Background
The Porsche 911 first broke cover in 1963, morphing over the years from a svelte and elfin sportscar into the current swollen-hipped, muscular ballistic bruiser beloved today. While the early cars were slow(ish) and fragile, the later cars are very fast and almost indestructible, which makes them the model of choice for the discerning enthusiast who cares more about driving than polishing.
While the 996 of 1997 onwards is the first of what many consider to be the ‘new’ 911, it is also the first of the water-cooled models, which leads many to deride it as not being a ‘proper’ 911. This is, of course, utter nonsense. But, the fact remains that the market doesn’t value them as highly as either the older or the newer models like the 997 you see here. Porsche had got its eye-in after eight years of water-cooled production, rattling out the hugely powerful and efficient new engines by the tens of thousands. The base model Carrera is a great introduction to the range, but the Carrera 4S with a larger engine, more power, all-wheel drive, and a sports suspension and exhaust, marked a new marketing strategy for Porsche, one based on trying to move buyers up from the base model whenever possible.
In 2004, the first iteration of the 997 came in, though issues with IMS bearing failure and the engine’s dislike of being over-revved persisted. It was a good start – and a much better car than the 996 it replaced – but more work was needed. This work was completed in 2007, with the introduction of the second generation 997, as you see here. The engine was now as bomb-proof as any that Porsche had ever built and the car was now available with the company’s brilliant PDK twin-clutch gearbox. (Previously only the Tiptronic had been offered to customers who didn’t want to change gear themselves.) The retuned four-wheel-drive system now featured torque vectoring, which helped turn-in and meant that enthusiast drivers who needed all-weather mobility were no longer being punished by a somewhat inert and unresponsive chassis. Performance was strong with the turbo-charged model capable of hitting 62mph in around three seconds when fitted with four-wheel-drive and the PDK gearbox; analogue it may be, but the second generation 997 started to mark the time from which the driver’s inputs were less efficient and slower than those the car could conjure up when left to its own devices.
