991 GT3 is home - can't stop smiling
 

Picked it up this past Saturday in Socal.

Had to take it to Mulholland Sunday morning. Just awesome!

Here's a couple pics from Mulholland and one with it back home.

Congrats! It looks really nice with the black wheels!
And BTW,is that your garage?! If that's the case,all I can say is WOW!!!
Enjoy!

very nice, really liking the bk. wheels more and more.

Awesome!!

Congrats Chuck and if that is your garage, I want !!!! :thumbup:

:cheers:

Chuck: can you post a few more pics including a side view or 2? Thinking about getting the black wheels myself.

Hey bud... Did you pick it up at the auto gallery? I think our cars might be twins!

Excellent!!!
Congrats!
We need some more feedback of this stellar car.

Yes it was the auto gallery. You got yours there too?


More info... having over 600 miles in the car now, I've ahad some time absorb a bit.

Here are some observations I had posted on 6speed;

Feels like a detuned racecar that has been outfitted with a nice leather interior.

Keep your foot out of it and the car feels pretty normal. A sports car for sure, but docile. I could easily daily drive this.

Open the throttle and wind the revs, it screams. Like a beast lurking just below the surface. Seriously.

The car felt planted, really solid. The faster it went, the more stable it felt. However we did not explore high speed boundaries.

Specifics:

PDK – this was a tough one for me. I really would have ordered the manual if it was available. However having driven it, I think the PDK might be better after all.

With 7 gears, the ratios are pretty tight and the revs don’t drop as much between shifts. That means you shift more often. With 475 HP on tap and the short rev drops, when accelerating the shifts happen in fast succession – one after the other. Bam, bam, bam….. I can’t row the gears that fast.

The PDK sport mode is seriously sport mode. The shift point RPMs are much higher.

Still, more than once my left leg was reaching for the clutch when starting or stopping the car. Then I’d remember, and feel like a bit of sellout.

I’ll reserve final judgement till I get more time in the car.

Regular driving, from a standstill the PDK feels like a manual – even a little choppy like the clutch is not being engaged real smooth. At speed it’s like butter.

My son’s comment; “this car feels really mechanical”. Astute for 6 yo. He’s right.

Sport exhaust – great sound. Gutteral and deep. Even with the sport activated it seems no louder under light throttle. You could leave it in sport all the time. But open it up and it really screams with sport on. The sound is awesome.

Road noise – can be considerable. Varied a great deal based on road surface. Under light throttle the tire noise was louder than the engine. On some surfaces it was considerable. The cabin is not a quiet place. Nowhere near racecar loud, but not quiet. I think high-end audio gear would be somewhat pointless – unless you play your music ear-bleed loud.


Seats – I have the 4 way power. I could use more lumbar support and tighter side bolsters.

I would prefer a shell, perhaps recaro pole positions.

Entrance and egress is mildly sporting. It's nothing like climbing over a cage, but you really sit low in the car and you slide down into it.

Seatbelts – felt inadequate. I want harnesses in this car.

PASM – two position – regular and sport. Honestly I had a hard time telling the difference. The effect is small.

Rear wheel steering – really didn’t notice anything unusual when driving. There was no discernable transition between low speed opposite-steer and high speed same-steer.

PDCC – The system was really in the background. You are not aware of its functioning, it just does its job. The car cornered extremely flat, yet seemingly without using outrageous spring rates.

Tire wear – we shall see. I noticed an odor when getting out of the car that smells like tires. I know what you are thinking, but no this was not after hard driving. I’ve seen this in previous generations and it was accelerated tire wear despite proper alignment.

I wonder about the rear wheel steering and how that will play into tire wear.

Suspension members – this car share the same suspension members with the RSR cup racecars. It is not the same as the regular 991. Almost all the members are different. I will provide details on this later later.

Some new observations;

Not to rain on it while we are all loving these new cars, but there are couple things.

Considerable smoke on startup after sitting overnight. I've been driving 911s for a long time, so I am plenty familiar with the puff of smoke on startup. But this seems like a lot, especially for a new car. Perhaps as the break-in completes it will settle down.


Pulling away from a stop with gentle acceleration, the trans is noisy. Sounds like some bolts rattling in a can.

Absolutely beautiful car, Chuck and you make some great observations. Your point about the beast beneath the surface is absolutely spot on; I've described it that way to several friends. :thumbup: I agree with nearly all of your comments (I haven't noticed smoke on start-up yet). Maybe you got an acronym confused, though: the GT3 doesn't have PDCC...

Wow, white so sweet. Congrtas, it's a beauty.

While it does get to be acronym soup.... I thought the GT3 was so equipped, but perhaps mistaken. I haven't been under the car yet to see.

Maybe that's why it's so transparent, like it's not even there :thumbup:

Awesome! Congrats and thanks for the writeup..

FWIW, I feel even the 991 S has this dual nature. Docile and even somewhat boring at normal road speeds, a beast when wound up. Sounds like the GT3 is similar, except on major steroids.

That said, have any of you guys compared the 991 GT3 with the 997 or prior 911s, ideally back to back, and if so, how does the subjective experience compare at normal road speeds - which is more fun and why?