Impressions

It has been about a month since I bought my ’99 996 and I thought I would share my notes on the car. First off my car is stock except for the dual pumpkinectomies of the headlights and sidemarkers. No go fasts or look betters have been added although some aluminum pedals are on the way. Observation number one is just how comfortable the car is. The seating position provides headroom and lots of space between the windshield and my head. I have a long torso and short legs which situates me close to the wheel with my head up high. On my other 3 cars I can hit the visor or windshield with my head, but not with the Porsche. The ride is part of the car’s comfort. It gracefully absorbs the road irregularities that are omnipresent where I live. The third element of the car’s comfort is how tight the build of the car is – no squeaks or rattles. My seats fit me great. The bolsters are tight on my back down low and hold well, counteracting the slipperyness of the leather. The least comfortable part of the car is the tire noise. Induction noise is good, the engine roar under full throttle is better, road noise is just noise. I had expected the car to be considerably more stiffly sprung, like my MR2 Spyder. It isn’t and while maybe someone else could pull comparable g’s going into a turn as the aforementioned Spyder, I can’t, not even with two new sway bars and new P Zero’s. However, once far enough through a turn to put down power the 911 makes almost astonishing levels of grip and the engine fires the car out of turns in a remarkable way. Equally remarkable is how smooth the transistion into rear wheel drifts happen. The seemingly grippier MR2 jumps sideways at the onset of a drift and needs to be caught. Not so, the Porsche and oh boy is it fun. Now I need to learn not to overdo it. Observation number two is how much fun the twins torque and horsepower are. Powering away from stoplights is addictive. The car is so quick that I need to remember to throttle back based on speed rather than the elapsed time since the light changed. The downside is fuel economy. Obviously the EPA was convinced that the car could meet its fuel economy numbers, but I can’t. It’s no biggie, but I won’t lug the car around to save gas. The brakes are excellent too, but 800 pounds more Porsche places them second to the Spyder’s exceptional brakes in stopping distance. Feel is equally excellent. The car has sold itself to my two children. They will happily stuff themselves into the rear seats to partake in the Porsche experience. So far headroom back there is adequate and they appreciate sitting in the seat wells because they don’t slide when cornering. Visibility out the back is quite good too and not only can I see well while driving but the kids can see out too. I do wish that at least the passenger seat would slide forward when the seat tilt lever is used. Maybe they do with non-memory seats. I will set memory position 3 to far forward for that purpose. Storage has not been a problem. The frunk space is deep and absorbs grocery bags. I have not used the rear seat area yet. That could be a pain given the non-sliding seats. Now for some picky stuff. While I have 4 inches of spare headroom, I can’t read the top of the digital speedometer so 31 MPH and 37 MPH look the same. It could be a problem in a school zone. The resolution of the analog speedometer renders it useless on public roads. The overtemperature bar on the temperature gauge can catch afternoon sun coming in the back window and appear to be flickering. It happened yesterday and I was temporarily preoccupied with determining if it was caused by the sun or real. Since the needle read below 180 I know now that it was the sun. I actually like the fact that the cruise control speeds up 2 kph per stepping increment, despite the speedometer reading in mph. The german spelling of “manual” on the climate control display has charm too. I’m going to have to learn to like the ignition to the left. Maybe if I start putting the key in my left pocket and using my left hand on the clicker. The parking brake could hold better but maybe it needs maintenance. The gearbox is balky until warmed up. It warms up fairly quickly (I’ve owned Italian cars that took seemingly forever), but the first shiift from 1 to 2 requires rev matching and commitment with the shift lever. The very mechanical feel through the lever is really growing on me. The lever paths between gears need to be followed precisely though, it is the art of shifting. The clutch is a pain. On one hand I can back out of the garage without using the throttle, but let it out too fast at a stop light and stall. I’m going to try zip tieing the dashpot above the pedal. I can’t get enough of the roar of the engine under full throttle, especially in third when it lasts longer than second. Mrs Ditto drove the car, once. She was impressed with the acceleration. Her DD is a WRX. Yesterday while trying to park in a crowded soccer field lot there was one empty space adjacent to an F-250 beast. While I was wavering about parking next to it, the driver stuck his head out and told me it was ok, he had one too. I had a nice conversation with him. I would never have a comparable discussion with a fellow Mercedes owner, it would start and end with “it’s a nice car”. Today, driving to work (the car is my DD), I was entering an onramp when a car from the other direction snuck in ahead of me. Boo, no onramp fun because of it. Tomorrow I will pull over before the onramp and wait until the ramp is clear before I enter. I plan to put 50k miles on it over the next 5 years. To that end the car has a new IMS bearing, a direct oil feed to the new bearing, a new water pump, a new low temperature thermostat, a new clutch and throwout bearing, new brakes and all fluids are fresh other than the washer fluid.

Ha ha Sounds like me.

Nice write up. The 996 is a truckload of car for the money.

Say, I see a fourth stalk on your steering wheel... OBC goodies. Nice.

I'm surprised you don't like the clutch. Mine is a bit touchy and the pedal is quite hard to push down, but I figured that was because I have 80k miles on it and I suspect I may need a new clutch (unknown, bought it with poor service history.) I have read they are buttery smooth when a new clutch is installed. Nice write up, btw, I feel the same about my Targa which I've had for 5 months, I actually look forward to driving to work now.

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I thought the OBC was standard equipment. The dong feature (term is from the manual) was set at 67 MPH by the PO which I found to be an irritation. Why the reset has to be performed while the car is moving is beyond me. It would be easier/safer to open the manual in the garage and follow the directions while not driving. The clutch. I have no issue with the pedal weight, I have owned cars with half the power and twice the force. What gets me is that there is a delay in clutch action relative to the clutch pedal. I'm learning patience. I believe it is the car not me. I have over a million miles of manual driving from farm tractors to Italian cars with grabby clutches and one with a leather clutch to a French car and pickup trucks and Japanese cars. I am looking for an excuse to drive through Boston to experience the Big Dig tunnel system at 7,000 rpm with the windows down. Anyone need a pickup from Logan after 10 PM? The onramp was clear this morning. Brakes had to be applied to merge into traffic.

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Funny you say that..I went through there at about 10:30pm 3 weeks ago. Zero traffic...wow. Perfect pavement quality, nice off ramps...the noise, it was awesome lol. If you can find a reason..any reason, do it.

Great review of your 996. Looks really clean too!

Great writeup. As far as not being able to read the instruments, the seat should be adjustable up and down, while the steering wheel can telescope in and out. Between those two adjustments there ought to be a happy spot where everything is visible and you are comfortable with the seating position.

No, the OBC functionality isn't something we all get. The 3-spoke steering wheel is also nice - I hated the 4-spoke I downgraded to when I sold my Boxster and got the 996 enough to shell out for a 3-spoke. *edit* hehe - "dong feature." I guess what they say about Porsche owners making up for something is true, and is addressed by the "dong feature." Love it.

The clutch "delay" has been covered here, you just needed to ask. The spring assist at the clutch pedal is the culprit. It has nothing to do with the electronics or engagement point. Replacing the spring is easy and many of us have done it, and are completely overjoyed with a normal clutch feel and engagement. I tmakes the clutch a wee bit harder to depress, but still much less than many cars I have driven. Do a search on "Home Depot spring" and you should find a few threads. EASILY THE BEST $4 improvement ever, on any car. You are one of the few that likes the stock suspension. But thats a whole other kettle of fish, and way more expensive to do, but IMHO worth every penny and then some.

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Thanks. I am off to HD. Now, as far as glare lighting the overtemp gauge - I was wrong. Turns out my coolant level was low and the gauge was talking to me. The temperature never went out of the normal range so my only issue is determining why the coolant level dropped. I could not find a leak, which does not mean there is not one. The current theory is that after the coolant flush the system had trapped air which has worked its way out. For 100 miles the coolant level has stayed constant and the system holds pressure for hours. Time will tell. New grippy pedals: