The Porsche 996 affronted the traditionalists in a classy package

When the Porsche 996 was presented in 1997, the traditionalist Porsche fans were aghast. The design was fundamentally similar to the 993, so it wasn't that. It was what was under the skin that triggered so many. It has a brand new chassis, which improved the handling, but the biggest affront was the engine. It was water-cooled. This was the very first 911 to not be air cooled. The other affront to 911 purists was the shard development of the original Boxster with the 911. 23 years later, it's gone through three generations (in addition to the brand new 992) and is an icon regardless of the cooling system.

The 996 was engineered thoroughly by the team of gun Porsche engineers. It spent hours in the wind tunnel to drop the CoD as low as 0.30. Well-known Porsche designer Harm Lagaay and his team spent three years on the design of the car. And the chassis was stiffened by 45%. There were several models: coupe and cabriolets of the Carrera, Turbo, Turbo S and Carrera 4S, as well as the GT3, GT3 RS, GT2 and Targa.

Despite the fact that a portion of the 911 faithful were driven away by the new model, 175 000 were manufactured over the eight years it was made. Interestingly, one of these is a police car; after drugs were found in one in Alabama, it was recustomised as a police car and used for public relations purposes. Overall, the 996 will never quite be seen as a truly legendary car as it blindsided some of it's faithful, but it is a really excellent car.