Andrew Killington said:
Interesting D; however I went out in mine today and can honestly say I much prefer it to the 987; no it doesn't have the steering feedback but for me in all other respects it wins hands down; maybe we are different drivers with different priorities but on my local 'test route' I find the 981 better planted, more tuneful and goes without saying noticeably more powerful;
As a previous 996 RS owner most cars lack the steering feedback of that car lol
wins at what ? what it wins at are not what makes a fun car imo
there is no right and wrong of course, that is why every review has something to say, and why we all don't own the same cars, steering feel is everything for me for a fun car. I also had a 996 GT3 and the 987.2 Spyder has better steering than that on the road, people do confuse steering feed with feedback and the 996 GT3 had too much feed back due imo to the front stiff ARB, hit a bump with the inside wheel and the steering gets knocked out of your hand, that's not feel imo, great on a smooth track, pretty shit on a UK B road to a point above 80mph it was hard to hold a line, get to 100mph down the Fosse and it's was not fun at all and lets face it at 100mph you are still not hitting the sweet spot in 3rd gear yet !!!
The Spyder has the right amount of feel, better than a GT3 due to the fact it has more weight over the front, but not the daft bump steer issues the GT3's have (not true bump steer, but I don't know what to call the steering wheel moving about TOO much in a 996 GT3 if you hit a bump) my spyder wheels moves about but not to the same degree. just enough
My GT4 cannot match the feel of my older car, yes it's a better/ faster car, but who cares if it's less enjoyable ? I've done the Fosse at a ton in the GT4 and it's a one handed affair and no fun at all :-( This comes down to your well planted quote, the cars are now too well planted at normal speeds, so again no fun unless you start pushing bigger speeds !
As for more powerfull, again it needs to be, the longer gearing saps the power and in real terms Side my side I bet their is not much in it to 90mph, as the review said, you have to work harder with the 3.4 but it ultimately rewards you more. If you want to ride the 3.8 Torque then yes, but then Porsche are doing the Torque thing with turbo's and people don't seem to like that ! the 3.8 is not a revvy engine and because of the toque it's not worth taking it to red line either, the 3.4 loves going to red
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
but if you want more power by a 718 ! it's faster !
The 3.4 is a far nicer engine, and if you thought it was not fast enough (10 seconds to a ton, so as fast as a 996 GT3, people did not say they were slow ! ) you can put 370BHp on that engine quite easy. But really it is fast enough.
And last tunefull. yes the 987.2 car was a bit muted but the 981 car is a bit fake ! all this trend for over fueling is a bit over done now, every hot hatch is at it and now all the sports cars, the GTS being the worse offender. A honest sound is far nicer and why I went the route of taking 2 cats out of my car to release a honest sound which kicks the new cars into touch.
So it's a tough choice, the new cars are great, they look great than handle better, they are faster etc etc, BUT they have less feel, weigh more, less agile, have EPS, PTV, Auto blips, fake over runs and that daft 85mph 2nd gear !
I guess I just like the feel of the older cars. The new cars make for a better all round car true, or you could even use it as a daily, but more fun, not a chance.
Again the new cars will run circles around the older ones on track, but then we are not racing. And boy my car is fun on track, take a look at the fastest things on my last track day with PCGB ;-)
[link=https://youtu.be/iFtTtY_WFsQ]https://youtu.be/iFtTtY_WFsQ[/link]
excuse the GT3 getting in the way, always hold up fast laps lol
I'll repost the sound of my old car, if you think a GTS or GT4 or 981 sounds better than this then , well I have no words
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
(the mic is at the exhaust pipes so it is loud on the film, it's not like that in the car, but you get the idea) it's a honest sound all the way to red line.
[link=https://youtu.be/NUXq8r-BD4o]https://youtu.be/NUXq8r-BD4o[/link]
would I buy a 981 Spyder, YES, did I buy a GT4 YES I am not saying these are bad cars, they are great cars, but the hype around them is too much imo and as a driving machine they just don't have that magic.
having a 981 Spyder as a daily though, yes a whole new story, in fact I was close to buying the Hippo grey car just for that job !
So back to "wins hands down" :-( not for me ..... and of course this is only my personal opinion, I have to say this as people think every thing I say has to be a fact ;-)