WOTever

Haha, who knew! Despite that I still think Porsche does a good job balancing safety and fun with their system. Way better than other brands whose drivers end up in the ditch and on youtube when leaving car meets.

Berra

I wish we didn't have pms in our cars, or atleast we should have been given a system we could switch off completely.

No point in testing limits on public roads though, even if you're alone...you will eventually total it, and maybe even yourself.

KC-CarGuy

Mine has always felt very planted, holding the line I'm following in a turn. I have come in too hot, and would normally trail brake to get the tail to rotate like on my 944, only to have the PSAM system kick in on the 996TT. The first time it happened it scared me. More of a "what was that" moment. It settled the car, like a limp mode for just a split second, and out the corner I went.

Carlo_Carrera

Its true. Believe me I have tried.

Carlo_Carrera

Try pulling the fuse?

"02996ttx50

me too. while i would never advocate excessive speed on a public road ( course hah ) i eliminated the awd and have psm ( momentarily at least! ) "off" so i COULD throttle steer. ( as you know..) you really can throttle steer this behemoth running Rwd ( not awd! ) w/ psm off.

it helps to mitigate some of the rear weight bias yet cannot be accomplished ( in my experience ) with operational awd, and PSM on.

"02996ttx50

true that, but the tt was ( at least the more *genteel* 996tt and later iterations ) designed and marketed to and for, bankers, doctors, and the like.

it's really only those of us that don't have gt3/gt2's that have tried to replicate them in our own small and often significant ways for that more raw and visceral experience a stock 996 turbo cannot genuinely provide. albeit this being an obviously *subjective* comparison.

rwd/psm off and FTW, ( and ditches ) be damned.

Sveach756

I'm newer to my 996 as well but know that finding limits will hurt quick on the street in these cars. I'm in San Antonio and have been involved w motorcycle racing a while, so I know most/all of the tracks we have. Below are places you can take your car to have safer fun, if you come to Harris hill shoot me a message maybe we can convince Rod to let us have a few hot laps at the very least. The hill is one big family, really a great place.

Motorsport Ranch Houston
Texas World Speedway, college station (yes it's still open)
Harris hill raceway, San Marcos (probably the best bang for your buck, I'm a motorcycle member)
Eagles Canyon (Decatur)
Cota if you have money or tires and hopefully both.
Motorsport Ranch Cresson, cresson 1.3,1.7,3.1 configurations.
Nola is well worth the drive as is Barber.

Drivers edge
Chin motorsports
Find your local sasca or PCA club for auto-x.

Have fun
Shawn

996tnz

Yes, that's exactly how it felt that one PSM enabled time for me.Much scarier than any spin/near spin I've had without PSM. I felt like I was just a passenger, even though still working the controls in a fairly futile effort to get her out of zombie mode ASAP. But luckily PSM gave me back control just before it had used up all the available track.

Provided a driver has reasonably advanced handling skills (eg developed through autocrossing or a misspent youth), drives at full alertness, has fast reactions (but not over-reactions), and has built up familiarity with the car's 911 dynamics, then IMO, yes, PSM is often more of a hindrance than a help.

One of the more notable - and potentially dangerous - examples of a hindrance is when PSM cuts power and puts the car in zombie mode after the car bounces and gets a bit unsettled when joining a line of passing traffic from an inclined driveway or bumpy entrance. That hole in the traffic might be plenty big enough for a Turbo to pull into, but for a crucial second or two PSM has you driving a Toyota Corolla instead. Not cool. Yes, it's there to stop people inadvertently spinning out into the opposing lane, but a momentary relaxation of the steering or - if need be - a dab of opposite lock and gentle roll on of throttle achieves the same thing much quicker and more efficiently than the way PSM goes about it.

Disabling PSM fully is as simple as unplugging the large black connector under the brake fluid reservoir (just requires undoing one or two frunk cover panels to access). ABS remains operable, but that can also be disabled via unplugging a similar connector that is similarly located on the opposite side of the frunk. I've only ever intentionally disabled ABS for grass gymkhanas (jury is still out on any advantage) but as my car often faulted out ABS at the same time as the PSM faulting out I've usually raced and tracked without both. Normally faster to race with ABS on, but at least with it disabled there's no chance either then of the dreaded 'Ice Mode' (the ABS system suddenly hardens the pedal and limits the car to only about 20 percent of normal braking ability - not fun entering fast corners on track eg https://rennlist.com/forums/997-gt2-...ly-got-me.html).

Again, if it wasn't obvious from the earlier 'Provided a driver...' paragraph above, before thinking about fully disabling the car from potential PSM enforced 'zombie mode' moments, make sure any and all drivers including yourself have also had their own 'zombie modes' fully disengaged. Otherwise you or your friend/wife/valet/ mechanic or whoever else is driving might be caught unawares - and they may end up even more of a passenger than with PSM on...

"02996ttx50

agree, and very well put.

T10Chris

Hey, a fellow bike racer.... Former racer here.. Raced in several series up until about 10 years ago. Good memories. Enjoy the new car!

Berra

Yeah I might give that a try. I'm used to being able to turn systems off. I drove a Golf R couple of years ago and that car had a similar thing where you couldn't turn everything off. Swore after that day to never buy a car that won't let me turn off ESP. Here I am, in a 996 Turbo! I know I repeat this a lot but Porsche messed up on this one. Why they decided to not let us turn this off with the touch of a button is just plain stupid.

Carlo_Carrera

I think it is a legal thing. Protecting the owners from themselves and Porsche AG from law suits.

Berra

You think? I'm not so sure about that! But, if this was the case, why release the GT3 and GT2 with no systems at all? They must be more of a challenge, and they were used on track, which to me would make it easy to justify PSM on those cars.

Carlo_Carrera

At that point and time PSM was not legally required on all cars. It was a very new thing and people, especially the purist were very wary of it.

Starting in 2012 it became mandator on all cars on the USA. I think only the first couple of generations of the GT2/GT3 had no PSM. Now they all do.

Porsche probably left it off because they marketed the GT3/2 as track ready vehicles. Purist vehicles. The Turbo buyer is different type of customer. Having it on those 996 cars certainly would have saved a few of them. Many 996GT3 have been totaled at the track.