no the 996 wides are wider than the 997 narrows by i believe a bigger margin than the 996w to 997w comparison (miniscule).

porsche tweaked out the rear haunches a bit so the 997 narrows v. 997 wides is less dramatic than the 996w to 996narrow (pretty damn noticeable).

 

Also, for the 997, I believe the c2 and the c2s are narrow, whereas the the c4 and the c4s are wide. With the 997, the 's' is an engine designation.

For the 996, the only 's' is the c4s and its wide but it has the same engine as the carrera.

 

2005 was C4S Coupe & Cab and Turbo "S" Coupe & Cab 996's... Regular Turbo's were not produced in 2005

 

As was mentioned, the difference between the 98-2004 996 C2(69.5"-69.7") and C4s(72") is 2.3" or just over an 1" per side. That's about the width of an average thumb. The C2's can fit 11's in the rear and the Turbos and C4S' fit 12's in the rear. The difference of the current "widebodies" is less than half of what the difference was in the early 90's. The early 90's cars were 65" for the NB cars and 70" for the WB cars; 5" or 2.5" a side is a much more noteable/noticeable difference. The late 70's and 80's cars also had similar differences between the 2 versions; all of which look dramatically different especially with the aftermarket WB versions which were even more pronounced.

The larger benefit of the 996 C4 and C4S is the AWD, weight distribution differential and handling benefits. The rocker panels make the differences look more pronounced, but if you run the same style rockers, the difference looks minimal at best.

The 997 NB is 71.2", the 996 WB is 72" and the 997 WB is 72.9". So they all vary by a little over 3/4" one to the next; all of which are imperceptible to most. The difference between the 997 NB and WB is slightly less than the difference between the 996 NB amd WB. Enjoy your car no matter what you get/ have.

TDK