Should We Evaluate a Porsche on More Than Lap Times and Other Performance Metrics?
There is lot of focus on performance metrics that most owners will never achieve. Have cars become too fast for the numbers to matter?
I grew up obsessing over sportscars and their performance metrics. Most of you likely grew up the same way. I remember being so impressed that the 944 Turbo could hit 60 mph in 5.5 seconds. If a car could get into the 4-second range that was mind blowing. Each year cars would get quicker and faster. I loved it. But now in 2022 I am beginning to wonder. Have things gone far enough? The modern Porsche lineup is replete with cars that have performance metrics ranging from outstanding to practically unbelievable. With the GT4 RS released and the GT3 RS coming soon, I am starting to question why we are fixating over and paying crazy premiums for cars that are so fast and so competent on a racetrack that most buyers will never approach their potential.
Don’t get me wrong here, I get the appeal of fast cars. I have a modified 911 Turbo S myself. However, unlike years ago when a 4-second to 60 and 11-second quarter mile car was fast we have cars today in the low 2-second to 60 range and can do the quarter in the 9-second range. And this is not just Porsche. There are many cars for sale today that have these sort of performance metrics. A car will never be able to go from 0 to 60 in zero seconds. So how quick is quick enough? When I launch my car, it is already enough to make my girlfriend feel nauseous. At what point do we just say hey all cars are fast, and let’s focus maybe on feel or the driving experience?
Slow Car Fast or Fast Car Slow
The point of a sportscar is to have FUN. Is having a car with the quickest Nürburgring lap time always the most fun? There is the well-known saying that it is more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. I have my own version of that saying. It is more fun to drive a streetcar on the track than a racecar on the street. The GT3 RS and GT4 RS are basically racecars. Minus all the safety equipment you would want in an actual racecar. But most people will not race these cars. Maybe they will do some track days but that is not racing. Tenths of seconds on a HPDE day don’t matter at all. As an HPDE instructor I have driven all sorts of cars on track. I NEVER had a bad time.
Every single car I have been in on a track has given me a thrill. You don’t need something with RS on the trunk to have a blast. In fact, you probably have more fun in the slower cars. You are wringing out more of the potential. Most of us, myself included, can’t approach the limits of something like a GT4 RS or GT3 RS. Or to be honest in even the ‘base’ GT versions. And most of my friends that are racecar drivers race in a spec Boxster or a spec Cayman. Not in $300K+ RS models. Maybe I just need wealthier friends.
Main Street or Main Straight?
As wonderful as the track-oriented models are, most of them will spend 95 percent of their lives in a garage or on the street. The rear wing on the new GT3 RS looks appropriate on the main straight of your local racetrack. However, it looks ridiculous cruising down main street. I understand the appeal of these cars, I really do. And sometimes the appeal of an over-the-top car is just the fact that it is over-the-top. Cars don’t have to make sense, I get that. But nowadays we live in a golden age of sportscars. The performance metrics of even a base Cayman are high enough to entertain just about any driver. And the extra performance of the top models is something that most will never tap into anyway. So, do we really care if it can lap the Nürburgring in six and a half minutes?
Potential Versus Reality
As these cars get faster and faster, people are using less and less of the car’s potential. And the cars are getting more and more expensive. And in a way we as buyers are getting less and less. Traffic and road conditions are not getting any better. So, the faster a car is on the track the more potential is left on the table when driving it on the street. Which is where you will be driving the vast majority of the time. So, does it make sense to buy the faster car that you can maybe exploit only a couple track weekends a year? And even at that does the faster car on track give you any additional satisfaction?
Performance Metrics
It has been fun to watch cars get faster and faster over the years. But now that we have so many cars that can hit 60 mph in the 2-second range and lap the Nürburgring under 7 minutes are the newer and fastest cars really worth it? Should we still care at this point what the actual lap times are? A Carrera GT is regarded as one of the best Porsche cars in the last 20 years. A modern Panamera Turbo can lap the ‘ring even faster. So, is the Panamera the better car? The Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT turns a faster lap than a 997 GT3. Is the SUV the better choice? This is where performance metrics get muddy. Faster does not equal better. Give me the Carrera GT and 997 GT3 over the other two any day.
A New Ideal
We will never abolish the performance metrics we know and love. I am just wondering now that we hit this point with so many cars offering so much speed have the performance metrics lost a bit of meaning? When we get to the point where all cars are blindingly fast then what? Do we start to reverse course and lust after the smaller, lighter, and slower cars of days gone past? Maybe. I love my Turbo S and when I want crazy speed it is there for me. But at the moment I am looking to add a base 986 Boxster with a manual transmission for some simple fun. Drop the top and drive the living crap out of it. I won’t get the stares the newer cars get at car shows, but I can tell you these slower cars are just as fun 95 percent of the time for 5 percent of the cost.
Images: Porsche
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