[Perfectlap]

I more or less had the same impression when I first drove the 996 C2 and then the 996 Cab. I felt you were giving up a lot in the Cab. Then I drove the 986S and I was sold: if you want a drop top Porsche this is the car to drive, no contest. A bit too much understeer in the Boxster S but a hell of a lot better than the Cab and certainly better than C4S by a long way.
I later drove a 997.1 Cab and was really surprised how little it improved (front end lift on hard cross winds over a bridge). The 997.2 Cab however was a big improvement. much tigher all around but still felt like a grand touring car.

At any rate, anything 996 is a tremendous value today. This is a car that takes any weekend warrior within a couple of seconds of the same lap in a 996 Cup. That speaks for itself. And the car is not a leaky chore with expensive engine rebuilding as a regular part of long term maintenance like its predecessors. Take FloridaBill on this forum for example, he's probably up to 300K on his engine at this point with nothing more than oil changes, spark plugs and a couple of water pumps, surely there must be 996's out there with the same. The 996 is the Carrera you can drive without freaking out about how much the value has gone down with ever 10K added to the odometer, the workhorse 911.