A Beginner's 996 Diary

[rufmichan]

Hey PFAers, 

Happy to inform after several years of waiting and looking (3 in fact), I'm pleased to be the next owner of this beautiful seal grey 996.1, the story which hopefully I can tell as time goes on in this diary like entry. I hope it doesn't feel too long or superfluous but I just feel like writing a lot at the moment about the car.

I’ve never understood the harsh criticism against 996 headlights. They match with the car front shoulder line and seems to be a gradual transformation from the 993, whose rounded headlights sit on a fender piece pointing inward to the bonet.

Missing Answers

What does it feel like to drive and own a 911, in particular a 996? That was the question I found myself trying to answer when starting my first journey into the Porsche realm. 

Search for “911 long term review” and you could only find articles regarding newer 2022 models, sometimes almost brochures like in nature. Search for “996 review”, you would then be presented with lots of articles and forum posts around IMS, bore scoring and the occasional complaint about fried eggs light here and there. 

There aren’t many articles or readings that in my opinion did a fair dinkum job of describing 996 ownership and driving experience, without going to the usual cliche and repeated topics e.g the tiring issue of IMS, which has been already bludgeoned to death for 20 years and still continues on to this date. I find this to be not helpful to prospective owners or enthusiasts looking for 996 or 911 in general. 

It is my goal in this case, starting from this lowly forum post to change that trend. I hope I can share to you a diary of how 911 ownership looks like from a fresh perspective in 2022. How does it drive? How does it drive compared to other cars in the market at the moment? Why should you fork a fortune to get a 911? Those are just a few among many questions I intend to answer as days go by. 

For fellow owners, I also hope that the entries would be useful to you, whether as some points of comparison, or even as entertainment as you watch my surprise and confusion stumbling upon the quirks and features of the car. At the end of the day I feel as if one of the reasons why I started writing this was to occupy my mind from trying to decipher the startup noise of the M96, whether it is starting normally or not…
 

The 996 has that subtle understated look that even in 2022 still manage to look modern compared to the angular and grill heavy design of contemporary cars
 

Rawness

Rarely an owner's manual deliver such assurance that makes you feel rather special for getting the first water cooled 911

One of the disadvantages of reading reviews online is you can easily get misled into believing stereotypes. A lot of reviewers online seem to indicate that 911 has somehow turned into a “grand touring car” with the water cooled generations, whatever that means, and that it is somewhat becoming more isolated or “less raw.”

It doesn’t help that with my background having owned several Japanese cars like the MX-5 and GT-86 together with a daily Mk 7 VW Golf that I have kept since 2017, I was in the belief that European cars – in this case represented by the Golf – are devoid of feeling and more computerised than ever. (Es ist das Auto)

That feeling and belief was completely squashed the moment I twisted the key of the 911 clockwise and let the flat 6 roared behind the car. The noise of it starting and even when you are just blipping the throttle to slowly move the car after being in gear, was just an auditory experience like no other, especially if you are coming from a traditional 4 cylinder or 4 cylinder turbocharged car of the late 2010. 

The whine of the flat 6, when it started to rev up and then becoming more sonorous as you go past 4000 RPM, was just pleasant. It’s always pushing you to try to rev more and more as you want to hear it singing. By that time you realise what you’re doing, you’re already past 80km/h and accelerating further and further with the torque that doesn’t seem to die down. Perhaps this is the feeling the manual stated: “And it triggers precisely the emotion which only a Porsche can.”

It’s a surprise for me to say this but from my experience owning and driving a GT86 for an extended amount of time, what is described by many journalists as being “a pure” and “direct” sports car, the 996 is much more raw compared to it in many aspects. Grand tourer it is certainly not! 

The GT86 is a very quiet car to be in and you can’t hardly hear the engine, so much so that the engineers at Subaru decided to furnish an additional piping to connect the interior with the car’s intake manifold so that the driver can be assured that there’s an engine under the bonnet. 

In the 996 in the meantime, you can hear everything that’s happening, be it the A/C compressor engaging, the fan whining or other mechanical sounding sound, that I really hope indicates that the M96 is in fact healthy and is just running as it is intended. Without even exhaust or intake modifications, I feel out of the box the 996 provides already sufficient music to your ear. 

The other key aspect that I think is important to point out, and one which I find important is the feeling of nimbleness. I was worried at the beginning that the 996 was going to feel heavy or sluggish, that you cannot simply throw it around like the NB MX-5 I used to have. Of course the 996 is heavier than MX-5 from a kerb weight perspective but I still feel from the seat of my pants that it’s still nimble. 

The steering, although perhaps having a slower ratio compared to its more modern counterpart, still commands a great deal of authority to point the car wherever you are thinking of going. It’s quite fast and responsive at highway speed and rather normal at street speed, which I think is all you want from a sports car without needing to have the complexity of four wheel steering or variable ratio or other electronics assistance. 

In summary, from my first ~100km with the 996 I have to really disagree with those who say the 911 is a touring car to be driven sedately from one holiday home to another. For this generation, I can say it is completely opposite to that. From the suspension, the nimbleness of the car, to its melodic engine that you can hear audibly and even to its spartan interior reminiscent of Japanese cars in the 90s, the 911 is a very direct car that connects you to the act of driving. There is no doubt that you’re in command of the car and it doesn’t hide behind electronics or anything.

How many times do you look back at your car after parking it?

Stay tuned for next diary entry... (Let me know if there's any particular topic or aspect do you like me to cover but I think you will probably know better than me) 
 

[NAC911]

Wow! well written! As someone also very new to the Brand and 996 ownership after 2 years looking I really enjoyed your views and look forward to more!

[crsedge]

Great work, subscribed for your updates.

As a fellow 996.1 owner, I too do not understand the issue around the headlights. In fact, I prefer the smoother lines of the 996.1 headlights than those on the 996.2

 

[Stepo]

10 hours ago, rufmichan said:

Hey PFAers, 

Happy to inform after several years of waiting and looking (3 in fact), I'm pleased to be the next owner of this beautiful seal grey 996.1, the story which hopefully I can tell as time goes on in this diary like entry. I hope it doesn't feel too long or superfluous but I just feel like writing a lot at the moment about the car.

 

 

The noise of it starting and even when you are just blipping the throttle to slowly move the car after being in gear, was just an auditory experience like no other, 

The whine of the flat 6, when it started to rev up and then becoming more sonorous as you go past 4000 RPM, was just pleasant. It’s always pushing you to try to rev more and more as you want to hear it singing. 

Congrats on your purchase, glad you have seen the light, life is too short to not own a 996 

Great write up, a lot of those points will hit home with many 996 drivers, look forward to future entries.

[Rajvosa]

Lovely post! Welcome  

[tomo]

Welcome, Glad  you are enjoying your new ride .

[Joz]

Welcome, from another recent 996 owner.

I’d say you’ll be preaching to the converted here.

[rufmichan]

Thanks for your warm welcome and reactions everyone!

I intended to do another write up this weekend but unfortunately I couldn't get the right words flowing so I'll just post up few minor bits and pieces. 

On 19/03/2022 at 10:17, Joz said:

I’d say you’ll be preaching to the converted here.

I really hope future readers and those who are considering getting a Porsche or 911 specifically will spare some time reading this entry. I hope it will also get some interests for those who are considering other cars such as from JDM side. It's amazing how 996 feel exactly like the proverbial "90s performance cars" everyone is chasing and lamenting they are no longer sold nowadays. 

--- 

Yesterday I finally managed to stop using bluetooth FM transmitter, which admittedly wasn't so bad, after installing this nifty plug and play Bluetooth adapter called "Yatour" for Becker CDR-220 the car came equipped with. 

I did not realise how quirky the CDR-220 was until I accidentally pressed the curved arrow button and that caused the front facia to pop open to reveal a CD opening. The rest of the button like TP still looked like mystery, so I downloaded a PDF online and spent some minutes trying to study the functionality of them. It was quite sophisticated radio at the time I imagine! 

The reason I chose this bluetooth adapter was I really wanted to keep the CDR-220 in the car. The other options I considered was getting a headunit replacement altogether using Continental radio or getting another similar bluetooth adapter called Tranzit Blue.

Now the disadvantage of getting the headunit was I had to get a lot of cables and adapters and it didn't guarantee that it will fit the facia well. Moreover it was quite expensive if I wanted to have it done professionally and everything, could be up to $400 with the headunit and fitting cost. It seemed too much given I just wanted bluetooth functionality. The Yatour was around $140 inclusive of shipping. 

Another point to Yatour vs the Tranzit blue was, the Tranzit needed additional power and ground cables to be connected to it and the Tranzit connected itself to the antenna cable of the CDR-220 which I think was slightly less than ideal.. The Yatour in comparison was straight plug and play to the CD changer slots of the HU with power and everything included. (I'll do more detailed instructions maybe in separate thread) 

After installing I got curious seeing the red lights of the CD storage so I opened it and found I inherited a couple of CDs! I might try playing them to see what the PO fancied listening to.  

On the matter of wheels, one niggling point started to worry me, that was the accumulation of brake dusts. I wonder if other owners are also experiencing this? Maybe I should get a different type of brake pads. 

This GT3 style 18" wheels were an option ticked and seemed to cost couple of thousands brand new, but on the other hand I like the look of turbo twist or even the later Carrera style in 996.2 cars better. This one also seemed to be better home for dusts with all of its crevices and and metallic insert.. 

Curious to know what wheels do you guys prefer? 

Lastly when I was filling up the car I noticed some driver filling up their SUVs had to pay a whooping $240 for 98. Surely that might drive some demand for SUVs down? 

Hoping to get write more words out in the next few days so I can talk about the shifter and the ride quality. 

Thanks again for reading!

[P-Kay]

Wheels are a personal choice and the later wheels might be easier to clean, however, in my view, the wheels you currently have are 'the business' for the first generation 996!

Regarding dust = just the way it is

[Stepo]

12 hours ago, rufmichan said:

 

I did not realise how quirky the CDR-220 was until I accidentally pressed the curved arrow button and that caused the front facia to pop open to reveal a CD opening. 

I only recently learnt you can actually detach the whole front facia if you pull on it, but i wouldn't be recommending it. 

Presume that was a security feature back then when people would steel your stereo.

[TwoHeadsTas]

5 hours ago, P-Kay said:

Wheels are a personal choice and the later wheels might be easier to clean, however, in my view, the wheels you currently have are 'the business' for the first generation 996!

Regarding dust = just the way it is

Got to say that the 5 spoke BBS from the .2 are a fantastically easy wheel to clean, and the GT3 wheels are much harder.  Every time I clean the wheels on my GT3 I think about how much easier the 5 spokers were, but yes, agree they do look the ducks guts on a .1

[NAC911]

Try cleaning these lol 

[Carrera28]

24 minutes ago, TwoHeadsTas said:

Got to say that the 5 spoke BBS from the .2 are a fantastically easy wheel to clean, and the GT3 wheels are much harder.  Every time I clean the wheels on my GT3 I think about how much easier the 5 spokers were, but yes, agree they do look the ducks guts on a .1

I got sick of cleaning the brake dust off mine and I bought some Simmons OM-1 Wheels in Black (second hand old school Simmons made by the old owners rather then Tempe Tyres). 

Great rims, much less prone to showing the brake dust and the original wheels are hanging on wall perfectly clean and looking amazing.

[TwoHeadsTas]

1 minute ago, Carrera28 said:

I got sick of cleaning the brake dust off mine and I bought some Simmons OM-1 Wheels in Black (second hand old school Simmons made by the old owners rather then Tempe Tyres). 

Great rims, much less prone to showing the brake dust and the original wheels are hanging on wall perfectly clean and looking amazing.

But black 😞 

[P-Kay]

3 minutes ago, TwoHeadsTas said:

But black

yep.....silver or nothing!

[Quackers]

Great write up, always great to see a new member enjoying the journey into Porsche ownership, I’d love to hear how your car was spec’d out when it left the factory and how it/they have aged over time (as in any broken plastic clips or etc) that may be common faults for other buyers to look out for. 

a future article to write might be one for a complete novice to 996/997’s of what model ranges & changes happened over time. 

congratulations again, great post!

 

[rufmichan]

On 21/03/2022 at 06:57, P-Kay said:

Wheels are a personal choice and the later wheels might be easier to clean, however, in my view, the wheels you currently have are 'the business' for the first generation 996!

Regarding dust = just the way it is

I've decided to buy coloured Porsche hub caps since then, hopefully it will spice up the wheels further.  

On 21/03/2022 at 15:47, Quackers said:

Great write up, always great to see a new member enjoying the journey into Porsche ownership, I’d love to hear how your car was spec’d out when it left the factory and how it/they have aged over time (as in any broken plastic clips or etc) that may be common faults for other buyers to look out for. 

a future article to write might be one for a complete novice to 996/997’s of what model ranges & changes happened over time. 

congratulations again, great post!

Thanks for your input, I think a writing about options and how it age over time would be good to have too for the record. 

Now on to another update: 

The car socialising with other 911s and Porsche - I recently brought the car to Cascone Motorsport in Moorabin to get some quality of live improvements i.e: having electric seat motor fixed and installing a brand new 997 shifter. I noticed my 996 does sit a bit high compared to both the Turbo Cabrio 996 and the G-Modell, maybe something that could be rectified in the future. 

 

Ride Quality

I have been meaning to discuss this topic a lot, as I feel ride quality is a crucial point for many that makes or breaks the driving and ownership experience of a car. It is not often a car gets sold early on by the owner because of its back breaking ride quality. In this case, how does a 911 fare, especially the 996 generation? This was the main question I also asked before purchasing the car. 

It is not difficult, certainly, from an automotive engineering perspective to make a car that corners flatly and thus handles really well at high speed on some smooth, carefully maintained test circuit. However, would that same adjustment work well when the very same car is required to drive for a casual Sunday drive in not so well maintained B road? And using only one shock and spring settings, we have to remember, as for the 996 generation, Porsche engineers did not have the ability to include a complex electronic damping system as they could today with newer generation cars. So how did they fare at the end of the day?

Given 996 came with a multitude of options, in particular on suspension types, it’s important to first set up a common baseline of experience. In my case, the 996 Carrera 2 that I purchased came with standard suspension and I believe from studying its history and invoices (one that probably required another section to cover later), it still has the same factory suspension from 2001. It does however have an 18” wheels option. From my brief study, the 996 Carrera 2 seemed to have 3 options from factory, a standard suspension, an M030 sport suspension and a more track oriented X74 option. C4S, Turbo, and GT3 have different setup altogether as expected. 

The other components I would like to note for comparison purposes are mileage and tyre brands as they also play a not very trivial part in making the car rides as it is. A newer car with fewer mileage most likely will behave differently compared to those with say 140,000 kilometres. In my case, the C2 had travelled 146,000 kilometres when I purchased it. The previous owner had to change the rear tyres for RWC, so he chose Yokohama Advan Fleva V701. I decided to match the front tyres to the same brand as well shortly after. While I had preferred something like the Michelin PS2 or the newer PS4S, the rear tyres are brand new so I felt it wouldn’t make sense for me to replace all 4 tyres with the PS2s right away after purchase (including waiting for the stocks) Perhaps when the rear Yokohamas have worn out in the future, then I’ll consider changing everything to PS2. 

Now with all of the bases covered, let’s do a dive on the ride quality itself. My first impression driving the car for the first time was that the 996 was on the stiff side of all of the cars I have driven so far, but certainly not the stiffest or harsh. The 18inch wheels and the low profile tyres enable a lot of the road imperfections such as corrugations, expansion joints, or different layers of asphalt patches splattered across Melbourne’s roads to be transmitted to the cabin for the driver to notice. 

However having said that, I never feel those imperfections to really hurt my back or make the ride jarring. Yes you can feel they are there, you can definitely hear the wheel thumping and the interior rattling here and there, but a significant portion of the force of the bumps seems to be absorbed by both the shocks and the seat cushion. This is in contrast to some of the Japanese cars I have driven where bumps and imperfections are seemingly magnified and you have to clench your teeths to anticipate the incoming shocks. (Specifically earlier model GT86 and early generation 02 WRX STI which have very stiff springs, suggested to be very overdamped from factory)

When I brought the car in for front tyres fitment, I also asked the pressure of the rear tyres to be reduced from the recommended 44 to 40 psi. After this adjustment, the ride quality improved even further and on the worse back roads in Melbourne’s northern suburbs the car never once felt like it was crumbling apart. On smooth pavement, the ride quality is almost not that different compared to my daily 2013 Mk7 Golf. The 996 is excellent in this regard. 

Having driven several hundreds kilometres and weeks after purchase, I discovered that at higher speeds, say faster than 80km/h, the car becomes even more composed and “taut” in that sense, as if it’s expecting you to drive it fast and to use more than ¼ of the speedometer... Undulations are absorbed in such a way in one swoop that it doesn’t cause the car to be bumpy or boaty. This is in contrast to a FG XR6 Falcon I have driven, where the faster you go, the more floaty and bumpy the car becomes, which makes you lose confidence in the car’s ability to stay stable on the road. 

In the end, if you asked me to give a one word summary of the 996 ride quality (a 996 that has had more than 100 thousands kilometres and suspension of more than 20 years old at that), I would say stiff sporty but balanced and precise. It is definitely not a Golf or a Passat where you are isolated from the road but on the opposite end, it is also not as stiff or harsh compared to some hot hatches or Japanese sports offerings. 

I’m very interested to know, and so I question the readers on your own experience, especially for those who have driven other Porsche or 911 of different generations or even other 996 such as C4, C4S, GT3 and Turbo. I have heard that 997 for example has slightly better ride quality and damping than 996, with the 991 being very comfortable. I’m curious about the older aircooled generations like the 993, 964 or the G-Modell. 

If I could give some rankings of the ride quality in terms of harshness and bumps absorption (but not comparing handling) I would sketch something like this: 

(Very very harsh back breaking on the top) 

• 2001 WRX STI 
• 2013 GT86 
• 1990 MX-5 NA
• 2001 S2000 AP1
• 2002 MX-5 NB
• 2001 911 (996 Carrera 2)
• 2002 Boxster 2.7
• 2009 Cayman 2.7
• 2017 MX-5 ND

(Very smooth and forgiving at the bottom) 

Feel free to make your own ranking using your own past driving experience. I don’t mind seeing SUV or sedan comparison e.g Macan and Panamera.