+1 ....just went 2 weeks ago and loved it. Women's coures is the same, just without men

 

Jools, 997 AWD cars actually have a dual sump fuel tank that straddles the front drive shaft (with 2 scavenge pumps) - and, believe it or not, a marginallly larger capacity - 17.7 US gallons in the C4/C4S, vs 16.9 US gallons in the C2/C2S.

Just fyi... -don

 

Huh, never knew that about the 997s, assumed it was the same as the older models.
Never assume! Thanks for the info.
Jools

 

No prob, I was reading the 997 C4/C4S Technik pdf last night (due to general boredom), and found the fuel tank tidbit...

Hey, your avatar is beautiful... do you miss the 996 TT? X50s are rare; how does the 997 compare?

-don

 

Funnily enough, when I was thinking about buying the 997 the dealer rang me and told me that my tt had been traded back in and was for sale, was I interested?
I don't think you can ever go back so I stuck with the 997. Its much nicer to drive, sounds fantastic, has a much nicer interior and just felt more modern and a nicer place to be. It does not move like the tt, not even close to how fast it felt, but (IMHO) that made it a bit of a one trick pony. Hell of a trick though, accelerate like the space shuttle.
I do see another turbo on the horizon though, but it will be a cab and a 997.... Might have to wait a couple of years though.

 

Thanks for your insight, Jools. Heard basically the same from an acquaintance who traded his 996 TT (not an X50) for a 997 C2S. He misses the "Navy F-16 cat launches" that he got from the TT (his words), but said that the 997 is clearly a more modern and solid car overall, and a better daily driver...

One comment that he made about the Turbo was that nobody ever challenged him when he was driving it... but it seems like everybody wants to race the C2S... I've never owned a Turbo, but I know about everybody wanting the race my C4S... I'll mess with them, get them to launch hard and do my best to guide them into known speed traps around town. :-)

I'd love to have a 997 GT3 but with Kid #1 starting college in 2 weeks... <groan>

-don

 

Lori,

A couple of things. First is sign up for a PCA DE (vs. PDE). Ours are usually in the $185 to $195 per day range and as a starting student, you'll have classroom instruction, an instructor in your car for 4 sessions, etc. Great way to explore the limits / dynamics of your car.

Next is to leave Sport suspension alone -- simply no need for it on the street and it's off limits on many tracks too. You need "perfect" pavement to get more out of sport than you get out of normal (believe me, I've experimented with this over 15 hours of track driving). The combination of 19" wheels / tires and Sport provides poorer riding / handling. The best combination I've found is 18" and Sport on good pavement.

How long since your car was delivered? If within 2000 miles, you can get a new alignment done by your dealer free of charge. Many (perhaps most) 997s were delivered with alignment way out of whack. Mine was terrible, and they corrected it and dialed out as much understeer as they could. Figure you can get to -0.8 degrees front, perhaps up to -1, which will reduce understeer and give you crisper turn-in.

 

Thank you all for your excellent advice. I turned off the sport suspension and filled the tank before having a go the same twisties today. The car handled much better.
I'll talk to my dealer about alignment even though I have about 5000 miles on the car now.
PCA DE sounds great. Where do I sign up

 

Lori where are you located?

 

Good news. Got to www.pca.org and follow the links to find the chapter in your area. There you will find a listing of DE (Drivers Education). What I do is look at chapters throughout my region because many use the same track (ie: Lime Rock and Watkins Glen). Another way to find DEs is to visit Dale's site at www.thetrackschedule.com -- they do a great job keeping track of all of the events in the region. You go onto their site and can use the "filters" function to filter out things outside of your area.

Sport suspension is basically worthless unless on the track and it's perfectly smooth. I remember reading something about Walter Rohl getting better lap times on the Ring with the suspension in normal vs. sport. With OEM tires and suspension on normal, I achieved 1.51 G lateral and 1.42 G braking. Goes to show you what's possible with a street alignment, oem tires, and normal suspension.

As to alignment, it may not hurt to have it re-done anyway after 5k miles. He can dial in whatever you want. Street or Street / Track using the maximum -0.8 to -1 degrees you can get out of the oem arms.

Good luck!

 

Virginia.

 

Looks like you have 3 different chapters in VA and I'm sure they all have DEs fairly regularly.
http://www.pca.org/regions/regions.asp?Zone=2

Talk about fortunate -- to be in VA where you can drive on VIR regularly!