It’s not often Porsche gets it wrong. When it comes to the development of its sports cars, I can think of only three such occasions in the company’s 76-year history: the first was ditching the manual gearbox for its GT3, which happened with the 991.1-generation. Next was the turbocharged flat four engines used for the early 718 Boxster/Cayman era. The third was the 996’s one-piece headlight styling, which would colloquially come to be known as a ‘fried egg’ design.
Of course, Porsche never readily admits to such an error of judgement in regards to the direction it takes with its sports cars. Instead, the company simply and subtly returns to the status quo with subsequent iterations. Cases in point: the 991.2 GT3 got a manual gearbox, the 718 soon got a nat-asp flat six engine, and the 996 got… the 997.