NoPaddleShiftFor

Sad to report it is not an isolated incident either. Exact same issues with mine.

Kobalt

Feeling sorry for you guys - not :-)

Good reading CAlexio.

Stockholm996TT

Same with the European cars. Total crap! :-)

CAlexio

Just to add to the terrible situation with this car, road noise from this engine with short ratio gearbox is insane.. I mean, I find it impossible to keep below 4K rpm.. trofeo R's echo like a mother... and dodging the cars with suicidal maniacs with half their body reaching out of the car with a camera isn't easy either.

Yea, all joking aside (I know my tongue in cheek doesn't always translate)... truth is I'm in love. Putting first few hundred miles on my cleaning lady's 911R has been, Like, a teenage wet dream.. has sharkwerks center delete so above 4K it HOWLS! I will say one truthful minor negative... the top end could be a little more sprightly, is that bad?.. was I expecting too much? A little more "vtec" would be fun.. maybe the GT3.2 with the new valvetrain will deliver on this? I mean.. I grade this car a 9.99999... just, wonder if it could have delivered something at 9k rpm?....

if GT3 manual will be anything like this... GGAAAAAAAWWWWWWDDD....

Gassing up and waiting for rain to dissipate.. trofeo's are definitely not good at dealing with savannah thunderstorms.

We have some track time this weekend pitting the R against the P1, 918, 675LT, and SLS Black.. I know already which one is going to be fastest as we already did it once, 918. But which one will be most fun??

BusDriver

CAlexio - hilarious!

Glad you are having fun. Mr R is a very generous man but no cleaning lady!!

Enjoy and look forward to hearing more.

CAlexio

He's my cleaning lady... who talks to the man who pays the cleaning ladies at PCNA, so everything is squeaky clean in my mind right now regarding what's what and who is who...

turbofreeFLAT6

The torque curve would have to be moved further up the rev range. After power peaking at 8,250, by 9k the 991 GT3 is back to where it was at 7k and the R/RS follow the same curve, just higher.

DJM48

Great piece CAexio!

I am still playing in the <5k rpm range. Following AP's recommendations FWIW.

The noise is already brilliant. Am looking forwards to the next 3500!

DM

DJM48

And keeping to <5k is challenging given the short gearing! Another major problem..

CAlexio

Not sure if anyone has posted 911r on trofeo R tires in pouring rain driving impressions yet… But heading out for a track day and will have some hopefully interesting updates later…

Forecast as usual with this car will not be on performance, but on fun factor as compared to McLaren P1, Ferrari 488, 918 spider, and 675 LT at the track today. all these spaceships not withstanding, The only car which in my mind even compares to this beautiful 911 in sheer driving enjoyment, is maybe the GT4 club sport on slicks which will also be part of our rotation today... but that car can't take us to and from the track in pouring rain (or in any weather)… So I would disqualified the clubsport from the comparison anyway.

The dark knight in this whole assessment, will be the 720 S which McLaren is bringing for ride along's today… I've got a feeling the car is going to redefine what an amazing all-around sports car should be like… we shall see.

RealityGT

^Right on! Speed safely,

bronson7

You are one lucky man Alex, to have a chance to get behind some of the cars that you have or will be driving. Enjoy safely.

BusDriver

Trofeo Rs - swapped tires I assume? All 911Rs came with Cup 2s I thought.

BTW, that is quite the cohort of cars...so good that I think that the 488 may struggle to match the experience of the other cars you are driving. Look forward to hearing your impressions.

CAlexio

i think i did a bit of a review somewhere else, so don't want to overpost thread with my comments. I'll keep it short and with pics (best combo hopefully), also take my comments with grain of salt as I'm:
A. not a pro, just a shmo' with some motorcycle and car track work in my past, but less than most here I'm sure.
B. driving someone else's cars so i didn't push them too much (except the P1 which needed some tire raping per owner's request)


911R:
-what a 911 should be, at it's core. really nice engine, not too much sound deadening but still usable, great short ratio gearbox which was a pleasure on a short technical track like AMP, all 2,3,4 shifts. I was wrong, thanks for the correction Busdriver, this one did not have Trofeo R's, but it still slipped all over the place in the rain and morning dampness. Later on the track it felt planted and very confidence inspiring when it got dry as long as i didn't drive above 7-8/10'ths.. brakes were super confidence-inspiring, and i didn't feel weight transfer like for example on 488 which was a pig on track. great front end, really fun car on track, but of course, slower than the other stuff out there today.. the only shortcoming I could say is that the top of the rev-range was underwhelming. It just didn't surge like i expected it to.. i had never noticed this with the RS at the same track.. PDK probably masked this??... but having to shift myself, and being careful not to reach very top of range to stay on safe side.. I was left needing a little more. I hope the gt3 engine fixes this. If I could only have one car forever just for the road, of all the ones there today.. the 911R would have been it, because it would have kept me engaged in looking for more on the track for a long time. Nothing like shifting for yourself.. and i was cheating using rev-match... lots more to uncover there.







Ferrari 488:
A heavy GT car.. very comfortable, very torquey, but soulless, heavy, and probably too powerful for it's chassis on track... maybe even on road. Sitting in the 488 there are some beautiful design details, and having used this car all week as a daily loaner in traffic, an incredibly comfortable sports car.. beautiful details and design, very pretty outside. But to drive?... it's not a sports car i would want. Under braking the weight of the car is evident, in turns on track it just wallows, and while it accelerates very fast.. it tends to spin it's tires when boost comes on at inopportune moments which can be disconcerting. It's a 10 year old 458 aluminum chassis, saddled with even more weight now, and more power which it isn't set up to handle. This is the car i used to train the newbies, keeping it in wet mode so they would focus on the lines. it's not a fun car. Maybe this is a car to buy used once it's depreciated so you can daily drive it.. i did that all week, it's great for commuting in style as a fast GT.. but then.. buy an FF and it will sound better and have more room.











Porsche GT4 club sport:
outside of some F3 cars in driving schools, and my track bikes (which don't count) i had never driven on slicks before. I had an instructor sit next to me, and while I only had maybe 10 laps in it.. I never got below a 1:30 at AMP.. a full 7 seconds slower than my instructors time of 1:23. So, i probably never really warmed the tires, but I had a lot of fun leaning on them. The Porsche PDK is the best in the business in automatic mode (I started out with that) before shifting for myself the last set of laps. I would say that for $170k, this is a great track car, but the lack of power somewhat lets it down at that price in my mind. it's a great car to learn in, or maybe race with if you can afford to.. but i think one would tire quickly of the lack of power and want to upgrade to a gt3 cup or something. I'm sure i left a lot on the table, so again, take my comments with a grain of salt.. they are just an amateur's impressions.






now the good stuff.. I'll start with the silliness...

Mclaren P1:
It's hard to describe this car, for a variety of reasons. it's so fast, that it would probably give different impressions at different tracks, different roads. For example, I drove it this summer for a week on california roads, and thought that the battery weight gave too much pendulum effect in switchbacks on mountain roads. However, getting in it again, on an admittedly technical and tight track like AMP where it should have been handicapped, it was hard not to whoop and yell in my helmet... it's simply ballistic AND insane. The 918 by comparison is just ballistic.. but it's cold like a videogame. The P1 is insane like sitting on an angry bull might be insane... it makes snorting noises at you (IT DOES, NO JOKE).. it whooshes and roars and bellows, then whistles.. the sounds alone are to die for. Then, it has a front end which just GRIPS.. it's incredible, you just trust it like you do the front of an RS.. except maybe even more.. it feels like a race car in turn-in.. then, you all of a sudden remember you have a v8, two turbos, and a hybrid system behind you.. and all that weight wants to keep you turning.. except, you can just nail the gas and it will make these delicious little slides and then straighten you out, and then slingshot you with nausea inducing speed to the next turn. The brakes are incredible, the active suspension and aero invisible but somehow keeping everything together... and like a grinning fool I missed most apexes and just yo-yo'd my way around the track. For reference, front straight at AMP was 130+mph.. you have to start breaking before the start-finish in order to be off the brakes again for the hairpin. it's stupid fun.. just makes you look like a hero when you're a zero. The opportunity to track this car was simply an honor for a gearhead.. especially when we were on older tires and the owner told me to "just go rape it".. i did... and it encouraged me to go harder. ... i'll stop the analogy there lest I offend someone.







this is how i felt driving the P1...















If you ever get the chance to drive a p1 on track.. take the time to put it into race mode.. wait the 30 seconds for it to do it's lowering dance... the prize is a car which handles like something a fraction of it's weight.. and will absolutely blow your mind. I mean that in a very real sense.. you will be left wondering how to describe the experience, and you may make yourself vomit as a driver.. it's utterly violent and simply visceral.

Goldilocks
675LT:
This is my favorite car I've ever driven, period.

It's 85-90% of the P1's speed, except, more usable, massively fast in turns, flows better, feels as light as a stripped out racer, will go forever without liquefying it's tires like the p1 does, is nimble in transitions, brakes like a champ.. and in our case, could be driven with the top down as it was a spyder with zero sense of chassis rigidity loss. All the invesment mclarne made in the carbon tub, shows up in this car.. it literally was a world away from the 488.. truly, like the difference between a 1990's chevy caprice and a modern german sports sedan.. couldn't even touch it... This offers the cornering g's of the gt4 clubsport, but with the acceleration of the p1. The p1 is a bit of absurdity as it's so powerful, that you can't flow with it. I know a few guys, one in particular here in california who tracks the **** out of his P1 at Laguna and other tracks, and I bow down deeply to him for his ***** and talent. I have neither, and to me, the p1 was just fun for powerslides out of slow turns. The 675LT on the other hand, is the road car, and track car which is the very best at both.

I drove it 700+ miles round trip to Amelia Island Concours last weekend, and it was as comfortable as anything. Then we drove it to the track yesterday, wailed on it all day, slid it into a sand trap (wasn't me), powerwashed the dirt off of it.. and 30 minutes later it was back running 1:30's at AMP over and over and over.. if you have the means to buy a 675LT.. sell everything else and just have this car. Mclaren is in a league of it's own.. and if it can make a 570 LT anywhere close to $250k... that car will take all the marbles from everyone.






Apologies for the long post, hope it was of value or entertaining.
peace.

signes

^ Great write up! Lucky dog, what an amazing gathering and opportunity to push them all. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

Love the livery on that LT.