NEW DAWN

Though Porsche had used water-cooling in many road and race cars prior to the arrival of the 996, the 911 abandoning the air-cooled flat-six was nothing short of momentous. As we talk about later in this issue of 911 & Porsche World, there was a moment when it looked as though the 993 could have had the honour of being the first water-cooled 911 – Porsche seriously considered using an Audi-supplied V8. The fact this engine would have required a complete rethink of the 911’s layout was the air-cooled flat-six’s saving grace. Nonetheless, air-cooling was living on borrowed time: compromises, such as increasingly difficult-to-quell noise, cost of manufacturing and limitations on performance were at the forefront of Porsche’s thinking. Thankfully, the future of the manufacturer’s flat-six arrangement (albeit with water cooling) was assured when Porsche took the decision to develop the 996 and the 986 Boxster in parallel, allowing economies of scale.

This approach extended beyond the engine, but as far as the powerplant was concerned, the target was a flat-six with more performance, better fuel economy and lower production costs. The desired engine (codenamed M96) needed to make use of fewer unique parts and