A beautiful 996 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, seen in the Sanlitun embassy district in central Beijing in 2014. The good 911 was painted in a very pretty shade of blue with a gray interior. The 996 was never officially exported to China so seeing one is a rare pleasure, even more so with a matching 京H·99961 license plate.
The 996 was manufactured from 1998 until 2005. The Carrera 4S is powered by a 3.6 liter flat-six with 320hp, good for a 280km/h top speed and a 0-100 in 5 seconds.
Even though Porsche didn’t sell it officially, eager buyers could get one via the gray market or other misty semi-smuggle channels, if they had a lot of money and patience. It is hard to keep ‘m on the road as there isn’t much expertise on and parts for these cars available in China.
Happily, nowadays, there are quite some specialized shops that know how to get parts for these older Porsche 911’s. And perhaps, if you pay enough, an official Porsche dealer might be kind enough to help you out as well. Porsche started officially selling the 911 in China in 2005 with the 997 model.