Very little difference between 2wd and 4wd.
It uses a viscous coupling so it really only apparent if you loose grip on the front - otherwise it pretty much behaves like a 2wd.
The car was light at 1365kg so the extra 4wd gubbins wasn't really that noticable.
The whole braking and accelerating thing is critical in a rear (or mid engined) car - you need to get the weight on to the nose to get the grip turning in and then you want it on the rear for accelerating.
Slow in, fast out. I drive my 2 ton panamera the same way.. (although being RWD with 650Nm of torque it breaks traction constantly).
And this is where Porsche brakes make sense - they aren't just binary on or off.. you can easily modulate them to shift more or less weight towards the front.
And re the 996 I think the interior will possibly age better than the 997 - the 997 is in some ways in a weird place where just after interiors really changed). And at the end of the day, a 997 is just a 996 in a slightly different dress (no, seriously).
I've included a gratuitous shot of my last 17 years of cars (with a 5 year break before the panamera).
Out of all of them I couldn't pick only one.. well
. I hated the silver 2.7 boxster and that's the only one I regret buying
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