At Law

That is hilarious. Well done.

There had better be a place in the cab to put my spitter and
enough room in the bed to haul around my Karaoke equipment
and rodeo saddles. Dale Earnhardt Sr is alive afterall....

stevepow

Das Camino - looks great!

996FourEss

The four inch wheelbase has been widely confirmed. I also understood that the increase was being combined with reduced overhangs, so overall length of the car was unchanged. Car stays as a rear-engine design of course, not sure how you keep the trade-mark glass house design with a mid-engine flip (which is, frankly, what the Cayman / Bosxter already is, namely, a 911 design with a flipped engine / transmission).

tincanman99

Does this mean that 997 values will plummet when this comes out?

Edgy01

If the front end looks like a 996 -- NO!

There will be some gradual drop in the 997 prices simply because it's not the king of the hill at the moment, but time will only tell whether the 997 is a lasting model of the 911 series, or just another in the lineup.

For example, the 993 appears to fair far better than the 996 although the 996 is a newer and better built car. It's more emotions that drive that.

If years from now it is decided that the 997 is just a pretty car and that the 4 inch stretch on the 991 changed the '911' significantly, then the 997 will be favored with a higher residual value.

zanwar

They've been lengthening the wheelbase one way or another since 1969. It always improves the handling of the car. This time won't be any different.

Nugget

Heresy. I don't think a longer wheelbase improves handling at all. I love that the 997 has the same wheelbase as an MX5 (although I could do without the three foot front overhang). Frankly, if the wheelbase gets too much longer then the cars will stop being "911s" in my mind. Minimally they'll lose an important aspect of why these cars are so great.

I think they just do it to accommodate the increasing size of drivers over the past decades. Longer wheelbase is for cabin room, not for handling.

chopperzz

I second that vote!

zanwar

When they push the wheels out toward the corners of the car it changes the high speed handing. It makes the car more stable, faster to return to neutral. The car will be easier to anticipate and you'll be able to lap a track faster. For me, this would be an improvement. If you like to throw the car around at slower speeds and you enjoy the oversteer, I imagine you wouldn't like the change.

They stretched the wheelbase back in 1969, and it had made the car easier to drive. The 912 was also reported as handling better than the 911 because it had a lighter engine. Each time they reduce the effect of the rear weight bias it makes the car easier to drive and quicker at the track. They've managed to do this consistently over nearly 50 years without ruining the positive aspects of the car. This time shouldn't be any different.

Nugget

"More stable" and "better handling" are not the same thing at all. In fact, I think they're sort of antithetical attributes.

cbzzoom

When your starting point is the ludicrously unstable old 911, then yes "more stable" is the same as "better handling".

(obviously if you're starting from something too stable then the opposite might be true)

If you want something that's super nimble at low speeds, the 996/997/991 platform is not the car, regardless of wheelbase.

zanwar

Because there's so much mass behind the rear wheels of a 911, it's harder to make the car rotate, and harder to stop it from rotating once the motion has begun. If they move the engine forward or the wheels outward, they'll reduce the tendency of the engine mass to keep the car rotating. You'll have less potential for oversteer when throwing the car into a fast corner, and you'll be able to reverse the direction of your turn quicker. That's my understanding of increased stability.

Nugget

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think that a short wheelbase is fundamental to the 911's appeal and design. A longer wheelbase is undesirable to me given its impact on handling. I don't think it's the right direction for Porsche to take the platform.

StanThePorscheFan

Porsche engeneers are reading this and scratching their heads: "Aah, so that what we've been doing wrong all this time! Sheesh."

Nugget

No, but I guarantee they're working hard to keep the wheelbase short while balancing against other demands for the platform. A longer wheelbase in the 911 isn't a design goal for Porsche, it's an uncomfortable but perhaps necessary compromise in the face of competing requirements. Porsche knows that a longer wheelbase detracts from the handling characteristics that the 911 is famous for.