Background
When the Porsche 911 (930) Turbo hit the roads in 1975 it immediately started nipping at the heels of the Lamborghini Countach and the Ferrari BB 512 – both of which were bona fide supercars.
In 1978, the Turbo’s engine was bored out to 3.3 litres, the ‘whale-tail’ was replaced by the ‘tea-tray’, and 60mph arrived in a shade under 5 seconds.
Nothing else came close.
By the late 70s/early80s, the car’s muscular silhouette was on the bedroom walls of countless teenage boys, sandwiched happily between posters of the Lambo, Linda Lusardi, Che Guevara, and that lady tennis player who’d mislaid her undergarments and was having a cheeky scratch.
It became so iconic that it was at least in part responsible for the unfortunate 80s phenomenon of sticking the word ‘Turbo’ on everything from bicycles and toasters to slippers and potato peelers.
Even the Germans nicknamed the car ‘der Witwenmacher’ - the widowmaker.
911 Turbos were bought by people who were just a bit more rock ‘n’ roll - people like Steve McQueen and Led Zeppelin’s famously pugilistic manager, Peter Grant - a man always more inclined to punch you in the face first and shake your hand later.
A bit like the car, then.
Eventually, it came to pass that the first ever water-cooled 911, the 996, was launched in 1998/9.
When news first broke of the 911’s break from its air-cooled tradition there was much wailing, plenty of gnashing of teeth and, from the die-hard enthusiasts, no doubt an unseemly amount of flagellation.
Despite lamentations from a few 911 ‘purists’, the 996 was greeted with almost universal praise and heralded by most people who knew what they were talking about as the best sorted and most usable 911 that had ever carried the badge.
Richard Hammond was effusive about the 996, describing it as “rare, visceral and exciting” and “a great car”. Tiff Needell said it was “better in almost every way” than the 993, offering a driving experience that was “second to none”.
Where other 996s suffered both physically and reputationally from a somewhat over-hyped propensity to eat their own engines in a catastrophic and terminal fashion, the Turbo, GT2 and GT3 variants all came with the legendary - and trouble-free - ‘Mezger’ engine derived from various Seventies racers and the later 911 GT1.
