9WERKS Radio : The Porsche and Car Podcast Nov 3, 2025

GT3 deep dive: 996.1 & 2

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

105:09

Company

Heritage Parts Centre

Heritage Parts Centre is a company that sells parts for older Porsche cars, helping owners keep their vehicles in good shape.

Part

transaxles

A transaxle is a part of a car that combines the transmission and the axle, helping to transfer power from the engine to the wheels, especially in cars with engines in the middle or back.

Company

Callum Designs

Callum Designs is a company that creates designs for cars and other vehicles. It's run by Ian Callum, who is well-known in the car world for his creative work.

Company

Tuthill

Tuthill is a company that works on classic Porsche cars, making them better for racing and restoring them to their original glory. They are well-regarded in the car community.

Company

Singer

Singer is a company that takes old Porsche cars and makes them look and perform better. They are famous for their detailed work and custom designs.

Company

Wooden Picket

Wooden Picket is a company that used to modify Mini cars, making them special for famous people like footballers and movie stars.

Car

Porsche 914

The Porsche 914 is a sporty car made by Porsche that was popular in the 1970s. It's known for its interesting shape and being more affordable than other Porsches.

Brand

Subaru

Subaru is a car company from Japan that makes vehicles known for their ability to handle tough weather and terrain, thanks to their all-wheel-drive systems.

Car

The Porsche 356 is one of the first cars made by Porsche, built a long time ago between 1948 and 1965. It's loved by many for its beautiful design and sporty feel, making it a classic car that collectors really admire.

Concept

GT3

GT3 is a special name for a super-fast version of the Porsche 911 that is built for racing. It has better parts and design to make it perform really well on the track.

Car

Porsche Cayman

The Porsche Cayman is a sporty car that has its engine in the middle, which helps it handle really well on the road. It’s a bit cheaper than the famous 911 but still offers a lot of fun and speed, making it a popular choice for car lovers.

Term

Speed Yellow

Speed Yellow is a bright yellow color that many Porsche cars come in. It's popular among car lovers because it looks really cool and stands out on the road.

Concept

NineWorks marketplace

The NineWorks marketplace is a place where people can buy and sell special cars, kind of like an online shop just for car lovers.

Term

Mark I

'Mark I' is a way to say it's the first version of a car model. It's like saying the first edition of a book before any new editions come out.

Company

RPM Technica

RPM Technica is a company that helps people with cars, like giving advice on which car to buy or how to take care of them.

Term

cup twos

Cup Twos are special tires made for high-performance cars. They help the car grip the road better, especially when driving fast or on a racetrack.

Part

roll cage

A roll cage is a strong frame inside a car that helps keep people safe if the car flips over or crashes. It makes the car stronger and is often used in race cars.

Term

Metzger engine

The Metzger engine is a powerful engine used in some Porsche cars, famous for being reliable and successful in races.

Car

Porsche Carrera RS

The Porsche Carrera RS is a special version of the 911 sports car that was made in 1973 and is very popular among collectors. It’s lighter and faster than regular 911s, which makes it a big deal in the world of racing and car enthusiasts.

Car

Porsche 911

The Porsche 911 is a very famous sports car that has been around since 1964. It’s known for its unique shape and powerful performance, and many people talk about it because it’s considered one of the best sports cars ever made.

Term

homologation

Homologation is when car makers have to build a certain number of cars for racing purposes. This makes sure that the cars used in races are similar to the ones sold to the public.

Term

six-speed gearbox

A six-speed gearbox is a type of transmission that lets you choose from six different speeds while driving. This helps the car perform better and can save fuel.

Car

Porsche 993 GT2

The Porsche 993 GT2 is a special version of the 911 sports car that is very powerful and lightweight. It's popular with car fans for its performance.

Term

Gen 1

Gen 1 means the first version of a car model, which usually has different features compared to newer versions.

Term

Gen 2

Gen 2 means the second version of a car model, which usually has upgrades and changes from the first version.

Car

Porsche Carrera 4

The Porsche Carrera 4 is a type of sports car that has all-wheel drive, which helps it handle better on the road. It has a stronger frame, making it more stable during driving.

Term

downforce

Downforce is a force that helps keep a car on the ground when it's going fast. It makes the car grip the road better, which is important for racing and high-performance driving.

Term

aerodynamic package

An aerodynamic package is a set of design features on a car that helps it move through the air more easily. This can make the car faster and more stable while driving.

Term

six piston brakes

Six piston brakes are a type of brake system that uses six small cylinders to help stop the car. They offer better stopping power and help keep the brakes cool, especially in fast cars.

Car

Porsche 911 GT3

The Porsche 911 GT3 is a special version of the 911 made for racing and high performance. The 2005 model is known for being fast and having great handling on the track.

Part

geo

'Geo' is short for geometry, which is how the car's wheels are aligned. Getting it right helps the car drive straight and keeps the tires from wearing out too quickly.

Company

Nine Excellence

Nine Excellence is a company that works on Porsches, helping to improve their performance and handling. They make sure the cars drive well and feel good on the road.

Term

normally aspirated

Normally aspirated means the engine gets air from the atmosphere without any extra help from devices like turbochargers. This usually makes the engine simpler and can give a smooth power feel.

Term

corrosion

Corrosion is when metal parts of a car start to break down and rust due to exposure to things like water and salt. This can cause serious damage to the car over time.

Car

Porsche Boxster

The Porsche Boxster is a small sports car that you can drive with the top down, making it fun for sunny days. It’s designed to be easy to handle and is a great way for people to enjoy the Porsche experience without spending as much as on other models.

LIVE

This is NineWorks Radio brought to you by the NineWorks marketplace and powered by the

driven not hidden collective. Sign up now at NineWorks.co.uk

Welcome everybody, welcome to version two of today's episode of NineWorks Radio with your

two favourite amigos, it's Lee and Andy. Hello mate, hello. Have you hit the record button

this time? I have hit the record button this end now. You think after half a million downloads

and Lord knows how many episodes of this chaos we'd probably get a hang of it by now but

evidently not. Every day is a learning day. Every day is a learning day but I tell you

what is consistent in the world of NineWorks Radio, it's the fine human beings and indeed

companies that power this podcast and allow us to bring it to your ears, those being of

course Heritage Parts Centre, who we may well be needing going forward quite a bit for some

car parts perhaps. They cater for all manner of Porsche parts as you know, three five six

to nine nine seven bus transaxles and mid-engine cars within that time frame. You can get up

to seven percent off your basket by entering the code NineWorks 10 at the checkout providing

you are logged in. So thank you to Heritage Parts Centre, your go-to choice for Porsche

car parts. We also want to say a big shout out to Roadtrip Tribes, your handy Roadtrip

partner giving you detailed routes, the ability to share it with your friends, the ability

to communicate with your friends on the go, it's all there in one handy app. Download

the app via Apple App Store or Google Play. So thanks to Roadtrip Tribes and Heritage

Parts for letting us do this every week. Thank you very much. Anything that you've been up

to last week or so? Oh yes, I took a group of the DNHC to go and see Callum Designs

up in Warwick. So Friday lunchtime, we all met up at Gilks Garage Cafe, which is just

outside Warwick. A good, good recommendation by Steve Kavanagh. So I think it was twelve

thirteen of us met up there and had some lunch and then we headed over to Callum Designs.

So this is Ian Callum that's been on the podcast before. He is one of the, he's the

name behind the company, but it's quite a good size company. I think there's twenty,

late twenties amount of people there now. And they're doing all sorts of great design

work for all different companies in the industry, including quite a few sort of Porsche people,

Singer, Tuthill. Was there anybody else? I can't think, names escaped me if there was

anybody else. But then doing lots of work themselves, they've just done a little mini

project, which is, you may remember, if you're probably too young, wouldn't pick it. Do you

remember wouldn't pick it minis? No. So that was a big thing back in the sort of 60s, 70s.

There was a company called Wooden Picket that used to take minis and customize them and all of the

sort of footballers and movie stars and people like that. Pop stars, the Beatles, they all had

wooden picket minis that they'd roll around in. So they've recently done a wooden picket mini

for sort of modern day interpretation. Lots of Aston Martins and Jaguars, because obviously

that's Ian's sort of background design knowledge. But he's loved for Porsches way bigger than,

he's only got one Jag, but he's got three Porsches at the moment. Okay, which ones?

So he's got a 992, a 993 and a 914. Oh, wow, good mix, good mix for years.

Yeah, he's got a few other cars as well in his little collection of bits. But yeah, Porsche is

actually the highest numbered amount of cars that he's got. And he's always loved them. So yeah,

it was great. He took us on a little tour around the facility. So they do, they've got a big design

office there. There's probably, I would say 15 to 20 design seats there. So running a tier.

Lots of interesting stuff that we couldn't photograph or can't mention. They sort of

NDA'd and telephones were taken away from us. So we weren't allowed to take any pictures,

but they were very open. So they're big design walls, there's all the stuff that they've

worked on, which it's almost a bit like Porsche, you know, it's not just car stuff,

they're doing, there was a mobility type wagon. There was other things like chairs and

industrial kind of design. So it's quite varied, but the car is the big thing.

Then we went down to the facility where they're actually made like building the cars up.

So there was probably five or six different cars that were being built there. There was the Subaru,

which is the two door Subaru. You'd be an Essex boy, you probably know the

mentions of the different Subaru's, but they've done like a, they're taking a,

that particular two door sort of saloon Subaru and they've done some rebuilds of some.

So they're doing that. They've got the minis, two or three minis there. What else was there?

They have some, yeah, probably things that I can't say actually. There's a couple of

Porsches there. One of the directors has got a 3.2 Carrera, but it's got a 993 engine in it,

which looked great. There was a 356 that they were doing some work on. So real

varying stuff that we saw and just a fantastic visit.

Absolutely super. And Andy B, if I wanted to join you and members of the Drivenor

Hidden Collective on a future such factory tour, how on earth can I do it?

Go to our website at www.9works.co.uk slash join.

So yeah, fantastic afternoon. Just brilliant to soak up all the stuff that they do.

A big trim shop they've got there as well. They do all their trimming in house.

They feel that that's very important to get the inside of the cars that they do,

sort of the prototypes and the actual finished article is to have the trim shop in house.

So they can do that exactly as they want. They've always found that as the most difficult thing

to subcontract is you can subcontract it like you can having some welding done or some paint done,

but the trim is so detailed that they want full control over it rather than send it away and

then it comes back and it's not quite how I wanted it. So yeah, that's a big part of it.

So yeah, very good. Epic. That's so good. That's so good. And yeah, like really,

really what a lovely experience for everybody. So what tops putting that together, dude?

Yeah, it's good. More to come, hopefully. Absolutely. Let's see what else we can organise.

Absolutely. What have you been up to, mate?

Quite a big week, isn't it, this week in the Sibley household?

It's been a busy week. The garage is occupied. The heart is full and the wallet is empty.

So yeah, took collection of a 996 GT3, which is a theme, not my collection being the theme,

but the car being a bit of a theme for this episode. So we're going to look at the world of

996 Mark 1 and Mark 2 GT3. So hopefully, by this time in an hour, you'll be well-clued

up on all things to do with those early GT3s because we're going to be speaking to a host

of specialists and owners around the industry to give the most complete package possible

on, yeah, the early 911 GT3s. Looking forward to learning. Good stuff. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Good stuff. So how was pick up and take us through the spec of the car? What have

you got? Where did you get it from? Well, the first one sale was joined by members of the

Drivenot Hidden Collective. So there was a bit of a shout out on the WhatsApp group. I think

it was the Thursday night. It was quite late and it said, I mean, the thing is, I didn't want to

shout about the car until the finance had got over the line. So it was a bit reticent to say

anything. So it was quite late in the day, Thursday night, I basically said, if anyone

wants to join us on Saturday to pick a car up at Harbour Cars, you're welcome to join. So I think

we had maybe a dozen people in the end traveling down, which was so lovely, so lovely as PP says,

pleasure shared is a pleasure double. So it was so wonderful to have a glorious ensemble

of DNHC is there. It was yet purchased via Harbour Cars. It's a 996.2 GT3. It's a comfort car with

elephant ear bucket seats and a cage fitted. We'll talk about that in a bit more detail later,

because we can distinguish between comfort and club sport. It's in midnight blue, 29,000 miles

purchased via Harbour Cars, obviously via the Nineworks marketplace.

And I seem to feel that this is going to be driven more than hidden in this car.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

As you've kind of changed, switched up your mentality, haven't you, from the 40th?

Yeah, I'm just just not very good at being sensible and if I'm honest. So the idea of

squirreling away a car to not be driven in the hope it looks after future Lee is

yeah, but it doesn't quite fit with me. I'm here for a good time, not a long time.

And I think as well, if I'm being honest, you know, the anniversary was probably the wrong

horse to back in that regard. I just think that it's such a wonderful car, heavily underrated.

And it's one of those where if you know, you know, but most people,

I just don't think that car will pass them by really, which is such a shame. I really hope

that changes. But yeah, just wanted a car that fit more with my lifestyle, which is just driving

the thing. And I think I can do this. So it's a bit of a switch up in mentality as well as car.

Yeah. And how many miles have you done so far?

So picked it up Saturday. This is Wednesday afternoon. I've done over 400.

Mm hmm. Good work, sir. Good work.

Can't wait for you to drive it, mate. I'm looking forward to it.

I do just want to point out, so there was a bit of banter really on the collective WhatsApp group

over the past couple of weeks as to speculative chat as to which car might be incoming. And

I found it like equal parts interesting, but also slightly cringy because yeah, with the

stop talking about me. Yeah. Yeah. With the spotlight, it was pretty heavy.

Bless. But what was so wonderful was all of the well wishes, which I so appreciate both on

the group and direct, but also I think so lovely. We managed to raise some money for charity and

all of it. I want to give a shout out to Rob G, who basically called me out and said, I think

you're getting a 981 GT4. And if I'm wrong, I'll stick a hundred quid towards the charity of

your choice. Rob was wrong. His bet was misplaced. And away from the group, he contacted me and said,

where's my money going? I suggested Great Ormond Street Hospital. And then later that evening,

I had a lovely screenshot come through showing a £100 donation plus £25 gift aid

to Great Ormond Street Hospital. So in the midst of all the banter, we've also raised some money

for charity. So kudos to you, Rob. Fantastic. Fantastic. There was a pole running, wasn't

there? With quite a list of cars that it could possibly be. I was trying to find it, but I can't

find it. It's hidden away on the WhatsApp grid somewhere. What were the options and what was

the voting like? There was a lot of 981 GT4. Yeah. I think again, where we've spoken about it in

glowing terms on the podcast, people have shown your interest lately, haven't you? And it is a

phenomenal car. There was some none on one action in there. There was a Cayman R, a couple of road

choices, one being Cayman R. I'm not sure there's any left to buy anymore. I think they've all gone,

haven't they? Oh, didn't you see that yellow one the other week? No, it was this week. There was a,

I think it was Speed Yellow. It was up for sale. I think it was 45K. It was up north,

sort of Newcastle Way. So I think Ben was spitting feathers that he'd recently purchased one.

Because I don't know if he's, I think he might be a yellow, like a yellow car. But yeah, it looked

pretty cool actually in yellow. I don't know. Can't be many of those. Wow, no. I mean, they have been

coming out of the woodwork. They definitely have been coming out of the woodwork. Great car. Yeah,

not for me on this occasion. There was a couple of, again, road choices that perhaps I might have

found a car that hadn't been advertised and was like sourced via our OMG Off Market Gauge service

that we have on the Nonworks website, which I encourage people to check out if you want us to

help you find your dream car. But yeah, there was a lot of guesses for GT3. I think I was possibly a

bit too glowing in a recent video on that car. So a few people were guessing, we did therefore,

and I want to shout out Nick Jeffery for filming, scheming with me. We filmed a dummy video of

getting in a 991 out of Harper Cards. So he popped that on the group and that was a decent curveball.

A lot of people fell for that, didn't they? Yeah, yeah. So that was, it was all good banter,

but yes, it was 996 GT3 in the end. And yeah, as I've kind of said earlier on and in the video

that's available on YouTube now, just will allow us to do a bit more track work with the

attractive suspension that's on it, which is what piqued my interest in the car anyway.

It is absolutely going to be usable on the road as well. So I kind of view it that I've got,

yes, another 996, but two extremes of 996 are kind of, you know, garage built,

op-rod style sort of project car, and then a genuine Porsche Motorsport car. And it will be a

case of waking up in the morning, looking at both of them and deciding which one to drive. Perfect.

Good job. Good job. Very nice, mate. Excellent. Good for you. Excellent. Yeah. So thanks to the

guys at Harper for a lovely handover. And again, that's a big thing. I mentioned this in the video

and I just want to say it's been such a lovely experience, Andy, practicing what we preach

in terms of that NineWorks marketplace. Yeah. Yeah, I decided earlier on because it's a huge

chunk of change for me, a huge chunk of change. I'm very richly leveraged into the car. So it

had to be a good car. I decided earlier on I wouldn't look at anything outside of the marketplace.

Yeah. There were three cars available, a Mark I and two Mark IIs. And I just got great advice from

everyone I spoke to as in in the industry. And a big shout out to Greg at RPM Technica,

you're going to hear from shortly, that basically just helped me buy the right car for me, which

turned out to be at Harper because of the attractive setup. So it really just fortified

the confidence you can have in what we're trying to achieve with that marketplace, Andy,

you know, just having like a safe place and presenting a safe environment in which to

invest or, you know, purchase your best car. So that was a really awesome, enjoyable experience

that I have to say. Great stuff. What a day for it as well. It was full sunshine, wasn't it?

Beautiful sunshine, perfect for a GT2 on cup twos for sure. Driven it lots since Mrs. Sibbs has

driven it since. What did she think to it? Yeah, very, she was very handy behind the wheel. I had

to remind her of the speed limit. And the fact it's got no traction control. So yeah, she found it

fine and already setting the scene for possible road trip miles to Norway in it next year. Who

knows? But she didn't say no, so that's good. Excellent. She finds the elephant ears comfortable

then. Yes, because that's the thing, they're not for everybody, are they? And I guess it's worth,

we can point that out from the start really, like with the 996 Mark 1 or Gen 1 and Gen 2s,

they were kind of, they were comfort out the box. You could spec the club sport

package optionally, which was a no cost option. The comfort spec came with leather clad elephant

ears, bucket seats, so-called, or just look at them and you'll work it out, that yeah,

there were leather lined. You could spec sport seats instead, like electrically adjustable

sport seats as a no cost option, if you wish. The club sport had the elephant ear seats in

Nomex. It also came with a cage that was black and a fire extinguisher in the passenger footwell.

Now what a lot of people did, which is the same for the car that I've bought, is specced it as

comfort, so leather clad elephant ear seats and then specced it to equipment cage, which is silver

to look at, which is dealer fitted. Got ya. So that's how you see a lot of those cars like mine,

leather seats, cage, leather buckets, cage, but no fire extinguisher. With the cage, how is that

going as far as, I've been in a few cars with cages and they're kind of, almost makes the car

squeaky. Any issues or is it? No, they do. Yeah, there's like the odd ping from the cage, but again,

it's just a mark of the fact that it's stiff, there's a stiff car, isn't it really? So I think

it adds to the drama. That's something I really wanted was drama when you look at the car,

also when you get in it without even turning the engine over. But yeah, then when you're driving

it as well, it's a hard-core and unapologetically track-oriented experience, which as we'll discuss

a bit later on, that's kind of the great thing about these cars, but also the Achilles heel in

terms of their usability, you could argue. Yeah. So we'll, yeah, it's best to distinguish, you know,

the Gen 1 996 GT3 was introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1999, March 1999 as a 2000 model

year car. It was the first like GT product and a bit of a shake-up for Porsche in moving away from

just Carreras and then Carrera RS. This whole new kind of thing, Metzger engine, as we know,

Le Mans winning pedigree, like that engine won Le Mans the year before. You just cannot beat that

for like reliability and performance. It ran consistently, screaming its lungs out for 24 hours

and beat everybody else on the field. So the car, the Mark 1, there's a big difference between the

Mark 1 and the Mark 2 because the Mark 1 was, although they're both Visak Motorsport cars,

the Mark 1 was built by Roland Kusmal, head of Porsche's Motorsport division at the time.

Himself a former like racer at Porsche. Interestingly, he, I think it was sixth he finished

in the 1986 Paris Dakar in the Porsche support vehicle. So it just one cool dude, basically.

The last I knew he had a 996 RS in his garage and he'd long since retired. So yeah, proper dude.

The Gen 2, because the Gen 1 is safe to say a bit of a skunkworks project in order to get

the 911 racing in FIA Group 3. Yeah. The Gen 2 that was sort of Hollamagate,

I can't say it, Hollamagate. You know what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Homologation. It's a homologation car. That is exactly it. So 3.6 litre Metzger engine,

different to those found in the Carrera equivalent, which we all know. It means it's dry sump rather

than wet sumped. And yeah, like significant power increase over the Carreras, 360 horsepower

up to 300. 30 kilos heavier than the Carrera, but that's by the by. A six-speed gearbox

taken from the 993 GT2. Is it really? It is. Yeah. I didn't realise that.

And an aerodynamic package, which includes a different bumper with a deeper chin,

some twisty side skirts, and then a rear wing that everybody knows as the Taco.

The Taco Taco. Exactly that. Exactly that. So yeah, it's a bit of a skunkworks car,

really. And I think when you drive the Gen 1 against the Gen 2 back to back, you kind of do

feel that the difference within the Gen 1 is it feels so light. Wow, it feels so light to drive.

Oh, compared to the 2? Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. In what sense,

like steering or light on its toes or? Both. Both. Light on its toes and accelerative, really.

Yeah. For sure. There is a video coming to Nine

Works TV very shortly comparing these cars, because we've done them back to back

with a car, my car, and then a car at Philip Rabies, which is still for sale in Cards Red.

Yeah. The Gen 2 that arrived in 2003 is the first

Andreas Pruyninger car, and it's the first example of the team at Visac looking at this

original concept, the motorsport car on a Carrera 4 shell, because the Carrera 4 slightly stiffer.

And just looking at everything on a molecular level and going, hmm, how can we tweak that and

optimise and make it better? Yeah. So it was just an unashamed push towards increasing performance,

not necessarily kind of comfort and practicality, which is where the GT3 story from the Dot 2

point onwards, when it increased performance, but also I think the cars became a bit more usable

on the road, which is why the 997.1 is dynamically more capable than the 996.2, but also, yeah,

just a more comfortable proposition for road driving. But yeah, first Andreas Pruyninger's

car maintained a 3.6 med scar. However, increased downforce while not overly affecting drag at

all with a new aerodynamic package. The taco rear wing had gone. It's a bi-plane rear wing on the back,

revised front bumper where air that went through the bumper was now feeding the brakes rather

than going nowhere as an example. The wheels on the Dot 2 GT3 again as an example are wider than

those on the Dot 1, but they're also lighter. And so much better looking in my opinion.

Definitely. I look at those and I can really see the five leaf design of the Fuchs,

which by the time the RS came along were kind of color coded. And then to me, I look at the 996

RS and I can see a 2.7 RS personally. So very cool. And it only 5% more power and torque,

Gen 2 to Gen 1, but the characteristic of the engine is very different. A lot more punch,

a lot lower down on that. So it sort of has grown up a little bit then as a Dot 2,

you've got more torque, more punchy sort of feel rather than the revvy feel.

Yes, yes. Steering is quicker. I'm certain of it, like in driving those two back to back.

Steering definitely quicker on the Dot 2. And again, just like this optimization, there's an

extra 40% surface area of pad to disc on the brakes of the Dot 2, just a game where

yeah, six piston on the front now rather than four brake disc size gone up as well in diameter.

So just all these optimizations, the Dot 2, it's just more of a well rounded motorsport car,

as opposed to, as I said, like a bit of a skunk works feel of the Dot 1.

You're probably going to mention this on the video, but why not ask the question now?

Do you think you bought the right one for you? Yeah, definitely, Andy, to be fair. And funny in

driving the Dot 1, which I ruled out pretty quickly anyway, because of the crossover with

Little Irish being a Dot 1, I just didn't want the same interior architecture and headlights and

all of that. And although that guard's red car at Philip Rabies is a cracking car, it did. I just

thought, you know what, my car as a, you know, a zingy, because of the single mass flywheel and

whatnot, you know, it's fairly revvy, zingy little engine. It feels really lightweight anyway.

It would have sat too close to a Dot 1 GT3 for me, whereas the Dot 2 is just a different monster.

So there's really that much difference between the two that you...

Definitely, definitely, definitely. And also as well, it's worth mentioning,

because it's not really been covered, I don't think, but if you look at the last model year

of 996 production, like the 2004 to 2005 model year cars, because my one is a 2005 model year car,

so it's a late GT3, first delivered to its owner on Christmas Eve 2004.

Was it really? Whereabouts?

Cardiff. Cardiff. So yeah, really, really cool. But yeah, the last model year of 996 is,

there is a definite uptick in build quality. But a lot, not enough is made of that because

there are 996, so they get hampered. But I would put it right on par

from an interior point of view with the 997. I think where the 997 improves things

is like the tolerances with panel gaps on the exterior of the car. That is definitely a leap

on over 996. But yeah, if you look at... Little Irish is a 98 car. This GT3 is an 05 model year car.

So they bookend 996 production and the difference in build quality, Ben and my GT3,

it doesn't have extended leather or anything like that, is night and day, night and day.

Whereas the Gen 1 still has that kind of pre-millennium 996 build to it, if you will.

Yes, yeah, yeah. I know what you're saying. Yeah.

Yeah, good. So that's a brief breakdown from, I guess, an owner's point of view, an early owner's

point of view. Yeah, yeah. 400 miles in.

400 miles in. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to learning lots about the car

and confessing up front. I don't know a great deal. I know there's a WhatsApp

group dedicated to 996 GT3 owners, particularly it's quite track-oriented, so I've heard,

like that's lovely and I'm sure that all of those people will know a lot more about these cars than

I do. I'm looking forward to learning that myself and hopefully sharing that with people along the

way because, you know, again, the modern GT3s, they're so coveted by people and rightly so,

they're exceptionally quick and just optimized in so many different ways. But there's something so

special, I think, about these early GT3s in being like non-traction control and just in terms of,

like, unfettered driving purity. Yeah.

They're a real high watermark, I think. So is there anything in those 400 miles and

few days that you've learned so far that you kind of a bit of a surprise?

Yeah, I would say how comfortable the elephant ear buckets are. Read a lot of conjecture that

they're uncomfortable. I can totally understand they wouldn't be for everybody's build.

For mine, they're great. So that's not a problem at all. So, yeah, again, like, I'm well up for

road trip miles in that car. See, it's not a problem. Yeah, the car has had a geo done by

Nine Excellence. I don't really know a lot about Nine Excellence, but the geo is definitely, like,

quite road friendly. The wheel twitches and pulses away in your hand, but it's not kind of

hunting out every camber and curve in the road. Yeah. So it goes down the road and it's,

the suspension does the job that it should do, which is to soak up the stuff and

not deviate you from where you're going. Yeah. I have to separate my car from a factory one,

because I've driven loads of DOT2s over the years, and again, they are quite focused,

and so that's why they are a difficult proposition for some. But not with mine. So I've been really,

really pleased and a bit relieved. Actually, when I left Harbour Cars,

probably slightly flustered as to, like, everything that was going on. I'm driving down the road and

I'm thinking, bloody hell, this is stiff. And actually, what was, almost what was I thinking?

Like, this is, this is all over the show. Yeah. And then I checked the, the attractive screen,

and it was in full stiff mode for whatever reason. Full race. So, yes, I was like, well, hang on a

minute. Put it into, like, the setting that I'd put it on when I did the road test video,

thankfully, was still there. And literally just felt the entire car, just like, exhale and relax.

And it was so wonderful and palatable on the road. And I thought, ah, this is, this is what I had,

and this is why I've bought it. Yeah. So that was a bit of a relief. But yeah, like, I can,

I can see that being a road trip, mile friendly car, and it's just not as, not as hard core as

they can be, which is the, you know, I'm pleased that that's born to fruition. I've got

400 miles in and I still think the same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because sometimes it's easy on a,

on a brief road test to get your opinions in a certain way. But then, yeah, a few more miles

and they can change, can't they? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And the other thing as well,

which was interesting. So yesterday, Mrs K Sibbs and I had to do, do an IKEA run.

And I said, he didn't take the GT three. No, no, not a hope of fitting anything into that. So I

said, let's take the green one because on the off chance, we, yeah, buy something that requires

some room, at least there's some in little Irish, which turned out to be a good thing. But so that

was the first time I'd driven little iris since buying the GT three. And that fortified my decision

to buy the GT three because I got in it and it was like, right, this is totally different. And I am

so confident that there's just minimal overlap between those two cars, whether it's between

the 996.1 Carrera and the anniversary, there was a lot of overlap. And yet the anniversary was

like just a very nice version of the green one. These two cars are sitting at different ends of

the scale. So that completely fortified the decision. Yeah. And what's the biggest aspect?

You know, what is it that Mexican engine? Is that the real big, I'm different thing?

Yeah, without a doubt. And it's funny again, when once you've done some miles in it,

you really appreciate they are completely different. Like he said, completely different

engines to the Carreras, they're completely different car. So like I understand the gap,

certainly say like in values and everything else, it is a completely different car,

which is incredible really, because to be every man and woman, you part them next to each other

and they look the same. Yeah. So yeah, that's my early impressions, but really look forward to

sharing further thoughts as we go. I can't wait to have a go. I can't wait for you.

Have I driven a 996 GT three? I don't think so. No. Again, with you, if you've driven a car from

a generation, it's always just the halo model. So you've probably driven the 996 RS and bin the

rest off. No, no, I've not driven one. Interesting. Interesting. Funny enough, I said this to

Mrs K Sibbs the other day, I said, I'm looking forward to you driving the car. I'm on the fence

as to whether it be your bag or not. Part of me thinks you really won't like it. Then part of me

thinks you might like it. I don't think you'll love it because like compared to your SC, again,

it's completely different experience. Let's see. Let's see. Yeah, I'm not going to pass any

sort of preformed opinions. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. We shall see. Interesting. Okay.

So let's take people on a bit of a journey. We'll start with a trip down memory lane

by chatting to Philip Rabie, who was a journalist when the GT threes came out. So we hear from him

first will then speak to Greg from RPM Technic, who's going to offer some technical insight on

these cars because Greg and the RPM Technic team are the gods and really the Oracle of Knowledge

when it comes to all things 911 GT three will then take you to Harbour cars on the day of

collection and you can basically join us in the room as brilliant presented all the paperwork

and we dotted the eyes and crossed the T so you can be in the room for that. How much?

Yeah. Yeah. And then we'll finish with any luck with a couple of voice notes from current

996 GT three owners to just as I said, build out the picture if anybody else is interested in

getting into these fantastic sports cars. Brilliant. Shall we speak to Phil? Yeah, Phil,

about it's really interesting. It was 25 years ago, isn't it? When he probably got his bum in one?

Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. So let's go back to party like it's 1999.

Phil, thanks for joining us on our much failure today to talk about 996 GT threes.

Absolutely. Pleasure as always. Again, I was spoken previously about your longevity in the industry

and previous life as a journalist. So would you mind taking us back to sort of the end of the

20th century? The start of the millennia and Porsche is introducing this new kind of concept

really. How was it perceived with the GT three? Well, it was a long time ago.

From what I remember, it was very positive. It was kind of the new version of the RS.

Why they didn't call it an RS in the first place, I don't know, but GT three is a good badge and it's

stuck. And it was quite a departure from the normal 996. As you know, the mezger engine is

gives the car completely different feel. And it's very hard to put your finger on what it is

for the whole sound and the power delivery is completely different. And the whole car feels a

lot more mechanical and sounds more mechanical too. So it's a very different kind of drive in every

way, which I think it's quite surprising for people when they haven't driven a GT three,

they get in one from a normal 996 and it's so different. And I think right from the start,

that was very apparent. Yeah, yeah, they tend to not make sense at like low speed,

road speeds really, I guess. It kind of took Porsche in the new direction. But obviously,

with the looking at your lovely guards red mark one here at the moment, it remains it's the only

GT three up with no RS ahead of it. It's kind of interesting you've alluded to the fact that

yeah, when it came out, it wasn't called an RS. Did that confuse the buying public or not really

did Porsche do a good enough job of communicating as FIA racers? I think Porsche did a very good

job of communicating it and it was a different sort of car. I mean, I think it's probably

it was designed as a track car possibly more so than the older RSs were. So

and right from the start, that's how it was targeted. I do remember talking to a main dealer

and he was saying that a lot of people buy it were buying GT threes coming back a year later

by exchanging it for a turbo. And they said some people didn't realize that it is very much a

track focused car. And for a lot of people, a nine or six turbo was possibly a better option

if the driving on the road all the time. That's quite interesting. Yeah, wow, imagine topping a

GT three for a turbo. The with the arrival of the gen two, I guess like the GT three concept was

pretty well cemented by then. But it was before that sort of era where with GT product, we were

used to like lots of lots of revisions albeit small revisions. So how was the gen two car

saved at the time if you can remember? It was positive because on paper, at least the gen two

cars an improvement in every way. People in gen one cars would disagree with you. But

it was a more refined car in many ways and just tweaked. But essentially the same beast underneath.

How have they because today they're like revered whether you go gen one or gen two for nine or

six, they're both revered GT products. But in the period between when they released and now,

I'm sure you've sold plenty of them. I mean, they sat around like 30 k for ages.

Well, they did. Yeah, I think well, I think possibly because the nine and six went through

that period when it was unloved, people didn't like the look of it. But now the times turned on

that one. And a lot of people love the nine and six as you know, in all forms. So the nine and six

GT three, I think it's got a purity about it, which was not lost, but maybe lessened in the later

nine and seven and beyond. So there's something about nine and six GT three, it's a lovely car

to drive, very pure, very mechanical, quite small and a lot of fun. So people started to

realise that as they've realised with all nine and sixes. Yeah, yeah, you done when I rocked up

this morning, you mentioned about you just been out in the in the mark one and it wasn't you

driven it for a while and you had a big grin on your face and you were yeah evangelical about

the car. It'd be interesting to just share those thoughts and observations with listeners.

Yeah, well, I hadn't driven one for a while. So I thought I really will take this one out

before you did and put some petrol in it and came the long way back. And it just I was just

grinning that they are I'd forgotten just how much fun they are. You could argue it's not a

car to be used on the road extensively. And on the local road around here, you certainly know about

it. But that doesn't bother me, I think it's all part of the fun. And it's just as I said earlier,

it's just very different to normal nine and six in every way. And just the car you just want to go

and have fun with. Yeah, yeah, we've kind of always say on non much radio and indeed non much TV

that we all desire or a lot of people desire these GT products, but you have to go in realising that

they are built for track days and they're kind of unapologetic in the way they're set up. So

although it might be an objective desire, it might be the right one for you and your lifestyle if

you just like live in the city and a turbo would be a much better example kind of as you alluded

to earlier on that had happened previously. But yeah, is there any advice that you kind of care

to pass on to anyone looking to buy these cars? Well, as you said, it's got to be the right car

for you. And personally, I don't think it's a car I want to use on the road every day. You may

disagree. But I think for most people, possibly a normally aspirated nine and six or nine and six

turbo is a better option. But if you're going to do track days, even just the occasional track

day, then wow, you won't get anything better than a nine and six GT three. I remember taking one

round Goodwood when they were new. It was a Porsche press car. And I turned up at Goodwood and the

noise testers sniffed about. And so it was a bit noisy, sir. Do you mind going up and down the road

to warm the exhaust up? So I thought that's not going to make any difference. I went up and down

the road, warm the exhaust up, came back and the sky said, Well, that's much better. So just make

sure you don't rev too highly there, there in there. And they were lovely. They just let me

on track with this GT three and I had a great time with it. That car's out there somewhere.

Yes, I would hope anyway. I'll definitely hope. I guess last question is we are seeing less and

less nine, nine, six GT threes, both gen one and gin two appear on the marketplace.

They're just a rare car. Obviously some have been crashed. People tend to be holding on to them,

I think. Have you have you noticed that that you've kind of, you know, lesser come into fruition?

Yeah, I don't want people to do with them because I think there are people out there who

who don't want to drive them on track, which is a ridiculous idea because that's what they're made

for. I think there are people maybe storing them away as a possible investment. I think

it's got the mezger engine which everyone loves and they see it as a good place to put their money.

But I would say to them, get out there and drive it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Certainly from my early

miles with my own, you know, the idea of just locking one away in a garage and not driving it is

just the absolute crazy, crazy wrong decision. Completely wrong decision. I mean, I've seen

it with the nine, six, four and nine or three RS's that people don't drive them anymore. And

back in the day, they were fantastic track cars, but now they're all put away and not used. And

it would be a real shame to see that happen with the GT threes. Yeah, yeah, agreed. Agreed. Okay,

Phil. Yeah, look, thanks for talking us through really like a brief history of like the GT three

and how it's kind of a sea from inception. And then obviously where it is today. Thank you.

Pleasure. Cool. Cheers, Phil, for your insight on that. And we will cross straight away to Greg,

RPM Technic for a detailed technical overview of the nine I six GT three. Greg from RPM Technic,

thank you for joining us on our much radio and sharing what will no doubt be some invaluable

expertise on nine I six GT threes. Very welcome. And thank you for inviting me back. It's always,

always a pleasure to chat. So I've just said to Andy, you guys are the Oracle for all things,

not what all things GT three and GT product really. So this can be quite interesting. You

know, where does that nine, nine, six, gen one and gen two, where do they sit for you? How do

you guys look at them? I love those cars. I mean, I remember when we did podcast recently about our

top three article porches, and I had the nine, nine, six up there at number one,

nine and six RS. Because as I said in that podcast, you know, if that car didn't exist,

a lot of the stuff that we're dealing with these days wouldn't either. But yeah, I like how unfiltered

those cars are, you know, they're very direct. They're still really, really fast. You just don't

see them, you know, they're such a rare thing these days to see out there and being enjoyed. So

love them owned one previously. And I have another one as well.

Excellent. Excellent. You guys have intimated in the like, yeah, some of the media work you've

done and kind of private chats with me that there's, you know, you guys don't take so many

of them on anymore, because the difference between like a good and a bad one is quite

significant. So I guess when you're looking to acquire them for stock and indeed when you're

selling them, what's the difference between a good and a great car?

Good question. The thing is at this sort of age of their life, I look at them like a classic Porsche,

you know, like when we're taking a 3-2 Carrera or a non-O3 or something, I look at it exactly the

same as one of those because whilst they were, you know, galvanized and all that kind of stuff,

the number one thing we sort of start to see now there, 20 plus years old, 25 years old,

obviously the earliest ones, is corrosion because obviously Porsche decided that in their

wisdom to save 30 grams or whatever it was to not under seal things. And yeah, 25 winters take

their toll if the car has been driven in the salt and the wet. And I know that kind of goes

slightly against the driven or hidden thing, but in those particular examples, you know,

we advise buyers don't, you know, do not drive these in the salt or the wet, because not the wet,

sorry, just the salty conditions because things like the chassis seems as one at the front,

just behind the front wheels, it's really common that they start to go there. And, you know, we've

restored a couple of cars so far, you know, they are of that age. So the first thing is corrosion

underneath the car. You know, that's chassis corrosion I sort of refer to there. When you get

into the sort of the mechanicals, so like, you know, springs, dampers, everything else can be

removed, replaced with new or refurbished where possible. But obviously, like with any of these

things, and like, you know, I was talking about, there's a cost to that. And they're obviously

not cheap. So those are the sort of first couple of bits. And then, you know, obviously a lot of

those cars back in the day, we use properly, which is fine, but some of them obviously had

interactions with the walls. And so a few of them have had knocks. And again, you know,

if as long as you've bought it knowing that that's fine, obviously, we didn't get involved with

accident damage cars. But a lot of the time that wasn't, you know, declared on insurance registers

and things. So it's just just checking those bits and pieces. Generally, though, those cars

have always been well maintained in terms of servicing records and things like that. You

it's quite rare to see one without a good like stamped service history, but that doesn't always

necessarily mean it's been, you know, properly maintained because you can have cars that have

had just, you know, annual checks and all the changes, but all the big bits overlooked. So

the service history record looks pucker, but then when you get it up on a ramp, it obviously tells

a different tale. So it's getting to the stage where mileage is less of a consideration within

reason and more about how the thing's been maintained. And, you know, who's maintained it.

And obviously, all the dealers that you interact with on nine works are all proper people. But

sometimes these things have just gone to a general Joe when the car was its cheapest. I think the

cheapest we have sold one of them is about 37 grand, which is still wasn't, you know,

wasn't nothing. It was still a lot of money, wasn't it? But, you know, sometimes people's

mates looked after them at that point. It's not to say they can't do a good job. But it's just

sometimes they didn't. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing advice and insight. I knew this would be such a

worthwhile conversation. So look, there'll be people out there who might err towards their

mark one. There'll be others that might kind of steer towards the mark two for different reasons.

I guess like from your informed point of view, could you perhaps give a couple of points in

favor of either? Well, I suppose I spoke with my own money and I bought a point two part

nostalgia parts, because ultimately it was the faster of the two, which is not the beel

and endel. But for me, that was the first GT3. Don't get me wrong, the point one,

yeah, there's small differences between them. But that one, just the way the wing was designed,

the look of the car, I just really liked it. In terms of driving experience, the engine feels

a hell of a lot more grunty in the point two and had better brakes, suspension,

there's something and nothing between them. But also I just felt the point one's a great car,

but it's almost like it was in some ways like a prototype for the point two. Again, if that

didn't exist, the point two wouldn't have existed. But I think the 2003 onwards car was

the first that Andros Pröninger got involved with. And so there was a lot of extra detail

that went into that car. So for me, it would be a point two, but I can totally understand why

people buy the gen ones because they do feel quite, I was going to say quite raw, they're a

little bit more raw than the gen two. But also there's some cool little like little detail

differences like the battery cut off switch in front of the gear lever and small little silly

things like that. But they are proper rare, those early cars as well. So if you can find like a

really good, you know, I think the ultimate would obviously be a early club sport, you know,

cool color, proper history and stuff. It's still a lovely thing to own, but guns mad, I'll take a

point two. Interesting. Interesting. I know the gen one or Mark one has a cache of being like the

only GT three without an RS ahead of it, which some people quite like, I guess, from a collectibility

point of view, my kind of analysis of the gen one and gen two, and it kind of chimes with what

you're saying, the gen one almost feels a bit like a visac oriented hot rod, skunk project,

whether it's like the dot two is a bit more of a clinical motorsport machine. Yes. Yeah. That's

kind of how I dilute. But again, you know, it kind of it's one or the other. I think it's

so long as you're finding a good car with good condition, right? Absolutely. And both of them,

it's not uncommon to come across cars that have got mods and buyers don't care about

modded ones of those, you know, certain models in Porsche's history, you know, got to be standards,

got to be original. Whereas with those cars, because they tend to be bought by drivers that

want to drive it and not just look at the thing, they, as long as it's the right mod and done in

the right capacity, people quite like them. So again, you see a lot of like Manti K 400

modded gen ones or K 410 gen twos. And it doesn't take it away, you know, it makes them a more

fun car. Really common to see suspension upgrades, KW kits and so on and so forth on those.

Quite often see cut diffs up on those cars as well. And it's funny, you know, these days,

everyone's sort of, yeah, the long gearing of all the new cars, we were changing the gearing in

our nine sixes, you know, it's not a new thing. But yeah, so to have different diffs in them is

cool. And then again, the early cars, sorry, the gen two cars were the first GT3s to run with

ceramics. And they, you know, they're not a bad designer or anything, but they weren't,

they were the first of its type. And so it's very common to see people put them in a box and keep

them safe and run the car on steels. And sometimes the original ceramics just live their life and

obviously that's why they've been swapped over. And again, it doesn't detract from them when it

comes to selling it either. Yeah, is there like a certain upgrade in terms of brakes that you've

seen or implemented a lot through your workshop to RPM technique like PFC, for example, or?

Yeah, PFC and Alcon. I mean, you see a lot of cars running on Alcon discs. And I mean,

I remember Ricky in the workshop, we were talking about the other day, actually, he's been a car

that was on Alcons in 40 track days on a set of Alcons, you know, they were properly tough.

They're a bit noisy until they get some temperature into them, make a bit of a

sort of wearing noise whilst they're, whilst you get the temp in there. But yeah, they're really,

really good gyro disc, I think might do a setup for them. And I think, well, I'm not sure you can

get aftermarket ceramics for them at the moment, but wouldn't surprise me if ST or someone like

that comes up with an option for them if there's enough demand. Yeah, I do need to point people

in the direction of a brilliant video that you've done on the RPM Technic YouTube channel.

It was a couple of years ago with Tim Harvey, splitting Rennesport hairs by looking at the

differences between the 996 RS and the 996.2 GT3. Yeah, way more detailed changes than I'd

ever given the GT3 RS credit for. It's really interesting that really interesting. You can't

sleep, that's one to watch. It's a really, really useful insight that just kind of

leaning into 997 GT3s a little bit, particularly reference the gen one. So historically, well,

the past five years has been a lot of overlap, isn't there, between 996 and 997.1 GT3s?

Yes. The last sort of six months or so, the 997's gapped them a little bit.

Correct, yeah. Why do you think that is?

I think it could simply be down to aesthetics, you know, it's a pretty car, those 997s.

I think to drive them, obviously, the 997 has the plazen setup, so it's a little bit more

compliant. So it's a marginally more comfortable car to be in. Obviously,

they're a bit more expensive to run. So for example, you know, things like lower arms,

they're twice the price in a 997, they are in a 996 GT3. So whilst it gives a little

incremental increase on the performance, the running costs are a little bit more expensive.

But also, I guess, being a younger car, sometimes people just want younger stuff.

I do also tend to see that 997s, generally, they sometimes give, there's more color choice,

and there's more option choice in the cars, you know, you've got a bit more selection there. But

yeah, they are, they're the hot property, those 997 GT3s at the moment, they're really popular.

But same things apply in terms of, like I was saying about corrosion and, you know,

consumables and stuff like that. And, you know, even the up to the RS isn't excluded.

It's very common these days for us to carry out full suspension refreshes on, you know, even 0.2 RS

997s. It's just, you know, they're 15 years old and they've been driven properly, so it didn't last

forever. Yeah, great advice again, Greg. Before we go, is there any other words of wisdom you'd

just like to leave ringing in people's ears if they're thinking one of these

modern classic GT3s could be for me? They make you a better driver,

genuinely, because if you get in a 996 and you kind of go, oh, there's no traction control in

this car. And the first few times you drive it, you realize they are fast, like proper fast.

I mean, I've seen just under 190 out of my GT3 on the continent. And on a track day,

well set up with some good suspension and good brakes on them, or just standard, but, you know,

everything in good order, those things can hustle. And you tend to find, and I'm not saying I am,

by the way, I'm not saying this is me, but, you know, if you can start to get to grips with one of

them and understand what it does, it's got a much more old school 911 driving experience.

So if you then jumped in from a 996 GT3, whichever, you know, iteration into something more modern,

that's very transferable, and you find that you can start going quicker. So I think that

they're a really good place to sort of learn how to drive a 911 faster. And because it's got no

traction control and things like that, you concentrate more, which is quite satisfying.

And after driving those ones, and then you go into more modern stuff, and people go, oh,

could you drive a 911 RS every day? I'm like, absolutely, if you can drive a 996 RS or a

gearbox, it needs a bit of manhandling, and you've got rolly sleeves. So it's a man's Carly.

Yeah, I love that. I mean, 190 out of a Mach 2 GT3. That is giant stone.

I'm sure some of them are all a beating that, but yeah, they're quick.

Absolutely love that. Love that. Look, you guys at the Oracle, as we know, for all kind of

GT products at Porsche. So thank you for imparting that knowledge on to listeners of Not Much Radio.

Welcome. Take care, mate.

Lots of info coming thick and fast. He knows he's stuffed on the unloads.

Well, yeah, take the foot off the gas a little bit for information. And yeah, just bring you

along on Collection Day. So here is a clip from inside the showroom at Harbour Cars,

collecting the cars from Chris. I'm so glad you've recorded this so I can have a little listening

because I missed it. Let's listen. Okay, so hi, Andy, and everyone at NineWorks Radio. I'm here

in the showroom at Harbour Cars. I'm standing in front of a lovely Midnight Blue 996.2 GT3.

And in the window, we've got a lovely Harbour Cars showcard. And it says, rather than the price and

spec, which has had sold over it for the past week or so, it says, Harbour Cars Wish Lee,

or NineWorks Lee with the NineWorks logo, many happy miles motoring in his 911 GT3.

It's such a lovely little touch from Chris and the team and a lovely thing to walk into.

We're going to do the paperwork now. And Chris is here, actually. So how are you doing, Chris?

I'm all right. Thanks, Lee. How are you?

Excellent. Yeah, yeah. Very good. Thanks. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. New car day is always

great fun. It's a great day. Always great fun. So yeah, we're going to basically just fill out the

the paperwork and get a little bit of that done and figure we'll have a chat. So while we're doing

it, I mean, you must be pleased to get rid of this car at last day. Not really. I mean, we

was just saying yesterday, sort of chatting amongst ourselves, it's almost like watching

a member of your family going off to university or something. They're going to leave, but you're

going to see what they're up to. So it's great. It really is. Lovely that it's going to such a good

home. You're very kind, mate. You're very kind. Yeah, I'm looking forward to driving it. So you've

done a lot of kind of the prep, the car is prepped in terms of like paperwork. You've

already done quite a lot on my behalf. It's all broken the back of it really. So this shouldn't

take too long. So yeah, we've got the car registered to you. Obviously it's all taxed.

We've just got the invoicing to do and then hand over the paperwork.

Amazing. So yeah, won't take long at all.

Absolutely amazing. So yeah, there's a thick wall of paper of service history and what not on the

desk, which I've previously had a look around. I like the fact here it's all in that hub cast

folder as well. Yes, nice little touch for you. It doesn't actually fit in the folder because there's

too much of it, but at least it's enveloped in folder. That's good. But yeah, it keeps it all

together for you and you can file it how you wish once you've got it home. Excellent. So yeah,

all we need to do is just get a couple of circumstances on here and then I'll get the keys.

Excellent. Excellent start. So yeah, if you could just sign down on there for us, then.

Yeah, just along the bottom, is that? Yeah, please just anywhere down there.

Thanks, then. And then come on there. Thank you. A cover for it, Rob. So do you have one?

Well, yeah, I've loads of covers. Is it a Porsche one? Yeah. Now we're interested, yeah.

Yeah, I can give you a cover. Do you want it on now though?

It would be cool if you're okay with that. Yeah, it would be wrong on cover, but it would

be awesome. And then we'll get you the right cover. Oh, what a dude. Thank you. Yeah, that would

be great for everybody else. So, I mean, Rob doesn't realise we're recording the podcast currently,

so that's great. That's proper. That's unscripted. Half a car service, that is. I love it. I love

it. Do I need to do anything else on that paper? No, that is all yours. Sorry, so I have my copy

there. Amazing. No, no, you're good. That's all yours. So obviously, just while you're doing a

few bits and bobs there, then, so, you know, New Card Day is so exciting. It is. Even for us.

Every day of the week. That's the thing. It's like anything you do repetitively,

you want to still keep it fun for the person that's coming to pick the car up because,

although for us, it's our job, ultimately. But for everyone else, it's either realising a dream,

it's, you know, getting something they've always wanted, it's changing with something for some

reason. It's, yeah, it's a special day. Yeah, that's excellent. That's so cool. Yeah, because

if you sit on the podcast many a time, nobody needs these cars. We have them because we want

design. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you guys, you're the great enablers in allowing that to happen.

Yeah, yeah. Ultimately, yeah, to help people realise their dreams. Yeah. So what happens

once somebody like me says, yes, I'd like the car. What's the process from then until today from your

So a very generic overview because most instances are different, but the pattern is very similar.

So once somebody comes in, they've looked at the car, they've decided it's the one they want,

they've driven it, we've sat down, gone through the paperwork, they will then

obviously pay the deposit. At that point, we then action any work that needs to be done. So cars

are fully prepared before they go on sale. That's the most important thing to point out. They're all

machine polished to the point where they can then be ceramic detailed depending on how many stages

that needs depends on the car as we have it when we prepare it. And then if there needs to be a

service carried out in the car, NMOT, if the customer wishes to have a wheel colour change or

wants to have a ghost or a tracker or something fitted to it, we obviously then organise all

of that in the process. So the handover will depend on how much work we have to do between

sale, purchase and handover. So at that point, we obviously liaised with local people that we

need to liaise with, any people that we need to liaise with, to get everything facilitated,

booking in stuff, dealing with the wheel reverse from the company that we use if we need to,

dealing with any other bits that we have to, keeping the customer updated,

selling all the cars been serviced now, the ghost is now fitted, this is now done.

And lead up to handover then. Excellent. And obviously liaising with finance companies in

the case where there are finance companies involved as well. So there'll be various different

documents that need to be sent over, invoices, things like that. So yeah, all the app inside of

it, we're sort of a little bit like swans. We're peddling like something underneath,

but on surface, it's all meant to look all very nice and glamorous so that when the customer

comes to pick it up, they don't have anything to stress about, everything they need to be done is

done. And yeah, then it's handover thing. Yeah, which I have to say, from my point of view,

has been lovely because I felt like I haven't had to overly stress or worry about anything,

actually. And I love the fact, I mean, listeners may not know that I bought a plate, just a

cheap plate to put on the car. Quite a distinctive one. You very kind, in case people couldn't read

the deck lid, I guess, but yeah, you very kindly have popped that on the car for me. So as soon as

I turn up, it's literally I'm ready to rock and drive off. So all those kind of little details.

In your car with your ID, it's all receivable. Yeah, it's just a nice touch,

which so you are you are the great enablers, you know, so I'd assume because, you know,

like other people on the numbers marketplace, you know, where you own the cars, you're not doing

SOR. Yeah, so I would assume, you know, down the line when you sell a car and someone drives off,

you would hope to see that car again. Yeah, I mean, we, you know, we obviously stay in touch

with people. So when somebody buys a car from us, you know, we'll catch up with them a week or so

later, make sure it's okay, make sure there's not any niggles any questions because it could be the

first time they've had a Porsche or had something newer or older depending on what way they're going.

So, you know, you get people coming out of much more modern cars and going into something a bit

more classic 991, 997, something like that. So it can be a bit of a culture shock, almost,

although they're realizing a dream, they're not used to, you know, the antiquity, weirdly to say

of it or something like that coming from something super modern. So you just go, you know, have you

got any questions and go through things, you know, it's like a secondary handover is all over the

phone just to make sure that everything's okay. And then yeah, we stay in touch, you know, drop

each other emails, they're obviously on our mailing list. So, you know, we make sure that

everyone buys a car is on the mailing list and that way they get all new stock to try and tempt

them into something else in the future. And, you know, and that way they can they can see

what we've got and we'll just stay in touch with it, you know, they can pop in for a cup of tea,

you know, like you do just pop in from time to time. It's great to see our cars, you know,

and it's awesome to have our cars back because we know how well prepared they are. So we know how

much money we spent on them, if we've had to spend money on them, we know what's been done,

we know the service history, it takes buying a car from our point of view makes it a ticker

easier because we don't have to delve as deep as we would do normally with them because we've

already done that the first time we've purchased it. Yeah, yeah. So when when they come back,

whether it's, yeah, somebody popping them for a coffee or they trading it back in to get into

something else or just selling it, is that buying something different? Yeah, yeah, a bit like seeing

an old friend in a way, I guess, and that's definitely extenuated with that particular car,

exactly. I mean, we saw that in 2008 for the first time round. It was then sold for another dealer

in 2012, which is when the track before you bought it. And then we bought it off him because he was

a local guy to us, and he was changing it for something cute, but he didn't part exchange it

for the car he changed, he came into us and asked us if we wanted to buy it, you know, because we

knew him. So he just came into us and said, you know, I'm selling my car, would you guys be

interested in hearing the end of the story? You know, it's gone sort of now into your possession

and wherever it goes from there, hopefully into your pension path.

It could be the next car that explodes. Yeah, well, we'll see. First and foremost for me is just

trying to drive the thing. Yeah. And yeah, you know, like I said, Chris, I've really enjoyed

this process. Thank you for taking me along with it. Thank you for taking listeners along with it

as well. You're welcome. You know, it's always great to, you know, see something start to finish,

but not many people do get to see it start to finish. So, you know, from your point of view,

obviously, we've stayed in touch over the last sort of week, 10 days or so, sort of going through

the process. But yeah, it's been, it's been good. But yeah, as I said to you, Chris, you know, of

Mike, for me as a buyer, yeah, it's really fortified that kind of nine works marketplace because

I know what car I wanted in a 996.2 GT3. And I just haven't looked outside of that network

because for me, it's a, it's a hell of a lot of money. It's by far the most expensive thing I'll

ever own outside of a house. So it had to be the right thing and trust was a big, big element of

that. And yeah, again, you know, I'm so chuffed that your cars are on our marketplace because your

values reflect ours. We have a huge amount of feedback from people, you know, we get people

that see us and when we phone them up and they offer us a car and a sale and things like that,

we always ask them where they see us because, you know, we know it's good to know where, you know,

our marketing money is being sent or where referrals are being come from, being come from,

coming from, and things like that. So, you know, and more and more, we're now seeing, oh, I saw

you on this video or I saw you, you know, it was mentioned online works and things becoming

much more regular, which is great. Excellent. Well, that, that, that feeds into what we're

trying to create, which is something whereby we don't work with everybody. We work with people

we would buy cars from and it has played out as today, which is why I'm sitting in your office

about to get the keys to my car, which is incredible having bought from you. So thank you

for that. And yeah, as I said, thank you for just showing listeners a little bit behind the scenes

in terms of your experience. I know you're very welcome. It's nice because, you know, as I said

before, not many people see the whole behind the scene process. They put the deposit on the car

and they go, oh, I'll pick it up in a week's time. But why you've got it? Could you turn the wheels

pink and can you, you know, open a decal on the window? And, you know, we've done some crazy

things. We've had cars that have been named and so, you know, we've had stickers made up with a name

on it and things like that. It's a nice little personal touch and we try and do something where

appropriate as well. So we went, you know, it's, we've had people that have had requests because

we had a chap recently that bought a car from us and it was a present for his wife and he's like

that. It's her birthday. She knows she's getting the car, but if we can make it a bit special,

would you mind, you know, getting a couple of balloons and things like that? We sort it out,

you know, the car turned out, we just got a couple of balloons stood next to it and, you know, there's

the little touch on your car, you know, just it's little things like that where appropriate and where

we have the information, we'll try and do something like that if we can, just to make it a little bit

more special. So it's definitely is a great touch, Chris. So yeah, thanks again. Yeah, I'd like to

shake your hand. Oh yeah, thank you, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Let me get your key.

Right, so you have, now I'm giving you these because they came with the car.

They're older key rings, but they're sort of, they've done the journey with the car.

They're a little bit worn. So that's the original spare key that you've got there.

You've got one of the master keys. Again, on one of the key rings, the car came in on, so that would

have very likely been on the car for a while, looking at the patina on it. It's quite nice

sometimes not to have a brand new one because these are of the age of the car. That's a nice touch.

And then obviously, the master key with the Harvard cars. Amazing. Nice. Yeah, nice leather

key ring that is as well. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. It looks like. They're actually

based on the 911 dash, the colouring. Okay. That's kind of what we've done. We've got black and silver.

Yeah. We've got that one as well. Very nice. That is really, really smart. That's my personal

favourite. Excellent. It's really smart. Yeah, I shall keep that on the key and walk around with

pride with that. So thank you very much, mate. Nice one. No worries. The next thing to do is take

into the car. Absolutely. Yeah, if you're okay with that. Absolutely fine. Amazing. Amazing.

Amazing. Thank you to Chris and the team. And then lastly, we have got a couple of voice

notes from members in the Driven Not Hidden Collective who own 996 GT3s.

Hello Nineworks gang. Andy Bowers here. Hero driver who's been asked to shine a spotlight

on a true legend. Mr Lee GT3 Sibley has just joined the gang. So buckle up because we're about to

embark on a thrilling and informative journey. I'd like to kick things off with a sort of tale

of adventure. In the first month of only my 2003 996 GT3, I tackled the epic London to Stuttgart

road trip. Picture this. A car that's all about raw, focus driving, taking on a journey of about

800 kilometres. It's not exactly a cushy ride, but it sure is and was an exhilarating one.

Now let's talk about the driving experience. The GT3 is naturally aspirated, flaxed,

six engine and very precise handling. Make it an absolute joy on twisty roads and

autobahns, but don't expect a smooth sail. The firm suspension is designed for performance,

not plushness. You'll feel every bump and ripple and the minimal sound insulation means you'll hear

the engine, tyres, stones and the wind. Enthusiasts like us love it, but others might find it a little

bit tiring. When it comes to the seating and ergonomics of the car, the GT3 offers bucket seats

that are surprisingly supported for long drives. However, they do have limited adjustability,

so that can become uncomfortable over hours in the seat, especially without lumbar support or

the lack of recline options. As for practicality, there is obviously the front that you get in

most 911s, which provides pretty modest storage space. That's enough for a couple of soft bags,

but there's not a lot of room to take the misses and all of her kit, or indeed extra passengers

who may have usually sat in the back, albeit they won't be with you because there are no

seats in the rear of a GT3, as many of you know. So what's the verdict? If you're a driving purist,

the 996 GT3 transforms any mundane trip into a motorsport-inspired adventure, but if you value

quiet cabins, soft rides and creature comforts, you might find it all a bit tiring. It's doable,

but it's not necessarily relaxing. Now, let me dive into some of the sort of ownership

experiences I've had. Owning a Porsche 996 GT3 is a thrilling celebration of motorsport heritage.

Its raw performance and timeless design means that the 996 GT3 really channels Porsche's racing

DNA straight to the road with its razor-sharp handling, very precise steering, and of course

a lightweight chassis and body. That iconic 3.6-litre Metzgerflexis engine is born from

Porsche's Le Mans-winning GT1. Obviously, it's a masterpiece of engineering. It's robust and

importantly free from the infamous IMS bearing issues and delivers a thrilling

high-revving experience on pretty much every journey. The design of the 996 GT3 I think is

really clean, focused and functional. While the 996 generation introduced the controversial fried

eggs, the GT3's subtle aero enhancements and what I believe is an aggressive stance, give it a

purpose or look that whispers performance rather than shouting it. Over time, enthusiasts have come

to appreciate its understated elegance and genuine connection to Porsche's racing roots.

The 996 GT3 truly comes alive at speed with its track-tuned suspension,

minimal electronic interference and perfect weight distribution. It creates a driving

experience that's pure and confident expiring on a track. In short, the Porsche 996 GT3 is not

just a car, it's a celebration of driving purity. It's for those who value mechanical honesty,

racing heritage and the joy of driving fast. Every journey in a 996 GT3 is a reminder of why we

fell in love with cars in the first place. My 996 GT3 is finished in the iconic guards red

with a dealer fit from new factory roll cage and lever buckets which have tasty martini striped

inserts now. I've had it for about five years and every drive still feels like the first time.

The most rewarding aspects of only a 996 GT3 is obviously the messger engine, the raw driver

experience and the time of design. It's track ready and it's also got a road-friendly nature.

However, there are some drawbacks such as the dated interior quality, pretty firm ride, limited

tech and the high cost of genuine Porsche parts. For those considering buying a 996 GT3, it's

important to look for cars with regular maintenance, especially clutch brakes and suspension refreshes

and geo. I would check for track track use and ensure that it's been cared for accordingly.

Originality of these cars obviously matters but tasteful upgrades can enhance the experience

and remember the GT3 will demand engagement and definitely reward commitment but it's not for

everyone. One of my favorite memories for the car was an early morning blast through the Black

Forest on the B500 as we were gaining altitude in the morning mist. It was pretty much slipping

all over the place on pretty slippery surfaces on some Cup 2 rubber but still everything clicked,

the car, the road and the moment. That's what the 996 GT3 to me is all about unforgettable experiences.

Really appreciate you guys tuning in to my thoughts and wish you luck looking for a 996 GT3.

So my name is John, I'm part of the NineWorks collective and myself and my partner we have

a 906.2 GT3 Comfort, so not the hardcore club sport version. I specifically wanted something that

wasn't going to be too extreme based upon how focused the car already is off the standard.

So therefore although it has the carbon leather bucket seats, it's not got the cage or the

sort of the roll bars right up to the front windscreen. How long have you had that car?

It's a lovely low mileage example. Yes, so that's three and a half years now.

Excellent, excellent. Okay, and what made you John like from the outset seek out a 906.2 GT3?

For me, I think the the point one GT3 wasn't enough of a rentable vehicle, so it needed to be

something a little bit more. I followed Andreas Praniker and all of the great things that he'd

been doing in the later vehicles and therefore because the .2 vehicle was his first full project,

that was a big tick in the box for me. He is Mr GT, isn't he? He lives and breathes BISAC,

so that was important. Yeah, that's really interesting to hear how much waiting you've

put on that in terms of like strapping on your buying boots. That's super cool. How do you

how do you find the drive of that car then and does it marry up in your opinion with like the

wider consensus that it is an extremely trapped focus car? I've never tracked it, so I've not

been brave enough to do that. It for me is a really engaging, it's a monster, isn't it, that if you

don't treat it with respect, it will absolutely tell you off and therefore because it's

it is focused, it's engaging, but with the narrow body and how nimble it feels, you can

drive it a bit like Miss Daisy, you can put the cruise control on, switch the air conditioning

on, you can drive it sensibly, but it's just always asking you for more because it's so,

it doesn't have any active suspension or driver assistance systems, it's very,

very pure in what it delivers to you and therefore the more you put in, the more rewarding it is

to drive even on the road, even on our bumpy roads. I'm very interested to at some point

see how your attractive suspension compares to the standard setup for the road.

We should have a swap, John. I know there's a couple of us have been chatting about

the different suspension setups within the Dot2 GT3 and how that may result. I really like with

your story how your experience with the car has been exclusively on the road because that definitely

flies in the face of what is a wider axiom until this point that it's just solely for track use

and nothing else. I think you're proving that that might not be the case, which is really nice.

What has the ownership experience been like in terms of running costs and maintenance?

So it is currently in negotiation with Porsche Bournemouth to go and have a service with them.

So running costs so far have been due to the low mileage of the vehicle being pretty low,

but the vehicle has got full Porsche history and that's something that I want to maintain.

So it is a bit of a garage queen, unfortunately. What the full costs would be if you were

doing 6,000-10,000 miles a year or whatever, I can't really answer.

Yeah, fair. I've noticed, for example, with the lower arms how different they are to the

Carreras. The Carreras are one piece, GT3s are two. Chris at Rightune did some pricing up for me.

I think mainly for a laugh, really, the other day. A bit of shard and fraud in my direction,

but a substantial kick on from that. The thing is what you're dealing with here

are Porsche Motorsport parts. That's what it's paying for, which unfortunately does

carry a cost premium which people should go into with their eyes open. In terms of tires,

are you running Cup 2s or PS4s, 5s or...? It's just got Pilot Sport 4s on there at the moment.

Excellent. Okay, so that's a really good move because that is a road-biased tire,

so probably perfect for your use case, really. Yes. I've got Cup 2s, which obviously have been

fine in dry conditions, but as we all know, anything less insane. It's a little bit scary,

couldn't they? Yeah, below like 45 degrees, they're not the best. If the road's a little bit damp,

you have to be a bit wary as well. It's something that I possibly may consider going forward,

but I like the idea it's Cup 2s just because of the difference and different

properties and capabilities it offers over, say, Little Irish. Again, good to know that

you can run one or tether. I suppose from your perspective, because you've had Little Irish

have got PS5s on it, hasn't it? Yeah. Which is sort of just a tick on again from the Pilot Sport 4,

having now the Cup 2s on the GT3. If you find that if your lifestyle with the temperature

and the rain and everyday usage, that is too much, then you can say, actually, well,

I can go to those PS4s and there's a product that you're familiar with and what grip levels that

you can be expecting. What's the last thing you want is a big surprise in a Cup 2 when you get

caught out somewhere around or something. Yeah, definitely. John, your car is Minters. I've seen

from the pictures. I'm looking forward to seeing it in the metal. Is there anything that you feel

is worthy of passing on to anybody else who may be considering joining us in 996 GT3 World,

be it Gen 1 or Gen 2? I think for me, I went in with the right of the outset, like I always do,

to try and buy the best car on the market. My OCD levels as well as sort of looking at the

lineworks marketplace, which is just a fantastic place to start looking for a new car. I had the

vehicle also inspected by Anthony Shearer from Porsche Inspections. Are you familiar with what

he does and the reports that he creates? I know of the company. I don't know him personally.

So he did a 20 page report on the vehicle and it goes through everything on the vehicle, checking

absolutely everything from paint depth measurements to accident damage for sort of

gaps on panels, underside, above everything. I've written it down to message you.

He said it was the best GT3 that he's ever seen and the nicest example in the UK that he'd seen.

Wow, your one. Yeah, absolutely. His nickname in the industry apparently is Dr Doom.

So if there's anything that is not quite right, then he will find it with his inspections.

Yeah. So you go down this rabbit hole of finding your perfect car.

But then of course, you have the Garage Queen situation where you've got this immaculate car

that is the best in the UK and you're always saying can't use it because it is just too good.

So hence the reason why I have other vehicles because you want to protect that investment and

you want to protect that vehicle. You're the custodian of the future effectively.

But a bit like your 40th anniversary, you almost feel too precious to use it,

which is a real shame because when I do use it, I just get in it and I just think,

this is just their most amazing vehicle. I'd like you to just feel so lucky to be able to

experience what the drive of that car is like. So I promise myself next year that I will use it

more. Excellent. Excellent. Has it got PPF? Yeah, it hasn't now. Wow. So it's original paint and

original paints. You know, ceramic coating, yes, but not PPF. Is yours got PPF? Not yet,

but it will need it. Yeah. So it's had paint on the front bumper, rear bumper and side skirts

and it's mint and I just want to keep it that way. I think, you know, so like PPF will definitely

help. I have it on Little Irish and again, just allows me to, I feel, use the car as intended,

which is absolutely the remit for this one. So PPF is going to be a must on that.

Yeah, definitely. And I think it's certainly, you know, the PPF that I've got on my 907,

it just takes that a little bit of worry away. So it's, even though it's quite an investment to

have, you know, PPF put on your vehicle, I think absolutely, it's a really good thing.

Excellent. Stella, words of advice that, John. Thank you so much for joining us on

Nine Watch Radio to pass on your experiences as a 996 GT3 owner for the benefit of everybody

listening at home. Yeah, my pleasure, Lee. Thank you. Hey, Lee, it's Toby Dyer here. Firstly,

huge congrats on your 996.2 GT3 purchase. That was a fantastic morning watching you pick up

that iconic car and such a milestone in your ownership history as well. And, you know,

glad to see you're still on the 996 journey too. I think you've now gone through most of the models.

So huge, kudos, huge congrats. And as a fellow owner of a 996.2 GT3, I thought I would just

send or share some owner experience on these cars. So by the way, I've not done a voice

note before. So apologies. I'm not really natural. These won't take talking to my own phone type

messages. But let's see how it goes. First question, what car do you have and how long have you

owned it? Well, I've got 2004. It's a standard non club sport model. Address gray, buckets, no cage.

I've had it for three years. I bought it from Paragon, originally on 19,000 miles. It's now on

25,000. It's had a very pampered life prior to my ownership. And it's in great condition.

Actually, I traded it for a 997 GTS, which I had three years ago. And I wasn't really driving it that

much. I had a 996.1 C2 at the time, which I was driving more. I popped into Paragon and they said,

well, have you thought about a 996 GT3? Well, I've not actually thought about owning a GT3

because I'm not a track guy. Well, jump in. Let's let's let's have a go. See what you think. I have

to say it was love at first drive when I took that 996 GT3 out. It was everything that the 997

GTS wasn't, which I felt was a little bit too refined for what I wanted. And the GT3 was like

completely the opposite. It was everything I loved about my 996.1 C2, but just dialed up to 11.

So I took the decision to trade it in. And that was three years ago.

The next question which was posed was what is rewarding about a 996 GT3?

I'll caveat this with I've got a .2. So the .1 and .2 are quite different. So throughout this

note, I'll be talking about the .2. Also, these are purely my own personal opinions. I've done a

lot of research and learning over the last few years. But I certainly don't know everything.

And I'm still learning every day with this car. So this is one of the big attractions for me.

Only one of these is the learning experience as well as the driving experience.

By the way, I'm a track novice. I do most of my driving on UK roads, city town B roads.

Again, that's also where I'm coming from with my feedback. I have had quite a few

portions to compare from 69 long roads up to 991 turbos, many in between. So

that's my sort of comparison point. So what's rewarding? The build quality is so much better

than my early 996 .1 and .2. With these GT3s, I mean, they're made of granite. They're tough cars,

tough mechanicals. That Metzger engine as well is super reliable, full of character.

And it's really, really a great car from the sort of build quality, from the toughness. I mean,

it suffers none of the reliability issues of later GT car engines. And also because it doesn't have

all those electronics and nannies, there's less to go wrong. So it's a really raw

and demanding car. It makes you feel like you're directly connected,

like the driver is integrated and part of the car with zero filters. You're hard-wired into

every part of the car when you're driving it. And that's what I really love about it.

But if you mess up, it's your fault. But if you get it right, it's also all you.

Not many cars make you feel like that. The small 996 form factor is narrow body, great visibility.

I love the size of the car. I love the fact it's also relatively understated under the radar.

It's not big and showy. It's a car for connoisseurs, in my opinion. If I compare that to my 991 .2

turbo, which made me feel like a hero, but it was doing all the work. I probably wasn't really driving

that much. It was probably saving me in many situations. The GT3 is a completely different

experience. So yeah, I love it for that. In fact, when I bought it from Paragon, Jay and Jamie were

saying, think of it as an onion. There's so many layers to these cars, these 996 .2 GT3s,

that you can just peel the layers off over time, developing your skills, learning the car. There's

always another layer and there's always something else to learn. It's fantastic from that point.

The third question was, what are the drawbacks? Well, very track-orientated out of the box,

which does make for a rather hardcore car on bumpy, unpredictable, rough roads,

which a lot of our roads in the UK are. It does make the use case quite narrow. In fact, very

narrow compared with other 911s and especially also compared with other GT cars. So it can be

hard work for road driving and not particularly relaxing to drive. You know when you're driving

this car, 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, it can be quite exciting even on those roads. After an hour,

two hours, it is a workout. So I think be very thoughtful about the types of roads that you're

going to be driving the car on. Test drive other GT cars, GT product cars, decide which is best for

you. This car requires dedication and expertise to get the best from it. So you need to go in wanting

to learn, wanting to get the best from the car to really enjoy the car. It's not really for someone

that just wants to get in and drive and have fun and not invest the time to really get to know the

car and to tailor the car to their particular needs, in my opinion. So what should others know

considering buying? They think very carefully about how you're actually going to use it in real life.

Not dream life. It's all too easy to think I want a GT3. Wouldn't it be amazing? These cars,

in particular this model, they're very narrow in terms of their usage. So are you really going to use

it? Carrot performs at its best. If not, it's probably not the car for you. It's a very focused car

out of the box. Many have been twigged and modified and they're very geo and tire sensitive cars,

right? You're really, as I said earlier, you're hardwired into these cars. If you change something,

you will feel it, which is great. It's great for learning. It also means that you have two 996.2

GT3s side by side. They were very likely drive quite differently because of the different setups.

Of course, some have been crashed and damaged. So be careful and buy and do your due diligence.

But it's really a great car for someone that wants to learn and wants to

dial a car in specifically for how they want to use it. They're not about lap times. These are not

the fastest cars anymore. A regular newer 911 will be faster than your 996.2 GT3. But what it is

is about the purity of driving and connectedness. I challenge you to find another car, another 911,

another Porsche maybe, which gives you that degree of purity and connectedness,

particularly in the water-cooled era.

The last point for the last question here was, is there any other useful info stories we're

sharing? Well, I've done a lot to my car over the three years to make it more road-friendly.

Just to dial it a little bit back from that track focus, to play with that balance between road

and track bias. I've done a lot of work with center gravity. Paragon look after the car. I

maintain it to a very high standard. It's in great fabulous condition. And then I work with

center gravity to get it dialed in to exactly how I want to use the car. The main change we made

was on the suspension. Many owners of these cars do tailor these suspension to their needs. I mean,

Lee, you've gone for the tractors. I'm absolutely fascinated to see if it's a better setup for my

needs than the Olens that I went with in a passive setup. Let's see. So, time will tell if I made the

right decision. But these are such great cars. I highly recommend people to consider these cars.

As I said, they are under the radar. The market also prices them a little bit behind the other GT

cars. But I challenge anyone to find another car which gives you that

real purity, that real hard-wired connectedness. You are driving that car. You can tweak it to

exactly how you want their fabulous. So, looking forward to hearing your story, to seeing how it

progresses. And, well, yeah, congrats on joining the non-R6 GT2 community. Take care. Thank you.

Great to hear some other opinions. Well, people have had them a bit longer than you as well.

Yes, yes. People with more authority on the subject than you or I on that. So, thank you to

everybody. Great stuff. Yeah. Well, we've got some good learning to do to become the authority,

I guess. Is there any other business, Andy B? Yeah, should we do a spread the love quickly?

Yes, absolutely. I'm going to spread the love to Callum Designs.

It was quite interesting, actually. Ian's, you know, his last sort of words were,

if you come up with any crazy ideas that you fancy having a chat about, then give them a shout.

Because that's all how their projects have appeared. That Wooden Picket Mini was somebody

fancied doing a modern day interpretation of a Wooden Picket Mini. And that started a production

series up. I think they planned to do maybe 25 of those. So, you know, if you've got a bit of a

crazy idea and you fancy dusting the wallet off a little bit, and it might fit in with a longer

term thing, then do give them a shout. Call it. It's a great spread the love, Andy B. So,

we get our thinking caps on for that. Yeah. What do we want to do? Yeah. Quality. My spread the

love. I'm going to keep it within the collective, Andy, and just have a big shout out to everybody

that sent lovely messages over the last week or so. And also those that joined us down at Harbour

Cars. It definitely made that entire day even more special. Yeah, I bet. Sharing it with wonderful

people. I met Simon, who purchased the 9-1.1 GTS from Paragon, the one with the duck tail and

rear seat. Oh, the red one. Yeah. Yeah. Love that car. Love that car. So, really nice to meet him

and see that car again. And yeah, and everybody that came down, genuinely that made the day for

me. And it's so nice to share these occasions with everyone. I think with others as well,

like if you're in the collective and you've got, you're putting your buying boots on and you've

got a collection day, let us know. Like let's get along and share the occasion. It's lovely to share

in other people's success. Absolutely. Did you get a better lunch afterwards with a few of you?

Yes, we went to the Royal Oak just outside Goodwood, which was superb food. You and I went there,

Andy, with 9-9-3 owners when we did our 30 years of 9-9-3 celebration with Tony Hatter.

What's the place like when it's dry? When it's dry. Yeah. Lovely. You walk in, you can smell the fire.

Got a great selection of beer there if you want to be hidden, not driven.

Food's exquisite. Nice. Yeah, like country pub decor. Yeah. Perfect place to be.

Lovely. Yeah. God, I just remember that wet car park trying to hurt everybody in.

Yeah, it was like, rather than a car park, it was like a pen for 9-9-3s, wasn't it?

Absolutely stacked in there. So we had a little bit more room this time, which was nice.

Very good. Very good. Amazing. Excellent. Do we have a gem of the week?

Yes, I can't remember if I've already done this gem of the week,

but I want to give this... Why not double up? Go on. Double up. Yeah, doobly-boobly

with the 996.2 GT3 RPM Technic. Finished in GT Silver. It's got the original factory ceramics on.

It, too, has the equipment cage in there to go with the leather elephant ear buckets. It's up for

79995. It has the extended leather as well, which just, I think, looks absolutely superb.

It's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful car originally delivered to Porsche Coulterster.

RPM Technic know it, having previously sold it. So all of the right things you need to know and

need to have confidence in when you're buying one of these, that car has it all. It is absolutely

beautiful and it is our gem of the week. If it hadn't have been silver, would you have been on it?

Do you know what? I looked at it anyway, Andy. I considered it anyway, yes, because

it's by on condition and I would have forgotten the fact it's a silver car

in favor of the condition without a doubt. So I would encourage anyone else to do the same

and go and take a look. Wonderful thing. Nice. Okay, I'll give you some an update on

DNH Sears. We've still got quite a list. First up is Mark Selwood, who is based in Trowbridge

in Wiltshire. He's recently bought a 987 Boxster S and he's become obsessed with all things Porsche.

So, yes, found us on YouTube. He's been listening to the podcast.

Mark, welcome to the collective Trowbridge, otherwise known as Trow Vegas.

Really? Absolutely Trow Vegas. I went to a nightclub there many years ago. It was on an industrial

state. It was the only one there. It was bizarre. It was bizarre. I doubt it's still there.

I doubt it's still there. But yes, Trow Vegas, in regards to your, yes, recently acquired illness

for all things Porsche. It doesn't get any better, mate. So, at least in joining the collective,

you're in the perfect place to share it with the rest of us. So, yes, big welcome. Indeed.

Right, Rory Bowd, based in Paul, in Dorset. So, Rory has bought a member, a different

C2, which was owned by Ant, you know, Ant. He sold that recently. And it appeared on my

road, parked just a few doors down a couple of weeks ago. And my neighbour sent me a message

saying, my mates just bought this car. And I thought, yeah, I know, I saw it out the front.

How do I get involved in Porsche? Community, you know, how do I, what can he do? I said,

well, you could sign up. Have a look at NineWorks.co.uk. So, let's join. So, that's where Rory appeared

from. So, he's recently bought Ant in his car, which is a bit of a, it's definitely hopped up.

It's been repainted in slate grey. It's got some bigger Fuchs style wheels on it. It's got a polished

hoop. It looks quite, you know, sort of not tarted up. But you know what I mean? It looks

newer than it is. But it looks really nice car. So, yeah, congratulations on the car and welcome

to the collective. Yes, welcome, Rory. Nice and local. Well done, Andy, as well, like literally.

Yeah, recruiting. Commandering business on your doorstep. I love it. Love it.

Okay, right. Next up, we're going to Essex near Colchester. Yes, Lincoln

Blackley, who is based in Colchester, which we all know is

God's Country. Mr. Sibley comes from, found us on Instagram, NineWorksTV and YouTube,

likes the sound of the group, especially the fact that we are driving our cars.

He currently has a 997 C2 manual and also a 991 GT3.

Good mix. Good water cooled mix there, Lincoln.

Indeed. That's it for this week. Nice. Yeah, thank you to Lincoln and to everybody else who's joined

the Driven or Hidden Collective. As Andy said earlier in the episode, you know what to do if

you want to get on board with the Madhouse, NineWorks.co.uk forward slash join.

Wunderbar. Wunderbar. Nice one, Andy B. I guess that's it for our complete drill down on all

things 996 GT3. Yeah, I feel there's more to come. More to come on that. I think this is just

the beginning. Absolutely. I hope everybody's learned a thing or five today and it will be

the start of the journey for us all, I think. So, thanks as always for listening and we'll

catch you next week. Yeah, see you next week and congratulations on the new purchase.

If you'd like to join the DNHC and unlock unique new experiences with your Porsche,

visit NineWorks.co.uk forward slash join. You can also support us by leaving a five star review

on your favorite podcast app and Google reviews.

About this episode

A deep dive into the 996.1 and 996.2 GT3 models reveals the unique characteristics and experiences of these iconic Porsches. Lee shares his recent purchase of a 996.2 GT3, discussing its specifications and the excitement of ownership. The episode features insights from industry experts, including Phil Rabie and Greg from RPM Technic, who provide historical context and technical details about the GT3 lineage. Owners share their experiences, highlighting the driving purity and challenges of these track-focused cars, making this episode a comprehensive guide for potential buyers and enthusiasts alike.

aerodynamic package Callum Designs corrosion cup twos downforce gen 1 Gen 2 Geo GT3 Heritage Parts Centre

Porsche 356 Porsche 911 Porsche 914 Porsche Boxster Porsche Carrera GT Porsche Carrera RS Porsche Cayman

Original notes

Strap in and buckle up, this is your ultimate deep-dive into the early Porsche 911 GT3s in the 996.1 and 996.2!

Lee and Andy discuss the differences between the .1 and .2, before going around the industry to bring you full insight in these thrilling GT 911s.

Philip Raby reminds us of their reception when both were launched, Greig from RPM Technik provides technical insight to both generations, before John, Andy and Toby from the Driven Not Hidden Collective give invaluable owner insight on what they’re like to maintain.

Finally, we join Lee at the Harbour Cars showroom on collection day for his 996.2 GT3, sourced via the 9WERKS Marketplace.

Find your dream Porsche on the 9WERKS Marketplace: 9werks.co.uk/marketplace

Thanks to our friends heritagepartscentre.com for sponsoring this podcast, get up to 10% off your basket by entering the code ‘9WERKS10’ at the checkout on heritagepartscentre.com

This episode is also sponsored by Roadtrip Tribes, the app that keeps your group connected and on track. With real-time synchronized navigation, a built-in walkie-talkie, and the Radar function to locate your tribe while driving, Roadtrip Tribes ensures your convoy stays together and never deviates from the planned route. No one gets lost, no one gets left behind—just epic road trips.

‘9WERKS Radio’ @9werks.radio is your dedicated Porsche and car podcast, taking you closer than ever to the world’s finest sports cars and the culture and history behind them.

The show is brought to you by 9werks.co.uk, the innovative online platform for Porsche enthusiasts. Hosted by Porsche Journalist Lee Sibley @9werks_lee, and 911 owner and engineer Andy Brookes @993andy, with special input from friends and experts around the industry, including you, our valued listeners.

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support us by joining the 9WERKS Driven Not Hidden Collective you can do so by hitting the link below, your support would be greatly appreciated.

Support the show

9WERKS Radio : The Porsche and Car Podcast

Andy Brookes, Lee Sibley, Max Newman

View classic page →

0:00

105:09