2003 Porsche 911 Turbo/996 TT

Written By:

Mike G

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Headlights, so many people get hung up on these items. You don’t see them when you are driving the car, I don’t get it. I understand it’s not like the rest of the 911’s ever made with traditional round head lights. I think we have enough negativity out there in the world now days, let’s all get over this “issue” with the headlights. Honestly there are two ways to really thing of this, some are in the camp that the Boxster and the 911 have the same headlights and the others say the headlights were good enough for the unicorn car GT1. I would like to go on record and say I stake my claim with the ones that say use the GT1 reference. Additionally, this car is unique enough and different with the headlights to be special. When all the people die off that started this bogyman rumor this will be wanted by all. Take a page out of the “step child” treatment 911’s of the past. Mid-year 911’s for those that don’t know what I am reference I am taking mid 70’s 911’s no one wanted those cars. The “purist” hated them. Now they are sought after. The 964, “terrible” cars at the time of its release according to the “purist”. Now the 964 has rose from the ashes to surpass the 993 in pricing. The ”purists” seem to think the 996 was awful 911. Well guess what MOMMA’S WRONG AGAIN! These 996’s will be sought after in due time and people are already hunting for special ones. 

Now that’s all out of the way. This particular 996 is the turbo variant and came with a factory 415hp and 415lb-ft. This car in 2003 was a rocket ship and is a rocket ship still to this date. Now this one we drove was modified, it had straight pipe exhaust, a tune, short shifter, upgraded clutch, and some other little things to make it look nicer. The steering feel was incredibly tight and responsive. The noises the exhaust and the engine made were out of this world. After driving this car I was buzzing for an hour after we were done because of the feeling it gave me. So fast, so capable and looks amazing. I would like to point out a thing that a lot of other people have complained about is the interior. Many in the past have said it feels cheap and plastic like. Now, I did not feel that way. I thought the interior was appropriate for 2003.  Was there plastic inside? Yes but, so did other high cars of that time period. The suspension feel great, wasn’t rough at all. I really really enjoyed driving this car. Now remember this is a modified one but isn’t to terribly expensive to replicate what he has done. Going back to steering feel, this car has the GT2 conversion done to it where the front wheel drive has been removed. So maybe that helped the feel a little more. Either way, I liked it and I know many of you would also. 

In conclusion, this is going to be a long term keeper if you get one. Not just because it may be sought after someday and be very expensive but, because it is a great driving car. You do minor mods to this car and it adds another 100hp very easy. Not many 911’s you can do that with. When I was doing some of the pulls on this car it felt like I was shot out of cannon the car pulls so hard. Not that I know what being shot out of cannon feels like but I could imagine it would have felt like that. I hope people continue to dog on this car and it keeps the pricing down so I can buy one for myself one of these days. I really hope I can my hands on one before they shoot up someday. If you are one of these ones out there that unsure about this car I hope I just put all that to bed. Either way don’t buy one they are terrible wink wink, that way there will be more for me!