Does A Bargain Porsche 911 Exist? Yes, And It Has Two Turbos

The 996-era Porsche 911 is currently wallowing at the bottom of its depreciation curve. The 996, built between 1998 and 2004 with its amoebae headlights and water-cooled engines, is neither as retro-cool as the earlier 993 or as aesthetically on-point as the subsequent 997. It also suffered from a colorful variety of mechanical ailments, including time-bomb intermediate shaft bearings.

All of which is wonderful from a car-buying perspective, because now you can get a 996 Turbo or GT3 for as cheap as they’ll ever be. OK, scratch that—they’re already on the way back up. But we’re talking $40,000 to $70,000 for cars that now cost three to five times that, new. So the question is, which one would you want? The screaming GT3 or the quiet riot, the 911 Turbo? We took a 2004 GT3 and a 2003 Turbo to the airstrip to decide for ourselves.

Either way, you get a car that’s far removed from the lesser 911s of the era. That IMS bearing flaw, for instance, isn’t an issue for these two cars, because their 3.6-liter flat six is a completely different engine, an evolution of the previous air-cooled design (and also related to a GT1 race engine). So, counter-intuitively, the most powerful 996s are also the most reliable. The GT3 was good for 380 naturally aspirated horsepower, while the Turbo came standard with 415 horses but cranked out as much as 450 horsepower with the X50 package. And, then as now, the GT3 was rear-wheel-drive while the Turbo was all-wheel-drive. You end up with two machines with incredibly different characters. They’re both 911s, but they’re each on a distinct mission.

The GT3 is the track rat, crackling with ill intent from the moment you turn the key. You’d probably only need the tachometer for the first day of ownership, so vocal is the clattering, raspy 3.6. You hear, and feel, everything that’s going on—close your eyes for a long moment mid-apex and you could probably call out your RPM and the height of the corner curbing. There’s a nervous energy to the car. It’s not that it doesn’t track straight, but the GT3 always feels like it’s anticipating a corner. It’s ready. Where’s turn-in?