1999 996 C2 - Dreams do come true

What's your favorite car? I've been asked many times and given many different answers, but the Porsche 911 GT1 '98 has a special place in my heart. I loved cars and knew of endurance racing before Le Mans in 1998, but that grid totally pulled me in to the sport and Porsche managed to pull off the underdog win with a car that, to my mind, looked perfect. At 10 years of age, that car became my poster car.

Fast forward 20 years, and I still loved cars but didn't own a fun one. I really wanted a sports car, but which one? For once I didn't start a 'what car?' thread on GRM, but I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. 986, 996, E46 M3 and C5 Z06 were all considered, plus anything that caught my eye. 

In hindsight, maybe it's not surprising that I ended up with a 996. The car I picked is a 1999 with a few modifications that seem to be well chosen and an LN IMS bearing already installed. In particular, the car has an aftermarket intake and exhaust that sound amazing together. I doubt I would've ever bought bolt-ons like that, but I'm so glad the car came with them. 

So far I've put a little over 2,500 miles on it, most of which happened within the first two weeks. My initial feeling is that this is love at first sight. I have yet to take it to an autocross or on track and I fear severe understeer coming out of slow speed turns, but the way the car drives on the street is very special. The more time I spend with all that weight in the back, the more I like it. 

I'm going to be experimenting with seating options as I don't have enough headroom with a helmet on. I don't know if I'll run a fixed back seat daily, but I'm definitely contemplating that. I bought an Ultrashield Rally Sport seat from Ovid and Flem and it will definitely be experimented with at the very least.

My other thoughts seem to be breaks from the Porsche herd. I'm a big believer in the Church of Sidewall, so I picked up a set of 17" Cayman wheels and intend to get some fresh tires on them. It is unbelievably difficult to find aftermarket 17" wheels so they're narrower than I would prefer, but we'll get there one day. I'm also thinking about finding a torsen for it. The Porsche community seems to gravitate toward clutch type differentials, but I feel like a torque biasing differential, would really suit the car on the road and in competition. 

Left foot braking is your friend in autocross. Get the weight forward as you turn, tires bite, on the throttle and the whole car moves a bit sideways on exit. It's sublime when it goes right which is about two corners a weekend when I was autocrossing my 964. I've driven a bunch of students 996s and though I prefer the C4 for autocross, all of them are great driving cars.

Very nice!  I dig the aero bits.

Excellent; it's always great to read about someone loving their new car. I like the color and the aero, it looks awesome. The wheels are pretty nice too but I can sure understand wanting more sidewall than that.

Thanks guys. The modifications really do seem well chosen. It essentially looks like a 996.2 GT3 with the exception of the side skirts and wheels, which is no bad thing. The wheels look great as well, but I may or may not hold on to them when the time comes for new tires.

Seth, I remember you telling me about preferring the C4 in autocross. I'll definitely be giving left foot braking a try. Whether I'm fast or not, I'll be in the trophies for having the most fun.

Gratuitous image:

No need to left foot brake a 911 in auto-x.  Want it to rotate?  Charge into the corner and lift off the gas.  Problem solved....

Congrats man. 

We go to the same church.. I also downgraded my wheels from the previous owner to 17's.  Narrower and more sidewall now.  Now it dances like it should.  Best thing you can do!

Which 17's are you running?

I decided to take a little trip through upstate New York yesterday and couldn't help but stop at this covered wooden bridge.

Time for an update!

The car now has just over 108k miles and has continued to be a dream to drive on the street. I changed the oil and got a report from Blackstone while I was at it. The reassurance from the clean bill of health was more than worth it. 

I finally got to take the car to an autocross last weekend with a set of 18" wheels, Sport Cup 2's, and a newly mounted race seat. The car was even more fun to drive around the cones than it is on the street. I won my class despite having way too much fun sliding around and picking up several cones through the day. The LSD has moved much lower on the list of priorities as I'm more than happy with the way the car moved around.

The seat and tires are really not suited to daily driving, but together they turn the car into a perfect weekend warrior. I can't wait to take this car to the track.

After the autocross, I decided to test fit the 17" Cayman wheels. The rear wheels are a perfect fit, but the fronts will need spacers to clear the brakes. They've been ordered and I'll be picking sizes and sourcing tires soon. The inside shoulders of the rear tires on the 19" wheels have been wearing much quicker than the rest of the tire so the car will also be going in for an alignment to make sure everything is in order. I suspect it might just be a matter of running static camber on very low profile tires.

I don't know how it is on the 996, but on my 2006 Cayman S adding the LSD was a mixed bag. The LSD definitly made the cars limit higher, but only when all the electronic aids were disabled. Otherwise, PASM would fight the LSD and cut throttle right when you needed it post apex. 

Basically, it was faster on that one perfect run/lap when you did everything right; it was slower everywhere else. 

As you have discovered you need to be careful when combining an LSD with a PASM car - the later cars can have an LSD, but the ramp rates are much lower than for a non-PASM car in order to avoid the car fighting itself, just as you describe.

Early (cable throttle) 996 could have an LSD as they had fairly primitive traction control which could be fully turned off, when they went to a more sophisticated stability management system Porsche initially thought that PASM was all you needed and deleted the LSD as an option, then backed out of that position and allowed a mild LSD to be specified, with ramp-rates reduced to allow both the LSD and the PASM system to get along together.

There aren't any electronic aids to overcome on my car, so I suspect an LSD would be faster. However, this is just a fun car so I don't think it's worth the expense and effort to install it when the car already does what I want it to.

Get the Elephant Racing Toe plates for your alignment.  They'll make sure that your rear toe settings stay where they're supposed to be.

color me envious.   996 is well within my price range, but i crossed it off my list when i found out the insurance would be more than the monthly note.    i can't find where i wrote it down, but it was berkeleying criminal.  

Where was the autocross you attended?

In reply to rico750sxi_2 :

Brooksville, FL

In reply to AngryCorvair :

That shocks me. When I compared rates for cars I was interested in with USAA, only Boxsters were cheaper than 996's.

docwyte said:

Get the Elephant Racing Toe plates for your alignment.  They'll make sure that your rear toe settings stay where they're supposed to be.

https://www.elephantracing.com/porsche/996-997/eccentric-adjuster-locking-kit-for-996-997/

Is that what you're talking about?

white_fly said:

In reply to AngryCorvair :

That shocks me. When I compared rates for cars I was interested in with USAA, only Boxsters were cheaper than 996's.

MI has the highest insurance rates in the USA iirc, and according to allstate, broad form collision with $1k deductible on 996 was about $350/mo, vs about $175/mo for C6 GS, 2nd gen CTSV, or ATS 2.0T Premium.   i'm 51 and my last claim was in 1992.

In reply to white_fly :

Yup, that's the one!

AngryCorvair said:

white_fly said:

In reply to AngryCorvair :

That shocks me. When I compared rates for cars I was interested in with USAA, only Boxsters were cheaper than 996's.

MI has the highest insurance rates in the USA iirc, and according to allstate, broad form collision with $1k deductible on 996 was about $350/mo, vs about $175/mo for C6 GS, 2nd gen CTSV, or ATS 2.0T Premium.   i'm 51 and my last claim was in 1992.

Depending on your usage, you could always use magazine sponsor Hagerty. My 944 is dirt cheap to insure.

I always struggle between one of these or an even cheaper Boxster as a track/weekend car for fun. Beautiful vehicle, they look great with OZ Alleggerita wheels on them, as every track prepped one had that rolled through the shop I worked at.

I like it, have fun!

In NH, my 2007 Cayman S raised my insurance $400/yr.  When the lady quoted $400 I was expecting a mo. She made my day.

My favorite Porsche is the 959, but I apparently like the mid-engined ones as my 2nd is a '74 914.

Drive it like it was meant to.