Vehicle Story
The Porsche 911 first broke cover in 1963, morphing over the years from the svelte, elfin Audrey Hepburn of the sportscar world into the current swollen-hipped, muscular Serena Williams-esque ballistic bruiser beloved of city traders, nouveau riche entrepreneurs, and mid-life crisis divorcees.
While the early cars were slow and fragile, the later cars are very fast and almost indestructible, which makes them the model of choice for the discerning enthusiast who cares for about driving than polishing.
While the 996 of 1997 onwards was the first of what many consider to be the ‘new’ 911 it was also the first of the water-cooled models, which leads many to deride it as not being a ‘proper’ 911. This is, of course, utter nonsense.
But, the fact remains that the market doesn’t value them as highly as either the older or the newer models like the 997 you see here. By the time the 997 arrived Porsche had got its eye after eight years of water-cooled production, rattling out the hugely powerful and efficient new engines by the tens of thousands.
The base model Carrera is a great introduction to the range but the Carrera S with a larger engine, more power, and a sports suspension and exhaust, marked a new marketing strategy for Porsche, one based on trying to move buyers up from the base model whenever possible.
The naturally aspirated, flat-six 3.8-litre engine delivers 354bhp and 295lb.ft of torque, enough to endow the Porsche with a top speed of more than three miles a minute and a 0-62mph time that is comfortably under five seconds.
Best of all, as we keep being reminded, this is a semi-supercar you don’t have to make allowances for.
