Carrera GT

I was going to give this thread a clever title like:
"What happens if you give a 997 911 the power to go faster than a Carrera GT?"
(answer: you still prefer the Carrera GT outright)
or
"Dear Mr Röhrl, what is your job title at Porsche?"
(answer: "Legend")

No need. A little fun track time at the factory circuit and nice visuals of a red (PTS or Guards, hard to say, I imagine it's a well known factory car and someone will know for sure.) There's a little fun wheel-to-side at the 3:00 mark. Some very odd audio in the closing seconds, but no matter.

Of course we all know the GT2 RS is a tad quicker. Most of a decade further development since the Carrera GT, and the stability electronics, refined technology and materials, all add up to far more "accessible" performance in the modern 911 platform than the hair-trigger, razor's edge envelope of the Carrera GT.

Sure enough, if you want to let the car do the driving, the GT2 RS is a prodigious source of bragging rights to lap times, though in modern 911 history, it will be given only a secondary place mention as the blustering, muscle-bound point-and-squirt slugger, next to the sublime balance and flawless power of the GT3 RS 4.0. If you want to challenge yourself to drive in the high stakes game of analog machinery and driver talent, the Carrera GT is the pinnacle.

Even my limited understanding of German didn't lose the message in the translation. It would be great if someone could share a fluent "human" translation of the dialog.



ps. Thanks to those who've shared other Carrera GT videos.

XR4Tim

I think very few would put the GT2 RS in the "let the car do the driving" category. It's not a Nissan GTR.
It is an interesting comparison though. The GT2 RS and CGT have very similar performance, but are very different cars. The GT2 RS is more of a street car for the track. The CGT is more of a race car for the street.

Carrera GT

The fearsome and awesome character of the 911 GT2 is gone in the GT2 RS. It's the contradiction of a mellow super model: highly strung, yet docile, raw power, yet quiet, smooth and long-legged, but a little on the heavy side.

Of course the marketing (and some owners) would have you believe the GT2 RS is mind-altering military grade LSD combined with the sophistication of an excellent Bordeaux emerging at its peak after 30 years in the bottle.

That's not to be ignorant or deny the fact that a 911 capable of being fairly mentioned in the same sentence as the Carrera GT is a phenomenal vehicle, especially as a factory production car, warranty, luxury amenities and not even half the cost to purchase, perhaps one tenth the cost to own and operate.

sidenote: Oh crap. Am I seriously reminding myself of the GT2 RS. Dammit!

Keep in mind the 997.2 GT cars (I have the 3.8 RS, not the 2 RS) have a combination of SC/TC that really can drive the car. The cast of electronic safeties opposes all villains in the plot:

1. If you flub a downshift, it will rev-match to prevent rear wheel lock-up.
2. If you induce understeer, it will dial out the scrub with differential braking and it will anticipate and mitigate incipient transition to oversteer (by far and away the most common driver error that leads to 911's going off backwards into the scenery.)
3. If you plant the throttle at any time, it will prevent wheel-spin and use braking and throttle to acceleration within traction limits (and consistent with steering angle.)

The "talking point" from Porsche is to say that their fastest drivers could not better their times by deactivating SC and/or TC. While I think this is "almost" true, it's not entirely true once you take the car beyond its mediocre Sport Cup tires. Still, these are first electronic aids that I think of as real aids, not just electronic nannies, too quick to step in for fear you start having fun. If you're driving competently, and as a separate measure, you're driving confidently (a neutral throttle or a partial or positive throttle, not a closed or excessively trailing throttle position, relative to steering angle, speed and gear selection) the SC and TC will allow a generous slip angle of lee way. If you're in "normal" mode and start "hammering" the car, every gets nervous (as they should) and the intervention comes early and deliberately.

Certainly, for any driver without a lap record or two to their credit, there's never any advantage in turning off the SC/TC in its 997.2 version.

If we could retrofit 997.2 SC/TC ("PSM") to the Carrera GT, we might never lose another Carrera GT! : )

wtdoom

It's Tyres , purely Tyres .
Rohrl has said as much and personally I'm happy with the Cgt being the last of the pure non psm Porsches .

manouk

Gt2rs is one of the best cars Porsche ever made IMO but carrera gt is still the best

nycartdealer

If you put the track biased tires on a CGT that are now used on many Ferrari and Porsche models it would not only be much quicker but also more controlable