Porsche 996 Turbo S

The other day, I was busy minding my own business, walking purposely down the street when I heard someone shout my name....

Much to my surprise it was a chap who I knew from school. We had got on quite well, but moved in different circles. He was someone, I remembered as routinely good, no excellent, at everything he was involved with. Whilst I would dread Tuesday afternoons waiting to see the following day's teamsheet go up and if I'd held onto the outside-centre shirt against some other school, 'David' was the 1st XV fly-half. I enjoyed mucking around and revelling in mischevious behaviour, but 'David' was sort of, above it all. He was Head Boy. I would sit with head in hands struggling through my Latin exam, but not 'David'. Oh, no, he had his hand up, wanting more paper...

But he didn't get the girls.

So when I saw him the other day, memories did flood back, all his supreme competencies, elevated status, and in parallel with my surprise with him deigning to remember who I was, and spotting me like this after so many years, was the overriding thought: what the hell was he wearing? The clothes were all normal - jacket and jeans - but the cut and colour was all wrong. The outfit just didn't fit. I recognised the athlete, the good, keen mind, and the demeanour that made him an elevated peer as teenagers, but he looked awkward.

When the 996 model range was launched by Porsche in 1998, purists, those who'd followed and stayed loyal to the brand, to a customer, blanched at the new look. Much has been, and will continue to be, written about how the 993 is the prettiest 911 of them all, the apex as it were, and the 996 is the worst. The shift to a water-cooled engine had to be made, but the aesthetic cost to this iconic car was an automotive backside an East Coast rapper could lyricize over for a full album.

Underneath it all, it's still phenomenal. Years of chassis development/struggle to negotiate the effects of slinging a flat-six over your rear wheels, has made the 911 through the decades, the car that in it's class, did everything excellently. And in 1998, they made it walk down the street in an ill-fitting suit.

Whilst 996 and 997 Turbos are depressingly common on the streets of London, these days, the more exclusive 'S' model was strangely enough only released when official production of the 996 range had finished, in 2005. With the X50 engine upgrade (now 444bhp, with a 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds) and carbon ceramic composite brakes, the 996 reached it's apogee.