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Old 02-19-2019, 10:20 PM
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soulsea
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Default 991 Musings and Meanderings

I like cars.

Over the last three years, through fortune and circumstance, I have been able to own several variations of 991 911s, and so I thought I’d post my personal impressions on what it is like to drive them and how they compare to each other. I realize that others have expressed similar perspectives on these cars, but perhaps there is value in someone who’s owned all of them comparing them to each other. This is by no means an ‘ego’ thread, other than posting on forums of cars that I own in order to acquire and share information I have no social media accounts and tend to be a very private person, so this certainly isn’t about me bragging about processions, it is just a record of my impressions which forum members can consider or discard at their leisure. I do this thread mostly so all the people who have been messaging me for different comparisons stop doing it, and partly because I'm getting old and mushy brained and it's nice to park these thoughts somewhere where I can retrieve them at a later date.

A few caveats:

1. There’s nothing in my driving resume that gives my opinions any authority or validity over others’.

2. Yes, as a person without any appreciation (or that much regard) for Porsche heritage and no brand identification/tribalism, I am the entire problem with the Porsche GT car situation (and most other human suffering) over the last few years. I did not pass any test of knowledge, character, or skill, that should qualify one to get one of these cars and therefore I am the sole reason ‘real’ Porsche GT car fans can’t get cars at 20% under msrp.

3. These are my own opinions derived from my own ownership experiences. If I express a negative opinion about an element of some car it is not meant as a personal insult to whomever may own and love the same car. If you identify so much with an inanimate object that an affront to the object becomes a personal affront to you, that is a ‘you’ issue.

4. Although I suffer from clinical vehicular ADD, I am not a flipper, or, if I am, I am a terrible one. Of all the cars in this thread I did not make a penny on any of them, a couple I broke even and the rest I lost monies, albeit not that many monies … paid adm on one, paid market value on a couple of used ones, paid msrp on a few, and paid under sticker for a couple more.

5. None of these were terrible cars, what I’m comparing here are vehicles that start at 7/10 as a floor, so this is a comparison in levels of awesomeness.

Anyhow …

In chronological order:


2015 Turbo S:







This was my first Porsche ever, and to this day the only one I ever regret selling as it is still my all around favorite … not the best of the bunch, just the one I enjoyed the most. Not because it did anything amazingly well, but because it did everything exceptionally well. I did put an AWE Tuning exhaust on it which sounded great, and I did put in Techart springs on it for better track handling.

I have to say track performance was the greatest surprise with this car. I always knew it was one of the best touring sports cars in the world, but it showed itself to be equally awesome on track. At every HPDE I was a lot faster than 991.1 GT3 cars in the same run groups … now granted, the 991.1 GT3 was a bit underwhelming in its overall performance (for a GT car). Although a reasonable incremental improvement over the 997.2 GT3, it was not in line with its contemporary competitors. But the TTS managed to keet up with GT3RSs in the same events. Now to be fair, I am nowhere near good enough of a driver to extract the best out of a 991.1 GT3RS, in the hands of good drivers the 3RS would be much faster around most if not all tracks than a 991.1 TTS … but this is where the TTS makes a huge difference. In the hands of the average track driver, the TTS is A LOT easier to be fast in than a .1 3RS. The 3RS requires skill to extract its performance potential, the TTS is a ‘point and shoot’ car. You can fumble your way around the track with marginal skill and be amazingly fast, the AWD and handling systems are phenomenal … you almost have to go out of your way to get yourself in trouble in that car, them German nannies just won’t let you do it. In fact you have to be careful to stick the to correct lines and not get into bad habits when tracking it, lest you try the same things in other cars and run out of skill substituting technology.

On the street the car was a pleasure to drive, if I hadn’t lowered it it could easily be a daily driver, and it’s mood recalibrating abilities are phenomenal, for there’s few frowns that five or six launches won’t turn upside down.

TLDR: Simply a fantastic vehicle to own and have fun with.



2016 GT3RS:





There’s an expression that states: ’expectations are the building blocks of disappointment’ … never was this more true than in regards to my ownership experience with this car, and for the most part is was my fault because it was based on my own lack of understanding of what I was getting.

Still riding high off of my TTS experience (owning both concurrently for a short time), and swept up by in 911 hype and fever of 2016, it seemed the natural thing to do to go for what at the time was the peak of 911 performance. Friend of mine was selling his with about 1600 miles on it so I jumped at it.

After driving the car a few times I was confused, disappointed, and left to wonder what the big deal was with this car and/or what was I missing that made me not get it. Sure it sounded good, and it was kind of fast, but really wasn’t that fast, or at least it didn’t seem very fast to me. This was the moment of the recognition of my own ignorance that these cars thrive at very high RPMs, so high that it is practically impossible to live at those rpm levels in public road conditions. Trying to stay around 6k RPM in 1/2/3 gear on public roads is clunky and not very joyful, and regular driving just felt labored and relatively slow, especially compared too the TTS. I was always a gear too low trying to keep the RPMs high ... ugh, I didn't like it.

As it turned out, when staring at my garage ready to go for a fun drive I picked up the TTS keys 8/10 times. For my driving sensibilities it became obvious that the 991.1 GT3RS was a car that I would only enjoy on track and would love looking at, but I was never going to enjoy on public roads. By that time however I had focused my track experiences in manufacturer driving schools to qualify for my SCCA license and in renting seat time in a fully caged cup car, so in the end I never took the 3RS (and any other subsequent personal vehicles) to the track to this day, so I never got to experience what it was built for, and with prices beginning to drop and other cars on the way, the car was sold with its potential unfulfilled.

No regrets, just a good lesson learned.

2017 GTS Cab:



So I had just sold the TTS and 3RS and was waiting to take delivery of an AMG GTR. The GTR kept getting delayed, first for production, then at port for emissions reasons. One day in the spring of 17 I walked into my local Porsche dealer and saw the 991.2 GTS sitting there. They gave me a killer deal on it and drove it out on the spot to have until the AMG got here.

I expected very little from this car and it lived up to expectations, delivering very little. It’s certainly fast, sounds acceptable, is comfy, and has nice dynamics. I don’t know what the NA .1 GTS was like but the 991.2 felt very much like a heavily toned down version of the 991.1 TTS, as in same principle but less of everything. Keeping in mind caveat 4, it was the most forgettable and my least favorite car of the bunch. That said, do keep in mind that by this time I am a jaded asshat, I’m sure I might have interpreted it differently if it were my first 911. The one very useful lesson in that car for me was that it completely extinguished the desire for a Targa or any other 911 with that particular engine, no matter how pretty the livery around it may be.

Useful hint for anyone considering a GTS Cab: Hot and humid and unventilated Alcantara seats on a convertible are an unfortunate combination, so if you go vert and live in the South, avoid the GTS package at all costs, your *****/vagina will thank you.


2016 911R:



As so many have noted this is a very special car. I bought it to drive it whilst I was waiting for my GT2RS to be built, and also because I had a GT3 manual that was about to be delivered and I wanted to know for myself what the different experience between the two cars was. They are different, very different. Maybe not to someone who’s not dorking out on different 911 versions, but to me they were like different cars.

Keep in mind that I was one of those people that didn’t get this car when it got announced. Why anyone would pay ridiculous amounts over stickler for a manual parts bin 3RS with some stripes was incomprehensible. It seemed like the height of Porsche hubris to throw a number tag at something because that’s all the parts they had left over, and market that as limited.

Well, through either luck or design, the parts that were in said bin combined to make for an extraordinary car. Kind of like if a great chef went into their fridge and pantry after not shopping for a week, threw what was in there in a pot, and what came out was the best meal ever.

The 991.1 3RS motor which I disliked so much in the 3RS came to life with the R manual transmission, the suspension perfectly balanced for performance street driving, and the SMF is the key ingredient to the stew. No there’s no such thing as fairy dust, yes the car does dance when you drive it. It does so because it is the optimal mix of all the best ingredients of the 991 NA GT generation, and as such is in my opinion the best 991 iteration of all (GT2RS opinion pending).



2018 GT3 (manual):



This is fantastic car in the manual, as long as one gets the R comparison obsession out of their head. As stated above they are not the same car and they are not designed to perform the same tasks. I don’t want my GT3 to be playful or ’dance’ if I want to track it, I want it to feel rigid and glued to the road … the 991.2 GT3 does that. It is fast, feels faster than the 991.1 3RS even with the manual tranny. The transmission is perfect, the engine sings, the handling is stiff and what one would want, I can find no fault with this car.

I would have kept it longer were it not for the fact that I got myself in an allocation spiral and kept handing keys of one car for another in ridiculously small time spans. The temptation of getting to drive these cars for ‘free’ was too much to pass for a while, but that lesson has been learned as well. Behind me are the times of buying things I don’t really want because they hold value and behind me are the times of selling something I want to keep because I can get my money back. I’m committed to buying and keeping only the things that give me pleasure no matter the financial implications … within reason, I’m not buying a 720s new no matter how much I like them.

Anyhoot, I think the 991.2 GT3 is the sweet spot of value and performance derived happiness in the whole 991 generation. If you told me you have $200k to buy one car and keep it for the rest of your life I’d buy a manual one with sofa seats and never look back. I imagine if I had chosen the Touring with sofas it might have surpassed the TTS as the best all rounder.



2019 GT3RS:



The best thing I can say about this car is that it looks stunning in person and was a great improvement over the 991.1 3RS. It’s not in the numbers, it’s in the fact that this engine is slightly more usable at lower revs, making it more enjoyable and easier to extract speed from in street driving. The PDK also feels a little more compliant and less violent vs its .1 counterpart. It is still massively weighted towards track driving. Honestly I’m going to keep it short here because my opinion really isn’t apt … both 3RS 991 cars should be spoken about by those who track them.


2018 GT2RS (current one):





I can’t tell you too much about it yet. It only got here a few days ago and went in for PPF today, and I have been very hesitant to get out there without film, especially having heard how hard PTS paint is to match … so I will have further thoughts on it further down the line. From the little I have driven it it is an epic car in every respect. Having gone through the 911 model range my sense is that it reconciles all that is best about this generation of 911 cars … ie an uncompromising livery that has all the best attributes of the TTS and all the best attributes of the GT3RS. Insane power everywhere on the rpm range and true track manners. I cannot think of a single element of a supercar one would desire that this car wouldn’t deliver on. Again, I’ll have more later, but that’s where I am with it now.

Ranking them (personal preference):

I won’t include the 2RS as I haven’t had enough seat time to warrant a qualified opinion.

1. 991.1 TTS/911R tie
3. 991.2 GT3 manual
4. 991.2 GT3RS
5. 991.1 GT3RS
6. 991.2 GTS

What 911 is next …

I honestly don’t know. I had been crossing my fingers for a Speedster allocation, but now I am not sure if I would take it if I got one. If from a performance pov it does turn out to reside somewhere between the .2 GT3 and 3RS from mapping and everything else is the same I will likely pass as I’ve been there done that, and if the only selling point is the open top then I’d rather have the new Spyder as that would be a new experience. If they do something unique like they did with the R and offer something akin to an SMF which changes the driving experience then I’d likely take it if offered. We’ll see when they reveal the car, and it might be moot anyway as me getting an allocation is no sure thing by any means. As I noted earlier there is growth in this process … if you told me a year ago I can get a Speedster at msrp I’d have said yes on the spot without knowing anything about it, but not any more.

I’m trying to be open minded about the 992. I’m not crazy about what I’ve seen in pictures but I’ll reserve my opinion until I see them in person. Honestly my sensibilities are trending in the opposite direction … I’m currently getting a 3.8 73 RSR backdate built, and I’m more excited at the prospect of that car and its rawness than anything in the Porsche or other brand pipeline, other maybe than a GT Black Series. That’s not to say that I won’t buy a 992 but I’m trying to stay as analog as possible until they take all that away from us.

In closing …

Seven cars in three years has been a fun and exciting 991 ride, as I said at the start all of these cars made me happy to varying degrees and that’s why I kept coming back to this brand and model. Hard to believe that one chassis can provide such a variation of driving experiences, each suited to different desires and budgets. At the same time I have owned and considered owning cars from other brands, some were amazing others not so much, but none of them were as precise in their engineering and finish as the 991s were. After my first one I was always confident I was going to get a fantastic car in my next one, even if I had never driven that model before, and that confidence I’m sure is partly at the root of why customers keep coming back to this brand and develop such an affection for it.

Thanks for reading.
Old 02-19-2019, 10:48 PM
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mdrums
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I’ve been owning Porsche’s since 2001....you’ve had some outstanding cars for sure....much more cool cars than me. Thanks,for sharing your thoughts on them.
Old 02-19-2019, 10:58 PM
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Barfly
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They may look similar to the uninitiated, but to the conniseier they are very different machines. Enjoy continued tasting in good health!
Old 02-19-2019, 11:00 PM
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tgibrit
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thanks for posting your thoughts, interesting read.
Old 02-19-2019, 11:01 PM
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tonymission
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Entertaining read, thanks for sharing!

Saw a 2RS getting wrapped at Clearfilm yesterday that looks almost like yours (maybe it's yours?). My photo seems like it has the lighter colored wheels though. Amazing spec either way!
Old 02-19-2019, 11:04 PM
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ipse dixit
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Great write up.

Thank you for sharing.
Old 02-19-2019, 11:10 PM
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localmotion411
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Who’s doing your backdate for you?
Old 02-19-2019, 11:13 PM
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soulsea
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Originally Posted by localmotion411
Who’s doing your backdate for you?
Dan Jacobs and Automobile Associates of Canton.
Old 02-19-2019, 11:23 PM
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TRAKCAR
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Likes cars, loves writing, needs track days and a bigger garage.
You summed it up nicely. Look forward to see the backdate
Old 02-20-2019, 12:03 AM
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evilfij
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Great feedback. Thanks. If you want to talk about polarizing, wait until you get your aircooled.
Old 02-20-2019, 12:54 AM
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Thx for sharing. I have a specific question for you. Can you please compare the clutch in the 911R vs the .2 GT3? Would you say it's about the same, or one is better?

Thx
Old 02-20-2019, 01:57 AM
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BlazinPond
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Great read and summary. Thanks
Old 02-20-2019, 02:42 AM
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Great writing... Grazie !!!
Old 02-20-2019, 03:27 AM
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s4corrado996tt
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Thx for your great write up!
Old 02-20-2019, 07:58 AM
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Fun read. Thanks. I hope you enjoy the heck out of the 2RS. I bet you do.


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