simsgw

From a quick survey of threads, they have the usual concerns about a new model, but nothing exciting:

• How does this option look in person?
• Does the sunroof option bang into the roof transport option?
• What are the best areas to protect against stones?

That sort of thing. On the other hand, I see a newcomer to boards with his first Porsche (a 997.1) accidentally posted there. I'm sure he mistook '991' for '911' and I was pleased to see he got a friendly welcome to the Porsche family instead of a brusque send-off. It will be an okay place to visit, just nothing toothy being debated yet. Not a word about the dreaded IMS or oil consumption in DFI engines or ... well, nothing interesting at all yet.

Gary, who supposes Zuffenhausen know how to specify a roof rack

rodsky

Congrats Gary! I think the 991 cab is really nice. I have seen more and more of them on the road in and around my neighborhood. Although I still love my 997.2 and I plan (or should I say planned) to keep it for a long time, my ADD is kicking in and I am getting drawn to a 991cab. I'm not ready and may not do it, but open top driving in SoCal is awesome. I went to PDK after driving manuals my whole life, and I love it. Still miss a 6MT for the occasional moment but overall I'd do it again in PDK on my next one.

Best of luck and enjoy the 991 in the best of health..

Zeus993

Open air driving... Is so awesome. I've owned my cab since mid-August and just yesterday drove my first day WITHOUT the top down. Just finished a couple 1000km trip up into the Canadian Rockies and back with the top down 80% of the way. Nothing beats the experience. You are going to have fun Gary.

w00tPORSCHE

Gary we all love you here at RL. Glad you got what you wanted. Enjoy safely for years to come. My '09 C4S that was bought the very next day you bought yours has 25K miles on it and is going strong.

simsgw

Aha! Got you by 16k! Mine has 40,700 on her as of this afternoon. And at least two DE's left in her I wager.

Gary

db

Ah, okay Gary, so this is the new Porsche you're after. Great choice. After driving the 991 S PDK on track at the Porsche World Roadshow, I know just what an amazing machine it is. I'm sure you'll have many miles of smiles with it. I'm looking forward to going for a hot lap with you at the next PCA event!

Congrats!

96redLT4

Hi Gary. Your description was spot on about all the wonders of the PDK technology. Are you at all worried, as some here have found out, about the novelty wearing off after a few weeks or months, and yearning for that 'feeling' that a manual transmission brings? Glad to see you back posting.

Jim

simsgw

Count on it, Doug. Well, not exactly 'next' event. We have a DE at Buttonwillow on Friday the 2d of Nov before the race weekend, and my new Carrera will still be on a truck then. We have another DE day at Fairplex on the 18th and I hope to have it by then.

Thank you, Jim.

I understand the novelty effect, but I don't think it matters. Aside from my being seriously gadget-resistant after nearly fifty years of designing computers, the feel of the PDK is truly just like a manual. Without the third pedal of course. What we normally are able to sense about the difference is the solid connection of a manual transmission driveline, and the hesitant slightly soft feeling of shifts in an automatic, even on high performance cars like the Corvette or the Tiptronic Porsches. The PDK jumps both those hurdles, because it is in fact a solid driveline, merely with a computer controlling the shifts along two different torque paths. And it certainly shifts up or down as crisply as we could wish. With a bürp added! Okay, I can do that myself by double clutching, but my own version isn't as cute. I didn't try, but I'll bet they programmed it to sound ferocious in Sport Plus mode instead of cute. I would.

Have I mentioned the final nail in the coffin of 'modern' automatics? For me at least? I came over Willow's turn six in a sedan in 'manual' shift mode, planning to keep ahead of the BMW 3-Series who was terribly embarrassed by my handicap placard dangling from the mirror. I commanded a shift up into the next gear... and got nothing. I wasn't sure whether the computer had decided the car had had enough, or the transmission overheated shifting under power for several laps like that. After the fact, I decided it had to be overheating. The computer would have commanded some sort of limp-home mode and it did not.

I provided the "limp home" myself, manually so to speak, by dodging the fast line through turns seven, eight, and nine to reach the pits in second gear. And then told Cindy "Never again." No more automatics. Now that I think of it, that picture of me with the Aussie in my avatar was taken that day.

Fortunately, the PDK isn't an automatic in any sense except salesmen reassuring the novices they won't have to "deal with a stick". And the results from racing indicate the dual clutches last a hell of a lot longer than racing clutches.

Gary

fskof

Congrats on the new car! Cant wait for your full review after you pick up your new car

seapar

Gary,
If I can reply to your post #31 I would consider regarding bullet point 3

-- Full front end wrap with XPEL looks cleaner than half hood bra esp if lighter color and front windshield Clearplex to protect against all things stones and the like.

Peter

Mike in CA

Agree completely, Gary, with your take above on the so-called gadget factor re: PDK.

simsgw

I don't worry about that myself, Peter. I think of minor rock chips as badges of honor for a sports car. Might feel different if I lived on a gravel road of course.

That was just one of the things I noticed being discussed on the 991 forum.

Gary

simsgw

Should be a pretty hot lap despite the comfort options, Doug. The power-to-weight ratio is improved slightly and the PDK is significant on track. I like to break my cars in for a couple of thousand miles, so we won't find out right away, but I'd expect the new one to shave at least two seconds off a lap time at Streets of Willow. Always presuming I could take them both to the limit and that the tires were the same. My back tends to limit the former and I suspect the new models are being delivered on Pirellis, but I didn't bother to ask. So maybe it will only be a luke-warm lap, but the car won't be the limiting factor!

I'm sure someone asked about the options, but if not, I'll volunteer anyway: PDK, PSE, and Sport Chrono are the important ones. PASM is standard of course. And PTV as well. Of course the comfort options were the only hope for my continuing to drive a sports car, so I didn't quibble when selecting them automatically included doodads like "Interior Lighting for Rear Compartment." What the hell, might help find my camera lens next time I drop it back there. And this car certainly can tolerate an extra 20 kilos of option weight.

Speaking of the in-car cameras, I'm going to work with Jim at Auto Gallery, the shop foreman, to expose the LATCH anchors and attach straps, or use some other method to properly fix a tripod on this car. The tricks I've been using on the 2009 aren't good enough. The tripod shifted at that last DE day and I have several laps of my A-pillar whizzing past landscape.

If anyone cares, the packages I demanded drug in these 'minor' options with them:

Appearance:

• Porsche Crest on headrests
• Wheel caps color Porsche crest
• Sport Chrono dial in Carrara White

Controls:

• Multi-function steering wheel
• Power Steering Plus
• Porsche Entry & Drive
• Bi-Xenon(TM)hdlghts incl.PDLS
• Automatically dimming mirrors
• Int Light Pkg for Rear Compart
• Rear parking assist (Stock on all cabs now)

Comfort:

• Prem Pkg Plus w 18-way seats
• Espresso natural lthr interior
• Sport Seats Plus backs leather
• Seat heating (front)
• Seat ventilation (front)

Entertainment:

• Burmester® Audio Package
• SiriusXM(R) & HD Radio(R) rcvr
• 6 disc CD/DVD changer

I say 'minor' in quotes, because the Premium Package is the only hope for continuing in a Carrera with my back, but also ... well, they total 22% of the final price. I know, because I closed the deal yesterday. Turned over my 997.2 in exchange for a Panamera loaner until my new Carrera arrives.

More on the Pannie as I have time with it, but it certainly would be a fallback if the vibration in the new Carrera still does me in. I certainly hope that doesn't turn out to be the case, but the Panamera would be a decent choice if I must give up Carreras.

Gary

utkinpol

you do not need tripod, best mount would be a harness bar.
http://www.ebsracing.com/item.wws?mf...USE&sku=BK1030

find one used for $300 or so.

simsgw

They wouldn't be compatible with a 991 Cab, Paul. They would interfere with the wind barrier the comes forward to lie behind the seats when the top is lowered. Mind you, I could disconnect that barrier, but I can't use the bar for anything else and I don't care that much about the camera mount. Designing around that moving barrier is a major issue of cameras with this new car.

For those who don't already know, we can't use those harness bars in PCA driving events for their intended purpose without also changing to a racing seat. You cannot run any PCA driving event with four-point belts. Only three-, five- or six-point set-ups. And the use of a fifth belt with a stock seat, running the anti-submarine belt over the front of the seat pad is also against the rules. The seat must have a hole where the belt passes through directly to a mount in the floor. Without "going around corners" so to speak.

That isn't arbitrary, but quite scary sensible when you think about it.

First, the four-point belts: They keep you upright in a forward collision, right? Well, briefly. What they really do is keep your torso from bending forward at the hips and that means the lap belt can't keep you from sliding under. To some greater or lesser extent, depending on the g-loads of the collision, but certainly to some extent, and any submarining at all is enough to create deadly loads on the torso above the hip bone. Second, they keep you from bending forward at the hip during roll-over accidents. And the standard roll-over calculations for protection in stock cars assume pax and driver are bent forward. A four-point belt with a roll-cage just holds you in position like a nail, waiting to be hammered by the roof as it flattens onto your head and spine. Or the ground directly in the case of a Cab.

All that's why we don't allow four-point belts. The fifth belt, the ball-crusher as some call it, that goes between your legs is to keep you from submarining even though your torso stays upright. Again, you must have a roll-cage to be safe if your torso is held upright, but the reason we don't allow fifth belts to cross over the seat front is the body slides down a long way before reaching the belt in that position. The flimsy structure of a seat cushion might as well be thin air at the high g-loads in collisions, so essentially you have a loose belt passing between your legs. Worse than useless.

In other words, you get to crush your attachments, and still don't prevent submarining. So you likely will die shortly afterward anyway, which may comfort some. But we don't allow it.

I suspect both those rules are national guidelines for all racing organizations, but I haven't bothered to look.

Gary