Beetle test drive
Discussion
To be honest, all my concerns about these overgrown beetles were confirmed.
Firstly the good points (yes there are some)
The noise with the sport button pressed is highly agreeable
The linear power delivery up to the 8500 red line is very nice. Reminded me a lot of my Z4M, although it does start to run out of puff above 7500
The spacing of the gears, especially 3rd and 4th was just right for pressing on. 3rd gets the factor 1.05 beep at you so that's just ideal.
It's a great shopping car, there is bags of room up front and behind the seats.
Then the bad points
Steering starts to go light around factor 0.7, and is almost scary at factor 1.2-1.3 IMHO. Far too much front end lift for my liking.
The transition when cornering is just horrible. It goes from almost feeling it's not going to go around the corner to almost feeling like the rims have dug in and hence you have no choice but to corner. It makes for a large amount of work on twisty stuff.
Throw in a corner mid-bend and it's all over the place. The whole rear end is making a mess of the whole thing.
Hitting the damper switch just turns the ride from hard to bloddy horrible, for no discernible increase in body control.
The clutch is ridiculously hard. Perhaps they thought it makes it feel "manly", all it does is give you a pain in the leg and spoils the journey. There is no need for it to be like that.
The clutch itself slips for around 80% of the travel of the clutch pedal, and then suddenly bites. Make swift take off horrible and gives a good kangaroo impression a few times.
The interior squeaks and rattles like an old British Layland car. Not what you expect for a 3 year, 27000 mile Porsche.
It's not actually "that" quick. I had a play with a 997 turbo on the way home and was mildly disappointed in the relative acceleration between us.
Would I buy one? Absolutely not. It's a beetle that has the engine completely in the wrong place, and whilst they have clearly tamed it's desire to swap ends, there is still a horrible amount of transition issues around the limit. I much prefer a balanced car, and would take the Palmer BMW M3 that I played with on track last week over this any day of the week. It's not just my driving style either, as apparently I drove the Palmer Porsche JP3 around half a second quicker than other guests, and nearly 2 seconds quicker than anyone else that day.
At a rough guess it's a fine track day car, and probably goes down an Autobahn nicely at 180, but as a car for British Roads, nope, it's horrible. I won't be getting it out of Ecurie again, and it's nicely confirmed what I knew all along, it's a compromised design.
J
Firstly the good points (yes there are some)
The noise with the sport button pressed is highly agreeable
The linear power delivery up to the 8500 red line is very nice. Reminded me a lot of my Z4M, although it does start to run out of puff above 7500
The spacing of the gears, especially 3rd and 4th was just right for pressing on. 3rd gets the factor 1.05 beep at you so that's just ideal.
It's a great shopping car, there is bags of room up front and behind the seats.
Then the bad points
Steering starts to go light around factor 0.7, and is almost scary at factor 1.2-1.3 IMHO. Far too much front end lift for my liking.
The transition when cornering is just horrible. It goes from almost feeling it's not going to go around the corner to almost feeling like the rims have dug in and hence you have no choice but to corner. It makes for a large amount of work on twisty stuff.
Throw in a corner mid-bend and it's all over the place. The whole rear end is making a mess of the whole thing.
Hitting the damper switch just turns the ride from hard to bloddy horrible, for no discernible increase in body control.
The clutch is ridiculously hard. Perhaps they thought it makes it feel "manly", all it does is give you a pain in the leg and spoils the journey. There is no need for it to be like that.
The clutch itself slips for around 80% of the travel of the clutch pedal, and then suddenly bites. Make swift take off horrible and gives a good kangaroo impression a few times.
The interior squeaks and rattles like an old British Layland car. Not what you expect for a 3 year, 27000 mile Porsche.
It's not actually "that" quick. I had a play with a 997 turbo on the way home and was mildly disappointed in the relative acceleration between us.
Would I buy one? Absolutely not. It's a beetle that has the engine completely in the wrong place, and whilst they have clearly tamed it's desire to swap ends, there is still a horrible amount of transition issues around the limit. I much prefer a balanced car, and would take the Palmer BMW M3 that I played with on track last week over this any day of the week. It's not just my driving style either, as apparently I drove the Palmer Porsche JP3 around half a second quicker than other guests, and nearly 2 seconds quicker than anyone else that day.
At a rough guess it's a fine track day car, and probably goes down an Autobahn nicely at 180, but as a car for British Roads, nope, it's horrible. I won't be getting it out of Ecurie again, and it's nicely confirmed what I knew all along, it's a compromised design.
J
joust said:
Then the bad points
Steering starts to go light around factor 0.7, and is almost scary at factor 1.2-1.3 IMHO. Far too much front end lift for my liking.
J
Mine used to feel like that, always felt better on a full tank, but! you do get used to it, they need a very light touch.Steering starts to go light around factor 0.7, and is almost scary at factor 1.2-1.3 IMHO. Far too much front end lift for my liking.
J
Interesting that Autocar put the Beetle RS as Best Drivers Car 2010 (combined track and road), pipping the M600 and pushing the 458 Italia into 3rd place. Fairly respectable times around Donington as well - 1min 16secs.
For the record the M400 won a similar accolade (Evo Road and Track Car of the Year) on it's début in 2005 beating a Beetle into 2nd place.
So increase the price by £150K and then slip behind the Beetle in the rankings. Tut tut.. should have just continued developing the M400
For the record the M400 won a similar accolade (Evo Road and Track Car of the Year) on it's début in 2005 beating a Beetle into 2nd place.
So increase the price by £150K and then slip behind the Beetle in the rankings. Tut tut.. should have just continued developing the M400
Can someone please explain why this thread has been moved, A subjective discussion by a Noble owner comparing the car and the merits of the said car with other Noble owners,
Or is it a blatant attempt by the mod to wind up the Porsche owners?
Or is it a blatant attempt by the mod to wind up the Porsche owners?
Edited by Adrian W on Tuesday 19th October 18:48
Adrian W said:
Can someone please explain why this thread has been moved, A subjective discussion by a Noble owner comparing the car and the merits of the said car with other Noble owners,
Or is it a blatant attempt by the mod to wind up the Porsche owners?
I've no idea, and they didn't even ask me. This is stupid if a set of owners can't discuss other cars on their forums.Or is it a blatant attempt by the mod to wind up the Porsche owners?
joust said:
MO said:
You must of got hold of a sh!tter. Every 997 I've driven has been planted, well built and rattle free. Are you sure you weren't driving around in a CAT D? 
Nope, it's a car with know history as it is actually an club member's car.Gassing Station | Noble | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff