Design
The Porsche 996 was an all new design made by Harm Lagaay; the first new 911 that didn't carry over a significant component from a previous variant. All new body work, interior and drive-train including the first water-cooled engine in a 911. The Porsche 996 replaced the Porsche 993.
The first 996s were available as a coupe or cabriolet initially with rear wheel, or later, with four-wheel drive, and a 3.4 litre flat-6 normally aspirated engine producing 296 bhp (224 kW). These cars had the same headlights as the Porsche Boxster. Porsche Carrera owners complained loudly and long about the "lower priced car that looked just like theirs did ", hence the headlight change for the Carrera. The design for these headlamps could be traced all the way back to the Porsche Panamericana concept car.
In 2000, Porsche debuted the 996 Turbo, equipped with four-wheel-drive and a 3.6 litre, twin turbocharged and intercooled flat-six producing 420 bhp (309 kW), making the car capable of 4.2 second 0 to 60 mph times. An X50 option which included larger turbochargers and intercoolers along with revised engine control software became available from the factory in 2002, increasing power to 450 hp (336 kW). (Porsche produced a Turbo S in 2005, which also had the x50 option with 450 bhp, alongside the formerly optional Carbon fibre-reinforced Silicon Carbide (C/SiC) composite ceramic brakes (PCCB) as standard equipment.)
In 2001, horsepower on the base Carrera model was increased by 4 bhp to 300 bhp. In 2002, the standard models underwent minor re-styling, which included switching to the Turbo-style headlamps and to a new front fascia. These were sometimes known as the Mk2 generation of the 996, or the 996.2. In addition, engine capacity was also increased to 3.6 litres across the range, yielding gains of 15 horsepower for the naturally aspirated models. 2002 also marked the start of the production of the 996 based Targa, featuring a sliding glass "green house" roof system like its Type 993 predecessor. Also in 2002, the Carrera 4S model was first introduced. The C4S as it is commonly called, shares the widebody look of the Turbo as well as the brakes and suspension.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)