At first I was very hesitant to write this review, as my opinion of the 911 seems to differ from that of most people. I've always been of the opinion that the Volkswagen Beetle look-alike, the 911, was one of the ugliest cars in production, but until a few months ago I had never actually driven one. I assumed that everyone was just in love with the driving characteristics to the point where they looked past the rather charmless exterior.
Up front everything is pretty typical Porsche looks. A decent sized boot sits at the front, just enough room for, well, maybe a bag or two of groceries. Don't expect to be hauling too much stuff with you in this car. While this car may have not been designed to carry much luggage, I've fit a bicycle in my Corvette making it seem a lot more practical, despite the two seat disadvantage.
Driving around slowly at first I got accustomed to the Porsche interior. The 996 is arguably one of the worst interiors in the entire 911 line, and that's blatantly obvious from the drivers seat. Whoever ordered this 911 new obviously didn't care too much about listening to music considering they didn't spring for the optional CD player, instead going with the 1990's technology cassette tape player. This typically wouldn't have bothered me much, except that the 3.6 liter engine powering the Carrera doesn't make a noise worth listening too, leaving one to focus on tire and wind noise while rewinding your tape deck. This very well may have been the first time I've ever complained about wind and tire noise, and it wouldn't be an issue if I at least had the option to play some music besides the garbage on modern day radio.
The driving experience of the 911 was quite good. Porsche really does know how to make a car feel nimble and quick. At the same time an MX-5 feels very nimble and quick, yet costs a fraction of a 911. As I grew a little more confident with the car, I started to drive it a little harder. Slinging that heavy rear end around was a weird feeling, and I'm confident that if I were to push it hard at the track I would end up crashing well before posting a solid lap time. The car just felt as if snap oversteer was in its nature, especially towards the foolish (like myself) who like getting on the throttle hard exiting corners.
Running through the gears was an absolute dream. This shifter is actually what convinced me that I had to do something about the stock piece in my Corvette. It really was that good, my absolute favorite thing about the car.
The engine felt incredibly refined, and revved through the range very smoothly, though it lacked that punch-in-the-gut acceleration many people find intoxicating. Porsche has the answer to this though in their 911 turbo, but the price sky rockets well past the already over priced Carrera S. The acceleration of this particular 911 reminded me of (and I'm sure I will be the only one to ever make this comparison) the old SVT contour's engine. The first time I drove an SVT contour I was absolutely thrilled at how peppy the 2.5 duratec engine was, the thing just kept on pulling up to redline! The 911 obviously pulled quite a bit harder, but the overall feel was very similar.
Maintaining the 911 isn't too terribly hard, the only minor hassle is the fact that, well you know, the engine has to be dropped from the vehicle to do any sort of repair. I guess that makes it pretty inconvenient and very expensive to even, say, change the spark plugs. The only other potential problem to worry about is known as the IMS bearing. Without getting into any detail, the IMS bearing was used by Porsche for over a decade, and failure of this bearing requires at a minimum, complete disassembly of the engine, though more commonly complete replacement.
If money is no object, the Porsche provides a well built, fairly fast, fun to drive machine. However, if money is a factor in any decision you make, you can save yourself a fat stack of cash looking elsewhere to find equal performance and thrill.
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