I love the 996 Porsche 911, right up to the point where the amount you pay for one can buy another 911 that is much more appealing to me. As the years go on, that seems to happen more and more. Today’s car, a 2005 911 Turbo S, is one of those. On paper, the best 996 out of the widow making GT2 or hard-as-nails GT3. For a long time, they seemed like a reasonable buy, but in 2022? How does a six-figure pricetag sound?
I’m all four wild interiors. Give them to me all. If it is between beige or turquoise, I’ll take the turquoise any day of the week. Although the caveat here is that it has to make sense. I don’t want any Ronald McDonald-looking interior or some creation from “Crazy Rick’z House of Leather” that the fourth owner decided to go with. Today’s car, a very rare 1997 911 Turbo S, has one of those wild interiors. Although different, it misses wildly on one thing.
Please forgive me for featuring the same model in back-to-back weeks, but this is something I’ve never seen before that I wanted to dive into. We all know the new 992 Porsche 911 Turbo S is rather bonkers, and Porsche keeps giving us all the extra goodies to make it even that much better. Although for a very steep price as we are about to see.
This 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S is optioned with what Porsche is calling the “Lightweight Package.” What does that include? Well, you get thinner glass and sound deadening material, a 10mm lower suspension, a sport exhaust system, and most importantly, the carbon bucket seats. This is a big deal in the 911 Turbo world as I believe this is the first time you as a regular Joe could option the carbon buckets in the 911 Turbo. How much for all this? $10,340. Not exactly a big deal on a car that starts at $208,000 to begin with. It is also important to note that selecting this package deletes the electric steering column and rear seats as well. So if you are looking to build a GT2-esque example before we even are seeing spy shots of them, here is your chance.
When Porsche launched the next-generation 992 Turbo S last year, most had a hard time believing the numbers it was pulling down. I know we really don’t live our daily lives in 0-60 times, but when that number is quicker than a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, you think about things a little differently. The car is that fast. It is still the same basic shape as the 911 Turbo has been for the past 20 years, still uses a twin-turbo 3.8-liter flat-six, but now can do a quarter-mile run in 10.1 seconds. Remember when 10 second quarter mile times were reserved for dedicated drag racers? All this for a starting price of $208,000. It should be illegal to sell a car this fast for that amount of money.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you can actually buy one at that price. Today’s car, a 2021 Turbo S coupe is finished in a wonderful paint-to-sample color of Club Blue, only carried out around $30,000 in options. I say only, because it is very easy to click way over $50,000 in options on the configurator at 1 a.m. in your underwear before bed. However, actually paying sticker price isn’t going to happen just yet.
Please take your seat and buckle your seatbelts, because you will need them for this one.
This is a 1998 Porsche 911 Turbo S that was reportedly commissioned by His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, the 6th Prime Minister of the State of Kuwait. It is by far one of the craziest color combinations I’ve ever laid my eyes on. As you can see from the outside, it’s an unusual shade of Vanilla Yellow, but it isn’t until we open the doors until we see one of the most bizarre and perhaps offensive color schemes in existence. Please brace yourself for this one.
By the back half of 2004, Porsche was full steam ahead with the launch of the 997 chassis for 2005, but they still had some unfinished business with the 996. Mainly this amounted to getting rid of all the leftover body shells and throwing all the parts bin stuff at the cars for high MSPRs to squeeze the last drop of juice out of the chassis. The 2005 model year for the 911 is hell for basically everyone having to deal with them as you could get a C2 cabriolet, Turbo, and GT3 in the 996 body as a 2005 model year, but the rest of the model range was now a 997. Even stranger was that if you wanted a 2005 911 Cabriolet, the base Carrera was a 996, but the Carrera S was a 997. Try having to pitch that as salesmen to potential buyers. Today’s car, a 911 Turbo S Cabriolet, was a full on “throw all the options on it to clear out the space we need in hopes someone buys it for a margin” kind of build. This car carried an MSRP of nearly $160,000 and was not shy about going a little over board equipment. Now? Not much of a discount, honestly.
I’m a mega-fan of everything green on cars. Even the wilder shades of green I’m all for, but I feel like they have their place on certain cars. Today’s car, a 2019 Porsche 911 Turbo S, is finished in paint-to-sample Olive Green and has nearly $35,000 in other options for a giant sticker price of $233,255. However, I don’t know if I am in love with this one – let me explain why:
In terms of contrast between the 997.1 Porsche 911 Turbo and the 997.2 Porsche 911 Turbo, it is very clear – at least when it comes to comparing the cars with the gearboxes that only have two pedals. A few days ago we looked at the 997.1, it has a regular five-speed automatic transaxle with a traditional torque converter. It is slow, it is soft, and it sucks a lot of power. However the clouds cleared once the 997.2 came around and the Tiptronic box was replaced by the snappy seven-speed PDK gearbox. All of a sudden it isn’t a penalty to only have two pedals in the footwell; the 6-speed cars physically can’t shift faster than the PDK car. Yes, I know it isn’t all about 0-60 times and being the fastest, but PDK was a game changer for the 911 Turbo. Even better when talking about a 997.2 Turbo S, which is what we have up for sale today.
Say what you want about the Porsche Cayenne, but without its emergence in the early-2000s, there would be no special Porsche cars that we all enjoy. The easy-to-produce SUVs that platform share with the other VWAG SUVs was not only easy to scale, but saved a ton of labor costs as the majority of it was built at the Volkswagen Bratislava Plant in the Slovak Republic, rather than in Germany that is just used for final assembly. Because of this, Porsche now had the cash to dump into RS cars, Speedsters, and other fun things that Porsche really weren’t forced to build. Just to put it into perspective, Porsche sells as many Cayennes as they do 911s, 718s, Taycans, and Panameras combined. The Macan? Same numbers. So the next time you see a 2006 Cayenne Turbo chugging around with a blown out suspension and blue smoke pouring our the tailpipes, give it a little thanks for funding the 997 GT3 RS 4.0s that exist because of it.
One of the crazier things I’ve ever seen in the car industry is the Porsche 911 Turbo S 918 Spyder Edition. If you don’t know the back story, lets settle in for a very quick story.
When Porsche was selecting their very best clients to purchase the upcoming 918 Spyder for $845,000, they decided to offer a 911 Turbo S called the “Edition 918 Spyder” to those same buyers. It was a 997.2 Turbo S finished in either black or silver with acid green accents to match those of the 918. Each one was “numbers-matching” to their 918 and rumor has it every 918 owner took up Porsche’s offer on these, although that is disputed in some circles. The price? $160,700 for the coupe or $172,100 for the convertible. Nothing like a good old fashion upsell to the tune of six-figures. Over the years, these cars have parted ways with the matching 918 given they made 918 of them in total. Naturally, these pop up for sale every once in a while and oh boy, they are not cheap.
