REINVENTING THE STEEL

As we’ve already documented in this celebratory issue of 911 & Porsche World, cost cutting was the name of the game when it came to developing the 996, an approach which found many aspects of the model wanting. Without a determined focus on production spend, however, the 996 — and by extension, the continuation of the 911 bloodline — may never have happened. For this reason, we should embrace Porsche’s decision to share more than a third of components between the 986 Boxster and the 996.

Once the decision had been made to develop the two cars in tandem, a huge amount of effort was expended in the Porsche design department to work out how to share components while giving each model its own identity. Importantly, the 911 needed to look like a 911!

PORSCHE DETAILED ITS RUDIMENTARY TEST FOR RESISTANCE TO FADE, WHERE THE DRIVER TAKES THE CAR TO NINETY PERCENT OF ITS TOP SPEED

Factory designer, Pinky Lai, is credited with the 996 shape, working under time-served head of Style Porsche, Harm Lagaay. Though many will remember the early 996 for its historically unloved ‘fried egg’ front light clusters,