wareaglescott

I am finalizing my order on a 911S. Pretty well decided on the options. One thing I am still considering is the Sport Package. I am for sure getting Sport Chrono regardless.

Looking at the sport package it is $6980 and includes rear axle steering, sport exhaust, sport chromo, GT sport steering wheel and the different side mirrors. Priced individually these options would be about $8500.

Since I am already getting the Sport Chromo the cost upgrade for the rest would be about $4370.

This is my first Porsche and will be my daily driver. I will drive it to work which is about 90 miles one way all interstate but with that being said I go to work for multiple days at a time so I only average about 1.3 trips per week. Really the base model would be fine for my needs but since I am ordering I am treating myself to the S and will get it optioned exactly like I want it. I don't envision myself tracking the car. If I did it would be very minimal and I don't think I would be anywhere near the limit of the car. I have a Shelby Cobra (replica) that I built that is a ton of fun and would be my track car if I ever really got into it. I will freely admit I am buying more car than I need from a performance standpoint with the Porsche.

With all that being said a few questions please:

1. What exactly is the difference in the sport steering wheel? Having a hard time telling from the online configuration tool. Is it just a different size? Any pros/cons to this wheel?

2. How is the sport exhaust in car noise cruising at highway speeds for an hour or more? 85% of my miles will be at highway speeds. The Cobra is very loud and honestly gets old at times. Fun to hear the car growl in rapid burst but droning along the highway for 30+ minutes gets old. I have driven the S on the track at Barber Motorsports park and the PEC Atlanta but don't have any extended highway miles.

3. What are your thought on the value of the rear wheel steering? Any issues with the added complexity of the system leading to extra maintenance costs. I guess these systems haven't been around that long that they are out of warranty in most cases so maybe there isn't much data on that yet.

4. For my personal taste I am not even sure I like the sport design mirrors better and don't know what to think about the steering wheel change. Any idea if you can omit those two items from the package? I asked my sales associate. He was unsure and is looking into it.

Thanks for any responses. I am new to the forum but am enjoying learning so much reading the threads.

Interesting side note. I live in a small population area. I had a deal in place with my closest dealer which is a small dealer about 50 miles from me. They were actually unable to get a 911 allocation anytime in the near future. I was surprised at that. Luckily a friend recommended a dealer in Atlanta that is matching the deal and has the allocations.

MJG911

Scott, I have a .1 so I can't really speak to the .2s sport exhaust, but I drive mine in sport + all the time for the rev matching and the exhaust doesn't drone or anything.

The rear wheel steering is neat, but I don't think you would miss it if you didn't have it, especially not tracking the car.

Steering wheel and mirrors are individual taste.

Gus_Smedstad

You can turn the Sport Exhaust off. It's a center console button.

I'm getting rear wheel steering. I've seen a few people post here that it's a major performance improvement. Presumably they're talking about increased stability in high speed cornering. Personally I'm interested because it should make things like parallel parking that much easier.

wareaglescott

My salesman says the rear wheel steering is shockingly impressive. Sounds pretty cool. The majority of the items on this car I don't really "need" but am getting because the car is so awesome. I might have to add that in as well.

bwiele

A 911 is not a "need" based decision process! I ended up adding a lot of the options to my GTS (which is already a fulsome package at the start) including RWS and I'm delighted with all of them.

Nick Murray has a great video on YouTube where he goes through in detail the options he chose (or didn't choose) on his 991.2 and the rationale why. This was immensely useful to me when I was making the choices about my car. Plus Nick is entertaining, so worth the 30 or 40 minute investment to watch it.

wareaglescott

will check out the video. thanks for mentioning

Gus_Smedstad

I just watched about half of that because you mentioned it. While I do generally find him entertaining, I didn't find that video to be all that useful.

He spent a fair amount of time on some aesthetic decisions that I didn't agree with (sneering at Racing Yellow!), and not enough time on things I would have found interesting, like rear wheel steering.

What really killed it for me, though, was his extremely superficial take on Sport Chrono. There's more to it than launch control. Yeah, it's a lot more significant on a PDK car than manual, and I am getting a manual personally, but it does do more than add a clock.

For example, you only get the mode control dial on the steering wheel if you have Sport Chrono. Changing mode via the center console is quite distracting, in my experience, and the dial's a lot better. Mode matters most on a PDK, but it still affects things like rev-matching and auto on/off on a manual.

You can, of course, drive in Sport or Sport+ at all times, but I personally like being able to switch to Normal when I'm behind several cars on a surface street, and I might as well enable things like engine auto-start.

Sport Chrono, or lack thereof, is probably the topic mentioned in the Hot For Sale thread more often than any other. You'd think that Nick would have put more thought into the 45 seconds he spent on the topic.

The one upshot of watching Nick is that now I'm wondering if I'm making a mistake getting 14 way instead of 18 way seats, even though I was perfectly happy with the 14-ways in my C4S.

quattroboy

Note that the sport mirrors do not have the option of adding the power folding function. I believe the sport mirrors can still be folded manually.

Gus_Smedstad

Might as well link to this thread:

Is Rear Axle Steering a must have option for .2 GTS?

bwiele

Confirmed, they can still be folded manually.

bwiele

Gus - Nick does talk in detail about RWS perhaps in another video of his, I can't recall. Another thing that influenced one of my choices was his comment about the plastic seat backs of the 18-way seats. His discussion on it compelled me to get the seat back wrapped in leather instead, which turned out beautifully (including carrying the deviated red stitching on the backs). Overall I have found some useful information in his videos.

9ELOVIN

Hi Scott,

I have a few hundred miles on my 2018 Carrera 4 GTS, so I think I can be of some help. Like most guys who order their cars, I spent weeks working on my build.

1. You can verify this from the on line configurator but the sport steering wheel is about 15 mm smaller and slightly thicker than the regular wheel. Also, it comes with actually bolt holding it together. The marketing people say it comes from the 918. I have it heated and with steering wheel controls and liked it very much.

2. I came from a '06 C4S Cabriolet. My GTS coup is much quieter, even with the sport exhaust on. Unless you are really on the throttle, you will hardly notice it. I'm actually sitting waiting for my Reus Systems stereo to be installed and much prefer listening to that over an exhaust. On the interstate in seventh gear you will be cruising along and not even hear the exhaust.

3. Rear wheel steering is invaluable. You don't need it but once you have it, you will love it. It makes the car far more nimble in the parking lot and far smoother on the highway. The handling and tight corners is terrific. Let me also recommend PDCC. It is not just a handling hand leveling device, it is also a common device. Can you cross Angeles area of power pulley maintained freeways which have been rippled not earthquakes, PDCC absolutely smooths out the RIDE. What can I say, technology is expensive.

4. The mirrors are purely subjective. I have the sport design and like them. But the regular ones are fine and can be had with electric folding. You don't need it. I have no doubt that sport mirrors can be deleted from your package but you simply have to get the dealer to follow up with Porsche North America.

5. With regard to the seatbacks, you can spend $2,000 on leather or a couple of hundred dollars wrapping them whatever color or pattern you like.

Hope this helps and hope I haven't bored you too much.

Greg

quattroboy

The Sport GT steering wheel is slightly smaller, 360 mm versus 365 mm and has the aluminum inserts with the screws.

I'm looking at the configurator and it doesn't look like the multi function wheel is an option for 2018.

Which seems a bit odd to me as I really like having the stereo volume and control for the display at my fingertips.

wareaglescott

Thanks for the responses everyone.
I do have a follow up question on the base stereo. I notice Greg mentioned waiting to get a new one installed.
Is the base stereo total junk? I don't have great hearing from years of Jet engine noise and really am not into music that much. In fact I listen to sports talk or books on tape on my drives back and forth to work 90% of the time.
Is the base stereo acceptable if you don't really care about high music quality? For reference I have a $90 blue tooth speaker I throw in the passenger seat of my Cobra I am perfectly happy with. I don't really want to pay $1600 for the bose and certainly would not pay for the high end option.

Gus_Smedstad

The multi-function wheel is available in the US configurator. I just ordered a GTS with a heated multifunction wheel. Which is much better than the 991.1 MFW, because it's essentially the Sport wheel with the additional controls. You still get paddles instead of buttons if you have PDK.

I did look for a separate video by Nick about rear wheel steering. Couldn't find one.