Porsche 996 Turbo

2003 Porsche 996 Turbo

In 2000, Porsche introduced the 996 Turbo, equipped with four-wheel-drive and a 3.6 litre, twin-turbocharged intercooled flat-six. Unlike the standard Carrera models, this was derived from the GT1 race car and produced 420bhp. The performance was phenomenal at the time and frankly is still pretty impressive today. 0-60mph time comes up in 4.2 seconds and the top speed is just shy of 190mph. It was available new with either a 5-speed Tiptronic transmission or 6-speed manual gearbox and was highly specified as standard.

It seems incredible that these cars are now over 20 years of age, but even more remarkable, is the near supercar performance and dynamics for the money of a new Golf. Make no mistake, a 996 Turbo will leave very few wanting for much more on our roads today.

As with every high performance car, regular maintenance and upkeep is as important as the car itself, so finding a sound example that has been regularly maintained is strongly recommended.

We are pleased to have purchased this excellent example, that has come from a seasoned Porsche Club GB member and is only available due to advancing years. He was not only the second keeper but had owned the car since it was just 3 years old. It also helps that due to his fastidious nature, it has been meticulously maintained with Porsche main agents and has still only covered 27,300 miles from new.

The 996 Turbo was a very highly specified car as standard, and this full UK C16 specification example is no exception. However, one criticism some had of the 996, was the size of the seats, which physically felt a bit smaller than items in the air- cooled series cars they replaced, and this gentleman was one of those people who just didn’t find them as comfortable as in his previous 911s. For those that are unfamiliar, Recaro has been the manufacturer of just about every seat ever fitted to a Porsche, so it was the natural company to turn to for a solution.

A set of Recaro sports seats were secured, that were not only significantly more comfortable than the original perches, but were fully electric, with heating and cooling too. These were then faithfully trimmed in the exact C50 graphite grey leather as fitted to the rest of the car including the exact seat perforations as the seats they replaced.

Our Thoughts

Speak to your Porsche mate and he will probably tell you to only buy a manual, but we maintain that the 5 speed Tiptronic actually makes a great companion for the 996 Turbo. 420 BHP from its Mezger twin turbo engine may be the headline figure everyone talks about, but it’s the tree stump pulling torque of 563NM at 2,700RPM through to 4,600 RPM that is more impressive. Frankly it means you can be in just about any gear in that power band, and whether its Tiptronic or manual, it will be off like a scalded cat. And if you live in an area with a lot of stop start traffic, we think you will be thankful for not having to use the heavy clutch of a manual version. Pair that with vastly superior seats and you have a real mile eating comfortable sports car.

And lastly if you are looking for an immaculate, meticulously maintained, low mileage and low owner car, we genuinely don’t think you will find too many of those similar to this car at the asking price.