cgomez

I'm looking into a 997 S as an all year round daily driver.
Can I get away driving through the NE winter in a C2S (with Winter tires obviously)?
Is there enough traction to get to ski slopes in Vermont for the ocasional trip (usually we just go in my wife's Cayenne S, but sometimes I go alone with one of my kids).?

Or do I have to have a C4S?

I love the purity of RWD, but have read very good things about the C4S and the little loss on performance and feedback over the C2S.

BTW, driver skill is good so I'm not concerned about what's safer but what's reasonably posible

Riad

You could definitely drive a C2 with snow tires on during the winter months. If I were planning on hitting ski slopes in Vermont I would rather have a C4S, that 5-40% front wheel drive can really make a difference on hills with snow.

jumper5836

The C2 with good winter tires will handle as good or better then any other 2 wheel drive car out there.

Vancouver83LTD

Have you ever driven a RWD car in snow?
Same thing. Porsches are special cars - just not special in that way.
Having said that AWD will have more grip of course, it's just not necessary

icruze

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-forum/233019-selling-my-06-997s-to-get-c4.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-forum/231813-winter-traction-c4-vs-c2-on-winter-tires.html

docjackson1

i have driven and own(ed) rwd and awd porsches, which i have driven with winter tires. although the rwd car will work, the awd is much better, especially up long snowy hills, as said by riad.

cgomez

Yes, every single car RWD I've owned has seen winter tires and snow. I currently drive around in my Lotus Elise with Winter tires and notice that the midengine setup provides better grip than in my E46 M3 for example, so the Rear engined 997. My only concern is the lack of LSD (aka 1-wheel-drive), but I pressume the ABD system should help a bit.
The ski trip would 2-3 times a year tops, but my driveway does have a heavy incline (>10%).
With respect to Winter tires, can you fit 17" wheels on the 997 to lower the cost?

jcf7

Maybe its me....but I've never been able to drive rear wheel cars in the snow, inlcuding the 997. A few weeks after I bought it I got caught in a winter storm from New York to Connecticut. When the traffic stopped on a banked part of the highway, I was stuck everytime and needed someone to get out of their car and push me up. On the last part of the leg, the 997 lost its legs at a very slow speed, spun around, and ended up on the side of the road stuck in a snow bank, from which only a wench would get me out. Dependable road side kept me waiting 4 hours.

Having said all that, I won't drive the 997 in the snow. Again, maybe its me and my lack of driving skills.

Texas993

Carlos,

I you had the summer performance tires on the car, your experience is not surprising. Those tires get very hard when cold and provide no grip at all. Winter tires would change everything.

Many Cayennes wound up in the ditch during snow because the owners did not change to winter tires. AWD made no difference.

Riad

I have 17" rims with dunlop winter m2's on my C4S. You need spacers, I use 6mm front and 25mm rear but the snow performance is awesome.

cgomez

Fully agree. I also have a Cayenne S for my wife, and since that car doesn't see any "track-time" I have All-season tires on it and makes a big difference in the snow. Proper winters would still be better, but I see no benefit on having dedicated summer tires and wheels on it as handling and grip is sufficient on the all-seasons for just family hauling.

On my M3 with summer tires on it in the snow, sometimes it was just impossible to have it drive up the street camber after being kerb-side parked. With Winter tires, I had no problems other than with long inclined hills if you lost momentum.

Vancouver83LTD

I would imagine you would need spacers....

alin2

I have a set of 18" Carerra III wheels with the new Contiwintercontact 810S winter tires on my 997. It is a complete blast to drive it in the snow. Highly recommended. It's the set of wheels/tires on my avatar as I took delivery last January.

Le Chef

No problem yesterday in the snow. Winter wheels and tires do just fine. I went back and forth about speccing my new Cab with awd or rwd. In the end I had more reasons to prefer rwd even in bad weather.

Riad

To me, there was much more of a reason to go 996 C4S than 996 C4. The styling, design and standard features made the car much more attractive whether you were using it in the winter or not. I'm unsure if I would get the 997C4S over the 997S.

jmtc,
Rob