.2 manual T review after 70 miles
 

I've driven the new touring car approx 70 miles so far - planning on another 100 or so today.

A couple things concern me -

1. - The clutch is very light. I'm used to 2010/2011 GT cars - which felt solid, and exact. The feels more like a boxster clutch - very light, very unsure. I would expect this feel from a honda, or some 4 cyl car.

2. - The shifter has lost a lot of the "notchy / exact " feel that I love so much.. It feels loose, and almost a touch sloppy. Definitely not what I expected. Twice already on the 4-5 shift, I've come close to going into 3rd on accident. I caught it - but still - totally different feel than older Mezger cars.

3 - Engine feels great- tons of torque, very responsive, just wants to go. Love it!

4 - Sound - needs some work here. Will probably call Alex up and get the SW, but wanted to try stock for a few miles just for curiosity.

5- fit / finish - as always very impressed. Only one minor thing I can say - is I'm getting a bit of rattling / buzzing noise from something in the interior. It's not a big deal, and I've had that on many previous cars as well. Overall pretty impressed.

Headed out for some driving today - beautiful 45 degrees and sunny.

That's the first thing I said to my SA - wow this clutch is light, lighter than my Spyder.

I'd say give the gearbox some time to settle in.

Pics or it didn't happen! :) Look forward to your full review

Agree on the 4th to 5th comments. Even after 1,200 kms I still have to stop and think about the shift so that I don't accidentally grab 3rd which I have almost done on a couple of occasions.

Did Porsche alter the shifter/gearbox for the 991.2 from the 911R? Excluding the SMFW option in the 911R, things should be the same unless I didn't get the Porsche memo.

Have you heard any any pinging from the engine when you get into the gas a bit (not to the floor)? Mine has had brief pinging under these conditions (always under 4000 RPM). I'm sure a big part of it is California's 91 octane. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this. A tech at my dealer said it was normal. I will investigate further when I get my car back.

Many of us I bet have experienced this with other brands, usually within the first few months if the reports keep coming in to justify it someone will market a stiffer spring.

Sorry, but I can't help but provide a racer's perspective to the old GT3 where popular opinion holds the clutch and shifter in such high regard. I fall on the opposite side of that popular opinion.

A heavy clutch is not equal to high performance. I hated the stiff clutch in my old 997.2 GT3- TEHO, but I think a stiff clutch is a poor design: as long as the take up is as fast as you can lift your leg, why make it overly stiff? I've not tried this generation, but most feel its a good improvement. The clutch on both new and old GT3's are hydraulic assisted, just the 997 GT3 it is way too stiff, again IMHO.

Shift mechanism is a POS on the 997.2 GT3 so if you think it's worse than that, I for sure will be disappointed. When I say POS, I mean at 10/10ths your chance of a miss-shift are high due to the flexing of the engine, transmission relative to the shifter when cornering. Yes, if you never pushed it, it felt really precise, but that hides a terrible imprecision at full speed on the track. So if you are seeing imprecision at normal speeds, that doesn't bode well for high speed driving.

Good!

Not yet - but will watch out for it going forward.