Type 7 | Beware the Widowmakers

The automotive world was a scarier place when Stuttgart production lines were rolling out cars like the 930 Turbo and the 996 GT2. Not according to me, as I was but a child, but according to some of the most esteemed motoring journos in the game. After all, both of these cars were bestowed with the same infamous nickname.

Uncomfortable, stomach-churning and rollercoaster - all words Richard ‘Dickie’ Meaden used back in the day to describe the 996 GT2, Porsche’s last-hurrah for raw, analogue driving. Four-hundred and fifty five horsepower through now-prehistoric Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tyres with no traction control or Porsche stability management, just a mechanical limited-slip differential and your internal g-meter to keep things in check.

Driving a car that packs such a punch was an exercise in responsibility, as well as a test of skill which you had to inherently have, or learn. Amateur-friendly the 996 GT2 was not, but Behnam Eghtedari - the owner of the white GT2 Clubsport you see here - is an expert in taming Porsche’s final Widowmaker. All it takes is one quick scan of the windshield with numerous track day passes on display to realise that Benham uses his example as the engineers in Zuffenhausen intended.

Humbly, he ties his confidence to modern tyre technology, but after some spirited driving along the UAE’s high-speed highways - and carving corners in his 997 GT2 in Oman - it’s safe to say that Benham has tamed the GT2’s fearsome traits.

Two-hundred and sixty horsepower doesn’t sound like much, not when the latest 911 Turbo S produces a mighty 700. Back in 1974 however, when Porsche displayed the Turbo Carrera at the Paris Auto Show for the very first time, the forced induction 911 was mind blowing.

Sure, the 930 was down on oomph compared to its Ferrari and Lamborghini counterparts, but it had one crucial element the Italians lacked: turbo lag.

The 996 GT2, meanwhile, was the turbocharged surprise of 2001. The Turbo ‘proper’ had transformed into a softer, four-wheel drive grand tourer and the GT3 offered such linear power and adjustable handling, people expected the new water-cooled GT2 to be far removed from its brutal, homologation-special 993 forebear.

Wrong. Everybody was wrong. That’s why, when the opportunity came up to put both of these cars together on a delightful hazy evening in the UAE, I couldn’t resist. The two, on paper and as a bystander, have very few similarities beyond a common architecture.

Yet their shared reputation precedes them, and there’s something about this pair which exudes an indescribable menace. Your hairs stand on end just looking at them, imagining the turbo pressure building as you gingerly squeeze the throttle on corner exit and hearing that characteristic whistling from behind.

Almost thirty years and four generations apart, there’s an undeniable connection these cars share. Not only in their DNA, but in the fear they strike in the hearts of the unprepared.