Another new 981 thread ...

[gbrownzen]

Originally posted over on Boxa.net - http://www.boxa.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=5389...

Just managed to pick up my 981 late on Friday in time for the weather to turn showery!

Haven't had much time to post since then, especially since I knew I needed pictures before posting. Got up a 6am this morning and sat in it in the garage configuring the settings and pairing my phone, setting up the seat, steering wheel and mirrors and programming them into the key memory, etc.

Then when the sun finally made an appearance took some pictures before going for a first proper drive.


Not sure if any of these pictures show how bronze the platinum silver is? Parked next to my Wife's silver Audi it looks a completely different colour.


This is the car waiting at the OPC for me ...




Then this morning in better light ...





Roof down ...







20" Carerra S wheels close up ...



And black partial leather interior ...



This is the full spec ...

Metallic Paint (Platinum Silver)
Cabriolet Roof (Black)
Black Interior (Black)
Partial Leather Seats (Black)

Sports Seats Electrical (14) inc. lumb.+mem.
Porsche Crest embossed on head restraint
Seat Heating

PDK 7 Speed
Sport Design Steering Wheel (inc. Paddles)

PCM inc. Sat Nav
Telephone module for PCM (Bluetooth)
BOSE Surround Sound

20" Carrera S Wheels
Porsche Wheel Crests
PASM Active Suspension
TPM Tyre Pressure Monitoring
Park Assist Front and Rear

Sport Chrono (PCM) inc. Dyn. Trans. Mounts
Porsche Torque Vectoring (Limited Slip Diff)

2-zone automatic air conditioning
Bi-Xenon Dynamic Light System (PDLS)
Electrically retractable exterior mirrors

Mesh Wind Deflector
Smoking Package

Had a first proper drive this afternoon and Wow, what a fantastic car, will post more thoughts as soon as I can.

Cheers,

Geoff

[jontymo]

Lovely boxster Geoff, looks like a great spec.

Bring on the sun.

jontymo

[SonnyM]

Another stunner... in Platinum too - it's the new GT Silver!

Enjoy

[Mutt]

Beautiful! Looks stunning!

[nsm3]

Fancy a swap?

[535dBoy]

Looks good and spec very similar to ours

What are you plans with running in?

My guy said we shouldnt go over 5k?

Also as per my post on stefan's thread do you see how to get the g force meter up on the centre screen

Also one observation I have found, if the Mirrors are folded the puddle lights don't come on, which sort of makes sense. I have therefore disabled the auto folding function on the mirrors.

Please post up any bits you find out to help others, particularly me who is new to the brand!

[Phooey]

Another great looking 981. Not that the 987 looks bad by any means, but I think these cars are a HUGE improvement visually. Enjoy!

[nsm3]

Very nice, they seem to have hit the mark with this car.

Question though, has anyone ordered one of these with the standard 19" wheels, as I don't think I have seen as much as a single photo yet?

[SFO]

nsm3 said:

Very nice, they seem to have hit the mark with this car.

Question though, has anyone ordered one of these with the standard 19" wheels, as I don't think I have seen as much as a single photo yet?

mine at the dealer ..

[Phooey]

SFO said:

White roll-over bar is a nice touch.

[nsm3]

Cheers, they look ok don't they?

I can't understand this relentless charge towards bigger and bigger hoops.

11 yrs ago my TT had 17" wheels, then in 2003 the M3 had 18" wheels, but there was an option for 19" jobs. Both my Porsches have had 19" wheels as standard and now here we are with 20"-ers seemingly the norm?

Where will it all end? Is there a sound reason for it, or do we think it is purely aesthetic?

[Robbo66]

Phooey said:

White roll-over bar is a nice touch.

Phooey, I think you and I are the absolute polar opposite of what we both consider 'nice' on a car

I do however, think the new 981 is a real winner. Looks superb against the older version. Finally, a modern Porsche that aesthetically ticks the boxes.

[Carl_Docklands]

nsm3 said:

Cheers, they look ok don't they?

I can't understand this relentless charge towards bigger and bigger hoops.

11 yrs ago my TT had 17" wheels, then in 2003 the M3 had 18" wheels, but there was an option for 19" jobs. Both my Porsches have had 19" wheels as standard and now here we are with 20"-ers seemingly the norm?

Where will it all end? Is there a sound reason for it, or do we think it is purely aesthetic?

19s look great, probably even better in the flesh.

I would still have the back de-badged though, I think it would improve the lines further.

[stefan1]

535dBoy said:

Looks good and spec very similar to ours

What are you plans with running in?

My guy said we shouldnt go over 5k?

Also as per my post on stefan's thread do you see how to get the g force meter up on the centre screen

Also one observation I have found, if the Mirrors are folded the puddle lights don't come on, which sort of makes sense. I have therefore disabled the auto folding function on the mirrors.

Please post up any bits you find out to help others, particularly me who is new to the brand!

First, lovely car OP. Very smart indeed.

Re running in, this is the approach I adopt with new Porsches.

First hundred miles, fairly gentle driving, not much above 3,000 rpm, just to bed in brakes, suspension etc.

Up to 500 miles, no more than 4,000 rpm, using decent amounts of throttle, just not full throttle. Varied driving, changing revs and gears frequently. Long journeys.

Then for the next 300 miles increasing the rev limit by 1,000 rpm per 100 miles, until by 800 miles I will use all the revs and full throttle.

I had the chance last year to talk to Andreas Preuninger (GT development manager) about running in the GT3 series of cars. What I've suggested above is similar to what he recommended - go fairly gently initially, then after around 500 miles start to progressively use the car harder. He asserted that you don't need to run the car in for the whole 1,800 miles. Far more important was the oft-overlooked need to let the oil get properly up to temperature before using too many beans. He also said that the GT engines all developed more power after a decent mileage - he has a development 4.0 litre RS that is developed over 510bhp after 10,000 miles!

On the subject of oil temp., it's great that the car for the first time has an oil temp gauge. I was surprised yesterday how hot the oil gets. I am used to the analogue gauges on my GT3 and GT2 and the oil temp rarely goes above 90 deg C. In the new Boxster I saw 115 deg C cruising on the motorway at legal speeds. Perhaps Boxsters have always run hotter than 911s (less cooling?); in any event it's nothing to worry about but If I ever track the car I'll be keeping an eye on oil temp.

Cheers

[535dBoy]

stefan1 said:

First, lovely car OP. Very smart indeed.

Re running in, this is the approach I adopt with new Porsches.

First hundred miles, fairly gentle driving, not much above 3,000 rpm, just to bed in brakes, suspension etc.

Up to 500 miles, no more than 4,000 rpm, using decent amounts of throttle, just not full throttle. Varied driving, changing revs and gears frequently. Long journeys.

Then for the next 300 miles increasing the rev limit by 1,000 rpm per 100 miles, until by 800 miles I will use all the revs and full throttle.

I had the chance last year to talk to Andreas Preuninger (GT development manager) about running in the GT3 series of cars. What I've suggested above is similar to what he recommended - go fairly gently initially, then after around 500 miles start to progressively use the car harder. He asserted that you don't need to run the car in for the whole 1,800 miles. Far more important was the oft-overlooked need to let the oil get properly up to temperature before using too many beans. He also said that the GT engines all developed more power after a decent mileage - he has a development 4.0 litre RS that is developed over 510bhp after 10,000 miles!

On the subject of oil temp., it's great that the car for the first time has an oil temp gauge. I was surprised yesterday how hot the oil gets. I am used to the analogue gauges on my GT3 and GT2 and the oil temp rarely goes above 90 deg C. In the new Boxster I saw 115 deg C cruising on the motorway at legal speeds. Perhaps Boxsters have always run hotter than 911s (less cooling?); in any event it's nothing to worry about but If I ever track the car I'll be keeping an eye on oil temp.

Cheers

Thanks for that, I do normally do the progressive increases but I was just wondering at what rate given the stated 1800 miles

I too like to see the oil temperatute and I've noted how much slower it takes than the water to get to temp

My weekend/track toy is a modified supercharged exige - that actually lowers the rev limit and therefore limiter until the water temp is up to 70 degrees when it will let you use the full beans. What this does not take in to account is the oil temp though !

[gbrownzen]

535dBoy said:

Looks good and spec very similar to ours

What are you plans with running in?

My guy said we shouldnt go over 5k?

Also as per my post on stefan's thread do you see how to get the g force meter up on the centre screen

Also one observation I have found, if the Mirrors are folded the puddle lights don't come on, which sort of makes sense. I have therefore disabled the auto folding function on the mirrors.

Please post up any bits you find out to help others, particularly me who is new to the brand!

The running in instructions don't give a rev limit at all, but I've been keeping it below 5,000 rpm (about 4,500 max). I think it is just as important to avoid it labouring at low revs so I've tended to drive it in Sport unless on the motorway. This also has the advantage of disabling the stop/start, avoiding constant engine starts while it is so new. I get the impression that the most important thing is to let it warm up properly.

I couldn't find a way to get the g-force on the PCM screen (or the chrono), it doesn't seem to be possible although I also have seen the image on the Porsche web site somewhere. I'll take a close look at the manual and see if I can figure it out.

I've also disable the auto fold and intend to just fold them on the lock key. Only problem is you hold the lock for 5 seconds to fold them in, and at that point the roof just starts to close. Also, if you forget and do a second lock to fold them it will disable the internal sensors and deadlocks. Probably best to hit the fold button on the way out of the car.

I spent a while configuring the cars settings using the multi-function screen and one of the options I chose was to disable the auto save to key on locking feature, as I don't want any temporary changes to override my preferred settings. Unfortunately I then locked the car without saving the settings to the key, so of course it didn't autosave and when I went back I had to do it all again!

Cheers,

Geoff

[535dBoy]

gbrownzen said:

The running in instructions don't give a rev limit at all, but I've been keeping it below 5,000 rpm (about 4,500 max). I think it is just as important to avoid it labouring at low revs so I've tended to drive it in Sport unless on the motorway. This also has the advantage of disabling the stop/start, avoiding constant engine starts while it is so new. I get the impression that the most important thing is to let it warm up properly.

I couldn't find a way to get the g-force on the PCM screen (or the chrono), it doesn't seem to be possible although I also have seen the image on the Porsche web site somewhere. I'll take a close look at the manual and see if I can figure it out.

I've also disable the auto fold and intend to just fold them on the lock key. Only problem is you hold the lock for 5 seconds to fold them in, and at that point the roof just starts to close. Also, if you forget and do a second lock to fold them it will disable the internal sensors and deadlocks. Probably best to hit the fold button on the way out of the car.

I spent a while configuring the cars settings using the multi-function screen and one of the options I chose was to disable the auto save to key on locking feature, as I don't want any temporary changes to override my preferred settings. Unfortunately I then locked the car without saving the settings to the key, so of course it didn't autosave and when I went back I had to do it all again!

Cheers,

Geoff

Thanks for that, I hadn't thought about the labouring issue so the sport button sounds like a good idea. I have to say I am not a fan of the coasting function because it does not always come in that smoothly I think. Pressing the sport button eliminates that too. The stop start doesn't bother me too much, yet !

[stefan1]

535dBoy said:

Thanks for that, I hadn't thought about the labouring issue so the sport button sounds like a good idea. I have to say I am not a fan of the coasting function because it does not always come in that smoothly I think. Pressing the sport button eliminates that too. The stop start doesn't bother me too much, yet !

That's one I hadn't spotted - could you expand on the coasting function?

Cheers

[535dBoy]

stefan1 said:

That's one I hadn't spotted - could you expand on the coasting function?

Cheers

PDK only I think

If you are not on the power it disconnects (I am talking simply here because I don't do technical!) the drive presumably between engine and gearbox and coasts. The rev counter shows 1200 odd rpm when in this mode, as soon as you put the power on again it reconnects

[gbrownzen]

stefan1 said:

That's one I hadn't spotted - could you expand on the coasting function?

Cheers

With PDK, if you are driving on a trailing throttle, i.e. you lift off the throttle slightly as you are doing a steady speed and possibly on a gentle down incline, it saves a little fuel by pulling the clutch in as you ease of the throttle. The revs drop to tick over (around 700 rpm) and it keeps the clutch disengaged until you press down on the throttle again. It only does it when gently easing off the throttle and on a flatish or gentle sloping road. If you are on a steep hill or driving hard and release the throttle quickly it keeps the clutch engaged to give engine braking.

I'm not sure how much fuel it saves but it seems a tiny bit of a gimic, as in reality, unless you are on a reasonable downhill slope as soon as the clutch disengages the car starts to slow, and you soon have to reapply a gentle throttle to maintain a stead speed. However, it engages again quite seamlessly and if it saves a little fuel it's not really a problem.

Putting it in Sport (or Sport +) mode or pressing the disable auto stop/start button will all also disabled coasting.

Cheers,

Geoff