Bruce In Philly

Let's try to have some fun here... not sure if this thread will bite......
This post is not meant to be a put down of non-drivers, just a lessons learned from experienced Porsche owners........ here we go....

Question: For those that drive their cars as a daily driver, put more than say 15K a year, or for track use, what have you learned about your Porsche 997, or advice that you want to pass to noobs, those with garage queens, or those who think rain drops are worse than terrorist bullets.???

My take:
1 - These cars are tough and not Faberge eggs
2 - Dealers are good but not the specially trained German Monks with a secret book of knowledge
3 - DIY is fun and will not cause your car to explode nor will you receive a letter of persona non grata from the German government.
4 - Painting a Porsche bumper is no different than painting a Kia bumper

Peace
Bruce in Philly

Dennis C

My 996 was my daily driver for years, and my 997 was for a short time. I'll add the following:

- The 997 is a great winter car when equipped with proper winter tires.
- Your 997 will still be drivable using something other than N-spec tires.

Fined

I got my car 4 months ago. I've driven it 10k miles in that time, including two track days.


-Car is a peach on long distance trips and I can get up to 28mpg with pure highway driving around 70mph
-Dont use the dealer for anything besides tech inspection
-I can't imagine letting this car sit
-I need another one

semicycler

-Download the Porsche parts diagrams .pdf file for your model (PET). Use it to find replacement part numbers. Then google search without any spaces, dashes or periods in the part number to find the best pricing. Suncoast, Sunset, Pelican, FCP Euro, ECS Tuning, Sonnen and other online sites are a great place for parts.

-Buy non-Porsche branded parts from the original equipment manufacturer whenever possible for a third to half of the cost of genuine Porsche branded parts. For example TRW makes many of the suspension parts for Porsche, identical parts just with the Porsche logo grinded off. Same thing for Huf/Beru TPM sensors.

-Toe alignment settings wear tires more than camber. To prolong your rear tire life on a daily driver have an alignment done with the lower side of the toe spec (closer to the zero toe side).

Supermode

Where the Hell did you go son!

Wayne Smith

I'm at 25K a year average with many 30K 4 month intervals. Bottom line ... the more you drive these cars the better they run. And long trips are a dream. We did 3600 miles in 8 days in June. The only thing I wanted at the end of each day was more miles. I woke up at 3 each morning like a kid on Xmas ... not able to get back to sleep on account of expectation.

These cars will do anything (short of major payloads). That's my take away.

Get out and drive.

Fined

picked the car up at the end of march in Memphis then headed up to Indianapolis as I hadn't been home in a couple of years and then across to Charlotte. So bringing the car back to the house (in Charlotte) was a 1,200 mile journey the first weekend.

the next weekend I made myself a mountain route and drove it;

https://goo.gl/maps/PGRTr476eF12

then the very next weekend I went and did it again.. sometimes re-running the really good twisty portions 3 or 4x.. it ended up being 12+ hours of nonstop driving.. and a warning to replace pads at the end of the day. Well earned!


4th of July weekend I went home to Indy again from Charlotte (another 1100 mile or so)

The very next weekend I took the car over to Atlanta Motorsports park from Charlotte. So thats another 600 miles or so there.

Plus about 220 miles per week regular commuting (35 mile round trip commute to work) and errands.

PJorgen

Something I've learned from multiple P-cars and many track days:

- The car is incredibly capable on track in bone-stock configuration. The driver is more likely the limiting factor. Don't throw a lot of money at mods until you have many, many track days and can truly drive the car to it's limits.

tomc_mets

+1
T

rbennett

Porsche parts fail just like any other non European car

- Batteries last about as long as your sisters Chevy SUV, Porsche are not special
- Oil needs to be changed often, just like a Toyota Maxima
- The same air goes into your tires like any other car
- Soot builds up on exhaust tips, your should see my daughters Altima
- Most all cars grunt and groan as they age just like my 200k mileage F150

jhbrennan

Does your daughter have the Toyota version or the Nissan version

Petza914

With a pretty standard set of good tools, jacks, stands, and the search for a DIY, you can do almost any mechanical repair,service, or modification to these cars.

I refer to myself as an "Internet Mechanic"

Rikky001

Absolutely. I think that if you like to drive on the track; invest in some specific track training first. I loved to do the Porsche motorsport training. A bit expensive but very good.
It is nice to see the faces when you roll up on a 997.1 4S tiptronic (stock)on the track and than take over a few fancy cars with all the gear and stickers.
I am not the best driver but I am sure my previous motorsport training made me a better and faster driver.
A track car "need" to be manual results always in a heated discussion but regardless, your skills ( for the beginner- advanced driver) will be the limiting factor not the tiptronic, pdk or manual gearbox. If you are that good that you can drive at the edge, than it would be time to spend some money on track set up I would say. Or just buy a GT3 or GT3RS instead which has all the kit installed from the factory.

mdrums

I've had 2 Boxsters a long time ago they were mostly my wife cars I never really drove them much as I didn't fit well in them. I've had 4 997's since 2006 and tracked the heck out of all of them and weekly drove them plus doing long 6+ hour trips.

Like Porsche's of the past and the current Porsche's, when I got my 1st 911 a 2006 Carrera S and started to track it I learned:

The car in stock form is far more capable than I was
The car can easily be learned to drive fast
The brakes are easy to work on
The car is extremely reliable
Tracking the car hard will not wear it out and cause it to show signs of wear and rattles
I miss owning a Porsche!