bobs95

Just sold my '02 C2 (pic below) and started the search for a TT. I test drove a 2003 yesterday that has 34k miles and the X50 power kit and wanted to get feedback from you guys about a couple of things:

--the shifter linkage felt "sloppy", at least compared to my C2 with a SSK. This is the first TT I've driven, and it had the stock shifter, but I was shocked going from 2nd to 3rd at how vague it felt. Is this normal for a TT with a stock shifter?

--merging onto the highway, with the tach showing 4000, I floored it and got decent acceleration but not pushing me into the seatback like I got with my C2.

This car had no documentation--just a carfax. I called the local indie that was listed twice and they had no record of the car being at their shop. I checked with the local Porsche dealer and they showed three visits--one for an oil change, one to replace the battery and a third to replace synchros in the tranny. There was only one other oil change listed in the Carfax report, and no sign the 30k service had been done. Maybe the issues above are because it was a 'lightly' maintained car?

Thoughts?

Macster

My 03 Turbo's shifter broke and I had a 997 shifter installed. The shifting is much more precise. The shifter broke at before the 40K mile mark too.

Did you have the boost display showing? What boost level did you see? Oh, at 4K and higher the boost will actually not get as high as would if you floored it at lower RPMs, say at 3K. The boost will climb to at least 0.7 bar (the standard Turbo… I do not know/recall what the X50 boost is) and remain there for a while as RPMs climb but once RPMs pass 4K the boost starts to drop off gradually.

Another possible explanation is the car has stale gas in it. If the car has been for sale for a while it could have pretty old gasoline and the fuel could be stale and the engine a bit flat. (I experienced something similar with another car that had sat 6 months. As I drove the car around the engine was just kind of flat but I thought it normal as I was unfamiliar with the car but when the fuel level got low and I filled the tank with fresh premium (as called for) the engine's personality was transformed.)

Also, at that age/miles the car should have had new plugs and a fuel filter too.

Could be just an accumulation of things from a "lightly maintained" car...

bobs95

Boost got up to .6 bars briefly--and then I ran into traffic so couldn't really explore it past that burst. Guess I need to get used to a turbo's characteristics over a NA engine.

This car has been up for sale at this dealership for at least a month so could also have stale gas, in addition to the need for the 30k service.

Dock

4000 rpm up to what rpm?

What gear were you in?

bobs95

4000 up to about 5500, in 3rd gear.

"02996ttx50

having or not having had the 30k service done would have no bearing on your percieved "issue". i think you may be learning the car, but it should be significantly faster in any situation or rev range than any c2. anything over 5k rpm in these is an e-ticket ride.

bobs95

The e-ticket ride is what I was expecting/hoping for. Thanks for the confirmation.

Dock

You should have had some good push for 500-700 rpm and seen 0.7 to 0.9 bar by 5500 rpm.

bobs95

That's what I was expecting. I saw it get as high as .6 bar, but no higher. We ran into a lot of traffic after that so I couldn't re-check.

Macster

One month old gasoline is probably still ok. Not the best perhaps, but ok.

These cars are super quick. You really need a lot of room and no traffic to get a feel for what the engine can do at higher revs. In lower gears the engine gains RPMs so quick… well thank goodness there is a rev limiter. In higher gears it still pulls like a freight train, make that two freight trains, and the car gathers speed like an a asteroid with earth in its sights. The engine doesn't run out of breath like some N/A engines do at higher RPMs.

In my experience in the higher gears just about the time the boost reaches 0.6 or 0.7 bar I'm out of room or there's a curve ahead.

There is more to a test drive that just hitting peak boost, though. This is important to be sure but you want to make sure the engine pulls strongly and smoothly from idle to redline and can continue/resume this pulling upon a fast upshift with the throttle mashed down again. After all the drama you want to confirm the engine settles back into a nice mild mannered grocery getter mode with a smooth even idle and all the vitals remain calm and within their norms.

Also, you want to make sure the engine and the car behave in all sorts of the more mundane usages.