991 S tested yesterday
Discussion
Yesterday was a bit quiet in the office so took the opportunity to test a 991 S from a local dealer (near Zurich). I currently have a 993 but before that had a 997 2S and have had a number of other 911s (one from each generation). You could say I'm a bit obsessed with the 911!
Weather was dry but cold and there were slippery patches on the country roads. Managed to get about an hour in the car covering most types of roads - although did try to get as much on country roads as possible
Car I tested had pdk and probably a whole host of other options but I didn't have that much time and so used what I had to drive it rather than study the spec-sheet.
Overall impressions? Very good. Smooth, fast, quiet, comfortable. Did I already say fast? Actually, very, very quick. Would be a threat to my licence if I had one. And not just quick in a straight line. Felt very good through the bends.
Sometimes I think reading magazine road tests can bias your opinion before you drive the car. I've read lots about the new steering rack and how it isn't as good as the the old hydraulic system, etc, etc. To be honest (perhaps this reflects my lack of ability or sensitity to the nuances of steering) but I thought it was very good and although it was quite light I got decent feedback. And I would not have known it was electrically assisted, had I not read about it beforehand. Perhaps in a back-to-back test it would have been more obvious. All I can say is that some months back I had a decent test in a Gen 2 997 4S with pdk and loved it and I loved the 991 S yesterday as well.
The quality of the interior seemed good. Definitely a step up from the 997 (at least in comparison to my old Gen 1 997 - which to be honest I thought was not as well made as my BMW daily driver).
I had some reservations though. I don't know the options but the car had Sport and Sport + buttons, which I tried. Perhaps it is intended but in Sport + the automatic box wanted to keep the car in too high a gear for me. When driving manually I change up between the corners but when I tried to override the pdk by changing up I found it would hold the higher gear for a while but then suddenly drop down two or three gears. Perhaps I wasn't using the box properly. In the end I just left it in standard mode, which was fine as putting your foot down got the box to drop a few gears very quickly.
Biggest reservation is probably size and lack of visibility. One of things I love about my 993 (and earlier 911s) is that the car feels small but when I finished my test drive in the 991 I parked next to my 330 XD and the 991 looked about the same size. Also, visibility was not good. Looking over my left shoulder (car was LHD) there was a big blind spot, in fact, I couldn't see anything by doing that so had to rely on the mirrors. Looking over my right didn't reveal much either. I presume they have made the side windows smaller (relatively) to increase structural rigidity and help in a crash but the sides of the door are so high I doubt my wife, who is quite petite, would be happy driving it and also, although there may be more room in the back, I doubt my daughter would be happy as she wouldn't be able to see out.
The noise from the exhaust was nice. Very different from my 993 but I actually like the sound of both the air-cooled and water-cooled 911s.
Would I buy one? Yes - although only if circumstances were different because at present it makes no sense (to me) having an expensive, rapidly depreciating, new 911 sitting in my garage that I only get to use at weekends (which is one of the reasons I sold the 997 and bought a 993 instead). However, if I could buy and use the 991 as a daily driver I would be tempted as it is a fine car (although I might also be tempted by a 997 GTS as I'm sure you can get good deals on those).
Weather was dry but cold and there were slippery patches on the country roads. Managed to get about an hour in the car covering most types of roads - although did try to get as much on country roads as possible
Car I tested had pdk and probably a whole host of other options but I didn't have that much time and so used what I had to drive it rather than study the spec-sheet.
Overall impressions? Very good. Smooth, fast, quiet, comfortable. Did I already say fast? Actually, very, very quick. Would be a threat to my licence if I had one. And not just quick in a straight line. Felt very good through the bends.
Sometimes I think reading magazine road tests can bias your opinion before you drive the car. I've read lots about the new steering rack and how it isn't as good as the the old hydraulic system, etc, etc. To be honest (perhaps this reflects my lack of ability or sensitity to the nuances of steering) but I thought it was very good and although it was quite light I got decent feedback. And I would not have known it was electrically assisted, had I not read about it beforehand. Perhaps in a back-to-back test it would have been more obvious. All I can say is that some months back I had a decent test in a Gen 2 997 4S with pdk and loved it and I loved the 991 S yesterday as well.
The quality of the interior seemed good. Definitely a step up from the 997 (at least in comparison to my old Gen 1 997 - which to be honest I thought was not as well made as my BMW daily driver).
I had some reservations though. I don't know the options but the car had Sport and Sport + buttons, which I tried. Perhaps it is intended but in Sport + the automatic box wanted to keep the car in too high a gear for me. When driving manually I change up between the corners but when I tried to override the pdk by changing up I found it would hold the higher gear for a while but then suddenly drop down two or three gears. Perhaps I wasn't using the box properly. In the end I just left it in standard mode, which was fine as putting your foot down got the box to drop a few gears very quickly.
Biggest reservation is probably size and lack of visibility. One of things I love about my 993 (and earlier 911s) is that the car feels small but when I finished my test drive in the 991 I parked next to my 330 XD and the 991 looked about the same size. Also, visibility was not good. Looking over my left shoulder (car was LHD) there was a big blind spot, in fact, I couldn't see anything by doing that so had to rely on the mirrors. Looking over my right didn't reveal much either. I presume they have made the side windows smaller (relatively) to increase structural rigidity and help in a crash but the sides of the door are so high I doubt my wife, who is quite petite, would be happy driving it and also, although there may be more room in the back, I doubt my daughter would be happy as she wouldn't be able to see out.
The noise from the exhaust was nice. Very different from my 993 but I actually like the sound of both the air-cooled and water-cooled 911s.
Would I buy one? Yes - although only if circumstances were different because at present it makes no sense (to me) having an expensive, rapidly depreciating, new 911 sitting in my garage that I only get to use at weekends (which is one of the reasons I sold the 997 and bought a 993 instead). However, if I could buy and use the 991 as a daily driver I would be tempted as it is a fine car (although I might also be tempted by a 997 GTS as I'm sure you can get good deals on those).
Interesting observation about the electric steering. It was first fitted to the 997 cup as it saves a good chunk of weight which is almost entirely sitting over the engine. This will be where a lot of the weight gains will be over the 997. I found the system to be fine on the race car and expected it to be fitted to the gen 2 and 4.0RS cars. Maybe Porsche were holding it back for the 991.
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