos.

My car is setup up extremely loose, so the stock suspension cab felt a bit pushy in a couple spots but overall not bad. Certainly much easier to drive as it wasn't sliding everywhere. What I couldn't believe was how much less power it had, everywhere. It was painfully slow. The car's owner and another guy there in a new base-model Cayman both rode with me and couldn't believe how much thrust my car had compared to theirs.

I've heard lots of talk about the X51 not being good for autocross because it only makes power up high, and muffler bypass not being good for autocross because it reduces low-end torque (this last one is definitely true at very low RPMs). I've even heard some people say the early 996 would be better for autocross; maybe a 99 with an LSD and a lightweight build would, but this cab was definitely not that.

On a course where I was putting down high 43s in my car, I was in mid 46s in the cab.

In conclusion: 40th anniversary is still a rocket in 2016.

John@Fabspeed

Nice write up and review of the differences between the cars! Driver mod, suspension setup and tires is the deciding factor on an autocross course, but a painfully slow car is also going to have painfully slow times given the first three factors are similar or the same haha. Wish you were closer we could go out and autox together