Possibly the best spec 3.4L 996.1

So now my clickbait title has got you here, hopefully on reading the below you won't feel too tricked by the title. MY STORY My 996.1 story began when I picked up one of these sub-£10k cars that are all meant to be awful. It was a polar silver car with Carrera stickers down the sides and someone had keyed it. Sure the aircon didn't work, the control arm bushes were worn, the exhaust blew a little, the gearshift was tricky and various other typical issues, and if I did the jobs in one go, I would have spent £10-15k on it. But rather than do that, I did the essentials and drove it 500 miles a month, and I was hooked on 996.1's thereafter. 3 more after than one, and with a rare RHD '66 911 project and a fully restored '88, it was a 996.1 I found myself wanting the most. Nothing since the 996.1 has the same lively and rev happy nature. Aside from the drive, I also found myself looking at the aesthetics of later cars, and every time for me personally, I pined for those GT1 lights blending in to the other soft lines of the car. At this point, I decided to go about finding a 996.1 I could keep forever. I knew it needed to be a throttle cable aero car in black or green over black leather, but the rest I was open to. I never imagined I would find the car I bought. MY NEW 996 - A 1999 non sunroof, manual C2 with X51 Powerkit - Bucket Seats from factory, and rear seat omission - M030 Suspension, Switchable Sports Exhaust and more... Full codes: C16 - UK Car 030 - Sports Suspension XAD - Rear Bumper Fins XD9 - Wheels Painted in body colour XME - Centre console punted body colour XSE - Bucket Seat, Left XSF - Bucket Seat, Right XSN - Omission of rear seats X51 - Powerkit X89 - Centre Caps painted body colour 041 - Internal production code 413 - 18" Turbo Twist 436 - 3 spoke steering wheel 09981 - Exclusive options added (on production line) 09991 - Special Wishes Programme (off production line) Aside from these, there are other options not individually labelled on the sticker. I believe the other parts were therefore either: 1. Added under special wishes. Whilst 09991 (Exclusive) still has the options individually listed on the sticker, the 09981 (Special Wishes) code can hide options that won't be individually listed on the build sticker. There are many examples and porsche have confirmed that. 2. Added at dealer. 3. Added by an owner between 1999 to 2007 (nothing was added after 2007). Items on car that are not on the option sticker. - XAA Aero kit (only rear fins are on option sticker) - Switchable Sports Exhaust - Rollcage - Werner Fire Extinguisher - Various small options like basic audio not listed On top of this, the car has GT3 handbrake, gauges, door sills and rear badge. That's a lot of effort and expense to rebadge all of those. Those missing options certainly feel like the same vision as the other option codes. So a non sunroof, bucket seat, rear seat omission, aero fins, x51 Powerkit from factory, seems to feel like the same design plan as the unlisted full aero kit, sports exhaust, cage, fire extinguisher options. Perhaps could have been the plan from day 1, or maybe just later additions. As a March 1999 car, I know there were a few cars around that date that were cocreated by the factory and dealerships, to best emulate the upcoming 996 GT3 before release, in order to demo something to prospective customers that might look, feel and sound something like a GT3. So the specs on those demo cars were quite heavily optioned. Once the dealers got their hands on an actual GT3, the dealers had to sell off their replica attempts. This might be one of those which would explain the spec. Either way, the car may well be a combination of factory, dealer and owner options. CONCLUSION That all said, I love this car, and will continue to add thousands of miles a year as it's a daily. The sound of the X51 is incredible and I love the look. I know I could go buy a GT3 and I'm quite fortunate to have some other nice aircooled 911's, but to me this 996.1 is the PERFECT PORSCHE.

Video link to car sound https://vimeo.com/794881009 Photos attached

What a great find. Beautiful 996

+1 looks fantastic

...one of a kind buddy...lovely and you clearly adore the 996 :thumbs:

Lovely car! Agree with your sentiments re the 996.1. If it was zanzibar I'd agree with your sentiments re this car 😉 Quite a find - are you able to share where you discovered it? If this had been on the open market I'd have thought someone would have linked it on here!

Thanks all It actually went unsold at auction last year after they put an over ambitious estimate/reserve on it. I then spent a lot of time making posts/emails/calls to track down the owner. I eventually did and we came to a deal.

Nice! The early throttle cable cars are very appealing, I also love the 996.1 with aerokit look - it's very elegant. So... how does your "todo list" look? Engine mounts would be a good place to start

Thanks I've done engine mounts on previous 996.1's. I tried both the RSS and 993 RS style, and it's a great first upgrade I agree, however the car has only done 57k miles and doesn't need them doing quite yet. But I will do them as I agree everyone should - it makes the car feel much tighter, and also can improve the shift. Other mods: - Remove the genuine porsche short shift and install a 997.2 GT3 shifter - Change the 7.5's for 8's - Add PCCM+ Other than that, it was well maintained by its last owner of 15 years. I will slowly chip through any small details both inside and out.

Great spec! I didn't know PSE was available as an option for 996.1. I have the backboxes on mine but still need to do the wiring to make them work. Now they're always open, which I don't mind.

Like you, I thought it came in on the 996.2. It might have been an early mod under the 09981 code or the dealer fitted it when making this bizarre creation. I love having a switchable exhaust on it.

Sounds like a great car, having a careful previous owner makes a big difference. I'm currently dealing with the effects of my car having owners who did the bare minimum The PCCM+ is a great upgrade, the only downside being then you can't do the GT3 style lower console delete...and it's also a bit expensive The 993 RS style engine mounts are 150 quid from Type911 it's a bit of a no brainer.

Lovely looking car and a great find. One to keep hold of I would say! Any pics of your air cooled cars?

A great looking car. :thumbs: Lose the GT3 badges and door sills and it would be even better. :wink:

I am trying to find out if the car was a demo car to generate GT3 pre-orders, and if so, whether the dealer thereforeput those badges on to finish off the look. If they did they I will keep them as they would be part of the story. I believe in keeping cars as they left the dealer floor, whatever that might have been. Seems like a lot of expense and effort went in to putting them on. If an owner added them after purchasing it (most likely), then I will certainly remove them. I'm assuming the Supercup (Germany) and power-up (Japan) editions that were basically this spec of aero x51, were just badges 'Carrera' on the dials, sills and Decklid; does anyone know?