Who needs any more?

[carnaby35]

As the owner of a fantastic 718 S that ‘everybody hates’, ‘nobody wants’, ‘sounds like a Subaru’, ‘is a poor man’s Porsche’, ‘don’t sell’, etc etc all I can say is that these comments must come from someone who is brain dead.
Having owned a six cylinder 911 and Boxster I can vouch for the fact the 718 blitzes them in all areas.
A recent trip to the Isle of Man after previous visits with 6 cylinder models gave far superior
performance touching 140 mph over the mountain course with only fear preventing me from going faster as the 718 had plenty of urge left in it. ( I do not want to die just yet.)

The question is, who needs to go any faster as you are risking your life, why buy GT cars/ turbos etc at inflated prices with power that just cannot be used apart from perhaps on the Ring or Autobahn.
Is it a status symbol thing to show people how expensive a car you can afford?????
Apologies if this stirs up a hornets nest.??????

 

[Chris P]

After following you over the mountain, I can confirm that your 718 is certainly rapid.

 

[adrian55]

As a 718 s owner i agree with you, i think most 911 owners would be amazed at its capabilities and we've got 2 boots ![]

 

[911hillclimber]

Totally agree with the first post.

My 987.2/ 2.9 has 250 bhp ish.

It is enough for safe driving, quick overtake and all that.

Far from the quickest car on the road, but with so much traffic around whatever day you drive, 500 bhp would be no better, just encourages you to go too fast, too risky overtakes etc just to end up in the queue behind the rest 1/4 mile up the road.

I find most big cars (MPV with big oil burners) way faster, and a few just HAVE to get past you only to have you in the rear mirror 1/4 later...but an ego has been stroked.

Today there are so many cars which will out perform my 987 easy, it does nothing to try to assert yourself and for what reason, just ego.

Primeval reasoning I guess in the MPV drivers heart, mine's bigger and better and more ££££ than your, I'm the Greatest!! lol.

Oddly, I find the 'MPV' behavior more so when out in my tiny 1973 911, it attracts the worse in Range Rover Sport drivers.

 

[Greenman986S]

I need more than performance from my car - if i wanted to do 0-60 in a blink of any eye, i'll buy a Scalextric car...

I need the interaction of the steering, gearbox, ....and engine noise...

 

[MrDemon]

As the owner of a fantastic 718 S that ‘everybody hates’, ‘nobody wants’, ‘sounds like a Subaru’, ‘is a poor man’s Porsche’, ‘don’t sell’, etc etc all I can say is that these comments must come from someone who is brain dead.

Having owned a six cylinder 911 and Boxster I can vouch for the fact the 718 blitzes them in all areas.

A recent trip to the Isle of Man after previous visits with 6 cylinder models gave far superior

performance touching 140 mph over the mountain course with only fear preventing me from going faster as the 718 had plenty of urge left in it. ( I do not want to die just yet.)

The question is, who needs to go any faster as you are risking your life, why buy GT cars/ turbos etc at inflated prices with power that just cannot be used apart from perhaps on the Ring or Autobahn.

Is it a status symbol thing to show people how expensive a car you can afford?????

Apologies if this stirs up a hornets nest.

It's a shame you feel so insecure about your choice of car !

 

[adrianb]

Interesting topic, i think it depends where you are on life’s motoring journey. Having been a boy racer in the 70s, moving to circuit racing and track days in the 90s, I now look for refinement, comfort and practicality in a sports car. The only time our 981S has been over 80 was on a German Autostrada and at 120mph I was being flashed by diesel hatchbacks ️With regard to the 4cyl, I did drive a service loan car from Portsmouth to Hook on the M3 and back and did find the engine harsh compared to 6cyl, the gearbox also changed down, going up and down the hills, the 6cyl will hold top gear at 70 mph. However when I drove a 4cyl at Silverstone Porsche Experience Centre, I thought it was fantastic, a proper track day machine but not what I need for the road, I would get into all sorts of trouble ️

 

[JurassicGTS]

[/quote]

It's a shame you feel so insecure about your choice of car !

[/quote]

 

[carnaby35]

I don’t Mr Jurassic. As I said it’s a fantastic 718S and I love it to bits.

 

[carnaby35]

Interesting topic, i think it depends where you are on life’s motoring journey. Having been a boy racer in the 70s, moving to circuit racing and track days in the 90s, I now look for refinement, comfort and practicality in a sports car. The only time our 981S has been over 80 was on a German Autostrada and at 120mph I was being flashed by diesel hatchbacks ️With regard to the 4cyl, I did drive a service loan car from Portsmouth to Hook on the M3 and back and did find the engine harsh compared to 6cyl, the gearbox also changed down, going up and down the hills, the 6cyl will hold top gear at 70 mph. However when I drove a 4cyl at Silverstone Porsche Experience Centre, I thought it was fantastic, a proper track day machine but not what I need for the road, I would get into all sorts of trouble ️

Similar tale here from on the Autobahn in the Boxster 987S. Came across an old Golf 1.9 TDi estate cruising at a steady 140 mph. Tucked behind for a few miles then decided to pass. Opened the Boxster up to 162 mph then backed off as we had the top down and it was ruining the wife’s hairdo!!

The old 987 S was still pulling like a train though.

 

[JurassicGTS]

I don’t Mr Jurassic. As I said it’s a fantastic 718S and I love it to bits.

The comment was actually made by MrDemon not me

 

[Wollemi]

You are actually asking two questions here

The first is how much power is enough to have fun?

The second question, is does the way the power is delivered make a difference to how much fun you have?

One answer to the first question is that you can never have too much power because you have an accelerator pedal to control it, but that is a trite answer.

In my view 300 - 350 hp in a 1400kg car is enough to have fun. In most road driving you won’t use full power except to overtake. There is of course still fun to be had with less than 300hp, it can be great fun wringing it out all the time, but that can get tiring on a longer journey.

On the public road your speed is limited by the distance that you can see so the advantages of huge power are rarely demonstrated.

On a recent trip to the wide, open and above all empty roads of the north Pennines and Scottish Border I had no trouble keeping up with a 992 GT3 and Ferrari 458 even though they both had more than 100 hp more than my GTS 4.0, as vision was the limiting factor, not horsepower.

But when you consider how the power is delivered then you are into the realm of the purely subjective. How important to you is throttle response, lack of lag, linear power delivery, and yes the sound.

Perhaps these things more important to some than others. Perhaps it depends upon what sort of roads you drive?

Maybe you are completely happy with the way the turbo four delivers its undoubted performance; but the fact that you ask the question suggests perhaps not?

I did 1500 miles in a 718S on those same pennine and borders roads that I mentioned earlier. It was more than quick enough, easy to drive, entirely capable.

But I didn’t enjoy the experience of driving it anything like as much as I enjoy my 4.0 naturally aspirated six.

But in the end we all like different things and have different priorities, drive on different roads.

If you like your car that’s all that matters.

 

[polkadotbabe]

My Boxster S in Carmine with full leather, 18-way, Chrono & PTV is the best and most exciting car I have ever had.

60mph on a country road with the wind in my hair is all I need, but I do find on motorways that 'man-in-a-van' just HAS to overtake me!

This car satisfies all I need in a Porsche and is a keeper!

Andrew

Boxster S

Macan GTS

previous: Sunbeam Alpine, Mazda MX5, BMW 325i conv

X3, X4, X5, Macan x3, BMW 3 Tourings

 

[911hillclimber]

My 987.2 does all we need, not interested in anything quicker, but have a race car that is so much quicker (acceleration), maybe that calms to 'need for speed'?

 

[AlistairF]

Is n’t the real point that we all love the fact that Porsche sports cars cover all the bases, from the GT cars for racing and track day specialists, to cruisers in Boxsters (like me) who now mainly tour ( with the odd blast here and there).

All of the cars have that same brilliant dna…great handling and on the whole fantastic engines. We all have that appreciation in common. While doing the NC500 a couple of years ago we parked in a lay-by to look at a castle…we were joined by a couple in a 991 turbo. My partner crawled out her side of the car…surrounded by the usual overflow of bags and stuff and came to face the woman in the 991 doing the same. Different ends of the car spectrum…but common experiences...I can’t think of another brand that does that...so what power is enough ? Does it matter ?

 

[911hillclimber]

Oh so true!

 

[turbo jonny]

My 981 S covers all bases so well for road use. Have owned faster watercooled Porsches and rarely miss them. What i did miss more was the analogue , high quality materials, Classic / nostalgia/ history of the air cooled experience. Hence i settled on a fine example of a 964 for my second car. ( only 2 permitted

 

[okellyt]

Power is nothing without control - so more power is no benefit if you do not have a balanced car

For on road driving progress and overtaking at normal speed ranges torque is king - especially mid range. If you can put the power down and if the cars brakes and handling can cope.

One of the nice thing about Porsches is they tend to be very balanced cars. All Porsches

Often the best thing is actually the brakes, Porsches design parameter was that your brakes should stop you in the half the time it took you to get to that speed, when you start braking from full acceleration.

So if you buy a more "powerful" Porsche you are normally buying better Brakes, Handling, Traction, Aero/or a more luxury standard of interior and options, depending on which route you go, more relaxed long distance cruising, (improved) 4 wheel drive etc.

So to extrapolate your question - none of us need even a Cayman - a little 0.9 liter 60hp engine car will happily get us from A to B and reach domestic speed limits.

So buying any Porsche is about wants - your want is as valid as anyone else's but their want is equally valid

People want more for all sorts of reasons - from the esoterical end of a shape they love the look of, or design features they "must have" , to how the car behaves on the road and handles, the sound, the breadth of capability. All the way down to top trump bragging rights and everything in between.

Everyone is different and Porsche are very good at catering to a range of wants, including generating wants where most people didn't even think there would be.

There is a market there for those that want technical excellence and are fascinated by the newest best advances and want "the best" even if they have not the intention or skills to utilize this to it's potential.

Of all the groups, we should probably be most thankful to that group - it's why the cars evolved and got better.

Its why we can get a car like the Cayman 718 4.0 GTS for example a superb machine and are not still running around with a 356 bodied car with 50hp and drum brakes..........

There is a legitimate discussion about how much performance is too much for the road and what do we mean by performance

But it's not fair to try and boil a conversation that its actually quite a complex one down to if someone buys a car that happens to be more powerful than another that is the only factor and then try and challenge that.

If you got 50 people that bought a GT3 RS or the new Turbo S and asked them what the found good about their car and why they bought it in that context, you'd probably get 50 different answers.

 

[224 Peter]

A thread of excellent posts and I agree with all.
My early (November 2016) 718 BS is all the car I want, or need, as I slide towards 75 it may well be my last interesting car as the limiting factor may well be access!

 

[malarcy]

I have a 987.2 S I like it. I used to have a 987.2 2.9. I liked that. I used to have a 911SC. I didn’t like that so much.

I have driven a number of 718 both “base” and S. I like them. I was impressed by the base. I was surprised by the S.

I don’t feel inclined to compare my car with others. I don’t especially want a different car. It’s good to see others enjoying different models but it really makes no odds to me.

I never even think about power or speed. I just like having what I have and enjoying it the way I like to enjoy it.

Like most of us I suspect I have been told by people who have no “dog in the fight” and have never owned anything interesting that I have the “wrong Porsche”. I assume they have said that because I wasn’t listening. I was enjoying my car that day.

Hope we all can do the same.