991 Steering
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Discussion

Old Trout

Original Poster:

1,705 posts

205 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
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As we all know the steering in the 991 has been the topic of extensive debate. All the more confusing since reviews of the C4S say it has better steering than the C2S. One possibility being that the C4S is a later car.

To add weight to a theory that the steering calibration has changed - in the last 24 hours I have done 80 miles in a late 2012 C2S back to back with 60 miles in a July C2S (mine).

Spec is very similar although the late car was not a -20mm car.

Bottom line is that the steering felt different. In the late car, the 'chatter' and 'jiggle' familiar to earlier models was back. The steering felt less damped, less glassy. Was it better in terms of limit handling - no idea, cold wet roads did not allow my much scope for driving hard. But generally more feel seemed to be there. In fact back in my own car I do now feel there is something missing.

So is this an artefact? Is it a real change/re-calibration? Is it geo? Is it simply the difference between -20mm PASM and standard? Is it actually better?

I am curious - has anyone else been able to directly compare?

And if it is a change - it is a retrofit?

My OPC could not answer any of the above questions.

Porkupine

1,722 posts

195 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
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Course they couldn't! They are just like sofa salesmen.

BnB

1,059 posts

205 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
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I doubt there's a new steering algorithm. Though I'm as interested to you to see if it's possible (my 991 is a June/July build). And your thoughts are doubly intriguing since I found (in my numerous test drives) that a SPASM-equipped car such as yours displayed the best steering feel overall (though not up to 997 standards).

I'd be looking to tyre compound/brand/pressure for the comparison. Did you happen to check any of these? The other culprit, as you suggest, could be geo.

Ady128

537 posts

173 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
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God, this sounds very confusing. It's a good job my 991 is my 1st 911 and I can't compare it to earlier cars. BUT, it seems perfectly fine to me. Ps. I'm finally getting used to it's size having previously owning 2 Boxsters.

stevod

454 posts

170 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
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Do either of them have Power Steering Plus?

Blue62

10,587 posts

182 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
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I don't believe there's any change in the steering, maybe the 4wd just feels different.

Raitzi

640 posts

242 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
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I believe that porsche will continue to improve electric steering on newer models. The new corvette has also the ZF unit and they have multiple tunes for the electric steering to select from and amount of assistance can be adjusted so that small "jitter" is not filtered out.

Old Trout

Original Poster:

1,705 posts

205 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
quotequote all
stevod said:
Do either of them have Power Steering Plus?
Neither of them had Power Steering Plus...


...and they were both C2S cars.

SFO

5,190 posts

213 months

Saturday 2nd February 2013
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same tyres?

different depth of thread perhaps?

GuillaumeB

329 posts

203 months

Monday 4th February 2013
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Raitzi said:
I believe that porsche will continue to improve electric steering on newer models.
I think I am inclined to agree for a number of reasons:

a) the EPAS technology is still in its infancy and there's still room for it to develop further.

b) Porsche have a policy of continual improvement, just look at the number of recalls etc. There are also anecdotal reports from owners on here that many of the earlier niggles are being gradually ironed out. If the 991 has had one enduring criticism from the Porker community it is lack of steering feel. Why wouldn't Porsche address this?

c) the EPAS steering feedback is filtered and feel is artificially created. All this is controlled by software which means that it should be possible to adjust without any major changes to hardware. No doubt different settings will be implemented in the upcoming GT3 model, perhaps the Turbo model will even have different settings available, much like the current PASM system does.

Personally I don't have a problem with the 991 steering, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.