I hated that in my Macan. The “black” interior (seats, dash, plastics) was more of a “charcoal” or dark gray to me, which seems to be the same on all or most new “black” interior Porsche’s. Unlike my jet black BMW interior. My 991 for whatever reason seems to be a lot more pure black than my Macan interior. The steering wheel alone is BLACK, while my Macan’s was that chalky black. Maybe they changed dyes in recent years? Or maybe my 2012.5’s previous owner used some effective product.

That’s interesting. MT for one stated that they felt the .2 understeered more than the .1, which may have something to do with that tweaking of the weight distribution.

Exactly. It’s fundamentally “wrong,” yet at the same time what has made the 911 perform on a technical (fastest ring time for a production car, countless examples of going around tracks faster than much more capable and powerful cars on paper) and engagement level that every other car aspires to.

Mid engines are far more palatable, better for competitive racing (full blown race cars), more balanced and precise, and easier to enjoy. But the rear engine in a street sports car has proved to be the 911’s secret sauce in multi dimensions.

Not saying that Porsche would make a rear engine car for their hypercar, but to be fair, they have no reason to do that. It would sacrifice the 911’s status as the rear engine benchmark and they already have a 911. Which, mind you, with 200 less horsepower has bested every mid engine hypercar on the ring.

In the U.K., a leather dash is standard on all new 911s, except the GTS for some reason. So even a base C2 has a leather dash and door tops etc over here.

I've driven a 2017 Panamera 4 for nearly a year. By the time my T arrives (hopefully early April) I'll have done around 18k miles in the Panny. Very nice sports saloon with high quality feel and interior, but can't wait to get back into a more analogue sports car cabin. Traditional buttons and dials, with a manual transmission. Bring it on.

And after a year's ownership, I find the shiny black finish and haptic switches etc less ergonomic than my previous 991.1 C2.

Right on! Funny how what’s old is new again in the carworld.

I stopped the chase for “future tech” in a car long ago. I crave as visceral and analogue a feel I can get (that meets all my criteria’s). I’m on a smartphone all day, if I want my car to also turn into one, I’d just get some tech’d out econobox and call it a day. A high priced car to me needs to rivet me. Otherwise there’s no sense. Going fast and feeling nothing is about as pointless (and reckless) as it gets.

Funny as I went from a BMW with HUD, Keyless, big screen, lots of tech fluff, to a Macan with a little bit less tech fluff (it was my first non-keyless car in 5 years) and even had an S Class with radar cruise, massage seats, etc. Didn’t miss any of it.

Went to my 911, still no keyless (I would probably PAY to have to insert the key into the left socket, that’s a big visceral element to the car imo) and I love “whipping out” the genius “childhood evoking” toy car key (are Porsche genuises in tapping into our inner aspirational childs or what? They certainly “cracked the code” on how to get adults to splurge on often ridiculously priced items. Hint: Emotion. Playfulness backed up by excellence. And nostalgia), and now for the first time in over 7 years, no backup camera or parking sensors (thankfully the car is small as I do value those) either. Yet, currently my most enjoyable ownership experience, no contest.

Good to hear, K-A!

Although I did opt for parking sensors on my T!

Saw my Sales Exec on Friday and even he admitted that the Porsche sales guys don't fully understand all this tech stuff (Connect, Connect Plus, Apple Car Play or whatever). I said I've had the Panny for 11 months and not used 90% of its tech.

More and more I'm liking Pete's idea of a properly 'basic' 911. Fully manual seats, even wind down windows! And I look forward to inserting & turning an actual key again in the 911T!