"Horsepower challenged"

[Perfectlap]

^ in a straight line you definitely feel the difference even a base 996 over a 986S.
But it feels heavy and when you turn it more so. If you drive a C4 its understeer is in your face the whole time.

But then there are the GT's. The 996 GT3 is maybe the last raw, viscerally type of no-nonsense car that Porsche made. If you choose to drive one Carrera for the first time, pick that one. All GT3's since then, while still monumentally more fun that the regular Carreras do not have that 'beast mode' feel to them. The 996 GT3 is the best Porsche bargain in the water-cooled era and I think it will hold up well on resale now that its automatic GT3's from 2013 forward. But the 996 GT3 is definitely not a year-round car. In fact, with an improper alignment it feels (and probably is) downright dangerous in any kind of wet. One minute you're speeding along, a nano second later .... oh crap.

So yeah... no real middle ground there if you lean toward mid-engine and want to try a Carrera.
You'd have to go older (964) and those aren't workhorse cars anymore.