At first glance the Porsche 996 Carrera 4S looks like a 911 Turbo. However, a closer look parking a 996 C4S next to a 996 Turbo highlights the differences. Both have similar styling with 996.2 style lights and the same front and rear bumper cover.
Styling differences include the lack of rear air intakes that are found in the 996 twin-turbo, the closed air outlets of the rear air diffuser for the C4S and the 911 Carrera 4S has its signature rear reflector strip.
The early Porsche 996 was the first time that the legendary Porsche 911 had been water cooled. Sure Porsche had used water to cool their front-engined cars and the 959 had water cooling its heads, but no production car sold as a 911 had used anything except God’s good air to keep temperatures lower.
Even though purists didn’t like this move it was a necessary one as Porsche was reaching the limits of what could be done with an air cooled vehicle. It did bring an added benefit of air conditioning that worked quite well instead of the system that barely worked in the air cooled cars.
The Porsche 987 Cayman S is a great performance car. As modern 911s have gotten larger and more luxurious, the Cayman is closer to the formula of the classic 911. Of course the Cayman S offers this experience in a better handling modern package.
On paper what isn’t to like about the 3.4-liter flat-six powered lightweight sports car with 295 horses on tap. It offers plenty of performance in a rev happy car that is like using a scalpel when it comes to carving corners.
The Porsche 996 is currently the most affordable generation of the 911. Prices of early 996s are especially low when compared to later examples.
The thing about the early cars is that they have a few things that in the future may turn out to be desirable. Namely the fact that they have a more durable dual row IMS bearing and a cable driven throttle body.
Since selling my dependable Porsche 986 Boxster that I owned for over six years late last year, I had been searching for the next Porsche. I wasn’t going for the cheapest 911 or Cayman S, but this 1999 996 was priced so low that I couldn’t resist.
The words Ferrari and investment are often used together in the collector car market. With the current COVID-19 pandemic shutting down much of the world’s economy, many are looking to take their money out of the stock market and put it somewhere that it can retain its value. While a well balanced portfolio over a long period of time, will likely (at least historically based) be a good investment, for those trying to time the market or to be prepared to weather the storm, the collector car market starts to look very tempting.
The ideal car to purchase is one that has hit all of its depreciation and that has the potential to appreciate. The great thing with collector cars is that you maintain a tangible asset that will have some value into the future no matter what happens with the world’s currencies. Of course there is the issue of maintenance of a car, but if you buy a well maintenance example to begin with and keep the miles low, you may not need to put much into it when you decide it is time to sell.
One car that appears to possibly be near the bottom of its depreciation curve is the Ferrari 360.