I took the car to Pueblo today and had a passenger capture some videos. The results are a bit wobbly, but it's not bad and you can get a feel for the track.

The car was great, better than any street car that I've driven. With PASM on sport, SportChrono on sport, and PSM off, you can toss the car around quite nicely. It has loads of grip, and feels even more composed on the track than a 996 or 993, and would give any of the street Porsches a good run, the exceptions being a GT3 or GT2. With a decent set of track tires and if there was no fear of banging the car up, I'd bet that I could worry many a GT3 driver with this car.

I have the PCCBs and have to say that they're nothing short of amazing. With equivalent tires this thing could probably stop as well as my Cup car, despite a 500+ lb. weight disadvantage. No fade, awesome feel, and no brake dust are among the nice things about these brakes. Are they worth the money? Probably not, but I'd get them again.

The powerband is amazing, having a much flatter torque curve than I'm used to in Porsches. It feels like a V8 in that you can just leave it in 3rd most of the time and let it pull strongly out of corners. Most Porsches require much more driver involvement to stay in the powerband, so this is nice.

One thing that people keep asking me is how the variable ratio steering is. To be honest I've never noticed it, but I do know that this car has great steering, and is excellent on the track. Lots of control, with much less understeer than you typically get with street cars.

The acceleration is quite good, and in one of the videos you can compare it to a 993 TT. The TT will pull away, but not as fast as you might expect, and the 997 will reel it in on the corners. It would be interesting to see what it's like at sea-level where the turbos don't provide as much advantage. As I said earlier, I'd bet that this car could worry a GT3 on the straights, and probably wouldn't give up much on the corners.

The SportChrono thing is next to useless as you have to remember to flick the lever, and try to do it at the same place. What's amazing is that with all of the buttons on the center stack they didn't put one on the right so that the passenger could toggle next lap, etc.

My times were in the 1:48s range, which would make it faster than most street cars in our region. With some practice I think I could pull a 1:45 or 1:46 with the street tires, and shave another couple of seconds off with track tires. My Cup car will do 1:37s on slicks and 1:39s on Toyo RA-1s, to give you an idea what a race car will do on that track. The street GT3s on track tires are in the 1:44s range.

I was hitting 120+ MPH on the front straight, and could have hit 130+ if I thought I could trust the tires to stop the car well enough for turn 1. My Cup car can easily hit 140+ MPH, but it gets most of its speed in the corners and acceleration rather than top speed.

In summary, it's a great street car that does quite well on the track. I know that the 996 GT3 is ultimately a better track car, but I still feel that the 997 S is a better all-rounder, with more refinement, no sacrifices in terms of creature comforts, and giving up little on the track. I have enough track experience that I can jump in just about any car and go fast, but I can also tell you that there are few cars that are as easy to go fast in as the 997 S.

There are two videos, the first being in-car:



The 5M WMV can be downloaded here.

The second one is also in-car following the 993 TT:



The 5M WMV can be downloaded here.

 

Hey, Skip - quit that! Go visit the workshop! (Thanks, nice videos!)

 

Very nice!

Thanks!

 

skip, sorry to interupt, but are you now keeping the car??

 

Great video Skip, thanks for sharing. I am not familiar with the track you were on, but it looks like a finesse course with a lot of turns rather than a HP course with long straights.

 

" __________________
Rob
outgoing: '00 996 > 90,000 miles and no RMS leaks
incoming: 997S
"Team Zuffenhausen" Future Official 997 Beta Tester "

Rob, 90K miles in < 5 years....bravo! man after m'own heart.
(I had 60K racked up in 34 months in former E34 M5).

Skip, a last hurrah on the track?? idiot light staying off now?

 

Am I missing something here? I thought this was the worst vehicle ever to exist? Help me understand.........

 

Help me out.... after reading "the post" (the name applied around the office watercooler) over the past few months, I was ready to go jump off a bridge.... and now you post another heart-thumping thread, but this time showing the exceptional capabilities of your infamous 997S on the track....

So I take it your car is now fixed, or perhaps Weideking personally gave you a corporate loaner?

(Nice videos, btw!)

 

I get it - you finally put electical tape over the information panel to cut down on glare.... Now I understand!

 

i believe this thread is 3 months old....

 

Me too! I kept expecting the video to zoom in on the cluster for the infamous "your having too much fun, return to the shop" message!!

 

You guys must have missed post #412 in the monster thread:

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...&page=28&pp=15

Love the car. Hate the company that built, sold, and apparently can't fix it. I'm keeping the car until Porsche does one or more of the following:

A) Makes me an acceptable offer for a refund, which means at least 100%
B) Replaces the car, which is my preference
C) Bribes me to keep the car and to shut up

Sloth, that track is Pueblo Motorsports Park, which is where the Rocky Mountain Region Club Race takes place. It's funny that it looks like a finesse course to you because we consider it the "big, fast track" around here. I'm going out to 2nd Creek Raceway tomorrow, which is much more technical than Pueblo is. I should have some videos from that later tomorrow or sometime over the weekend.

 

Skip - Video is great, just tell the "artist" that he should just pan to your hands and then get back to the action!!

 

Hey, do what you will but after the big stink I'd think kharma would suggest that the car be better off sitting in a garage until all the issues are resolved rather then racing around a track. Glad to hear it performs well on the track though

 

SrfCity, the car did in fact sit in the garage from November 28th until December 28th, to the point where I had to charge the battery to get it to start. The funny thing is that after sitting there for a month the problem was still there...

Okay, sorry for the sarcasm. I have made more than a reasonable attempt to get this car fixed, to the tune of 8 or more dealer visits and at least a couple of weeks sitting in the shop. The dealer can't fix it, despite all of the suggestions from the supposed "gurus" in Atlanta and other resources. The dealer has also said that "this isn't a serious problem" and "the car is safe to drive", so that's what I'll do, all the while plotting my next moves.

Gary, unfortunately I didn't know the passenger was goofing around like that until after I got back. If I could figure out how to mount the camera I would, but there doesn't appear to be anything in the car that's really suitable. Another thought is to duct-tape it to my helmet...