Yeah, it is just kind of...there. If it really offends your sensibilities you can always go with a later one.

Further consideration: on a straight side view the production car is actually better balanced. There's less bulk in the rear. Maybe that side vent is doing some good work here in breaking up that area, maybe it's the more practical door cut, but I prefer the update.

And I'm forever looking for those bronze 3-piece Speedline wheels.

I dunno. The production car is - again, with the exception of that form-follows-function shoulder vent - about as much as you could hope for a straight translation of concept to reality. I suppose you have to accept that they were holding the full-width chin opening for the 996.

The only real flaw was sticking the vent in the middle of the panel instead of tucking it down, which would have admittedly had debris issues. The rest is there (those headlights) or even maybe better; the roll hoops completely work.

Cars as a whole are objectively faster, cleaner, safer for occupants, and contain tech that was unimaginable in 1999. They suffer subjectively mostly because of product-planning decisions reflecting cultural currents, which is just markets at work. Popular music is just a fucking end-to-end mess.

Footnote: that's a 25-year-old car that I would gleefully daily or drive to California and the absence of it or something comparable in my life is one of the root causes of my lingering background depression. But c'est la vie.

Yeah. That's a 25-year-old car. It's like looking at a '74 911 when that was new. Yes, time is weird lately. I won't even start with the 25-year-old vs. 50-year-old music thing, which is almost as distorted.

One of the least agreeable seating positions I’ve ever tried. Steering wheel aims at your right shoulder among other foibles. Could never understand the raves about ergonomics.