For what it's worth, the Ferrari F12tdf has it.

As do many other vehicles on the market now.

 

could it also have something to do from a marketing/differentiation standpoint? ie, the 991.2 has it, the 991.1 didn't, first 911 to carry it, etc. to help sales so to speak.

 

It's mostly the law of big numbers. Offering RWS on the S brings down the unit cost.

I have it on my car and there certainly is a difference on twisty roads. Between SPASM and RWS with a low power band engine is what makes the .2 such a great performer.

You gotta drive to believe!

 

Once they had the .2 all put together, the lap time improvement over the .1 with extra rear end weight and higher CG with the plastic oil pan probably wasn't sufficient to maintain the fiction that the change was for anything other than fuel/emissions/tax reasons. Rather than go back to the drawing board, it was easier to offer an existing component like RWS. I expect when magazines start doing instrumented tests with the .2, the models provided to them will all have RWS.

 

+1. Without RWS the 991.2 would be inferior to the .1

 

Based on what analysis?

 

There are two likely possibilities:

#1. The 991.2S is a larger margin faster around a track over the .1S than the incremental increase of 20 peak HPs would suggest.

#2. The 991.2S edges out the .1S on the track by a slight margin, but less that you would expect for a 20 hp gain, possibly even slightly slower than the .1GTS.

In which of these scenarios would you guess that we would have been seeing customer deliveries for months, but still no cars provided by Porsche to the major magazines for full instrumented tests? And in which scenario do you think they would be giving them out for first drives "Wow it feels faster with the low end torque. Apple Car Play!" but holding out on the full deal hoping that everyone would kind of forget about the engine change?

 

Common sense. Adding weight to the rear of a 911 is always going to affect its handling. Porsche went though a radical revision to there chassis when they revised the 991 line. They stretched out the wheel base in order to bring some of the engine weight forward. Probably wont be felt by most drivers but those that bring the car to its limits will notice it. If you don't plan to. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Talk about clutching at straws.

Many of the positive reviews to date have been with non-AWS cars. For example, the Total911 comparison between a base 991.1 vs 991.2 saw both drivers express a very strong preference for the 991.2...and 991.2 was a non-AWS car.

Similarly, even Andrew Frankel, a known NA bigot and who drove a non-AWS 991.2 stated "So I’ll leave it this way. The new turbocharged 991 is the better car and, should you require such a thing, the easy winner of this test. For 90% of not just drivers but 911 drivers, it is superior at least 90% of the time".

I am a 991.1 owner, but accept the fact that the 991.2 is a superior car by a fair margin, with or without AWS, and that is based on my own seat time in a 991.2 on the road, on the track and on ice.

So I just don't know where the bitterness comes from...maybe appendage problems perhaps?

 

You didn't read my post. Nowhere did I say the .2 is inferior or slower. Both case #1 and #2 that I suggested were that the .2 is faster.

 

That is easily addressed through suspension tuning (which I believe they have done) because the weight distribution difference is very very small. Granted, I didn't go drifting in the 991.2 when I drove it (without RWS) but it felt just fine to me.

 

911 sales for April are up 14%. I would guess it's the result of a full month of customers taking delivery of 991.2s along with dealers moving the remaining 991.1s. On the surface, though, it looks like Porsche will be in good shape with the .2s. We'll have to take a look at the May numbers. I'm hoping mine is included in that figure. It should be on the boat next week.

 

I suspect this is a USA sales number? I don't think this is a surprise. The new model year always shows a spike in sales and then slowly trails off.


However, the fact that the car is now limited to 3 liters means it is going to sell very well in China and Europe due to tax and CAFE incentives. These are the real numbers to watch. China is driving the Porsche train now because they have become the biggest market for Porsche and have FAR greater potential for future sales. That's why we have 3 liter engines in our new 911s.

 

Yep, that's the US number. Just some info to help answer the OP's question. You're absolutely correct about China.