Spring Fever

[lowndes]

Spring is just around the corner. Well may be not but nevertheless as the days lengthen and the winter salt and gloom recedes thoughts turn once more to matters motoring.

I've been in 997's since 2005, turbo from 2006 and Gen II for the last three years. Wonderful cars all. A pleasure to drive, not too expensive to run and save for some duff radiators on the Gen I turbo, entirely without fault; not bad for a relatively high performance car. The current car was not exactly worn out and the lack of 7 digit post code hardly a justification for making a change.

However, as is the way with these things, some casual phone enquiries revealed there were new 991's on offer at sensible prices and it seemed rude not to follow this up.

The result is that this afternoon I traded in the turbo and drove away in a new 991C2S, reasonably well specified with usual spaghetti soup of P acronyms.

Initial impressions distinctly favourable. The fittings and furnishings all a step on from 997, road noise and ride an all-round improvement, steering indistinguishable from my old car, and on the short run back from the OPC the missing 130 horses weren't noticed.

I will report back once I have a bit more on the clock which is currently showing 41 miles.

 

[pwebb]

Welcome to the fold Nick, car looks superb in Agate (it is that colour isn't it?). Be fascinating to hear your views develop with a few more miles on the clock, particularly coming from such a fantastic predecessor.

Co-incidentally another long term 997 regular changes his car for a 991 today - welcome to Jonathan too.

 

[jonathanw]

Peter

Thanks for the welcome. Will send photos in due course and my initial impressions.

 

[lowndes]

Thanks for the welcome Peter; it's good to be on board and I will post some thoughts once I am a bit more familiar with the car.

You are quite correct, Agate it is. It is a shade or two darker than my outgoing car which was in my favoured Meteor but I like the new colour very well too. I was a little restricted by taking a MY13 car from stock rather than speccing, but there is a varied range of options out there with the OPCs and the only one that seemed generally to be missing on new cars was TPM. So it's back to kicking the tyres.

Insurance premium has gone up (!) by £40 but at least the balance of the Tracker subscription, which I had just renewed, was transferable.

Having had a quick look in the manual (I know we are not supposed to read these things) running in recommendations are longer trips and no Club Sport events for the first 1865 miles. I am going to North Wales in a week's time and then Switzerland later in the month, after which I should be on full song and able to test out the G-Force meter. What is the current record!

Just chatting in the dealership whilst waiting for my car to be brought round, it seems to be confirmed that Turbo S will be next, date not confirmed but sufficient cars this year to provide about 6 per dealer. No one too clear why the S is coming first but the suggestion is it might be price point with the car at £150k+.

Conversion rate on letters of intent to firm order for GT3 is apparently slightly underwhelming, maybe everyone's money is in Cyprus.

Cheers

Nick

 

[garyw]

Nice upgrades both Nick and Jonathan.
Nice to read of some regulars getting the 991 and using the car []

 

[tscaptain]

You might not miss the 130bhp Nick but I certainly missed the 260 torques (from 2000 rpm)when I drove one for a day........[] Lovely looking car though.[] See you at an event or two this year?

 

[lowndes]

I'm with you there Alan, but because I use old money the shortfall in torques using my measurement system is only around 190 ftlb.[] which doesn't sound so bad. And of course with the latest 7 speed PDK it means it isn't too long before an appropriate gear has been selected and demand satisfied.

Though I am not an advocate of ever increasing wheel size, now 20", I am pleasantly surprised by how compliant the ride is. Quite what electronic witchcraft is needed to achieve this doesn't bear thinking about but my old bones are grateful nonetheless.

Hateful hand brake; irritating stop/start and nothing to see in the engine bay are my only issues so far, but generally I think it is a very nice car and I am looking forward to putting some miles on it over the next month or so.

Cheers

Nick

 

[jonathanw]

What handbrake!! I have never used a handbrake in normal driving on any cars I have had with auto, tiptronic or PDK. Have had to use handbrake when on Eurotunnel though.

The auto handbrake on my long departed A5 was great. Come to a stop with the footbrake and handbrake came on automatically, and automatically releases when the gas is applied ( this was a manual car).

Have had mine now just over 24 hours and what an improvement on the gen2 997. The cab roof is a gem and altogether the car looks the proverbial dog's round bits.

 

[jonathanw]

Just returned from the South West tour brilliantly organised by Clive and Allan.

It was a great way of learning about my new car. I am greatly impressed. Everybody commented how good the sports exhaust sounded. The PDK gearbox is a dream and senses what you would normally do but with instantaneous reactions. The car handles brilliantly and quite frankly I thought the steering much improved on the 997! We reached interesting speeds down the country roads and had no trouble keeping well up with the Turbo S's and the GT2.

I suspect several of the 997 register members will be drifting over to 991s in due course.

Gary's Macca looks great but has no glove box and only very limited internal storage. Suspect he will come back to the fold sometime soon!

http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo268/jonathanwarren/th_IMG_3838.jpg

 

[pwebb]

Sounds like you all had a great trip, and fantastic scenery down there.
Maybe we can look at the South West ourselves next year. Just got to persuade Clive to change to a new 991 Turbo S!

 

[jonathanw]

Peter


Thanks for the register sticker.

 

[pwebb]

Wear it with pride! If anyone else doesn't have a 991 Register sticker yet, drop me an email.

 

[jonathanw]

Peter

How many are on the register?

 

[pwebb]

30 on a good day with the wind behind us[]

 

[jonathanw]

Peter

From the comments about my car in the recent CW drive I think there may be some changing from 997 turbos to regular 991s with the odd 991 GT3 to boot. []

 

[garyw]

ORIGINAL: jonathanw

Peter

From the comments about my car in the recent CW drive I think there may be some changing from 997 turbos to regular 991s with the odd 991 GT3 to boot. []

You can't keep the riff raff out you know []

 

[pwebb]

We need all the help we can get []