Oshin11

Ok so I was going to sell my 87 911 to get a 996 or 997. I test drove the 997 yesterday and I will say that it puts the 996 to shame. HOWEVER, I will say that 996s and 997s just feel like toys. This may be because they have 100+ horsepower on my 911 and pull a lot harder but to be plain and simple, they dont feel manly I love my 911 and now I see what people have been saying for years. Granted when I test drove it I could make 90 degree turns going 60 and the car would hug like a little kid who hasnt seen his mommy in days but still, I prefer the 911. It just feels so raw!

Mike Murphy

It's funny, because Porsche spent many, many years trying to make the 911 more civil, comfortable, practical and faster. The truth is, my grandma can drive a 997, and probably smoke me in my 88, but she sure can't drive my 88 Carrera. That's just the thing about these newer cars. Same with Ferrari and the Vette.

2002M3Drew

I always feel manly when a GT3 sucks the paint off my 911SC as it flies on by in a DE!

J/K...I know what you mean (and I know you meant base cars.) The old cars are special, and you work for everything. Something very cool about the honesty of an older 911. The newer cars are much more capable, but almost boring in many ways. I may buy on eventually when a get tired of getting smoked by the faster machinery with less capable drivers...

Zed.

Get one of each. then you wont need to decide which is better, only the one you are driving at the time. Each is unique.

Oshin11

I am only 22, I dont have the luxury of owning two Porsches. I barely have the luxury of owning a 997 haha.

bjzorn

Test drive a 993 There are more modern then a your 87 but they stil feel raw, compared to the 996's and 997's. I have driven pretty much every model of Porsche out there and the 993's are my favorite post 73 911's

Brandon J

JackOlsen

I got to drive a brand-new 997TT on the track on Wednesday. I can say without any hesitation that it is a pretty darn manly car.

bgiere

That is what the magazines said when the 911 came out to replace the 356......The more things change, the more they stay the same....back then the 356 was raw and the "new" 911 was civil and easy to drive.

Mike Murphy

Car & Drivers said of the 997TT: the car is awesome, but it's "missing something," although they could not pinpoint what it was that was missing.

JackOlsen

Two things are missing: one is that the power delivery is so linear that its acceleration feels a lot less dramatic than the earlier air-cooled Turbos (instead of the old 'nothing-nothing-nothing-SOMETHING!, it's more like the sensation of taking off in a passenger jet), the other is that it's relatively easy to catch when it breaks loose, which might make it feel less 'edgy and dangerous' to a test driver.

To me, the downsides are also twofold, but they're different: one, it's so expensive that you can't really drive it with abandon unless you're some kind of software billionaire. Two is that it's heavy -- a lot about its suspension design and power delivery masks the weight, but you can feel it there under hard braking.

My own car is the complete opposite (no power nothin', crazy-sexy-primitive suspension and weight distribution), but they're both fun cars to drive. If I were a software billionaire, I might put one of those newfangled models next to my old girl.

Here's a shot of two cars I had a hard time keeping up with in my Home-Depot bedecked street car: A GT2 and a GT3, both with very good drivers. The new cars may lack some of the soul and the charisma of the air-cooled models, but that doesn't mean they aren't really fast.

Mike Murphy

You're right, they are extremely fast. Just have a look at the Nurburgring numbers

Giantviper

You cannot compare a 997 to a 3.2 Carrera. In my opinion they are completly diffrent cars the 3.2 911 is a sports car and the 997 is a GT car more like a new 928. really you need to compare the 911 3.2 to the 997 GT3 which is what is the equivelant to the old 911. The GT3 has the raw power tourque and race car type feel like the old 911's from the 80s and earlier.

The way I look at it is the GT3 is for the real porsche enthusiasts that want toe feel of a race car on the street (what the 911 3.2 was in the 80s) and is the real update of the 3.2, Heck it uses the same basic engine block just with water cooled heads. The 997 is the comfortable and very fast car for someone that wants to be able to drive their car every day and say they drive a 911.

If everyone was an enthusiast all 911's would be GT3's (and no one would put a Nav system in a 911)

just my 2 cents.

Mike Murphy

Yeah, but how much do those GT3's cost? I don't recall the 3.2 costing an arm & a leg back in 1988.

ked

an '88 3.2 TL Coupe probably listed around $60K, near price-equivalent of a current 997.