Since I am sure alot of you guys don't only have Ferrari's, I have a P-car question... I just picked up a 1999 Porker 996. Having been used to a fine forum like this one as a great resource of information, I was wondering if anyone could guide me to a similar forum for 996's. There are so many P-Car forums, I just don't know which one to pick. Also, we have such an invaluable Ferrari parts source in the form of Ricambi America, with online parts catalogues, and immediate pricing information. Is there any similar P-Car online source of parts which has parts catalogues/part numbers and stuff like that?
I spent quite a few years on Rennlist and found it to be quite good. I contributed to several articles re performance revisions in the 2000-2001 era, including the first-installed Fabspeed computer add-on (not a chip - a separate computer NOT visible to Porsche test instruments/OBDII - custom programmed on the dyno/street specifically for the individual car) on a 996-series car. I worked with Joe Fabiani (Fabspeed Owner- stayed at his house) on this and "donated" my 911 as the "test mule." http://www.rennlist.com/
i had a 99 996 before the 355, and I used to check out rennlist.com. Also, check out Pelican Parts. These were recommended to me by my mechanic, but I'm sure there are other good ones out there. The 996 is a great car and incredibly undervalued right now. I really wish I could have kept it. Congrats on the new toy!!
For parts, I used to get them from www.automotion.com which had a great cataloge. I think Performance parts bought them out, but the web site still works. Pelican is another good source.
+1 on Rennlist, another good parts source is dcAuto. I really like their catalog, even just for reference. http://dcauto.gotdns.com/catalog/
The car is really growing on me. It's quite competent, yet has all the options and creature comforts, it's surprisingly very well behaved handling-wise. But it's fundamentally so different than the 348, it drives and sounds like a machine. The 348 sings on the other hand, and is much more exciting to drive.
The 996 series 911 is a wonderful daily driver. I used mine every day for my 50 mile ride to/from work for 6 years. I also tracked it at Lime Rock periodically and even took it to the dragstrip 3 times during the first year I owned it! (best time: 12.87, documented on Rennlist - or at least it used to be). However, the trannies are not all that robust. I started having synchro problems at around 50k miles and I rebuilt the tranny to competition specs (stouter gears/synchro's, etc) for around $2k in parts. I had no other trouble with the car in the entire 7 years I owned it. It is an extremely competent car; I really had a lot of respect for it and drove it like I stole it! But, I must admit, I never formed a real attachment to it as I did for other cars I have owned. I don't know why.
