"the torque of reusable fasteners is set such that the fastener gets close to the yield point,"
With a steel bolt in a steel part like the c/s bolt or lug bolts, maybe.
But on the 986 seldom.See Jakes book for many ,many examples -
Knowledge Gruppe, Jake Raby Porsche 911 996 Fastening Specifications Torque Book .
Most of the critical torque ratings are for high grade steel bolts or machine screws in aluminum alloy pressure die castings. That is the big problem .You can torque most of these bolts to less than half their yield torque and strip almost every threaded hole in the engine and transmission. If you dismantle ,repair and reassemble the M96 engine & trans(yes I do) , you almost always find damaged aluminum threads. If you doubt this, inspect the header flange bolt holes .The bolts will be fine but the threaded holes.....
But I am revisiting my support for HF torque wrenches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsPBNiowYoE

I'd like to thank everyone for their reply to my question. This has been a very educational and entertaining thread for me!!

I have several takeaways from this conversation:

1. You are a smart group of people. I'm not pumping sunshine here...it's true. Thank you all.
2. You are an entertaining group of people too!! What more can you ask for, learn and laugh!!
3. Torque wrenches come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You need the one that fits the job and that means you might need multiple TW's to cover all the possible jobs.
4. Torque wrenches tend to have three basic ranges of accuracy (2%, 3% and 4%). 2% cost the most, 4% are the cheapest (generally). They all will do the job just fine so long as they are properly used and maintained.
5. Always torque to spec.
6. "Get the best torque wrench you can afford." actually means...get the best torque wrench you can afford, not because its going to to the job better or more accurately, because they all will (see #4), but because when you have a high quality torque wrench in your hands, it feels good and helps build confidence in what you're doing.
7. Tools are investments
8. Tools are assets
9. Using the a crappy torque wrench with proper technique will likely deliver better results than using a high quality torque wrench with crappy technique.
10. Psycho-analyzing torque wrenches is never ending and will make you dream about it. Don't psycho-analyze torque wrenches. Refer back to #4 and #6 and be done with it, knowing full well that #3 might come back and bite you. So planning out the perfect, most efficiency, most economical and optimum spread of tools and their respective ranges of torque coverage may get blown out of the water on your very next job.
11. No project is complete if it didn't involve getting a new tool, so, don't fret #10

Happy Holidays everyone. Happy New Year and...
Happy wrenching and happy motoring.

Best regards,
Adam

I fixed it for you:
"No 986 project is complete if it didn't involve getting a new tool & THE BOOK TO TELL YOU THE TORQUE TO USE THE TOOL FOR."
:-).

Do NOT use any torque wrench to break or loosen a fastener and don`t drop the damn thing on the floor !

One more follow up on this topic...

Is a 20" long 1/2" TR too big for most work done in and around the Box?

That's about 3 inches longer than a lot of common 1/2" TR's and I was wondering if this is too big or not. I have a 1/2" HF TR and it's 17" long, but this one is way better quality.

Just want your thoughts are on your experience getting these things into position.

Thanks!!