Thanks Rey for the write-up and pics! I'm driving the 981S

So on our usual BRBS return layover is at a friend's place in Leesburg, VA. He has access to launch cars from various manufacturers. We had originally planned to continue up 81N into PA but with a chance to check out the new car it was a no-brainer to add a little time to our return. For those of you who were at BRBS a few years ago this is the same friend that I swapped my car for the GT3RS with the interesting bumper sticker

Anyway the car was waiting for Juliette and I when we arrived and he threw us the little car key, gave us a few pointers and off we went. Both Juliette and I had a good spin in it on both highway and windy roads. We also used it to get us to our dinner spot later that eve. Car is Anthracite brown metallic, Luxor beige int and brown top. Options listed in photo below. Car prices out in the low $80s. We've owned 2000 base and S Boxsters, 996TTX50 and our current 996GT3. I have some experience driving 987 Boxsters (all stick) and drove a 997S with PDK quite a bit.

Fit and finish is fantastic. We had checked out the cars that were brought to BRBS a bit so were familiar with the basics. Too much brown/beige in this particular example for us but I did kind of like the Anthracite. Seats were infinitely adjustable and both Juliette and I could find comfortable driving positions. I'm about 6ft and J is a tiny 5-2. She initially complained about about the base of the seat being too long for her, but a quick adjustment solved that. There's a part of the seat that's adjustable for length. Key is hokey. Top operation is very slick. No latch, clamshell or plastic side pieces around window frame. Tight and nice lines. Ventilated seats are really nice. I drove the car strictly in manual mode with sport. This car didn't have the paddles. After a little time with it I really started to like the system. All of our cars have been stick. Shifts are very fast. Throttle blips on downshifts are nice. I never got out of 4th gear which would have yielded a hefty ticket in VA. 4-6k rpms range is really sweet all the way up. I did not like the PDK in regular mode. Weird being in 5-6th gear going 40mph. Everything seems quiet to me as our GT3 is quite loud but the exhaust note with base exhaust was ok. Car feels/seems heavier and more substantial than the 986s we owned but is still so nimble and balanced. Really have nothing bad to say about the car except for the price. It wouldn't replace the GT3 but we would love to add one. I would probably take the PDK too and it pains me a little to say that. I liked the car way more than I expected. I could tell Juliette was feeling the car too by the grin on her face once she got the hang of the PDK. She has only owned stick cars as well.

The car is wonderful.

Thanks for the writeup, Ray.

Just a question about the steering. I noticed this one had the Power Steering Plus. Since you didn't mention it, does that mean it didn't really stand out one way or the other over/under boost, lack of feel?

That's what I've wondered about the electric power steering. I wonder how many testers would have "noticed" the difference if Porsche hadn't mentioned it in the introduction.

Rez; engine shutoff. Define "interesting".

Start is very quick. It's just something to get used to. I thought the car had stalled then remembered the start/stop system. Didn't impair anything. Also, I didn't do launch control either.

... nerve-racking!
I don't think I'd ever do it to one of my cars, although I have done it to loaners
Happy Porscheing
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

....Gman ordering his 981 with PDK and selling his 987 to Abe

Quote
Gary in SoFL
....Gman ordering his 981 with PDK and selling his 987 to Abe

Yup. That would put me right into orbit.

Guenter
2014 Boxster S
GT Silver, 6 Speed Manual, Bi-Xenons, Sports Suspension (lowers car 20mm), Porsche Sports Exhaust, Porsche Torque Vectoring, Auto Climate control, heated and vented seats, 20" Carrera S Wheels, Pedro's TechNoWind, Sport Design steering wheel, Roll bars in GT Silver
[www.cyberdesignconcepts.com]

It's going to have to be a "parking lot" traffic jam for me to use Auto Stop Start... hey, Porsche has an acronym for all their features. This one is... oh, never mind!

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Quote

I drove the car strictly in manual mode with sport. This car didn't have the paddles. After a little time with it I really started to like the system. All of our cars have been stick. Shifts are very fast. Throttle blips on downshifts are nice...I would probably take the PDK too and it pains me a little to say that.

Oh, Guenter!

Driving a new-to-me '09S in Aqua Blue Metallic. It does .5 past light speed. I made the Kessel run in less than 12-parsecs.
Motto: If you have your top up, that storm outside had better have a name!
Motto 2: Having the top up on a convertible is an oxymoron. Don't be a (oxy)moron.

You'll note that it pained Ray to say that.

I hate pain.

Quote
Rey
I would probably take the PDK too and it pains me a little to say that. I liked the car way more than I expected.

Thanks for the great write-up. I now hate you!

I'm definitely going to a dealer as soon as they're on sale and drive one.

I have a VW GTI with their "DSG" transmission. I've been pretty impressed with it - nice crisp shifts, very intuitive to operate and adjusts to your driving "attitude" quickly. I've read that the PDK is actually much better. It's going to be a hard decision one of these days, but I think that since I probably won't use a Porsche as my daily driver I'd go with a manual still. Something about keeping in practice with the heel and toe downshifts on the track. Umm... maybe it's my age.

Dave - 06 987 S coupe SG/NL; gone (but still my first love): 03 986 AS/GG/BK;

Color looks like the copper brown metallic on my old 74 911.

and it's a M-B E class

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

it would personally drive me nuts, can't see the point and there must be additional wear and tear to the starter, battery etc. over time.
I concur with your observation of the PDK it's great but I wonder if it would get boring after a while not being as involved in the driving process.
I too found the seats to be really comfortable and would order the ventilated option.
Still lots of road feel in the steering in my opinion but hard to compare my 18" wheels vs. the 20" on the testers I tried.
Thanks for the review.

Quote
DougW
it would personally drive me nuts, can't see the point and there must be additional wear and tear to the starter, battery etc. over time.
I concur with your observation of the PDK it's great but I wonder if it would get boring after a while not being as involved in the driving process.
I too found the seats to be really comfortable and would order the ventilated option.
Still lots of road feel in the steering in my opinion but hard to compare my 18" wheels vs. the 20" on the testers I tried.
Thanks for the review.

That's what I wonder about the start/stop feature. Not just the wear and tear on the starter, but I wonder just how much gas you really save. Since I haven't driven it, I'm not sure if it's the same as a regular engine start where the ECU gives it an exra squirt of fuel, even with a warm engine start. My WAG is you would likely have to be stopped for at least a minute or more to really make any fuel savings.

Guenter
2014 Boxster S
GT Silver, 6 Speed Manual, Bi-Xenons, Sports Suspension (lowers car 20mm), Porsche Sports Exhaust, Porsche Torque Vectoring, Auto Climate control, heated and vented seats, 20" Carrera S Wheels, Pedro's TechNoWind, Sport Design steering wheel, Roll bars in GT Silver
[www.cyberdesignconcepts.com]

I have access to some personal passenger vehicle activity data -- idle time is part of this data -- and the amount of time a personal passenger vehicle spends idling can be a big surprise.

Also, this start/stop feature cuts down on CO2 emissions and this is a big big plus for cars made in and sold in the EU markets.

FWIW, when I attended a 991 into I asked the tech if this feature could be disabled and he said 'yes'.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

I wish my new Impreza had the stop-start engine feature. It gets around 30mpg combined, but if I've recently reset the MPG calculator and I'm stopped at a light, I watch the mileage go down tick by tick while I'm sitting there...

makes you able to appreciate that old "drive as if you had an egg between your foot and the accelerator" line.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Friend of mine just picked up a new 5 series BMW with that system...at first it is a littke un-nerving, but after riding in it a few times you don't even realise it is happening....
the engine also restarts itself if you are waiting a bit to keep the a/c cooling
The other feature on the 530 is that it now has a 4 cylinder turbo....and there seems to be no difference in power that I have noticed....changes...changes...

Part of the overall efficiency. And they need to put in a flush false radiator panel in the front apron rather than that turbulent, drag-inducing dished item.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

when the pickup bed is uncovered and the tailgate is up.

The same (sort of) applies to the Boxster: Whether a non-through entry in the front bumper is dished, flat, or convex matters not I suspect.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Hmmm... it just seems the air would flow around the car more smoothly with a flush panel, rather than being pressurized in the confines of the shallow cavity. Maybe, just maybe there's some advantageous downforce created with the airflow "pushing" the bottom edge... but then again, that would be cancelled by the airflow at the top edge.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

what happens is in those cases is the air ends up in a high pressure (well slightly elevated pressure) zone -- how big this zone it and what pressure it obtains of course is dependent up on the vehicle's speed -- but this zone of air just works to direct air flow around this zone. There's no drag affect other than what arises from the car's frontal area which factors into the car's cD. The zone might if one could see the air of the zone actually smooth out the front of the car and make the car more aerodynamic than it would appear to be based on the shape of the nose/the depression.

It seems counter-intuitive but unless the depression leads to a passage there's no real or appreciable affect on the car's drag or air resistance.

'course keeping the engine/transmission cool is more important than some reduction in drag so that is why some models have a 3rd radiator duct there.

However, even this is used to some advantage (beyond the extra cooling it provides): In at least one model (the GT2 or GT3 and maybe both) air is routed through this center duct in such a way so after it removes heat from a radiator is reduces lift/adds a bit of downforce. This is done by having the air flow routed up and over the car instead of exiting underneath the car. The air flows out an exit that is on top of the car between the front bumper cover and the front trunk lid.

Compared to some other car makers, I think Porsche really has its aerodynamic act together.

Since the model is new I bet the techs all have received tons of tech literature on the model maybe one has a section that details the aero of the car? I'll ask next time I'm at a dealer.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

I'm driving the 981S this Sunday morning at Monticello Motor Club - some sort of Porsche driving experience they invited me too. Appears it's been too long since I've purchased a new Porsche from the dealer, so they are trying to entice me (and others) with a couple hours of new hardware. I really can't wait to try their little autocross in the 981S

Thanks again!

Yo Gundo, I drove it this morning. Quite a blast. Only problem is you wish you had more time in the car. You won't get to drive the 981 on the fast track but only on the "autocross" portion of the track. You still get to feel it howl. Driving the Carrera S at speed behind an instructor is a hoot also. Also driving the Panamera over the same track lets you know how stable and quick the big thing is. Bring your own helmet if you have one but they have loaners if needs be. You will also be driving the Cayeene hybrid and S models along with the Panamera on a short braking/slolom course. Three stages in all. Have fun.

AKL

Don't let Gundo drive one! He's going to wind up buying one. I guess not a bad thing.

... Up at monticello motor club, with an "autoX" set up on a side part of the track. Not really an autocross, but sort of a curving sweeper with one zig-zag int he middle; a hard braking zone and right hander, and, uh, that's all. So i cant claim I got a solid feel forthe car. But what i did feel was very very good. Yes, nicer interior. Check. This car accelerates briskly, the PDK is very well behaved overall, and it sticks like glue. The chassis is MUCH stiffer than my 986. Then again, the new car is not cheap. But its very nice.

Steering feel was not as bad as some have suggested. I didnt drive it enough to say how good it is. precision and weight were excellent. Brakes were strong. again, without time to play i cant talk too much about how easy they are to modulate; my only two chances to exercise them were the slightest of taps (with the nanny screaming "brake brake" (yea, sure), and essentially threshold braking for the slow turn.

My guess is this is a substantial step up - more so than the 987 was vs the 986.

Its also much better looking than the 987, btu that's subjective. You decide.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com