930man

woould like to hear opinions on the comparisons of the two vehicles. I just read the article in Excellence. when i nfinished it sounded as if it were a toss up between the cars

I typically use my the car on the track so i was wondering about c4s or new GT3. never even thought about the C4S untill i read the article.

Did i understand the article saying the PSAM would get more aggresive as the driving gets more aggresive.??? I have always thought a tuned suspension with coilovers is the best set up... Dose the PSAM really compare?

NoSubEDU

FWIW, I've noticed that my PASM goes into different modes. There is the comfort mode, the sport mode, and then there is an additonal sport mode. It's a more aggressive setting than the standard PASM sport mode. I know I'm in it because I have to press the PASM button twice to disengage the programming.

rss997

Not even a question.....4S if your wife drives it in the winter and S or GT3 if you know how to drive and track it!

ultimate

I am a huge fan of PASM, and I was really surprised since I generally detest "gadgets" added to cars. I just could not get myself to buy a 996 since it was way too soft, with lots of body lean (much more than my e36 m3), but with the sport suspension it was too stiff except when you wanted to push. The PASM is a great "real world" solution - yes, it does adjust as you drive more aggressively, but in a very gradual way so it does not interfere with your feel of the car.

I have access to very high end suspension, and yes it is amazing when properly tuned, but it too involves compromises that you just don't make with PASM.

1999Porsche911

If you are serious about learning to drive a car on the track, forget the computer systems and AWD. Depending on computer control of traction is cheating.

Carcam

If the 997 C4s is anything like the 996C4s then the C2s will have a much lighter, peppier, sporty feel to it compared to the 4s. Engineering just can't overcome physics; there's a lot more weight in the 4s and it's up front where there is a direct effect on steering and handling. At the limit you can get better traction with AWD but I'm nowhere near the driving limits of these cars. Even your wife on rainy days is not going to be driving 20 over around corners to need the 4s. Now a C2s with the wider body and I might trade my 997S...

Truble10

I have to agree with Kevin. All the above posts missed the obvious to me - weight different. 2wd vs. 4wd. Why no wide body for the 2wd fans? I was at my local Posche dealer a month ago and they were calling the 997 & 997S a "widebody". I'm dissapointed that a "wider" body vehicle has become available but only in 4wd. I knew the turbo would have bigger hips.

930man

i truly belive the 2 w dr is ther way to go. I have a blast and run pretty quick lap times in my Non PASM 997 ... know what the car will do with out the aide of a computer really is nice... they made the C4S sound like it was everyones dream.... i dont see it.... it was fun passing a heavily modified Subaru STI in turn 7 of vir in my 997.... the fun part was listening to him brag "before" our session ... how fast the car was with AWD and his supension set up...i dont remberseeing him much after that

NoSubEDU

You passed him in the uphill esses? You must mean the North course...still, impressive nonetheless!

What kind of times are you getting on the full course, if you don't mind me asking.

MJones

How PASM works:
PASM selects the required damper hardness for each individual wheel from a
precisely coordinated map in both the Normal and the Sport program. The
possible damper settings range from comfortable to decidedly sporty.
Both programs, which overlap slightly in some areas, are additionally super-
imposed with five special software modules to provide the optimum damper
settings for everydriving condition.
The system automatically selects the appropriate damper hardness based on
the PASM programme selected and the driving condition identified. The Normal programoffers comfortable settings with comparatively low damper forces.
Special control algorithms in the PASM software modules enable the chassis to offer greater active driving safety in extreme driving situations, even with the Normal programme. To increase driving safety at higher speeds, the dampers are automatically switched to a harder damper setting as speed increases. The dampers switch to a hard characteristic when Sport modeis activated. This offers superior agility and excellent steering precisionon uneven surfaces.
If the system detects an uneven driving surface in Sport mode, it switches to a softer characteristic in milliseconds to improve contact with the road surface. PASM selects the optimum damper setting for this softercharacteristic from the Sport map. Since extremely hard damping is not always the ideal solution in every driving condition (softer damp- ing may prevent bouncing and shifting of the vehicle depending on the driving surface), the intentional overlap between the Normal and Sport maps allows a noticeably soft setting to be selected even in the Sport map if necessary.
The customer gets an active sports chassis which automatically responds to the actual road surface and switches from a hard, sporty damping setting to a
comfortable range as necessary. PASM switches back to the original
characteristic as soon as the driving situation allows.

Le Chef

PASM on my car has the default setting which is "comfort" and when I press the button i get the harder "sport" setting. I would have thought that pressing the PASM button again would take you back to comfort...

In addition what is the difference between "sport mode" "additional sport mode" and "standard sport mode"? I thought they were one and the same thing. More confusion and no mention of this third setting anywhere in the instruction book.

930man

yes the North course... we run with nasa anywhere pass with a point.... north course i run 1:46 & 47"s i will have to look for the full course.... begining of summer i ran it the car was brand new

Michael1

Just curious, did you test drive the standard 997 without PASM? I didn't feel the 997 was too soft, nor had much body lean. It seems that perhaps they made some improvements from the 996 to 997.

Michael

Coochas

Hi 930man (btw, a 930 was the first 911 I ever drove and was the beginning of my lust affair),
I have done quite a bit of reading about the 997 4S (as I am now officially a waiter)...it seems that all of the articles praise the car in a big way but at the end of the day the consensus is that they would likely buy a 2S simply because it costs less - they do state that if U need a daily driver and live in the North that the 4S would be the way to go.
Walter Rohrl prefers the 4S for what that's worth! With Rohrl behind the wheel at Nurburgring North, both the 2S and 4S posted identical 8:02 times - this is a first for Porsche naturally aspirated AWD.
For more reading see: More 4S reading

Chris C.

One of the articles does state out right (car and driver?) that the C4s feels more like a normal car than the RWD version..more weight up front to aid with transitions. Drive em both. The driving experience was very different (and noticeable) in 993s (my experience base).