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Test Drive Today

FDXmiguel

Member
Joined
18 Sep 2011
Messages
11
Hey everyone. TD'ing a CS in a couple of Hours. Anyone interested in first impressions (coming from a 997 owner).
 
back

:) :) :) Just back from the TD (CS 2 w/ PDK and SPORT CHRONO). Was completely blown away by the pull power when I switched on SPORT PLUS, felt just like a wild horse. Only 2 negatives were Bose (sounded muffled and certainly didnt seem 500w) and I expected a bit more headroom for my kid on the back (there is more leg room in the back but I wasnt impressed by the headroom). Sport design wheel very cool and you can really feel the car coasting in 7th gear. The quality of the materials is just superb and that sound OMGG!!!! :D :D :D When I turned the key I heard the most amazing bang (no sports exhaust) and I felt like there was a lot of improvement in tyre noise overall. cant wait to buy one !!!!!!!!!!
 
... you will have to wait a while if you want a car with the sun roof delete option ... :floor:
 
Thanks for posting.

Glad I ordered with Burmester...car that special requires something special :)
Also, I've noticed when I sat in the back seat it was very short, although not bothered as I'll be firmly in the driver seat.
 
Thanks. Any comments on the steering feel?
 
hey

Very similar to the other review of someone who tested the 911 yesterday. Compared to my 997 felt like traction and grip were much better, slingshot acceleration and the new PDK is much more clever. I felt like this was more of an everyday sports car which I loved, wish I would drive down a racetrack every day to get to work but I unfortunately dont. Maybe there is a lack in steering feel but I really felt like the steering was much more accurate no under or oversteer which was quite impressive - I dont tink anyone would be able to drive the future turbo with all its power with the 997 steering to be honest.
 
sld82 said:
Thanks. Any comments on the steering feel?

http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=69393

http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=68815

And from the "other forum":

Manks said:
I have today taken delivery of a shiny new Porsche 991 Carrera S PDK, and over Christmas I am looking forward to finding out how to drive it properly and discovering what the car is like to live with. Unfortunately, however, when I have done that it will be about time to give it back, because the car on my drive isn't the one I ordered months ago, paid a deposit on and specced before just about anyone else. No, THAT car Porsche has for some reason decided not to build until sometime next year and they won't tell anyone why. I have asked of course but the official response so far is 'it's none of your business".

Now, that is a response I'd consider poor if I'd ordered a forty quid food processor from Argos, but when we are talking about a sports car costing about the same as a small house it's dismal. My initial reaction was, as you might expect, to cancel the order but OPC Nottingham has bent over backwards to keep me in the deal and compensate for the lamentable disconnect between the hyperbole of Porsche's marketing brochures and the reality of its attitude towards customers.

So anyway, Nottingham has generously lent me one of its cars for a couple of weeks and I plan to use the Christmas break to try it in as many situations as practical. Though not in the snow I hope.

As the title of this post suggests I consider myself to be a duffer and hence my opinion of the car is borne of my enjoyment of driving and love of nice cars, equally my complete disinterest in marketing guff, technical specifications and three and four-letter abbreviations (PDCC & PTV – WTF?).

My first impression of the car as I drove the salesman back to the showroom was that driven like a runabout it is quite happy and gives no impression that it is actually a very fast sports car. Only when I reached a stretch of dual carriageway and decided to press on a bit did the throaty growl of the sports exhaust kick in and betray exactly what it was. Noticeable too was how comfortable the car is when compared to previous 911s.

Once I was on my own in the car I was able to fiddle about with a few things and try to figure out how they work. I haven't the slightest idea what options the car has on it other than sports exhaust and sports chrono and I think an hour or so with the manual will pay dividends. I do know, though, that it hasn't got DAB radio and it isn't available as an option either which is daft, frankly.

I am pleased to report that this car has the PDK buttons (not paddles) and they seem excellent to me. I am quite aware of course that this marks me out as an amateur and not one of the cognoscenti.

I would say that the 991 is immediately completely different from the 997. Yes, it is clearly from the same stable but the 991 is vastly more sophisticated, refined and technical.

Which brings me on to the steering. The one or two reviews of the car I could be bothered to read described the feeling as numb and I can see why they say that. Initially, I thought it was fine. No better than the 997, no worse, just different. Then I thought it was better because it is so immediate and it has little free play. But on a couple of occasions I took a corner and it didn't behave as I was expecting. In fact I got a slightly seasick sensation when I anticipated 997 feedback that never came. Time will tell whether I get used to it.

Whilst I haven't had an answer from Porsche as to why my car has been delayed there is a rumour that it's because I elected not to have a sunroof. The demo car has one and, unless there is something very clever about the roof that is beyond me, I am very glad I haven't ordered one. It's a slightly curious arrangement whereby a big slab of roof slides back to reveal a not very big sunroof hole and it sort of sits there at the back of the car like a slipped wig revealing a bald patch. I have a suspicion that Porsche is trying to promote sunroofs by making most early cars with them, I do wonder though whether it might persuade people to order their car without one.

The 991 is undeniably attractive and it deals with the ugly Do-Do arse of the 997. From the front, though, it looks pretty similar to the previous car. As I waited to pay for fuel I looked out the window and without the mirrors on the doors I'd have been hard pressed to tell the 991 from a 997.

The engine and gearbox are wonderful, making the 991 a car that's easy to bimble about in but a snarling racer when a bit too much (or just enough) right boot is applied. It doesn't need a sport button... or a Sport Plus button but when that button is pressed oh... my... Lord. It might as well be labelled 'Rocket Ship Mode". The car takes off and screams up the gearbox with an unimaginable snarl, blipping the throttle on the down shifts. Absolutely incredible.

I need to work out how to stop the car erasing the adjustments I make each time I get it, especially the auto stop-start which I have turned off repeatedly because it's lumpy, annoying and it detracts from the finesse of the experience. Also the driver's seat seems to move fully back each time I get out but not return to my preferred position when I get in again. Somewhere there's a button that will store this information.

Being a duffer I don't tend to analyse cars logically, I tend to get a gut feeling about them. My feeling about the 997 was that it was a logical progression from its predecessors and the lineage from the air cooled cars was apparent. My feeling about the 991 is different. Yes, you can tell it's a 911 but it has moved the game on more than the expected increment. The utter speed of the thing combined with smoothness and its lighting responses to the smallest input makes it slightly less like a sports car and more like some sort of intergalactic fighter craft. There is something about the driving experience that suggests you aren't driving the car as much as piloting it.

Over Christmas I'll be doing some family days out, B-road blasts and a couple of longer journeys so I should have a very good idea of whether my order for a 991 was a wise idea. I have a feeling, though, that when I give Nottingham back their demo in January I will be even more annoyed with Porsche – because the car I've got isn't mine to keep and I'll have to wait at least a couple of months for mine to show up.



Manks said:
Alright then, so today was the first time I saw the car in daylight and I was surprised to note that it has a grey interior, or actually I black / grey 50/50. The car itself is Tedious Silver Metallic which does nothing for it at all and in my opinion anyone ordering this car should specify ABS (Anything But Silver).

P1000546.jpg


Having viewed the car from all angles and in different lights I cannot say that I am unconditionally in love with the new design. It's better than the 997 but there are some gawky features, for example the spoiler lip and rear lights that wouldn't look out of place on a Halloween pumpkin. But then I don't think that there has ever been a Porsche that I didn't feel had a beauty spot somewhere or other – with the possible exception of the 930.

P1000550.jpg


I had a play about with the sunroof today and again found myself wondering what on earth Porsche was thinking. Okay it might technically be excellent but it looks like a collaboration between the hairdressers of Paul Daniels and Donald Trump whose brief was to design a something that looks like it's fallen onto the car from a tree.

P1000541.jpg


My pickiness about the aesthetics aside, I have to admit to being ever so slightly excited about the prospect of driving the 991 again today and as I climbed aboard for the first time I'm sure I had a silly smirk on my face. The feeling I got as I fastened the seatbelt again reinforced my impression that I was about to fly this machine, not drive it. In part I think this feeling comes from the way that the cockpit surrounds the driver and that interfacing with the controls is like becoming part of the system.

Today the car was mostly used for a family trip to a country pub some twenty miles away. The journey included some dual carriageway, some B roads and A roads with sweeping bends. I was surprised and impressed to find that even with the family on board the car behaved almost exactly the same as with just me in it. The performance was still breathtaking and the additional weight almost completely unnoticeable.

P1000554.jpg


This particular car has Porsche Sports Exhaust which I presumed was already switched on. Not so. I found the button today that turns it on and what was already an impressive growl from the engine became more of a bellow. Which got me thinking: Does a car that sounds so good without a sports exhaust actually need the thick end of two grand spending on it to make it sound just a little bit better? Would that money be better spent on something else? PDCC maybe?

But then again the car seems remarkably flat in the corners, so does it really need PDCC? I assume that it hasn't got it but I am not sure. The handover yesterday was quite hurried because the dealership wanted to let me have the car as soon as possible, which suited me just fine for two reasons. Firstly because I wanted use of the car as soon as practical and even if they had done a detailed handover I'd have forgotten most of it almost immediately.

Whilst I have never felt that a Porsche interior was beautiful or intuitive (and still don't) the 991 is the best yet. The build quality is excellent and the switches just a little bit easier to use than on the 997. The ashtray is a bit of a mystery mind you, it will accommodate a carefully folded toffee wrapper at best. Pointless for even the least enthusiastic of smokers.

P1000547.jpg


So how did the car fare on the family outing? Well, the kids loved it and squealed with excitement as the PSE roared. Mrs Manks too liked the more luxurious, spacious feeling of the interior over the 997. It was quite telling that we were all still quite cheerful at the end of the trip whereas in the past I've had complaints from the Manklets about leg room and being uncomfortable. To be clear, though, the back seats of the 991 are still really only suited too occasional use and as a feature to allow a family man to argue that the 911 is such a practical purchase.

P1000553.jpg



P1000538.jpg


Despite the family day out I did manage to conjure up a feeble excuse to go out in the car on my own and ponder what I had learnt, and I think it is this: In this car Porsche has moved the game on and has not been afraid to take some risks: The electronic PAS, the interior plushness and the obvious move to a broader more GT orientated car. There isn't even an engine to look at, just two electric fans.

This car does not appear to be about pandering to purists; it is more about being an incredible means of travelling from point to point in an efficient, fast and quite beguiling manner.
 
Thank you very much for these very informative write-ups! :thumbs:

It seems to me that the new steering is not a "bad" one after all - just different than what most Porsche purists have acclimatised to? Perhaps Audi could glean something from the Porsche engineers (although their mounting of engines far forward seems a likely culprit with their steering woes, to me). However, that is just my armchair speculation.

Sidenote: I still have not seen the new cars in the metal. Porsche were here (Cape Town, South Africa) for the dealer launch event and a friend who works at a ritzy city hotel confimed that there were scores of them around. Still, I feel quite sold on the looks based on what I read and see online :driving:
 

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