The 996 GT2 "Widowmaker" tag. Time to explode the myth.

[993rsr]

IMI A said:

The car I'm taking about is Robs old car. Its never been to VMAX as far as I'm aware .

That car was modded by someone in the UK AFAIK:

http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?p=1030493

[IMI A]

Hmmm maybe I'm confused. Certainly saw a car just like that in 911 and Porsche World or the like saying tuned by Ruf and discussing his other cars? Curious.

[IMI A]

Back to main point. Epic cars Ruf or not. A stock one too much for me!

[Slippydiff]

As Guy said, Rob Huff's car definitely wasn't a Ruf or indeed modified/fitted with Ruf parts.
Another contributor to this thread knows Rob well and has his own well modified '6 GT2, I think he's driven Rob's car.

[IMI A]

its my own confusion not the owners. Will have look at past mags if library site I know still up.

[GT6 Jonsey]

Mate of mine put his foot down in one of these a long while back. Lots of enthusiasm and lack of talent ended up looking like this

[shantybeater]

Rather fitting thread, I stumbled across this yesterday:

https://youtu.be/8bl8mfxcMS0

Fast forward to 11:40 for the cringe moment

[IMI A]

^^^

[Cactussed]

Have any owners on here bought a 996tt and removed the driveshaft to make it RWD?
Wondering if that gets you close to a budget GT2 experience if you add in an LSD?

[Pip1968]

Kleonard said:

I lend my gt2 to someone for a test drive and we ended up in a tree...me with 2 broken legs in a wheelchair...worst mistake of my life letting another guy drive...I was passenger seat

still have the car its in bits... id like to reshell it as engine and box and all rear ok

So what ever happened to the car after 2014? Was it put back into use - engine at least?

I have to say that I disagree with Henry's interesting post but I think it depends on your definition of "Widowmaker". I think the M16 or was it the AK-47, was also called the 'widowmaker' in NI. Those two weapons are also 'safe' in the right hands.

For me its about a car with minimal safety aids but easily lost even in professional hands and moreso with 'beginners' or those with over inflated egos.

Pip

[Slippydiff]

Pip1968 said:

I have to say that I disagree with Henry's interesting post but I think it depends on your definition of "Widowmaker". I think the M16 or was it the AK-47, was also called the 'widowmaker' in NI. Those two weapons are also 'safe' in the right hands.

For me its about a car with minimal safety aids but easily lost even in professional hands and moreso with 'beginners' or those with over inflated egos.

Pip

Having looked back at this thread, I'm pleasantly surprised not only at the number of owners/ex-owners who contributed to it, but just how many said the 996 GT2 was a great car and that they enjoyed owning/driving them.
They're rare and special, not just because of their rarity, but because Porsche doesn't produce cars like them very often.

Out of all the cars I've owned, the GT2 along with the 997 Cup engined Mk1 996 GT3 and my old tweaked Impreza 22B were the one's I came to respect the most, because they were either flawed to some degree, or their performance was so easily accessible (that'd be the Impreza then)

The bottom line is this, in the wrong/inexperienced hands ANY car is a widowmaker. It's just that the average 1.0 Nissan Micra owner doesn't try and explore the limits of his and his cars abilities very often, whereas the owners of high/er performance cars do...

Widowmaker car ? (4WD, huge tyres, no doubt it has sophisticated TC or DSC too) or an inexperienced show off ? :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SGIJXbghxg

I used to know the roads (and indeed their foibles) that make up the Evo Triangle well, having lived just 30 minutes from them for nearly 6 years, and spent many happy hours driving them in all manner of cars and weather conditions.
Evo carried out their tests of cars on these roads with good reason, they have qualities that are excellent for exposing the weaknesses (and strengths) in any car's suspension. And it's those very same qualities that all too often catch out individuals who don't understand what they're doing, or indeed what they're driving ...

So here we have the same again, this time a 200hp Honda Civic on the Triangle (2 mins 24 secs) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoDAX1ZJ-g8

15 seconds earlier and he'd probably have done what another individual went on to do a couple of years later ...

Same with this individual, less than 5 seconds later/earlier and that innocent motorcyclist could easily have become another victim of a an idiot showing off to his mates :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpmXAoc3dew

And again :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_6IjnCcU1Y

All the latter feature relatively "mundane" cars, though I grant you the S2000 has gained a reputation for being spikey in extremis, yet in these instances they're driven by morons showing off to their mates or other drivers in their convoy, with little or no understanding of what they're doing, what they're driving, or indeed the roads they're driving on.

This was exactly the scenario when I was a passenger with another clueless, inept moron in 996 GT2. He could have killed both of us, and the Headlines would no doubt have read "Two die in Porsche supercar. Two males died when a Porsche supercar crashed yesterday, the £120K German supercar tagged the widowmaker because of its fearsome reputation, blah blah blah"

The car had nothing to do with the accident, the crash was solely down to the idiot driving it (probably showing off) and his inability to read the road and appreciate just how quickly the car could accelerate in such a short space of time.

I'd already spent 12 months driving my 996 GT2, so I had a pretty good idea what a GT2 was capable of, and what I was experiencing in the moments (5-7 seconds) prior to the crash, told me two things, either the individual at the wheel was a driving god, or we were going to have the mother of all shunts, and on the basis of the previous 20 minutes as a passenger with him, I KNEW we were going to crash... so much so I quite literally hunkered down in my seat and braced myself for what I guessed would be a huge impact at some point.

If you'd tried the same cretinous manoeuvre in Transit van or indeed a Trans Am, the end result would've been the same. You can't beat the laws of physics.
Whilst the crash shocked me, I think I was more shocked that in the immediate aftermath of the shunt, the driver alleged he "didn't know what had happened" !!

Duh !!

[IMI A]

Can you imagine being car salesman trying to flog these back in the day doing a test drive with billy know it all I'm a driving God

[Spinner20]

Cactussed said:

Have any owners on here bought a 996tt and removed the driveshaft to make it RWD?
Wondering if that gets you close to a budget GT2 experience if you add in an LSD?

Not quite the same but I did for my C4S. Same process for the turbo. Make the steering come alive and removes significant weight. Given where GT2's and Turbo's are price wise I would say a 2WD turbo with nicely done suspension and a bit of weight saving/remap would get you 90% of the way for 50% of less of the cost.

I can recommend 9E for the 2WD conversion.

[Steve Rance]

A friend lent me a 996GT2 for a weekend back in the day. It was standard except for a track geo and remap. I thoroughly enjoyed the driving experience. Not a car that you can safety explore the limits of on the road but nor are many other others. It just required smooth inputs and an understanding of the potential outcomes of deploying it large power reserves.

It was entirely predictable. Lovely car

[IMI A]

My turbo is with 9e for a bit of GT fairy dust.

They can delete AWD easily on gen 1 997 C4S as it has same awd system as 996 turbo. Also can do this on 997 turbo both gens and 997.2 C4S. 9ff which is Porsche modifier in Europe do a AWD delete kit that makes the ECU think your cars a GT2. I may do this mod when my front diff fails. On 101k miles now. Nothing has failed in 7 years. Nothing

[APOLO1]

I had a 996GT2 new back in 02, thought it was great car it was my daily use car also back then as well as track days. Kept it 2 years and 14k miles it had a mild GEO setup on it. One of the best driving 911s I have owned.

[Slippydiff]

APOLO1 said:

I had a 996GT2 new back in 02, thought it was great car it was my daily use car also back then as well as track days. Kept it 2 years and 14k miles it had a mild GEO setup on it. One of the best driving 911s I have owned.

Note aero kitted 996 Turbo owner muttering "I wish I'd spent the extra on a GT2 now" under his breath as he fights arm aching understeer and "supertanker in a heavy swell", levels of roll behind

[IMI A]

There's a guy on 911UK who actually did a 997 GT2 RS conversion with all the unobtainium lightweight carpets, door cards, carbon wings. I've asked him to weigh her. I'll be stunned if it weighs less than 1550-1600kgs.


If you want GT2 I'd just buy a GT2 its probably cheaper in long run than modding. Clutch too heavy for me in GT2 and also currently all GT2 models about £40k over priced IMO just based on the drive. Its very quiet woofly experience which I personally really like as I can concentrate on keeping on road rather than racket car's engine is making. The engine almost moans rather than roars. More for the mature driver. Not much will catch you round a track in a GT2.

[Hobo]

IMI A said:

Can you imagine being car salesman trying to flog these back in the day doing a test drive with billy know it all I'm a driving God

Slightly off topic, but I bought my old TVR T350C from Toby (the salesman) at the Melton Mowbray dealer. Toby was killed shortly after during a test drive whilst in the passenger seat.

https://www.am-online.com/news/2006/10/26/tvr-deat...

[IMI A]

Very very sad. It does make me wonder how they let anyone buy these cars without some sort of higher driving license. In this case the driver was not even driving without due care and attention and still curtains.