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Went on a little autumn run today with a good friend who has a lovely olive green 997.1 S.
He's a few tasteful mods, including lowering springs, RSS engine mounts, short-shift kit & the DSC module.
I was piloting my 997.2 C4S (PDK), basically stock but with the DSC module also. I've driven his car before, but today we swapped again, and it had been a while since I drove it last. Having performed some recent maintenance, in the form of new transmission mounts and sway-bar bushings I felt it was worth a spin again to see if I could notice the difference.
Our route consisted of mostly empty winding back roads with 3rd gear corners and a few tight 2nd gear switchbacks. Add to the mix mushy leaves on the ground and surface temps of about 38 degree's F meant we were judicious in our throttle and steering application.
After jumping into his car, and getting settled into the adaptive sport seats, we took off with me following him, in my car. I was reminded of why I fell in love with the 997's first time I drove one, which coincidentally was this exact car I was driving again. Everything about this car is perfect for me. The steering, slightly better than my 997.2 C4S (I've a little more front end traction as a trade-off), the exhaust note, better (to my ears) than my 997.2. His car has the sport exhaust which is 'stuck' with the valves open. Still though...
Power, felt comparable as did the brakes. The clutch and shifter worked seamlessly and the short-shift kit made using the shifter even more fun to snick-snick back and forth between the gates.
As we weaved though the windy, wet, narrow curves I was somewhat in awe with what an amazing car the 997.1 still is, today, and what an amazing value proposition it represents. I see loads of 'what should I buy' posts, and of course the respective 997 owners justify their purchase, but at the end of the day you really can't go wrong with either, they are both so fantastic.
For perspective, I've driven the 991.1 (S, stick, & S PDK) and 991.2 (base PDK) and while they are much 'nicer' cars, for back road enjoyment, I'd take a 997.1 S over either of them any day of the week.
Hopefully some day I'll be able to add a 997.1 S to join the C4S and be able to enjoy them both.
So if you're shopping for one and stressing out over stretching to a 997.2, just find the nicest 997.1 you can find and enjoy it!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts - I'm looking for my first Porsche now and trying to decide between the more affordable 997.1 and the pricier 997.2 with all it's enhancements. I'm still not decided which way to go, but I'm more convinced that if I go with a 997.1 it'll meet all of my expectations.
Great writeup and glad to see the 997.1 getting some props. It gets dinged only because the 997.2 is so damn good and the 996 was so damn bad. However, at today's prices the 997.1 is the best value sports car in the world, bar none.
Some pics below from a few weeks ago. I followed Wayne Smith and David's beautiful 997.2 C4Ss up the coast with my 997.1 C2. Re exhaust note, Wayne and David commented on the same thing. The .1 with Fisters has more of a growl than the .2s. I heard the M96/M97 revs freer than the 9A1 but have no first hand experience. Wayne and David offered to let me drive theirs but I declined. Thou shall not covet thy neighbors 997.
Great writeup and glad to see the 997.1 getting some props. It gets a bad wrap only because the 997.2 is so damn good. However, at today's prices their is no question the 997.1 is the best value sports car in the world.
Some pics below from a few weeks ago. I followed Wayne Smith and David's beautiful 997.2 C4Ss up the coast with my 997.1 C2. Re exhaust note, Wayne and David commented on the same thing. The .1 with Fisters has more of a growl than the .2s. I heard the M96/M97 revs freer than the 9A1 but have no first hand experience. Wayne and David offered to let me drive theirs but I declined. Thou shall not covet thy neighbors 997.
Very cool! I used to live in SF and I've gone on a few drives with Dave & Joe Ramos (never got to meet Wayne though) great guys! You all need to plan your next OR road-trip and I'll come down to the border and drive up with you!
Great write up. Both are amazing cars. People make it stressful deciding what they should buy. Just get behind the wheel and drive! Too much paralysis by analysis...
Is the 997.1 a C2S? Curious, as the C4S and C2S are night and day different driving experiences. Apples and oranges really. My 997.2 C2S feels and is substantially faster than my 05 C2S . Much better handling overall, especially in the front end. The 997.1's I drove (including the GT3) all had "unplanted"/floaty front-ends in comparison to the .2's, which felt substantially more planted. The only thing I would give to the 997.1 over the 997.2 is the stock exhaust note (No DFI). Albeit, a Sharkwerks center bypass fixes that.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts - I'm looking for my first Porsche now and trying to decide between the more affordable 997.1 and the pricier 997.2 with all it's enhancements. I'm still not decided which way to go, but I'm more convinced that if I go with a 997.1 it'll meet all of my expectations.
If its going to be a daily then PDK and the upgraded audio system would warrent the .2
If you are going to use it as a weekend / fun car then the .1 should be more then enough.
I had a 2007 C4S, the a CTSV, now a 2009 C4S, The 997.1 did seems to run freerer, and rev a bit quicker. The S mode on it felt different than the S mode on the 997.2, as it made it a bit more raw feeling. The 997.2 has a much better transmission and the LSD in it really helps you power out of turns, and the extra HP and torque is noticeable. Given the two with different price points, the 997.2 is better overall. There seems to be about a 10K difference in prices on then, if you have the extra 10K do the 997.2, but the 997.1 is very much fun as well. The 997.2 PCM 3.0 is perfectly fine and way better than the PCM 2.1. It does not stream BT music is its only drawback, but get a Ipod nano and load it up with music and get the Y adapter....and you are good to go for PCM 3.0. As for driving, the 997.1 at speeds above 100 or so the front end would get a bit light, the 997.2 has a different front bumper and I think a bit more downforce to get rid of the high speed lift. Sound? Well I had Dansk mufflers on the 997.1 which really sounded great, on the 997.2 just the Fabspeed X pipe....I had the FVD race cans on it....sounded great but after 40 minutes got a bit of a headache from the booming sound...so went back to stock. But it really sounded good, and going down a street or in a tunnel, it got noticed.
11-18-2017, 11:53 PM
997.1 vs 997.2 back-to-back jaunt
