1999 Porsche 996 C2 3.7
Discussion
TL;DR - I bought this old Porsche, spent some time sorting it out/fixing it. It’s awesome.
I had been meaning to write this up for a while and both CornedBeef’s Guards Red 996 and PPBB’s epic thread of 996 motorsport goodness being bumped over Christmas and the New Year reminded me to finally get it sorted.
Warning: Long, rambling, wordy post ahead.
Since learning to drive (feels a long time ago now….) I had generally stuck with hatchbacks, and have had a variety of hot hatches in the past - Clio 172, 4 different 205 GTi’s, Mini R53 - as well as an early MX5 and some rough sheds. A few years ago, with student loans paid off and a bit of spare cash floating about, I decided to get into something a bit more ‘grown up’.
I got really close to getting into an E46 M3. I’d done my research and looked at a few cars but I wasn’t sure they felt special enough and I wasn’t quite smitten. I’d inherited a love of Porsche’s from my dad at a really early age but hadn’t really considered them as part of my ‘grown up’ car research as I didn’t think I could make the money work. The idea of the mystical £10k 996 idea started to get me seriously thinking about them and I started doing my homework.
I soon had my head round all the various horror stories - IMS, RMS, Bore scoring etc - but also knew that there were a few years/models where you weren’t likely to have too much bother if you bought the right one. This narrowed things down to the early non facelift 3.4 cars, with the dual row IMS. I’m pretty handy with a set of spanners these days so didn’t mind something that needed a bit of work, but didn’t want a basket case.
Looked at a few cars at the lower end of the market, with most of them being really rough, before I engaged in some epic man maths and started upping the budget. Wasn’t long before I was in that horrible car buying mode where every waking hour was spent trawling PH, Autotrader and eBay looking at anything and everything. I HAD to have one.
In the end I made some rookie mistakes and bought this car:
These were pics from my for sale ad at the time. It had just had a bunch of paint and looked super clean. Such a simple shape and I will always love turbo twist style wheels.
It was a straight car overall, but I missed some things when I inspected it (Mostly bodywork/paint related. Don’t view cars in the rain!) and while it was mechanically sound and pretty low mileage, the spec wasn’t quite right for me and I never grew to love the Savannah interior. Drove the car for a year, sorted all of the niggles out, enjoyed learning about working on 996’s, but then had to sell up to help fund a house deposit.
I ran another Mini for a while while the finances recovered but was REALLY missing a flat six in my life. Trouble is, I couldn’t really afford one. Attentions slowly turned to the 996’s cheaper brother, the 986 Boxster. I kept an eye on the classifieds and had considered getting a really, really cheap early 2.5 but then this one came up for sale up north for a fair price.
It was a really high spec for a Boxster and I couldn’t say no to it. It had the 3.2S engine, M030 sports suspension, Bose, heated sports seats (fantastic with the roof down), and came with a hardtop as part of the deal. History was good and speaking with previous owners/dealers it all checked out. I knew it needed a clutch soon (and as it had the smaller IMS bearing it was a chance to sort that out too) and some brakes so was able to do a bit of a deal with the seller (after more man maths…)
Had this for around a year and really enjoyed owning it, quite a different steer when going quickly compared to the 911, and it felt nice to get 90% of the performance of the 911 for around 1/3rd of the price. I sorted a bunch of the mechanical bits myself and then had the clutch/flywheel/IMS changed by Revolution Porsche.
The Boxster was an incredibly practical little sports car, and I think anyone who has one has a great car on their hands, but the 911 desire simply wouldn’t go away for me. I HAD to get into another one.
Even more ludicrous man maths got involved and after convincing myself of what I could flog the Boxster for, and deciding that I could accept something that was a bit more of a project, I started looking at 996’s again.
Throughout this time I’d been keeping an eye on a few 996 forum threads on PH and 911uk (along with that epic Drivetribe video Jethro did on his purple 996) and had slowly been coming round to the looks of the Aerokit cars. There’s a relative simplicity to the shape of the front bumper and rear wing that really appeals to me compared to the later cars, and although some (not me…) think there’s an element of ‘fake GT3’ about an aerokitted Carrera, it had evolved into my favourite looking car of the 996 era. The aerokit wasn’t a deal breaker for spec, but this time I wouldn’t dismiss them immediately.
After a month or so of keeping an eye on the classifieds this showed up on Facebook Marketplace. The wheels were wrong, it had some horrible tints on the rear, and I didn’t think the ad was particularly well written. Nearly glossed over it completely. Something about it kept me coming back to it though and a quick chat with the owner suggested this was a well specced car underneath. This could be the little project I was looking for…
These were pics I took when I first went to look at the car. The front view looks SO aggressive with the splitter and I will never tire of the rear 3/4 view on a 911
It also had some other weirdness and general bodgery going on with some nasty aftermarket rear bumper winglets, broken Carrera badge, incorrect exhaust tips from a facelift car, a badly installed K&N induction kit and various bits of interior trim looked pretty tired. If this was the first 996/986 I’d seen I would have walked away, but knowing these cars pretty well by this point I could sense a good car underneath and knew I could get on top of it pretty quickly. Outside of the ASBO exhaust, the car drove really well so could sense I was on to a potential winner. Despite his questionable taste in mods, the owner before the seller had the car around 11 years and it had a solid service history with Porsche Torque.
The guy who was selling it had previously been into big power Japanese cars - Supra’s, RX7’s etc - and bought this from Northway Porsche to try something different but didn’t get on with it at all. He’d put less than 1000 miles on it since he’d got it from the dealer about 6 months previous and was selling on to try and get back into an RX7. (Pictured below from when I picked the 996 up from him.)
I’d never been in one of these before and the seller took me for a quick spin. Couldn’t believe how tiny it was inside and also how quick it felt. Awesome bit of kit.
I phoned Northway and the story stacked up, they had got the car in as PX against a 997 and they gave me a thorough overview of recent service work they had completed and vouched for the car. Even offered to let me get it up in the air on their ramps to have a better look. As a bonus they also told me they had a set of recently refurbished original Porsche/BBS split rims they would swap for the replica Fuch wheels if I could sort out some tyres. Result.
That sealed the deal for me so I made the seller an offer and we shook hands. It was a good bit cheaper than the blue car so man maths gave me a modest budget to sort out all of the niggles and get it spot on. My plan was to go for an OEM+ vibe with the whole car.
I picked the car up in July 2019 and have given it a thorough going over since. All of this was largely elective, other than the water pump spectacularly letting go one Saturday afternoon, and the car is now feeling pretty fit and healthy. I’ve almost certainly blown my modest budget to bits in getting everything done so I’ve simply stopped adding up the cost of things
List of mods/fixes so far in no particular order:
And that’s about it so far and brings the story up to date. Car sits at around 115,000 miles now. That list above represents quite a few weekends worth of spannering but it’s been good fun to work on and it’s now nearly finished! (Though project cars are never really finished, are they?)
Here’s a bunch of pictures of it in various states of undress while working on it over the past few months. (I know it’s parked in a disabled space in some of these pics. It’s the one they gave me when I applied for a permit and for some reason won’t let me change it!)
Sorting out various front bumper niggles and fixing the rad fans. Looks dramatic but only about an hour to get to this point. These things come apart easily.
Water pump and thermostat time. Got lucky with the exhaust fixings coming apart. This was on the limit of what I’d want to do without a proper garage/lift.
The one and only time the two ‘brothers’ met each other.
Bottom end open as part of the X51 sump install. Looking pretty clean for 100,000 miles and 20 years.
I got the stand AND the bike in the back of the car. It’s a bit of a Tardis at times.
Someone had a good sense of humour when it was parked up covered in muck
It goes for a bit of paint at the end of the month to tidy up the front and rear bumpers and then I’m planning on enjoying it for the rest of this year. I’m lining up a few track days (At Silverstone on the 25th if anyone else is coming to that?) and a bit of a Eurotour by car as part of a summer holiday. I live in north London and cycle everywhere during the week, but given Big Brother will want to charge me £12 every time I take it out of the garage when the ULEZ expands, I want to try and get as much out of it as I can in the next 12 months. Further down the line I’ll think about a suspension refresh, and might switch to a smaller MOMO steering wheel soon, but that’s about it.
These things really get under your skin and it feels so special every time I take it for a spin. Equally at home caning it down a bumpy A road or pottering through town at <10mph and they are surprisingly practical as an only car. Even got the Christmas tree in there this year.
I’m a bit crap at keeping threads up to date, but now I’ve gone to the effort of writing this up I’ll try and keep on top of it with any updates. If you’ve got this far then thanks for reading, hope it inspires someone else to take the plunge on an early 996. You won’t regret it!
Covered in crap after a cross country bombing run on Boxing Day and looking all the better for it.
I had been meaning to write this up for a while and both CornedBeef’s Guards Red 996 and PPBB’s epic thread of 996 motorsport goodness being bumped over Christmas and the New Year reminded me to finally get it sorted.
Warning: Long, rambling, wordy post ahead.
Since learning to drive (feels a long time ago now….) I had generally stuck with hatchbacks, and have had a variety of hot hatches in the past - Clio 172, 4 different 205 GTi’s, Mini R53 - as well as an early MX5 and some rough sheds. A few years ago, with student loans paid off and a bit of spare cash floating about, I decided to get into something a bit more ‘grown up’.
I got really close to getting into an E46 M3. I’d done my research and looked at a few cars but I wasn’t sure they felt special enough and I wasn’t quite smitten. I’d inherited a love of Porsche’s from my dad at a really early age but hadn’t really considered them as part of my ‘grown up’ car research as I didn’t think I could make the money work. The idea of the mystical £10k 996 idea started to get me seriously thinking about them and I started doing my homework.
I soon had my head round all the various horror stories - IMS, RMS, Bore scoring etc - but also knew that there were a few years/models where you weren’t likely to have too much bother if you bought the right one. This narrowed things down to the early non facelift 3.4 cars, with the dual row IMS. I’m pretty handy with a set of spanners these days so didn’t mind something that needed a bit of work, but didn’t want a basket case.
Looked at a few cars at the lower end of the market, with most of them being really rough, before I engaged in some epic man maths and started upping the budget. Wasn’t long before I was in that horrible car buying mode where every waking hour was spent trawling PH, Autotrader and eBay looking at anything and everything. I HAD to have one.
In the end I made some rookie mistakes and bought this car:
These were pics from my for sale ad at the time. It had just had a bunch of paint and looked super clean. Such a simple shape and I will always love turbo twist style wheels.
It was a straight car overall, but I missed some things when I inspected it (Mostly bodywork/paint related. Don’t view cars in the rain!) and while it was mechanically sound and pretty low mileage, the spec wasn’t quite right for me and I never grew to love the Savannah interior. Drove the car for a year, sorted all of the niggles out, enjoyed learning about working on 996’s, but then had to sell up to help fund a house deposit.
I ran another Mini for a while while the finances recovered but was REALLY missing a flat six in my life. Trouble is, I couldn’t really afford one. Attentions slowly turned to the 996’s cheaper brother, the 986 Boxster. I kept an eye on the classifieds and had considered getting a really, really cheap early 2.5 but then this one came up for sale up north for a fair price.
It was a really high spec for a Boxster and I couldn’t say no to it. It had the 3.2S engine, M030 sports suspension, Bose, heated sports seats (fantastic with the roof down), and came with a hardtop as part of the deal. History was good and speaking with previous owners/dealers it all checked out. I knew it needed a clutch soon (and as it had the smaller IMS bearing it was a chance to sort that out too) and some brakes so was able to do a bit of a deal with the seller (after more man maths…)
Had this for around a year and really enjoyed owning it, quite a different steer when going quickly compared to the 911, and it felt nice to get 90% of the performance of the 911 for around 1/3rd of the price. I sorted a bunch of the mechanical bits myself and then had the clutch/flywheel/IMS changed by Revolution Porsche.
The Boxster was an incredibly practical little sports car, and I think anyone who has one has a great car on their hands, but the 911 desire simply wouldn’t go away for me. I HAD to get into another one.
Even more ludicrous man maths got involved and after convincing myself of what I could flog the Boxster for, and deciding that I could accept something that was a bit more of a project, I started looking at 996’s again.
Throughout this time I’d been keeping an eye on a few 996 forum threads on PH and 911uk (along with that epic Drivetribe video Jethro did on his purple 996) and had slowly been coming round to the looks of the Aerokit cars. There’s a relative simplicity to the shape of the front bumper and rear wing that really appeals to me compared to the later cars, and although some (not me…) think there’s an element of ‘fake GT3’ about an aerokitted Carrera, it had evolved into my favourite looking car of the 996 era. The aerokit wasn’t a deal breaker for spec, but this time I wouldn’t dismiss them immediately.
After a month or so of keeping an eye on the classifieds this showed up on Facebook Marketplace. The wheels were wrong, it had some horrible tints on the rear, and I didn’t think the ad was particularly well written. Nearly glossed over it completely. Something about it kept me coming back to it though and a quick chat with the owner suggested this was a well specced car underneath. This could be the little project I was looking for…
These were pics I took when I first went to look at the car. The front view looks SO aggressive with the splitter and I will never tire of the rear 3/4 view on a 911
The good bits:
- Early 3.4L car with the cable throttle
- Dual row IMS
- Recent gearbox overhaul with new clutch, flywheel
- New brake lines all round
- M030 Factory Sports suspension
- Sports seats
- No sunroof
- Factory LSD
- Black on black
- Aerokit
The bad bits:
- (Relatively) high mileage at 105,000
- The heavy, too big, replica Fuch wheels
- Horrible pitch black window tints
- Nasty and unreliable non factory immobiliser install
- Horrible aftermarket SUPER loud exhaust
It also had some other weirdness and general bodgery going on with some nasty aftermarket rear bumper winglets, broken Carrera badge, incorrect exhaust tips from a facelift car, a badly installed K&N induction kit and various bits of interior trim looked pretty tired. If this was the first 996/986 I’d seen I would have walked away, but knowing these cars pretty well by this point I could sense a good car underneath and knew I could get on top of it pretty quickly. Outside of the ASBO exhaust, the car drove really well so could sense I was on to a potential winner. Despite his questionable taste in mods, the owner before the seller had the car around 11 years and it had a solid service history with Porsche Torque.
The guy who was selling it had previously been into big power Japanese cars - Supra’s, RX7’s etc - and bought this from Northway Porsche to try something different but didn’t get on with it at all. He’d put less than 1000 miles on it since he’d got it from the dealer about 6 months previous and was selling on to try and get back into an RX7. (Pictured below from when I picked the 996 up from him.)
I’d never been in one of these before and the seller took me for a quick spin. Couldn’t believe how tiny it was inside and also how quick it felt. Awesome bit of kit.
I phoned Northway and the story stacked up, they had got the car in as PX against a 997 and they gave me a thorough overview of recent service work they had completed and vouched for the car. Even offered to let me get it up in the air on their ramps to have a better look. As a bonus they also told me they had a set of recently refurbished original Porsche/BBS split rims they would swap for the replica Fuch wheels if I could sort out some tyres. Result.
That sealed the deal for me so I made the seller an offer and we shook hands. It was a good bit cheaper than the blue car so man maths gave me a modest budget to sort out all of the niggles and get it spot on. My plan was to go for an OEM+ vibe with the whole car.
I picked the car up in July 2019 and have given it a thorough going over since. All of this was largely elective, other than the water pump spectacularly letting go one Saturday afternoon, and the car is now feeling pretty fit and healthy. I’ve almost certainly blown my modest budget to bits in getting everything done so I’ve simply stopped adding up the cost of things
List of mods/fixes so far in no particular order:
- Replaced the crappy K&N filter kit with a standard 996 airbox
- Fit correct sized BBS Split rims along with a new set of Toyo Proxxes (Not impressed with these. Didn’t have much choice at the time from the tyre supplier. Michelin PS’s going on next time.)
- Upgraded 12v socket (The early cars have a weird sized 12v socket that doesn’t fit anything)
- Hubcentric spacers - 5mm at the front, 15mm at the rear
- Bluetooth install for the standard Becker head unit
- Upgraded front and rear speakers and fitting kits (Alpine SPG 10C2’s for anyone interested)
- Carnewal 996 modified exhaust and new Dansk exhaust tips (Had one of these on the Boxster. Great exhaust. Quiet round town, screams at high revs)
- Removed the ropey immobiliser install (This was a complete rats nest behind the dash. The alarm guy I used found two different tracker systems plumbed in from previous installs!)
- New pierburg water pump, low temperature thermostat, upgraded coolant cap and full coolant flush
- GT3 centre console delete
- GT3 Front brake ducts
- Removed the horrible window tints
- HID H7R Retrofit into original light units (I know HID retrofits are frowned upon by some. These new ones have a good cut off and are approximately 100000% better than the candles fitted as standard by Porsche so they are staying)
- Porsche X51 baffled Sump (Want to do a few track days this year and figured this was a cheap insurance policy against oil starvation)
- New Bosch idle control valve (these early cars use a separate idle controller and have a habit of cooking them over time. Was causing issues with cold starts and a temperamental hot idle)
- New Bosch fuel Regeneration Valve (helped solve a fuel tank vacuum issue that was making the car moo like a cow every time I turned it off!)
- 993 RS Engine Mounts
- Low speed fan resistors for both radiators (vital to help keep the car running cool round town)
And that’s about it so far and brings the story up to date. Car sits at around 115,000 miles now. That list above represents quite a few weekends worth of spannering but it’s been good fun to work on and it’s now nearly finished! (Though project cars are never really finished, are they?)
Here’s a bunch of pictures of it in various states of undress while working on it over the past few months. (I know it’s parked in a disabled space in some of these pics. It’s the one they gave me when I applied for a permit and for some reason won’t let me change it!)
Sorting out various front bumper niggles and fixing the rad fans. Looks dramatic but only about an hour to get to this point. These things come apart easily.
Water pump and thermostat time. Got lucky with the exhaust fixings coming apart. This was on the limit of what I’d want to do without a proper garage/lift.
The one and only time the two ‘brothers’ met each other.
Bottom end open as part of the X51 sump install. Looking pretty clean for 100,000 miles and 20 years.
I got the stand AND the bike in the back of the car. It’s a bit of a Tardis at times.
Someone had a good sense of humour when it was parked up covered in muck
It goes for a bit of paint at the end of the month to tidy up the front and rear bumpers and then I’m planning on enjoying it for the rest of this year. I’m lining up a few track days (At Silverstone on the 25th if anyone else is coming to that?) and a bit of a Eurotour by car as part of a summer holiday. I live in north London and cycle everywhere during the week, but given Big Brother will want to charge me £12 every time I take it out of the garage when the ULEZ expands, I want to try and get as much out of it as I can in the next 12 months. Further down the line I’ll think about a suspension refresh, and might switch to a smaller MOMO steering wheel soon, but that’s about it.
These things really get under your skin and it feels so special every time I take it for a spin. Equally at home caning it down a bumpy A road or pottering through town at <10mph and they are surprisingly practical as an only car. Even got the Christmas tree in there this year.
I’m a bit crap at keeping threads up to date, but now I’ve gone to the effort of writing this up I’ll try and keep on top of it with any updates. If you’ve got this far then thanks for reading, hope it inspires someone else to take the plunge on an early 996. You won’t regret it!
Covered in crap after a cross country bombing run on Boxing Day and looking all the better for it.
Edited by Mallone on Tuesday 14th January 15:16
Edited by Mallone on Tuesday 14th January 15:47
Edited by Mallone on Wednesday 28th September 05:31
Edited by Mallone on Wednesday 28th September 05:33
Edited by Mallone on Wednesday 28th September 05:33
Edited by Mallone on Wednesday 28th September 05:34
As a fellow London resident and future ULEZ refugee I share your philosophy when it comes to getting into one of these cars and using it as much as possible.
It looks like you've bagged one with a great spec - all the better it's fallen on slightly hard times recently and you've been able to take advantage! Looking forward to the journey!
It looks like you've bagged one with a great spec - all the better it's fallen on slightly hard times recently and you've been able to take advantage! Looking forward to the journey!
Densetsu said:
Nice thread OP! Good effort bringing back a nice 996 to a decent state. Is the Aero kit OEM/factory fit?
Yeah, apparently. Although it's not listed explicitly in the option codes that came with the car. Apparently some cars just had the kit fitted under the 'Exclusive Programme' option code.Should have included them in the main post but the full options list is:
C16 - UK Car
030 - Sports suspension -10mm lower
XRB - 18" SportClassic 2-piece wheels
220 - LSD Limited Slip Differential
222 - Traction control ASR AntriebsSchlupfRegelung
224 - Traction control ABD Automatic Braking Differential
236 - Internal production code related to tyres
375 - 2-way electrical sports seat, left
376 - 2-way electrical sports seat, right
436 - 3-spoke steering wheel
790 - (No idea what this one is!)
09991 - Manufacture from the exclusive-programme
Can you please post some interior pics when you get time? I am keen to see the GT3 console delete. I am looking for one of these for my 986 but they rarely come up and cost a fortune so may try a DIY alternative.
Nice car and write up. These cars like to be used regularly and if they are well maintained then mileage seems no issue as can be seen from some of the other 996 threads on here.
Nice car and write up. These cars like to be used regularly and if they are well maintained then mileage seems no issue as can be seen from some of the other 996 threads on here.
DanG355 said:
Can you please post some interior pics when you get time? I am keen to see the GT3 console delete. I am looking for one of these for my 986 but they rarely come up and cost a fortune so may try a DIY alternative.
Nice car and write up. These cars like to be used regularly and if they are well maintained then mileage seems no issue as can be seen from some of the other 996 threads on here.
Will do. Didn't realise I'd included no proper pics of the interior until after I'd posted everything up. Doh.Nice car and write up. These cars like to be used regularly and if they are well maintained then mileage seems no issue as can be seen from some of the other 996 threads on here.
The prices for the delete kit from Porsche are mad when you consider what it actually is - £150 for a bit of plastic and carpet! Does transform the feel of the interior though. Loads more leg space too.
That is lovely, I'm biased of course! Our ownership stories are a bit similar actually, I started looking at the cheaper end of the market and even went to view one just like your first 996 - but it was too rough in person. Then man-maths and budget creep took over. Looks like its a similar spec to mine too - and no worries on the mileage, I've been using mine plenty and its now on 121k. Good effort doing things like the exhaust as a DIY, I've heard its a nightmare.
Is that the GT3 front splitter? That looks really good with the aero bumper.
Is that the GT3 front splitter? That looks really good with the aero bumper.
CornedBeef said:
That is lovely, I'm biased of course! Our ownership stories are a bit similar actually, I started looking at the cheaper end of the market and even went to view one just like your first 996 - but it was too rough in person. Then man-maths and budget creep took over. Looks like its a similar spec to mine too - and no worries on the mileage, I've been using mine plenty and its now on 121k. Good effort doing things like the exhaust as a DIY, I've heard its a nightmare.
Is that the GT3 front splitter? That looks really good with the aero bumper.
It was your car that really got me thinking about an Aerokit car! Looks so good in red.Is that the GT3 front splitter? That looks really good with the aero bumper.
I also ended up using AMS for a bunch of work after you mentioned them in a post. Top guys. Great Indy.
I believe it is the GT3 splitter. It has a habit of grazing on speed bumps sometimes unless you take things slowly but it looks awesome so I can live with that. It’s a bit battered but can’t justify the £200 Porsche seem to want for a bit of tough plastic. Seems to have both Porsche tax and GT3 tax applied. Might see if my paint guy has got some sort of flexible plastic paint he can use to tart it up a bit.
Great story, and great to see you doing so much yourself.
Bit weird, but any more info on your peugeot drop handled bike. I have the exact same bike in the garage waiting for a new set of wheels and a refresh but I'm always at a loss as where to start. Old bikes are not my thing and bike shops do not want to know about retro stuff.
Bit weird, but any more info on your peugeot drop handled bike. I have the exact same bike in the garage waiting for a new set of wheels and a refresh but I'm always at a loss as where to start. Old bikes are not my thing and bike shops do not want to know about retro stuff.
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