A light snow is fine but a 911 doesn't have enough ground clearance for heavy snow. I agree with Frank most people would drive something else when it snows. My 991 is a DD and I drive it everywhere. My last DD was a 4wd turbo. Even on a wet road I can't tell any difference. Unlike Frank I am not getting my 458 wet if I can help it. :-)

 

I have driven my 997 C4 nearly every day for the last 5 Chicago winters without much problem. The alleys (garages in the city open to the alleys) are pretty much impassable for a couple of days each winter following snows of greater than about 6-8 inches. The C4 is substantially more sure-footed than my C2 before it, both with snow tires. Granted the C2 was a 996, so it's difficult to compare

 

If you can't tell the difference, you're not trying hard enough! The difference is readily apparent in the dry, which is when you're more likely to be pushing it.

 

For me, it has NOTHING to do with snow.

I've owned both. So, I've driven the very same summer time, high mountain twisty roads with both a C2S and a C4S.

The AWD 911 was a GRIP MONSTER compared to the the rear wheel drive.

Slipping and sliding a little is fun... when there is lots of berm and run off room... but when there is nothing more than 5 feet of guardrail free dirt shoulder followed immediately by SKY and a vertical drop of several hundred feet, then slipping and sliding is NOT fun.

Throwing a 911 around twisty two lane mountain roads even at 7/10th of maximum is much more FUN in an AWD.

The AWD 911 is a grip monster... like something sticky from another planet.

 

I just saw this post. FWIW when I got my car stock, I did notice the tendancy to understeer. I put an X73 suspension on it (lowered 1") and it became very neutral. Last month, I added 15mm spacers front and rear, and now it is quite easy to induce oversteer in spirited driving.

It feels very much like a RWD car now, plus... monster grip. Don't know whether others have had similar experiences.

 

Right. The 996's and 997.1 were a bit too heavy, especially in the turbo variants and notoriously pushy.

The 997.2 is rear-biased for torque and with simple alignment to correct specs, it's marvelously neutral, leaving the driver to choose any attitude or slip angle, even with PSM on, it will rotate and slip nicely.

The 991 came "out of the box" with hideous bad habits. After setting up the alignment, it really came alive (I have 2WD) but still it lacks the initial turn-in precision on the 997.2 C4S Cabrio (which is a higher bar than might be expected.)

The 991 overall is so "muted" in its handling, that transitioning to oversteering is little more than a progressive array of software signals and bit state changes that all negotiate the navigation with digital numbness that will surely make the C4S and C2S even more difficult to distinguish from behind the helm.

We can only hope that the folks who brought us the RS 3.8 and RS 4.0 will find a way to bring the 991 GT3 with all the excitement even if it will also have all the technology.

As for a 911 AWD vs 2WD debate, it has to be set in a particular time or generation of car. I remember a Top Gear comparo where a rally driver (in Stig costume) took both around an indoor tight rallycross circuit and the 997.1 C4 was a tad quicker.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...6p7X3atM#t=85s

 

Something different...

 

Since I see some of my fellow air cooled owners have popped in here.......... (I'll apologize in advance for subjecting them yet again to the foul weather photos.)

Anyway, yeah I use the AWD function. But is it actually better in snow? Who knows? I certainly don't care. What I DO care about, out here, is that if Caltrans thinks there will be snow on I-80 (or similar) on the Friday after Thanksgiving, they'll put a chain control up yesterday. I put 10K miles traveling to/from in the '10/'11 season. Chains were NOT going to be an option. Nor was an F350.

(Also, get a kick out of the comments about the superior "handling" of RWD variants. I've extensively tracked/raced on/near limits 964 and 993 RWD and AWD variants over the years. It's ALL about driver. And none of us here, as was mentioned above, are that good.)

 

how are the CCB in the snow?

 

Me? Don't confuse the yellow calipers with anything resembling state-of-the-art technology............

Story on those is that my cousin wanted yellow calipers for his red 993 Turbo with black wheels. (He's the guy in the link below who does the 910/907/prototype stuff.) So he paints his. Come out looking horrible. Ends up getting a set that Seinfeld bought for whatever blue car he had that he spec'd with blue calipers, then later thought he'd try yellow. Never did, so they sat. Erik somehow got them. These craptastic yellow ones basically fell into my lap, and I installed them so I could refurbish my red ones. Which had taken a beating from general age and track use. Funny how three years later they're still on the car, with 1/4 of the yellow peeled off.

 

Sorry, what was that you were saying? I was distracted by your avatar.

 

Porsche's marketing 4S ditto to your comments...mine starts building in Nov

 

I would never drive a Porsche in the snow because of its low ground clearance, but I drive in the rain on a regular basis and I have found that AWD provides better traction on wet roads. Of course tires are critical for wet weather traction, but AWD will provide better traction on wet roads. At least that's been my experience.

 

For the majority of usage for most people AWD will be faster. As fast as they will go is a short launch at the stop light, or highway blast. So 0-60 and 1/4 mile times are more appealing with AWD. Frankly the vast majority of people aren't really using any performance to significantly test the handling of the car anyways.

AWD makes driving hard more confidence inspiring as understeer is a lot less scary than oversteer. With the power these cars have, if you don't have much experience handling a car, it's much more comforting to press the go pedal.

And it's not just better in ice/snow, there is pretty much rain everywhere, and AWD is superior there too.