You don't know? Of course you don't; you're not a walking collection of useless trivia nor Google incarnate. Engines switching their methods of cooling from surrounding air being funnelled around the engine to having specialty liquids designed to extract heat being pumped around engines to cool them is a straight upgrade: it gives engine more power density, more revs, less NVH and emissions, and, you know, reduces the risk of the whole thing going kaboom mid drive. That switch to water–cooling isn't even worth thinking about. Unless of course, you're a Porsche 911 fan over the age of boomer, in which case you know exactly when the hell your favourite Carrera got drowned in the evil liquid that is engine coolant: July 17, 1997, the birthday of the rebellious 5th–generation 911, the 996.
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Okay, yes, fine, the engine sound is muffled a bit compared to the traditional air–cooled units found in the prior four generations of 911s, and unfortunately, early 996 engines had a reputation that didn't hold water; sometimes literally, as reliability issues such as oil leaks and Intermediate Shaft Bearing failures were commonly reported, forever tainting the all–important first impression of the 996. But Porsche didn't become the most dominant manufacturer in Le Mans history by accepting defeat and rolling back changes. With their backs against the wall, they called upon the man who made them such a dominant force in the endurance racing world to begin with—Hans Mezger—to administer CPR to the drowning engine half a crank case in a watery grave. You might know his name if you're familiar with the 917 that won Porsche its first overall victory in Le Mans, the 804 that gave Porsche its only win in Formula 1 to date, or maybe if you have a strange fascination with the mid–engined, water–cooled 911 GT1 that won Le Mans in 1998. Heck, if you've ever driven any of the prior 4 generations of 911s, you'd have at the very least sampled his work; they were all powered by engines colloquially known as "Mezger Engines". Under the trained hands and watchful eyes of the legendary engineer, the ill–fated M96 3,387cc Flat 6 gained 213cc and .76 to its name. This was apparently all it took to silence the outcries of reliability issues... or they were simply drowned out by the sound of even more power.
This new breed of M96.76 3.6L Flat 6 engines? Porsche fans came to know it as... the "Mezger Engine". Man, these guys resist change as if everything came in five cent coins. What are they going to complain about next, that the headlights aren't round on the 996?
Almost as if to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this new M96.76 Mezger Engine is reliable enough to withstand the rigours of racing, Porsche introduced the "GT3" trim to the 911 lineup in 1999 for the first time in the model's history, equipped of course with the brand spanking new 3.6L NA Flat 6. As a homologation model for Group N-GT (a category predating FIA's own GT3 category!), 996 GT3s were sold to customers bereft of creature comforts like sound deadening, ride comfort, audio systems, and air con, though the latter could be optioned back in at no extra charge. It's the sort of car that kids fall in love with, and the kids that grow up to be engineers wish they could make, but the bean counters at Porsche were wisely cautious with expectations, planning for only as many 996 GT3s to be made as the 996 GT3s weighed in kilograms, and given that it's a stripped out track toy made to be as light as possible, the GT3 sure seemed damned by accountants from conception to be an obscure footnote in the 911 history books. However, demand for these spine–smushing, ear–rupturing coffins so greatly exceeded the initially planned run of 1,350 cars (that's 2,976lbs for you freedom loving folks) that production of the 996.1 GT3 totalled 1,868 cars in three short years, ensuring that this love letter GT3 grade would become a linchpin in the 911 lineup in later generations.
Among those smitten by torture is Gran Turismo director and Polyphony Digital CEO, Yamauchi Kazunori, who owns a 996 GT3 to this day, and has gone on record praising it for its body rigidity, direct response, and opining that it is still a benchmark for modern performance cars. Almost as though Kaz was trying to build the car its own legacy, the 996 GT3 would gain almost a mythical status in the digital realm of Gran Turismo; a 2001 996 GT3, plausibly modelled after Kaz's own ride, was included in the Japanese and European versions of 2001's Gran Turismo 3, albeit inaccessible via normal gameplay as an unused asset. While RUF does serve as a stand in for Porsche models in Gran Turismo 3, Polyphony Digital seemed to not even be allowed to as much as mention Porsche, resulting in some very painful and obvious dancing around the name in RUF cars' descriptions, such as "a famous German automaker", or "based on a unit used in that automaker's larger sports car", all while having to stress every time that RUF is an automaker recognised by the German government. It's a wonder how the heck they didn't get in more trouble for including a fully–functional, albeit unused 996 GT3 in the game!
The fully–functional 996 GT3 as an unused asset in Gran Turismo 3
It would take another 17 years before the very same 2001 996 GT3 would be officially included and proudly advertised in a Gran Turismo game: GT Sport. But just when it seemed time for the 996 GT3 to melt away into the background as just another road car in the games' car list, a State of Play trailer for Gran Turismo 7 would shine yet another spotlight on an elusive, behind–the–scenes 996, albeit this time, only on its engine, as an explicitly named M96.76 powerplant was seen somehow smushed into the back of a 1966 Volkswagen Type 1200 as a way of advertising a new feature to the series: Engine Swaps. We GT7 players would end up never being able to do that very specific swap, with the 964's air–cooled Flat 6 slotting snug into the back of the bug instead. Mik Hizal still hasn't received that memo, though; he still insists that there is a "911 GT3" engine in the back of his Beetle.
So, with all the hype and waiting out of the way, how does the 2001 996 GT3 hold up as "just another car", as "just another 911" in Gran Turismo 7?
It's not just in the mechanicals where the 996 GT3 spits on its forbearers' legacy: it also does a full 180 in the driving experience as well, ironically by actually holding straight and true. There may have been "pure" and stripped out 911s before, but as a straight up, no–nonsense homologation model, the 996 GT3 makes the already hardcore 993 RS Club Sport look like a casual garden shed strip job in comparison. Road going 911s up to this point have more or less felt like products of their time, having noticeable pitch and roll whatever it is they did, which, when combined with their rear heaviness, makes them outright hazardous to drive in the worst of times. The 996 GT3 on the other hand, feels like wearing a pair of jeans a size too small; it feels tight and restrictive, and the driver will have to fight the car to get it to do anything, including turning a corner.
The 996 GT3 defaults to safe, controllable understeer in any situation, as its the front tyres that are the limiting factor from corner entry to exit; the front tyres of course do most of the braking and all of the turning on entry, but the rear end is so rock solid and bereft of all drama that it's almost deadpan. In fact, the 996 GT3 can feel eerily like an EV to drive at times, simply because there's no sensation of a big lump of concentrated mass anywhere in the car, having its heaviest component, the engine, sat behind what feels like anchor–laden rear axles, which ardently refuse to give. To get the 996 GT3 to do its best work then, requires a very well educated right foot on trail braking and throttle blipping, as it's only with gentle, yet persuasive footwork will the 996 GT3 show its true cornering ability. On corner exits, overzealous drivers will find that it's also understeer that causes them to lift off the loud pedal instead of oversteer, as what little weight is over the front axles flies clean off to ensure that none of the 354HP (264kW) are allowed to run loose, almost as if Porsche made a FF hot hatch! The 996 GT3 was never offered with traction control, and quite honestly, it's completely unnecessary in the dry—it'd have to be provoked with a flaming barbed wire stick to get it to lash out on its driver, like flooring the throttle pedal in the first two gears, or deliberately trying to inertia drift it. I would not recommend trying the latter, as I'm sure even Vic will concur.
As the first GT3 in 911 history, the 996 GT3 is unflinchingly raw and mechanical, having none of the electrical wizardry of the later models to help hide or assuage its few flaws on a racetrack. While the entire car is extremely stiffly sprung, there is a lot of travel in the front suspension necessary to put weight over the featherweight front end; enough for the front wheels to hit the fenders in the most extreme of circumstances, like, say, if someone were to try to Kansei Dorifuto it. Even when driven "normally", this long stroke can become a prevalent problem at high speed. The 996 GT3 is one of the very few road cars of its time that actually produces downforce, and quite a bit of it at that: 30–120 front and rear according to whatever obtuse unit and measurement method GT7 uses. If the 996 GT3 was already limited by front grip in low speed corners, imagine dumping heavily rear–biased downforce into the mix. Even in mid 4th gear at around 180km/h, the steering wheel seemingly stops talking to me, and the front end becomes increasingly numb and slow to respond to steering inputs. Lifting even a bit does help tremendously with that, but the issue is that there's so much front travel in the suspension that the front end can quickly go from barely interested to turning too much with just a partial lift, making it extremely hard for me to tell just how much the front end wants to respond to every tug of the steering wheel off centre, and it's this vagueness that keeps me from really exploring the 996 GT3's limits at speed. Skill issue? Very possibly, but certainly not exclusively. Thankfully, this is an issue that is only prominent on a track like the Nordschleife, with the vast majority of its turns taken at speed; it's much less noticeable on other tracks.
The 996 GT3 is undeniably fast if a fast driver works with the car to work the car, which can be a very rewarding driving experience at times, but it can get rather tiresome quickly. I know the car can turn at speed, so why do I have to figuratively argue with the car to convince it to do so each and every time? For those unlucky enough to relate, it's like having to argue with oneself just to do basic things like getting out of bed and taking a shower. It's more or less fine when you're on your own with no commitments, but in a racing scenario where I might have to dodge something quickly or adjust my line to give space, I don't always have time to baby the car and set it up nicely to get it to do what it needs to. Worse still is when the reward for hard work is vague and not guaranteed, it makes said hard work just a chore and a gamble. Going back to the shower scenario: if there's no guarantee my life will get any better even if I go take that shower, and I expend all that energy and willpower to do it and end up feeling indifferent, I just feel like I never should've bothered.
But such too is the way of progress; the 996 GT3 is so fast that it can't even afford to fantasise about being as playful and whimsical as the 993 RS CS or NA2 NSX-R. Absent the sophisticated computer aids of today, the 996 GT3 can't afford to trust the driver enough to leave as much in their fleshy, flawed hands, simply because everything around it is happening so much faster, and while cars keep getting faster, humans sadly do not. In a way, having to fight that understeer is a primitive, mechanical way for the driver to prove to the car that they know what they're doing, absent any electrical wizardry to alter the driving experience. Unfortunately, in becoming so raw and focused, I think the 996 GT3 inadvertently shows clearly with no room for doubt the flaws of an RR layout, as even a run–off–the–mill V8 R8 is faster and easier to drive, and cheaper to boot! Of course, Porsche would keep getting better at their craft, and the 997 GT3 and Cayman GT4 are both newer, faster, and somehow, cheaper machines than the 996 GT3 in GT7's twisted and illogical economy. That said, the 996 GT3 does have a neat niche in this game as of v1.48, sitting at just under 550PP fresh from the Brand Central: 548.92PP to be exact. This makes the 996 GT3 a shoe–in as–is for 550PP events without any need for aftermarket parts and tinkering, such as the Kyoto 1 Hour Endurance mission race, which the 996 GT3 handily cleans up running flat out with just one stop, even on "Normal" difficulty (which I believe is the hardest difficulty for Mission Races due to a bug still unaddressed in the game as of v1.48). For this fuss free, ready–to–race state out of the box, the 996 GT3 could well be worth the 180,000 Credits Porsche asks for.
The 996 unfortunately suffers from being the middle child of many siblings; it isn't as playful as its older, slower predecessors, but doesn't yet have the magic of its younger successors. While the 996 GT3 isn't a car I foresee myself going back to, it is nonetheless one of the most important models in the 911 series, and has helped me gain yet more respect for Porsche. Even though they were in dire financial straits in the 90s, they quickly addressed the 996's initial issues, and even went as far as to create a pure, sporty variant of the car they didn't expect to sell well. Since then, Porsche has never relented on offering as raw an experience as modern laws would allow; just look at the 991 R and the 992 S/T. A sports car, a product, always needs to keep evolving, even if said changes look uncomfortable. Can anyone imagine a car with an air–cooled engine being offered in dealerships today, much less be a benchmark for the do–it–all car? Writing as a fan of Mazda's Wankel Engine sports cars, I think Porsche fans are the luckiest enthusiasts in the world to have the car they fell in love with at any point in the past seven decades not only survive to this day, but stand as a benchmark for other automakers to follow, and I think the 996 deserves a lot of credit for that. Speaking for myself personally, the 996 GT3 has shown me that, if forced to make another big change in the very quiet future, Porsche will do right by their fans and do it right.
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