Hi All
I borrowed the local OPC's Spyder for an hour and a half this morning.
Here are my impressions, in no particular order:
Interior comfort and driving position: Excellent. The seats are perfect and everything is just where you want it to be. This one was quite specced up, so i had sound, nav and climate to play with. I turned the radio off though, as the car had the PSE... My only gripe was the roof was not well fitted on the drivers side (a slight lack of tension, compared to the passenger side). The resultant wind noise and ingress was unacceptable at 70mph. I imagine it just needs adjustment or refitting as thr passenger side did not display this problem at all... Rear visibility is pretty poor, btw - probably because of the letter-box rear window and lower roof line.
Ride quality: Quite firm, but never crashy or jarring. I took the car over a couple of areas which have a very rutted and broken surface and it is quite amzing how comfortable the car remained - the dampers just seemed to soak everything up.
Chassis - very stiff. I was expecting some flex, given there is no roof, but there was none that i could detect. I imagine this is partly why the car rides so well over bumps, as it is just the suspension that is doing the work.
Engine / exhaust / gearbox: Spins up nicely with a lovely howl coming through at high rpm. The car had the short shift gear lever, which needs a good amount of time to warm up before it is easy to use. It is quite a notchy change - especially when cold - and very short movements flick between the cogs. The clutch is quite heavy, but smooth and progressive.
Steering / handling. I don't really have the right vocabulary to describe this, but if i were to pick two words they would be 'precise' and 'balanced'. In some ways it reminded me of the 993, but in truth the Spyder is in another league now. Porsche has moved the game on considerably since the mid 90's. No surprise really, given there evolutionary approach they seem to take.
Shame these cars are north of 50k :what:
I borrowed the local OPC's Spyder for an hour and a half this morning.
Here are my impressions, in no particular order:
Interior comfort and driving position: Excellent. The seats are perfect and everything is just where you want it to be. This one was quite specced up, so i had sound, nav and climate to play with. I turned the radio off though, as the car had the PSE... My only gripe was the roof was not well fitted on the drivers side (a slight lack of tension, compared to the passenger side). The resultant wind noise and ingress was unacceptable at 70mph. I imagine it just needs adjustment or refitting as thr passenger side did not display this problem at all... Rear visibility is pretty poor, btw - probably because of the letter-box rear window and lower roof line.
Ride quality: Quite firm, but never crashy or jarring. I took the car over a couple of areas which have a very rutted and broken surface and it is quite amzing how comfortable the car remained - the dampers just seemed to soak everything up.
Chassis - very stiff. I was expecting some flex, given there is no roof, but there was none that i could detect. I imagine this is partly why the car rides so well over bumps, as it is just the suspension that is doing the work.
Engine / exhaust / gearbox: Spins up nicely with a lovely howl coming through at high rpm. The car had the short shift gear lever, which needs a good amount of time to warm up before it is easy to use. It is quite a notchy change - especially when cold - and very short movements flick between the cogs. The clutch is quite heavy, but smooth and progressive.
Steering / handling. I don't really have the right vocabulary to describe this, but if i were to pick two words they would be 'precise' and 'balanced'. In some ways it reminded me of the 993, but in truth the Spyder is in another league now. Porsche has moved the game on considerably since the mid 90's. No surprise really, given there evolutionary approach they seem to take.
Shame these cars are north of 50k :what:
