**A Hands-on Experience with the 2001 Mercedes-Benz 996 Turbo**

As we step into the driver's seat, it's hard not to feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. The 2001 Mercedes-Benz 996 turbo is an old-school performance car that promises to deliver a unique driving experience. And boy, does it live up to its reputation.

The first thing that catches our attention is the gearbox - a 5G Tronic unit that's been installed in this particular car. While modern gearboxes have become increasingly sophisticated, there's something special about a manual transmission that just can't be replicated by electronic systems. And so, we opt for manual mode, eager to feel the connection between the driver and the car.

As we put the pedal to the metal, the car springs into life, its 5.0-liter V8 engine roaring like a beast. The 996 turbo is an old-school powerplant that's designed to deliver raw, unadulterated power. And with only five gears in its manual transmission, those pools are long and sweet - perfect for soaking up the torque of this mighty engine.

But what really sets the 996 turbo apart is its character. The way it responds to throttle input is almost... organic. It's as if the car is alive, responding to every movement of the driver's foot with a deep rumble from the exhaust system. And when you hit the gas hard, the sound is like music to your ears - a deep, throaty growl that just gets louder and louder.

Of course, handling isn't exactly what you'd expect from an old-school performance car like this one. The power steering feels natural, but it's also surprisingly heavy, which takes some getting used to. And then there's the turn-off traction control system - a feature that adds an extra layer of complexity to the driving experience.

But the real magic happens when you start to feel the weight of the car on the road. With no front weight at all, the 996 turbo is incredibly light and agile, making it a blast to drive through corners and curves. And as we hit top speed, the sound of the engine becomes almost hypnotic - a soothing hum that's both calming and exhilarating.

**Technical Specifications**

* Engine: 5.0-liter V8

* Transmission: 5G Tronic manual

* Horsepower: Unknown ( estimates suggest around 380-400 hp)

* Weight: Approximately 3,500 pounds (1,588 kg)

**Drivetrain Notes**

The 996 turbo's drivetrain is a unique beast - with the engine located in the rear of the car, it creates an interesting weight distribution. This, combined with the lack of front weight, makes for an incredibly light and agile handling experience.

**Braking Performance**

The braking performance on this particular 996 turbo was nothing short of impressive. With some careful management, we were able to bring this car down from high speeds in a remarkably short amount of time - thanks in large part to the aggressive stopping power of the front brakes.

**Additional Features**

* Automatic spoiler that raises and lowers with speed

* Mercedes-Benz pedals with manual shift control

* 350 horsepower engine output (estimated)

* 8-second 0-60mph time

**Conclusion**

The 2001 Mercedes-Benz 996 turbo is a true gem - an old-school performance car that's full of character and charm. With its raw, unadulterated power and light handling, it's a blast to drive on twisty roads or straight-line acceleration. Whether you're a seasoned performance car enthusiast or just looking for a unique driving experience, this 996 turbo is definitely worth checking out.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this POV review by autotop now my name is Max and today you join me on a lovely lovely summer morning it is 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday and we are here the Sheep are awake and it's finally the day we're testing a Porsche 996 it's never happened before weirdly enough and uh well it is not just any 996 this is a 996 turbo which has a roof 550 package on it uh so it is a very very cool car so today I'm going to show you around it uh I'll show you all the roof stuff we'll talk a bit about the 996 turbo in general and then we'll take it for a drive towards the Alan for an alaban BL so 996 was very underappreciated for a long time it was kind of not really a cool car it was not really a pretty car and uh I think I think it kind of got out of a dip and is now on the up again well it's been for a couple years now and I think that's mainly down to the fact that my generation I was born in 1990 this was the Porsche from age 7 to age 16 so it's been part of my car development years and uh the turbo has always been just an incredible car to me so I was really happy when we got a message from yum asking us if we wanted to drive his 996 Turbo with this roof package so let's do a walk around we'll start at the front with the turbo bumper very very nice aggressive front bumper with a tiny tiny splitter here as well we've got a roof badge to let people know that you're not driving a regular one of course the clear glass for the turbo and this has upgraded Zenon headlights uh this car does not have the uh like the the fried egg headlights with the orange which they kind of got rid of yeah they got rid of because people didn't really like it now this car was introduced in 1997 and Porsche had some Financial issues back then uh it was not really going that well and to cut costs in the development of this car they shared the development for a lot of parts with the Porsche Boxster which is something people didn't really like back then because they said well I don't want to drive around in a 9911 that shares Parts with the cheaper version but they did save around 30% of the development cost just by taking uh the suspension from the 993 and modifying that instead of developing an all new suspension setup because it is the first all new platform since the first 911 it is also the first watercooled engine of course in the 911 uh so they did have quite a lot of uh development costs anyway so they wanted to save a bit and that is where they saved a bit of that they also took the six-speed manual from a 993 and modified that uh so yeah anyway we've got these very very cool roof Wheels look at those it's like a roof interpretation of the turbo fan Wheels I would say and then behind that we've got the Porsche brakes with six spot GTS brake calipers and pit uh endurance brake pads we've got M Pilot Sport cup two tires which is very very nice these are 18in little 18in Wheels super cool 225 tire at the front we've got low ring Springs as well on this car the quintessential turbo air intake on the hip there of course you have the wide body as well for the turbo which back then was only for the four-wheel drive versions uh it's called four-wheel drive of course the turbo and the Carrera 4 also had four-wheel drive so those were the only wide body cars and this is a 295 tire at the rear it also has billstein dampers uh it's called a broach exhaust 200 cell cat down pipes uh let's take a look at the engine the 3.6 L turbocharged engine twin turbocharged I should say and you can actually see the engine in the 996 which is nice so here it is uh it is the first water cooled engine as I said but because this has the roof 550 package you get the KKK K24 turbos which roof modifies those are actually also the same turbos that you got on the x50 package which was uh a package that brought the power from 420 stock to 450 from Factory uh and it got different turbochargers and those are the turbochargers that roof used so it's got 550 horsepower 780 NTM and according to roof it should be able to do 351 km an hour uh it also has different turbo hoses it's called different engine mounts it's called different headers uh GT2 intercooler it's called software for the engine and for the transmission and uh it's called a different transmission cooler as well so yeah actually quite a lot of like proper old school tuning which is super cool lovely roof badge as well and these exhaust tips are just so cool they are so weird and that is what makes them so cool kind of a weird exhaust how that runs like into here and then this one is from there it's kind of strange but apparently it got different headers because of the lowering so turbo badge super cool we've got these turbo seats as well very nice seats and then Yokum added this really cool Touch of this turbo badge in the rear which apparently you can't get if you have the bower speakers uh he also has a rear seat delete lovely carbon fiber trim on the interior like old school Carbon on the steering wheel wheel as well super super nice and of course let's start her up we also have the gorgeous five dial instrument cluster proper Porche uh as you might have seen the 92.2 now has a digital instrument cluster this is it this is the stuff I mean this this will be beautiful in 30 years show me a digital Speedo that will look good in 30 years well okay there are a few Japanese cars that actually have cool displays now 30 years later but anyway those are the exceptions so interior is actually pretty nice I uh I quite like it it looks good as well for 133,000 km not bad yokan bought this car from Denmark and uh apparently I think it's a 2001 car and in 2008 it got this roof treatment and yo bought it you know as it is and he had quite a bit of Maintenance to do but uh yeah he's very happy with it so that's good incredible incredible car it sounds like deep there's no exhaust valves or anything this is just the way it sounds let's go to manual mode for the gearbox this is the 5G tronic from Mercedes uh he actually also installed these Mercedes pedals you can actually this is just the Mercedes these pedal shift so you don't have the stupid like Tiptronic buttons I think the horses are here yeah they're still here the zebra horse and the regular horse so gearbox wise you know to today's standards of course it's like super slushy but if you sort of work around that it is doable oh and it sounds just amazing it's so oh it's so purposeful you know it just it doesn't make a sound it doesn't need to make and I love that I I just despise the pops and bangs and and the crackles and I mean sure it it's like spect ular and and extreme but I I don't like the principle of it that you're making noises and sound that you don't need to make to go faster and that this is kind of the quintessential sound uh like of power it just it's not a beautiful sound it sounds like a bit industrial uh you hear the turbo you hear just a loud blowing through the exhaust L of course you do hear the Flat 6 but oh yes I'm so happy that this is the first 996 I'm driving because no way this is going to disappoint right so handling wise also very nice power steering feels natural nice and heavy it's got a very light front end actually a turn off traction control man this is a cool car the power deliver is also it's just amazing it's it's kind of laggy of course because you know it's an old school turbo so from like 4 and 1 half 5,000 RPM that's when it starts to really go so of course we're going to hit the autoban and yeah we'll just keep it in manual mode PSM off the uh spoiler I didn't even show you guys that uh but it has an automatic spoiler at the rear a raising and lowering spoiler I can just see it going down now so as I said it's like 8:00 in the morning so it should be okay should be not too busy all right here we go full throtle it picks up so well it is is a powerful car this it really is and because you only have a 5-speed automatic those gears those pools are long and it it just adds to that like turbo beef character it just look at this look at it go it's a 2001 car this it absorbs the bubs really well actually so we do have a bit of wi noise that is that is f 350 320 oh the front is kind of light 330 330 in the 996 turbo I mean I will say 350 would require some some bigus right because I don't know if you guys saw the way it just moved around a little bit at 320 but that is of course down to you know engine in the rear the the front there's no weight on there uh and then it just gets lighter and lighter the faster you go oh that is intense that'll wake you up in the morning that's better than a coffee so temperatures and stuff everything just looks perfectly okay oh it picks up so well the character of this drivetrain is just something special 100 to 200 we also measured that and we did eight around 8 seconds I'm not sure exactly but you can see it in the list now uh which is proper quick oh it just goes this thing is amazing man I love old performance cars I really do I think they are so much better than modern ones in a like in a in a driving way in a connection way it just it feels like because it's so mechanical and because it just you can feel and hear what's happening sort of I I feel like that's why you kind of bond with the car as well and it sort of develops like a character and and and and just a personality which modern cars just won't be able to do ever that's not bad that's not bad at all so last little run back towards the gas station brakes also work man it's it's really quick it's really really quick all love it I absolutely love it Yoko thank you so much for taking it to us really really appreciate you coming down uh early morning and uh letting us have a go and you know allowing us to have our first 996 experience and you know what a way to do it what a special car and of course roof delivers again we've driven their cars they are just amazing and uh I look forward to driving more of those because oh special special cars so to you guys thanks for watching hope you enjoyed it as well you can subscribe by clicking the big button in the middle you can also check out this video or this playlist see you at the next one byewhat's up ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this POV review by autotop now my name is Max and today you join me on a lovely lovely summer morning it is 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday and we are here the Sheep are awake and it's finally the day we're testing a Porsche 996 it's never happened before weirdly enough and uh well it is not just any 996 this is a 996 turbo which has a roof 550 package on it uh so it is a very very cool car so today I'm going to show you around it uh I'll show you all the roof stuff we'll talk a bit about the 996 turbo in general and then we'll take it for a drive towards the Alan for an alaban BL so 996 was very underappreciated for a long time it was kind of not really a cool car it was not really a pretty car and uh I think I think it kind of got out of a dip and is now on the up again well it's been for a couple years now and I think that's mainly down to the fact that my generation I was born in 1990 this was the Porsche from age 7 to age 16 so it's been part of my car development years and uh the turbo has always been just an incredible car to me so I was really happy when we got a message from yum asking us if we wanted to drive his 996 Turbo with this roof package so let's do a walk around we'll start at the front with the turbo bumper very very nice aggressive front bumper with a tiny tiny splitter here as well we've got a roof badge to let people know that you're not driving a regular one of course the clear glass for the turbo and this has upgraded Zenon headlights uh this car does not have the uh like the the fried egg headlights with the orange which they kind of got rid of yeah they got rid of because people didn't really like it now this car was introduced in 1997 and Porsche had some Financial issues back then uh it was not really going that well and to cut costs in the development of this car they shared the development for a lot of parts with the Porsche Boxster which is something people didn't really like back then because they said well I don't want to drive around in a 9911 that shares Parts with the cheaper version but they did save around 30% of the development cost just by taking uh the suspension from the 993 and modifying that instead of developing an all new suspension setup because it is the first all new platform since the first 911 it is also the first watercooled engine of course in the 911 uh so they did have quite a lot of uh development costs anyway so they wanted to save a bit and that is where they saved a bit of that they also took the six-speed manual from a 993 and modified that uh so yeah anyway we've got these very very cool roof Wheels look at those it's like a roof interpretation of the turbo fan Wheels I would say and then behind that we've got the Porsche brakes with six spot GTS brake calipers and pit uh endurance brake pads we've got M Pilot Sport cup two tires which is very very nice these are 18in little 18in Wheels super cool 225 tire at the front we've got low ring Springs as well on this car the quintessential turbo air intake on the hip there of course you have the wide body as well for the turbo which back then was only for the four-wheel drive versions uh it's called four-wheel drive of course the turbo and the Carrera 4 also had four-wheel drive so those were the only wide body cars and this is a 295 tire at the rear it also has billstein dampers uh it's called a broach exhaust 200 cell cat down pipes uh let's take a look at the engine the 3.6 L turbocharged engine twin turbocharged I should say and you can actually see the engine in the 996 which is nice so here it is uh it is the first water cooled engine as I said but because this has the roof 550 package you get the KKK K24 turbos which roof modifies those are actually also the same turbos that you got on the x50 package which was uh a package that brought the power from 420 stock to 450 from Factory uh and it got different turbochargers and those are the turbochargers that roof used so it's got 550 horsepower 780 NTM and according to roof it should be able to do 351 km an hour uh it also has different turbo hoses it's called different engine mounts it's called different headers uh GT2 intercooler it's called software for the engine and for the transmission and uh it's called a different transmission cooler as well so yeah actually quite a lot of like proper old school tuning which is super cool lovely roof badge as well and these exhaust tips are just so cool they are so weird and that is what makes them so cool kind of a weird exhaust how that runs like into here and then this one is from there it's kind of strange but apparently it got different headers because of the lowering so turbo badge super cool we've got these turbo seats as well very nice seats and then Yokum added this really cool Touch of this turbo badge in the rear which apparently you can't get if you have the bower speakers uh he also has a rear seat delete lovely carbon fiber trim on the interior like old school Carbon on the steering wheel wheel as well super super nice and of course let's start her up we also have the gorgeous five dial instrument cluster proper Porche uh as you might have seen the 92.2 now has a digital instrument cluster this is it this is the stuff I mean this this will be beautiful in 30 years show me a digital Speedo that will look good in 30 years well okay there are a few Japanese cars that actually have cool displays now 30 years later but anyway those are the exceptions so interior is actually pretty nice I uh I quite like it it looks good as well for 133,000 km not bad yokan bought this car from Denmark and uh apparently I think it's a 2001 car and in 2008 it got this roof treatment and yo bought it you know as it is and he had quite a bit of Maintenance to do but uh yeah he's very happy with it so that's good incredible incredible car it sounds like deep there's no exhaust valves or anything this is just the way it sounds let's go to manual mode for the gearbox this is the 5G tronic from Mercedes uh he actually also installed these Mercedes pedals you can actually this is just the Mercedes these pedal shift so you don't have the stupid like Tiptronic buttons I think the horses are here yeah they're still here the zebra horse and the regular horse so gearbox wise you know to today's standards of course it's like super slushy but if you sort of work around that it is doable oh and it sounds just amazing it's so oh it's so purposeful you know it just it doesn't make a sound it doesn't need to make and I love that I I just despise the pops and bangs and and the crackles and I mean sure it it's like spect ular and and extreme but I I don't like the principle of it that you're making noises and sound that you don't need to make to go faster and that this is kind of the quintessential sound uh like of power it just it's not a beautiful sound it sounds like a bit industrial uh you hear the turbo you hear just a loud blowing through the exhaust L of course you do hear the Flat 6 but oh yes I'm so happy that this is the first 996 I'm driving because no way this is going to disappoint right so handling wise also very nice power steering feels natural nice and heavy it's got a very light front end actually a turn off traction control man this is a cool car the power deliver is also it's just amazing it's it's kind of laggy of course because you know it's an old school turbo so from like 4 and 1 half 5,000 RPM that's when it starts to really go so of course we're going to hit the autoban and yeah we'll just keep it in manual mode PSM off the uh spoiler I didn't even show you guys that uh but it has an automatic spoiler at the rear a raising and lowering spoiler I can just see it going down now so as I said it's like 8:00 in the morning so it should be okay should be not too busy all right here we go full throtle it picks up so well it is is a powerful car this it really is and because you only have a 5-speed automatic those gears those pools are long and it it just adds to that like turbo beef character it just look at this look at it go it's a 2001 car this it absorbs the bubs really well actually so we do have a bit of wi noise that is that is f 350 320 oh the front is kind of light 330 330 in the 996 turbo I mean I will say 350 would require some some bigus right because I don't know if you guys saw the way it just moved around a little bit at 320 but that is of course down to you know engine in the rear the the front there's no weight on there uh and then it just gets lighter and lighter the faster you go oh that is intense that'll wake you up in the morning that's better than a coffee so temperatures and stuff everything just looks perfectly okay oh it picks up so well the character of this drivetrain is just something special 100 to 200 we also measured that and we did eight around 8 seconds I'm not sure exactly but you can see it in the list now uh which is proper quick oh it just goes this thing is amazing man I love old performance cars I really do I think they are so much better than modern ones in a like in a in a driving way in a connection way it just it feels like because it's so mechanical and because it just you can feel and hear what's happening sort of I I feel like that's why you kind of bond with the car as well and it sort of develops like a character and and and and just a personality which modern cars just won't be able to do ever that's not bad that's not bad at all so last little run back towards the gas station brakes also work man it's it's really quick it's really really quick all love it I absolutely love it Yoko thank you so much for taking it to us really really appreciate you coming down uh early morning and uh letting us have a go and you know allowing us to have our first 996 experience and you know what a way to do it what a special car and of course roof delivers again we've driven their cars they are just amazing and uh I look forward to driving more of those because oh special special cars so to you guys thanks for watching hope you enjoyed it as well you can subscribe by clicking the big button in the middle you can also check out this video or this playlist see you at the next one bye\n"