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Good tires are the best solution/preparation for Florida rain.

 

I'm going to have to voice my opinion that I strongly disagree with all season tires.

You won't get any benefit in wet traction, and you will be sacrificing about 20% of the car's performance. If that becomes an option, then nevermind discussing 4s vs 2s etc... there is then no real reason to get an S model in the first instance.

Get summer tires for when the temps are 40+. Use winters or drive sparingly in other conditions. Compromising 100% of the time just doesn't make sense to me when you're driving a 911.

 

For a daily driver, you are carrying a lot more weight with the all wheel drive cars--needlessly.

 

I know you are justifying your 4S and there really is no need to...you have a beautiful and great car.

However the 4S is heavier, plows more in the corners but something you'd really not notice on the street.

You're opinion is your opinion and mine is just as valid however I have tracked a 4S and can really feel the difference. I haven't tracked a 4S in the rain though. I truly believe the only true reason for 4S is if daily driving in the north in the snow.

 

This.

I think your tire selection might be more relevant, i'm in a 997S with Michelin PSS and the car handles rain like a champ.

 

Fair enough but I just go by track times of pro drivers. Different cars take different driving techniques and if someone tries to drive an awd car like they do a rwd car, they might form just such an opinion. Some people on here have similar views of the R8... another awd car... people I know personally who have access to a variety of supercars swear by the R8, and prefer it to tracking over their f430s...

The argument of much more weight isn't very relevant by the numbers or facts. 120 lbs is not a huge amount of weight, when we are talking about cars where checking some items on other options adds the same.

I dont need to defend or justify my car as I test drove plenty, including c2s and R8s, and a mix of other rwd and awd cars, and chose what I chose. Awd is generally the superior performance choice but I understand the joy of rwd too.

The numbers aren't subjective, and aren't opinion... the 4s performs equally in the dry and adds fulls seconds in the wet.. the rest is subjective but saying "much heavier" like that one selection makes it a porker, is highly inaccurate.

 

Just going to point out the obvious but a cabriolet adds another 100 lbs or so on top of that... and loses rigidity, and if with a hardtop in place of the soft top you have even more weight up top... without any traction benefits...

Beautiful car and not judging but I find the defensiveness or attempt to dissuade from the very real benefits of awd (traction in wet or imperfect surfaces, improved stability) a bit odd from the rwd crowd here... c'mon folks.

 

As it applies to a C2, C2S, GT3, etc.

When someone who has always driven front engined, rear wheel or all wheel drive cars starts looking at 911s, they've preconditioned themselves about the benefits of all wheel drive because those are the dynamics they have experience with, however, with the 911 being a rear engine car, the dynamics are completely different. You have most of the weight over the driving wheels, which provides for excellent traction, even in rain. With a 911, you also get the added benefit of the rear brakes actually contributing to the stopping equation because of the mass at the rear of the car. When I picked up my first C2S in Pittsburgh I drove it home to SC in some of the hardest rain and storms I've ever driven in and of course I was driving carefully, but the car handled and drove wonderfully and never missed a step - I was actually a bit surprised.

For me, I like the purer 911 rear drive only experience. I like the way nothing interferes with the feel of the front wheels and the perfected hydraulic steering. I like the slightly looser tail and PSM can be there if you want to help save the new 911 owner until he gets the feel of the car.

I had actually planned to buy an AWD 997, looking at turbos and C4S cars, but then found the C2S based RUF R-KOMPRESSOR that I ended up buying and am so glad that's what I ended up with, but that's me. The reason Porsche makes all the different variants of these cars is so each of us can select the one that's right for us, so don't pay too much attention to any of these responses - go drive all the ones you're considering and form your own opinion as to what the right combination is for you and how you'll use the car - none of them are a bad choice, they all just have their own nuances.

With regard to tires, on my wife's C2S which is her daily driver and sees plenty of rain duty, we've been very pleased with the rain performance of the Hankook Ventus Evo2 tires she's currently running. Wear has been significantly better than the Nitto Invos we had on there before (which is what I run on my car), but she doesn't drive like I do and our cars are used differently, so you may want to check into them as a long-wearing tire that's great in the rain for your long commute. They are a directional, not an asymmetrical tread design so you won't be able to rotate them without a dismount and remount, but that's also probably one of the reasons they have such good wet weather performance; just make sure your alignment is right.

 

Thanks for your personal opinion, but my indie recommended me the AS tires for street use here, and he also builds Porsches for racing and has his own winning Porsche racing team so I think I'll stick with his advice. Particularly since other than on tracks (where most people use a second set of wheels/tires), there are almost no winding roads here in south Florida (which is what the OP was asking about) the difference in straight-line performance is negligible. These tires run about $1100 a set of 4 and last 20K (front)/30K (rear) which makes them around a 4th the cost of p-zeros or the like.

 

You're getting 10k more miles from your rears than your fronts? That's unheard of and is usually a 2:1 ratio in the other direction.

 

Citing to his race team, etc etc... makes not an iota of difference to me. All seasons on a 911... go ahead and do that and listen to his advice, why would I care? Yes, it is my personal opinion but it is bizarre advice to me for a performance car... And if it for financial reasons, then that is okay too, I guess [actually this could be a very valid reason to do this...]... but again, an odd place to skimp out.

Old but telling for a comparison test:
http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/f...vs-summer.html

 

Wait, I didn't even know they made all season tires for 911's. lol

 

btw for full disclosure... my next Porsche (addition) will almost certainly be a GT3... so I'm not some awd junkie...

 

Not me , I'm a control freak, once you go awd you'll never go back. (lol)

My next one, 911Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet

 

LOLOLOL that comes as no surprise. Fact is though, his is bigger

Some people buy tires based on what their car is theoretically capable of, and others buy tires based on how they're actually going to drive it. The OP asked about Florida. The roads here are 99% straight and heavily trafficked. The odds of exceeding 100mph (being very generous) for any significant distance without getting pulled over by the FHP are not good. Realistically, the only place here anyone is going to push a 997 anywhere near the point where the AS970 Pole Position is going to detract would be on a track. Most people I know who track their DD's have a second set of wheels anyway.

I was replying to the OP's question as a long-time FL resident. His stated driving patterns are similar to mine save for 10X longer distances of his commute...which would make cost even more of an issue for him. Not sure how well your use and biases apply to him.