Hi Everyone. Had the event yesterday. It was nice except for the stupid Cayenne S and Hybrid Comparison track. Waste. And the Hybrid sucks! Everyone agreed. New Boxster was really nice. Good acceleration and balance. Good looking as well except for the rear! Wow. Hideous. But overall, the Boxster is insane with well deserved upgrades. Now, the 991's felt much more powerful despite the stat comparisons! Even the instructors were joking and saying "if you like the Boxster, wait till you see the 991". 991 base and S felt super powerful and well planted - even in the rain. Very well balanced. They just felt like a totally different car/ride than the Boxster - much more mature. Can't really compare the two cars so I won't go there. The test drives really reinforced the notion that these will always be two different cars for different buyer types. But hats off to the new Boxster

The real comparison is the 991 vs 997. Not sure which I like better from a performance standpoint - they each have good attributes (like the 997 steering better but kudos to the new PDK transmission). Need more test drives but I definitely agree that the 991 has become more of a GT car - much less hardcore! Still cant get comfortable with the interior. Exterior? Awesome!

 

Interesting to read your perspectives. Like you, we got to drive the new Boxster S and 991 S at PSDS a couple weeks ago and I thought the new Boxster was an amazing car, as was the 991S PDK, even though I still like to row the gears in my 997. They are two very different cars, but both stellar in their own right.

The Boxster has amazing balance and grip, but it lacks the "planted" feeling of the 991. Perhaps that's due to my bias towards the 911, but others felt the same way who drove both cars back to back.

I'm quite content with my 997 and enjoy every aspect of it. The new ones are great cars and my hat's off to anyone who wants to get into one, but they are certainly a different experience than the previous generations of each. Less involved and more technology driven, but extremely compelling and impressive when only comparing performance statistics.

 

Couldnt agree more!

 

Was this a special event to intro the new Boxster?

 

I was there yesterday too. I was at the 7:45AM session - apparently we were the first ones to break in the cars for the NA roadshow!

The hybrids were close, however, no match for petrol. I agreed that is was lame to try to gain "buy -in" for hybrids. The gas variants had a lot more oommpf right off the line. I overheard one of the other guys in my group say that he likes the hybrids better b/c it had "smoother" power delivery. Yeah.. more like slower My wife was laughing at his statement - like, is he serious, he really liked the hybrid more? Of course, I was proud of her.

 

No, Porsche World Roadshow. Just a demo of most models on a track. Invite only. I was surprised to hear that not everyone there owned a Porsche - so not sure how they got on the mailing list.

 

Nope. There were four Friday sessions. I was at the 3:15pm one.

I think a lot of the guests (you were allowed to bring a 2nd person) didn't have P-cars. Or they're prospective buyers that dealers invited...

I was at the Friday 3:15pm session. Here's a quick rundown.

The lead-follow exercise on the North Course allowed you and your guest to each drive 1 lap in each of 3 cars: Carrera, Carrera S, and Panamera GTS. You drive while your guest rides shotgun, then you switch. The two 991s were amazing. The Panamera (with the most HP of the 3 at 430) was a nightmare to drive in comparison. It was all over the road. I got out of the car pretty queasy after our two laps.

It was my first time on a track and I was blown away. Turns out we weren't really going that fast (the fastest speedo reading I saw during my day was 88), but it sure felt fast to me in the corners. Others told me that they let the car ahead of them get a little away in the lead-follow exercise so they could catch up in on the straightaway. They said they hit > 100mph. All cars were PDK. Put it in drive and go. I was thankful for that, actually, because 1) I'd never driven a PDK car before and it was good to try, and 2) I'm not sure how I would've fared if I also had to consider what gear to be in at any given time. For a first time track experience, PDK was the way to go.

I won't even talk about the hybrid/gasoline comparison test. It was pretty bogus. A marketing ploy if I ever saw one.

The autocross session, on the "Mushroom Course" took one driver at a time in a 2013 Boxster around a SHORT section of track with an instructor in the passenger seat. Maybe 45 seconds of driving. Each person did one lap, twice. In the only real corner of the drive I really noticed how easily the Boxster clung to the curve. There was no tension at ALL. It was pretty amazing. I asked my instructor how "close to the edge" we were driving. He said 60%. I thought were were really movin' - guess I've got a lot to learn...

So total driving time was about 3 minutes per car on the big track = 9 minutes, plus two 45 second runs on the autocross = 1.5 minutes. Looks like the 3-hour session had us driving about 10 minutes and 30 seconds. If you count shotgun rides you could bump it up to 19m30s.

For me, it was more fun than I'm making it sound...

My drive home was also sweet - Rt 23 South in NY down to NJ. I spent a lot of time trying to keep up with the yellow GT3RS right in front of me. Holy crap that thing is fast.

 

I was there on Saturday and agree it was great fun. Not sure I get the vitriol towards the hybrids though. Neither my guest or I could tell the difference in performance / handling between the Panemera S and the Hybrid version in the braking/slalom exercises.

That said, the hybrid is a good bit more expensive for what (on paper at least) seems like a trivial bump in fuel economy. Maybe in reality the savings are more substantial (e.g. in stop / start traffic).

And +1 on the new Boxster. Not sure what I was expecting, but it's a very nippy, well-balanced car - great fun to drive.

 

So I am being a total loser and going to the NJ event as well! Curious to see that track!

 

I was there Saturday in the last session of the day. Instructors told us to stick close in the lead and follow and not let a big gap open. They report slowing down if a gap opens but if we stick tight they would go faster. Our group listened and we hit 115-120mph on nearly every lap. I was impressed with the Panamera GTS. It obviously didn't corner as well as the 911 with it's 1000 extra lbs but was still a blast and well composed on the track. My guest doesn't have a Porsche but I think this event helped spur on his desire to join the club.

 

Thought the hybrid Panamera wasn't much different than Panamera S. I wouldn't buy the hybrid personally but could see why someone would buy one. For example wife tells husband to get a new car " honey why don't we buy a hybrid this time". Husband says OK to make her happy and comes home with Panamera hybrid. Wife feels good that the car saves some gas at a stop light and the car has nearly the same performance as a Panamera S.

 

Yah. Agree. Only under that circumstance. The biggest issue I had with the Hybrid was that the engine was completely silent. No roar. Forgot I was in a Porsche.

 

Awww..man. We were lied to!