Sun Ra

can anyone else comment on the ride of the 3 vs, say a stradale?

i got the 3 back from service today and drove it after drving the strad. all day. it is very bouncy, and hard up and down on the road, and thus twitchy -- whilst the strad just soaks everything up whilst not being too soft...

my 3 is set stock. are there suspension changes to make that would smooth the car out on the road w/o changing its overall handling?

TIA

OldGuy

Compared to the 996 the 7 GT3 is very compliant. In Normal. If I push the PASM button on
a rough road I get the ride you describe.

dan360

Interesting.

I also have both. I find in MA that the CS is pretty hard in most circumstances. The GT3 is fine as long as you steer clear of the hard damper mode which is pretty much useless on the road (I haven't hit the track yet in the GT3).

The GT3 is lower at the front than the CS, just as well I'm accustomed to all the strategies for driveway and bump avoidance. Also just as well I know every pot hole from my home to my office

By "bouncy" do you mean in a straight line or when cornering? In my experience 911s corner very differently to a mid engined F-car. Bumps mid corner if you're hard on the gas coming out of a turn can cause a front-end oscillation which is a bit "bouncy". I like to think of this as character, but I can see how it might be annoying.

FWIW, my initial conclusion was the damping on the GT3 is very similar to the CS, but just a very different handling balance/throttle behaviour due to the obvious design differences between the two. If anything it seems to absorb holes and ridges that are common in MA better than the CS does.

My other initial reaction was that the GT3 isn't very fast - it doesn't feel as subjectively fast as the CS. This opinion may be somewhat colored by the fact that I also recently acquired a 599 which is rather obscenely fast and delivers lots of low down Torque. The CS is also way louder which adds to the impression of "fast".

The GT3 will be a 3 season daily driver for me, and I actually really like the sun-roof, sat-nav and decent hi-fi. I'm glad I didn't bother with the radio in the CS, the ones I've heard were rubbish.

I'd be interested in any other thoughts you have.

YYC930

I always drive 997's with the PASM in the regular mode versus sport......there's waaaaaay too much vertical motion in the back end in sport mode. It is a major design defect IMHO. My butt says a 360 in sport mode is compliant.....just like you noticed.

allegretto

I too was a little underwhelmed by the GT-3's low down grunt, but my other car is a Z 06 and that will spoil you. But I have driven 2 CS's and I sure wasn't impressed by their speed either. But since you can drive them back-to-back and I can't, who am I to say? I will say though the car will be faster after a good break-in and maybe 5K mi.

The sound system in my 3 is pus. Did you get something special?

Finally, I think, as You that the 3 will be a great DD. I didn't think that at first, but now I really do.

I'm "in line" for a 599. Good car?

OldGuy

The GT3 is not that fast around town of course because nothing really happens till 5K and above.
thats hard to do away from the track. On the twisties and away from town I find this car blindingly fast
as long as you keep the rpms up. Passing I always down shift to a gear that puts me just short of the
sweet spot and the car just launches. There are times where I have been caught off guard in the 2-3K
range and yes its not quick- but thats not how its meant to be driven-its not a torque car-its a drivers car a momentum car a high rpm car. On the track you can easily keep up by just keeping in the sweet spot and thats not hard to do 2nd, 3rd and 4th on most tracks I am on. (same for the 996 GT3)

blake

I believe that OG is correct - the GT3 should be run above 5K RPM. It has significant high end torque, and the engine really purrs at those RPMs... The CS should be quite similar.

No doubt a 599 will offer blistering acceleration. I am a bit jaded as blistering acceleration really does nothing for me. Throw in some twistys, and then I get excited!

-B

JFT

Interesting discussion here. I just decided yesterday to sell my 997RS in favor of the upcoming 430 Scuderia. I don't you if you are at all interested in my reasons but I thought I would put them down anyway.

Overall I am very happy that I got the RS. I think it's visually stunning - maybe the prettiest Porsche since some of the 993s. The engine is also an absolute peach with wonderful sound and good power. I really do like the car, but when I bought it I thought I would hold onto it for many years, but after nearly a year with it it will only go down as another great car experience, not the car of my dreams. My reasons are as follows:
1. It is too heavy. This has been discussed at length on this forum so I won't waste your time. A major disappointment for me is that it would have been fine at the stated 1375kg, it's just that it weighs 100kg more... And no, that's not philosophical. It can be felt compared to even a 996 RS.
2. It feels a bit too soft for me. I know that the RS has been praised much because it can be used as a daily driver now, but I personally like the rough edge even in daily driving, so the increased comfort is not a big plus for me.
3. I don't like the gearing vs. torque. On many corners on most tracks I drive I invariable find myself stuck between 2nd and 3rd gear. The RS misses out on torque in a big way in corners that are "3rd gear corners".
4. Too much understeer. This has also been discussed at length here. Don't feel like having to go to 18's to sort this out. I tried with more camber etc., but no real improvement.
5. I don' trust it as much as I would like to. I have lost the tail without warning at least twice. Clumsy driving from me, I'm sure, but there just wasn't any warning like I would get from a 996.

I don't want to sound too negative - it's a great car. It's just not frigging awesome due to the above. I think, however, that the 430 Scuderia will tick all my boxes. That's why the RS has to go.

YA911Fan

Is the Scud F1 only? If so, that would be one major tick missing in my list...

JFT

Yes it is F1 only. But new "Superfast" box with 60 milliseconds, less than half of even the 599 I believe.

allegretto

I do expect the Scud to be a good car. But I've also come to expect Ferrari's specs to be...embellished and their magazine performance to be non-reproducable in the average example.

n2cars

Your assessment of the GT3 is right on. Bouncy, twitchy, and hard up and down has been a MINOR disappointment for me. A MAJOR disappointment has been the gearing and lack of torque. The car does shine in the twisties and can be a daily driver compared to the CS. The GT3 is a temporary car for me. I will be getting a 430 Scud. Overall I'm pleased with the GT3 but I'm ready to move on.

OldGuy

I dont understand how you can be dissapointed in lack of torque. Having owned a TT I know what a Torque monster is. I also understand how the GT3 is supposed to be driven-Since its inception with the the 996 GT3 MkI its always been a high revving machine and needs to be up in the RPM band to access its power. It continued with the 996 GT3 MkII and the 997 GT3, and its only become better.
If you expected it to be a torque machine you made a mistake on the car you bought or misunderstood its capabilities.
I was not dissapointed in the least and coming from a TT ladened with torque I understood after a few test drives with owners. A tt will never sing at 8400 RPM and a GT3 will never have low end grunt.
You wouldnt buy a garbage disposal to make pate'.

n2cars

Old Guy,
One of my **** rententive problems is that I break my cars in by the "book". My GT3 only has 1000 miles on it so I"m keeping the revs in the 4K range. The car has no oomph in that power range. It's going to be a long time before I get 2K miles on the car ( if ever before I sell it) and then I can let her rip. In comparison to my 430, the car is broken in at 650 miles. I think my problem is buying a car that requires a long break-in period.

blake

The "break-in period" is a hotly contested topic. Some say that you need to drive the car hard to set the seals, while others err on the side of caution. IMHO, feel free to drive it hard under the same break-in period as your Ferrari. I highly doubt that you will keep the "3" the entire length of the warranty, so kick back and have some fun. Driving that car at high RPMs is intoxicating.

My $0.02,
-B