I know that you all said that the sps was the European model and the S was the US version of the 996. In my Haynes manual i just got, it says that in 2000 (year of my bike) its called just the SPS, and in 2001, the SPS was replaced with the S version. According to this, the S model came out in 2001, but since mine is a 2000 wouldnt that still make it an SPS model? This just adds to my confusion
