David in Talent

I currently own a 2007 C4S and will be ordering a GTS. Debating on whether to get the GTS or 4GTS. Which did you choose and why ? I use my car for fair weather since i have an all wheel drive BWM Sportwagon for inclement weather and daily use. I DO like the tenacious grip of my C4S during spirited drives on the back roads of Oregon. I will order SPASM and PDCC (mostly for ride comfort and tire wear) whichever model I chose. Will I miss that glue like grip without the 4 wheel drive ? Please comment from YOUR own experience of both based upon you own EXPERIENCE .

MKW

An experienced amateur or professional road racer in a GTS would easily outrun owners of a 4GTS without the same level of skill on a winding wet or dry road , so it would make more sense and be a lot more fun to invest the cost difference in track time / driving school ! Especially, as you state, you would park either in very inclement weather.
You get the aggressive blacked out wide body either way !

chuck911

Actually there are road test videos out there you can watch showing the C4S is a lot faster in the wet. You are right about Driver Ed though.

David, when I drove a 997.2 GTS and C4S back to back they were very similar most of the time, with just a slight edge in steering feel going to the GTS. When pushed hard cornering on an uneven road however the C4S showed a clear advantage over the GTS. Not in terms of speed, but in that glued to the road feeling you mentioned. It just felt much more stable and confidence inspiring. This by the way was on dry pavement, on roads exactly like the Oregon backroads you'll be driving- which I know from having driven quite a few of them myself!

neurotic

Get the RWD GTS and spend the rest on Porsche driving course. If you drive like a normal person in the wet/cold, you'll be just fine. If you drive like a mad man on snow/wet roads, not even AWD will save you. One of the first cars I've owned was a 2004 Mazda RX-8. Drove it in Pittsburgh winters with snow tires, never had a single issue. I'm sort of old school: sports cars should be RWD. I don't need a lecture on "oh but AWD is faster in the wet." Come on, I don't need to get to the grocery store one tenth of a second faster. Ok, I'm done ranting. But seriously, save the money and do a drivers course and actually LEARN how to become a better driver.

jamgolf

2wd vs 4wd is obviously a matter of preference, which is C4S in my case.
90-100% of torque is distributed to the rear wheels almost 95% of the time and front tires get the torque only when needed.

I've put about 10K miles on my C4S in about 8 months and if I had to decide again - I would pick C4S again - without question.

In fact I do no think it's a compromise - I think its an advantage and my preference.

Larry Cable

Evo track C2S vs C4S ...

John 996 TT Cab

I have a 991S X51 Cab rear wheel drive and a '04 Turbo Cab all wheel. I prefer the handling (in the dry mind you) of the rear wheel drive and am selling the Turbo.

Larry Cable

I remember testing a 993 C4 back in 98 ... didnt like it ... never gone back to AWD since...

Dcrna1

I have a C4S and can't even tell the difference until it's doing its job and saving my tail....I wouldn't want a 911 without it. And for those that think it won't drift....think again.

onedae

A 993 C4 was a totally different animal than a current 991 C4S. Not even close.

MKW

1) " road test videos " are not broadcast in real time ..they can edit out the unflattering " oops " moments that may have occurred

2) limit driving on a familiar wet track ( inspected ahead of time by drivers for greasy spots left by earlier cars and usually with no standing water ) is one thing .....but real world wet roads with unforeseen mud flows, scattered leaves , dropped oil, frost heaves, potholes , puddles is not the time anyone should be trying to set a wet record or flatter ones ego whether they have AWD or not.
I have a history of many non SUV vehicles with AWD and look at that technology , in rain, as an added margin of safety, not as a way to be able to drive faster than I would if it had only RWD.
Dry road AWD vs RWD grip /handling is a different matter and ironically, with today's cars with precise but feathery electric steering, the old " penalty " of AWD may be a benefit of adding back some hydraulic steering - like " stiction " .

chuck911

Its not even necessary to go that far. The 993C4 is a totally different animal than a 997.2C4! The improvement Porsche made between the 993 and the 997 is just huge! I've driven both 993C4S and TT, as well as 996C4 and TT. The 993 versions, while I have friends who love them there is no way I would ever consider one. For me the disadvantages of low speed understeer, heavy front end, less tactile steering and an overall hard to define yet critical obtrusive feeling just far outweighs the benefits.

Same with the 996 versions, except that its a lot closer because Porsche improved all those faults while improving the stability/confidence benefits as well.

With the 997.2 versions I drove the faults were pretty much gone. Maybe it would be different if I'd driven them on the track. (The others I was able to drive both road and track. And some of them autocross, too.) It does make a difference. The confidence/stability handling advantage of the 997.2C4S over the GTS only became apparent under hard cornering on a road that was undulating up and down. When that did happen though the experience in the GTS was ver disconcerting, especially compared to the sublime aplomb of the C4S going just as fast. If not faster.

But really, its not so much the speed as the sublime aplomb. And that was the last iteration. I guess I need to get out there and see what the latest one is like.

Rennteam

You could also argue, that an experienced amateur of professional road racer in a 4 GTS would easily outrun owners of a GTS without the same level of skill on a winding wet or dry road or even if these owners have the same skills.
Sorry but your post doesn't make any sense.

Someone used to AWD will always love AWD (myself included) but I also drive a 765 hp Shelby GT500 with 2WD which always reminds me why I love AWD.

The 991 has enough traction in the back, so AWD isn't really needed but it adds to the fun when it is wet outside because you can do stuff (up to a certain limit imposed by physics) you cannot do in a 2WD car.

The additional weight isn't really an issue on the 991, so I would always go for AWD, especially if I'd live in a region with lots of rain and snow.

MagicRat

I'd really try to drive both back to back. I thought I wanted a 4GTS but preferred the steering feel of the 2 when I tested them. It does feel skittish when really going for it on a rough road, but I kind of liked that (and it was a car without PDCC or SPASM).

On the same road the 4 was a bit more confidence inspiring and I was probably a bit faster in it, but it just didn't feel as alive to me as the 2. Also, 90% of my driving is pottering around London, so the car that had the better moment-to-moment steering feel won out.

MKW

If I had to spend 90% of my sports car driving time within people and traffic clogged London( or locally, the city of San Francisco ) I would find another " hobby " !

In that scenario, a well preserved 1989 911 cab would be all I would ever need for maximizing fun ....nothing newer or faster or more technical . It is appreciating vs depreciating and would draw more admiring glances from real Porsche guys there than any current model , imo, for half the price .

It has been decades since the last time I drove one of my sports cars into SF , even though I live just 30 miles south ...I bypass it even if going to Marin county or Napa Valley .