AeroSmith

Drove my daughter to school this morning in the Zoomer. Spoiled kid has been getting driven to school in a p-car since she was in pre-school. The kids love the car, btw. My two year old son gets in and asks, "ready for take off?"

Anyway, I dropped her off and had to go over to ACE hardware for some Stabil to put in my generator gas tank. I tanked it up for the hurricane and thankfully never needed it. Of course I took the long way back from ACE.

I popped onto I-275 into 75 MPH rush hour traffic going north. Yawn. But I was headed towards the 54th Avenue exit which is a wonderful double clover leaf. The offramp leaf leads onto a tenth of a mile straight lane which puts you onto another leaf which puts you back onto I-275 south going back towards my house. No one ever gets off only to get right back on so the lane in between the ramps clears right out.

PASM sport mode: ON.
PSE: ON.
BOSE: Cheryl Crow.

Anyway, the exit lane is an exit only so I was able to get her up to 95 or so before stomping on the brakes, downshifitng and downshifting to second and entering the 20 MPH offramp clover leaf at about 50. This car is so rock solid in tight turns. I can't get the tires to screetch. Offramp leads to 1/10th mile straight with no one ahead of me. I nail it in second on up to 70 MPH where I would have shifted but I was close to the next on ramp clover leaf so I held it at 70 then on the brakes at the last second into the ramp going 40 then lightly on the gas up to 50 as the 20 MPH ramp gets tighter and tighter and I just keep the wheel cranked over and the throttle balanced....and here is where I litterally felt a little dizzy. But man the tires weren't screeching and the car was composed and there was a big grin on my face as I straightened the wheel and blasted into third and then fourth and up to 100 and then 5th and 6th on my way back towards downtown and my I-375 spur offramp which has a fun 50 posted sweeper that a 911 will do at 90 no problem.

What a car! It's a drug.

A couple of thoughts on the 997. The handling is much more solid than in my 996. I cannot get the tires to chirp. I love PASM. Normal mode is great up to 70. Above 70 sport mode is a must. I love the way that RPM in second gear is also your speed (2,000=20 MPH, 7,000=70). It was this way in the 996 as well. I love the feel of this car's shifter. I love the feel of the control stalks with the soft little indents on the back which make you want to caress them with your fingers. I like that I can now press the spoiler or PASM or PSE buttons by feel without looking. I love the look of the new gauge cluster. Warmed up is no longer 175 degrees water temp but is now 200 degrees oil temp. The BOSE sounds fantastic (bass -2). When I got home I sat in the car for a few minutes listening to Ms. Crow and letting the car cool down at idle and I was in heaven.

996toomey

Stop it. I can't take anymore.

JFScheck

Everything sounds great except for that "Crow coming from your Speakers"...

Next time when you are running that straight route try "Red Barchetta" from Rush...

Sounds like great fun! I have an exit/on ramp over here that is simular. Can't wait to try it with the new car when she arrives!

AeroSmith

Oh come on now! The build up is half the fun.

I forgot to mention, I'm closing in on 700 miles. I did adhere to the 4,200 limit for 400 miles but my feeling is that the rings seat better if you give it to her once in a while. But don't get me wrong, I've been driving her very smoothly and haven't hit the rev limiter and haven't speed shifted her and haven't taken the brakes anywhere near their limits. Smooth, smooth, smooth is my break-in mantra.

My 996 never burned a drop of oil past break-in. She did burn anout a quart and a half durring break-in. This 997 burned .4 liters (one dash on the oil level indicator) of oil in the first 300 or so miles and since then I haven't been able to get her to burn a drop. I try and I try and she just doesn't seem to want to burn any more. I'm darned curious to see what my total oil burned is when I reach 2,000 miles. She really seems to be breaking in nicely. Hopefully, like my 996, she won't burn a drop after break-in.

OCBen

Hmmm, I presume it was through extrapolation that you were able to ascertain the correlation of 7000 rpm and 70 mph, while adhering to the 4200 rpm limit???

Ditto on the "Red Barchetta" track, JFS. I also like to hear "Limelight" off that same album when cruising along.

One of my all time favorite tracks for burning up the road is "Panama" by Van Halen:

Ain't nothin' like it, her shiny machine.
Got the feel for the wheel, keep the moving parts clean.
Hot shoe, burnin' down the avenue,
Got an on-ramp comin' through my bedroom.
Don't you know she's coming home with me?
You'll lose her in the turn.
I'll get her!

Yeah, we're runnin' a little bit hot tonight.
I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off of it.
Ah, you reach down, between my legs,
ease the seat back.
She's blinding, I'm flying,
Right behind the rear-view mirror now.
Got the feeling, power steering,
Pistons popping, ain't no stopping now!
Panama...

JFScheck

Yes, some "VH" (with David) is always good, but let's not forget "Sammy" and "I Can't Drive 55"...

Boy, this could be a whole new thread...

eilig

I know what you're saying about the dizziness....

Yesteday I stomped on the brakes from high speed, and the deceleration was so violent, I had a little 2 second episode of vertigo right there on I-294. The car's ability to push the G loads definitely are impressive!

SrfCity

Sounds great. Sorry that you have to get your thrills from off ramps. Bring that baby out here some day for some real canyon roads.

OCBen

Yeah, on hard deceleration too, I felt an uneasy, queasy feeling inside like never before.

Happened on McArthur Blvd here a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday morning. Some young guy in a G35 was trying to show me up as he cut in front of me and sped past me to the next light. He pissed me off by that maneuver and so after he took off at the light I passed around the car in front of me and chased him down and blew by him in third like he was standing still - I was only defending the honor of the badge of course. I didn’t slow down until I was really close to the next light and then I hit the brakes, coming to a complete stop in such a short distance. When he finally came to the light he gave me a thumbs up and I just tipped my head back in a nod and just drove away slowly.

What was really weird was how my innards were feeling right afterwards. I didn’t know if it was because of the anxiety I was suddenly feeling for having done such a stupid thing, or the g-load effect from the sudden deceleration. ... What a car!

NoSubEDU

Take it to the track and see what she can do...the screech is good, ummkay? ;-)

Carcam

Damn you, Aerosmith. I think I'm going to have to get the X51...I'm happy with most of my 997S launch car, except for the black paint. I've done everything to maintain a swirl-free paint but it takes too much time and effort so I'm going to order an '06 probably white or special order polar silver. And now I think I have to have the x51 too. Are you sure Porsche didn't "plant" you here to peak our intertest in their latest upgrade? I could wait and get a turbo since I had an 01 996 but I'm not a biog fan of wings and gills/slits/vents- really prefer the clean look of the Carrera S. But a little extra power, especially torque is always nice. Thanks for your enthusiastic updates.

Larry Harris

An off ramp near me is posted @ 50mph. Recently while negotiating the ramp at 100 mph my CD began playing "I'm just a stranger here Lord, Heaven is my home"

loliver

Hey Aerosmith,
My Club Coupe is on the way, I love your driving posts. I have a question that I have not seen addressed. If you have the "Sport mode" on when you shut down, does it restart in that mode or does it default to normal? BTW I am in Ft. Myers. If you get down this way, let me know. A picture of our 2 blues together would be pretty cool. Glad you did not need the generator. I did a whole house, 40KW propane, after Charley (5 days 90 degree +) Wilma was only 20 hours off the grid.

Bodhi

You've got to turn sport mode on everytime you start up the car. At least in my 997. . .

vtach88

In mine, you have to push "sport" each time you start the car. However, if you only want sport mode PASM, then that button seems to stay on at all times.