Went to the Porsche World Road Show today
09-20-2013, 11:20 PM
#1
Race Director
Thread Starter
Went to the Porsche World Road Show today
And it was a LOT of fun. Basically it's a two part thing, you get to do some laps around the track in the Cayman, Cayman S (my favorite), 911 Carrera 4, and 911 Carrera 4S. Then you o the "tech drive", which seems more like a filler to give people something to do while waiting to do the track part, but probably leads to more of the sales. We drove the new Panamera S, Panamera Plug-In Hybid S thing, Cayenne V6, and Cayenne Diesel. This was sort of a basic drivability test with a quick full throttle launch and a few chicanes and turns to get a feel for them.
I OVE the new Cayman S. The base model is rather slow, but honestly it's a lot of fun. You can (and will) wind the sucker out and it's got a great sound. The interiors are great, but I definitely missed the targa roof (a glass roof option would be very welcome in the Cayman). The new styling is worlds better than the old model, it's classy, conservative, aggressive, and overall attractive - they didn't go out to reinvent the car, just make it better. It's also a whole lot more fun than the last generation. Before I bought my Corvette, I test drove Cayman S's, and found them rather boring and uncomfortable compared to the Corvette (and 370Z). The new model fixes both of those issues.
The new 911 is a great car. It's a lot of fun to drive, and amazingly comfortable and spacious (the Cayman was spacious as well, and comfortable, but not as comfortable). It's a heck of a drive, and very different to drive than most cars. The 4S had a TON of grip, and it felt like a lot of that came from the back (factory 305 tires will do that I guess). I liked the car a lot, but it felt more like a car my middle aged dad would drive than myself being a late 20s guy with no kids or anything.
All the cars had the PDK transmission, which is fantastic. Shifts fast and VERY firm, blips the throttle on downshifts, and honestly it's smart enough to do everything right even without using the paddles. Frankly, short of just liking the manual transmission, it makes them obsolete. They had selectable modes, and in "sport plus" mode it would literally not upshift until you ran it all the way through the rpm range, sport would give you a pretty large range but didn't force you to redline it before it shifted.
There's something special those cars have that the Corvette doesn't have, but the Corvette also has something special the Porsches lack. I feel like the Corvette has a brutish character about it, with the big V8 up front and all, but it also has WAY more room for stuff than any of them. The Corvette is a more visceral machine, you open the hood and there's a big engine that you've got pretty reasonable access to overall. The Porsches on the other hand felt more evolved for lack of a better term. They just do everything with such incredible balance, they don't get upset easily, and they've thought of everything. They feel much more advanced overall, from the stack of about a billion buttons on the center stack, to the fantastic engine sound (which honestly I think is louder than my NPP Corvette inside the car) - they just feel more advanced. When you pop the boot to look at the engine, there isn't one - everything is covered by plastics and you can't see anything more than a few vents on the 911, you can't see ANYTHING on the Cayman. The Porsches aren't gonna be as good for big smoky burnouts or massive donuts or anything like that, but they are so easy to drive fast it's insane.
Overall, it was an awesome experience. I got to go with my dad and we traded pot shots all day about my Corvette vs his Porsche. Porsche has a really great group of people that work for them, and that own their vehicles. There wasn't a single person there that wasn't nice, and they even had positive things to say about my owning a Corvette. For a totally free event, they really treated us great. I'm sure they sold a few cars to some of the other guys that were there, but honestly they sold me on one later on down the road. I can say now my next car is going to be a Cayman S or a 911, unless I have to get another SUV for some reason.
FWIW, Chevy needs something just like this for the Corvette.
I OVE the new Cayman S. The base model is rather slow, but honestly it's a lot of fun. You can (and will) wind the sucker out and it's got a great sound. The interiors are great, but I definitely missed the targa roof (a glass roof option would be very welcome in the Cayman). The new styling is worlds better than the old model, it's classy, conservative, aggressive, and overall attractive - they didn't go out to reinvent the car, just make it better. It's also a whole lot more fun than the last generation. Before I bought my Corvette, I test drove Cayman S's, and found them rather boring and uncomfortable compared to the Corvette (and 370Z). The new model fixes both of those issues.
The new 911 is a great car. It's a lot of fun to drive, and amazingly comfortable and spacious (the Cayman was spacious as well, and comfortable, but not as comfortable). It's a heck of a drive, and very different to drive than most cars. The 4S had a TON of grip, and it felt like a lot of that came from the back (factory 305 tires will do that I guess). I liked the car a lot, but it felt more like a car my middle aged dad would drive than myself being a late 20s guy with no kids or anything.
All the cars had the PDK transmission, which is fantastic. Shifts fast and VERY firm, blips the throttle on downshifts, and honestly it's smart enough to do everything right even without using the paddles. Frankly, short of just liking the manual transmission, it makes them obsolete. They had selectable modes, and in "sport plus" mode it would literally not upshift until you ran it all the way through the rpm range, sport would give you a pretty large range but didn't force you to redline it before it shifted.
There's something special those cars have that the Corvette doesn't have, but the Corvette also has something special the Porsches lack. I feel like the Corvette has a brutish character about it, with the big V8 up front and all, but it also has WAY more room for stuff than any of them. The Corvette is a more visceral machine, you open the hood and there's a big engine that you've got pretty reasonable access to overall. The Porsches on the other hand felt more evolved for lack of a better term. They just do everything with such incredible balance, they don't get upset easily, and they've thought of everything. They feel much more advanced overall, from the stack of about a billion buttons on the center stack, to the fantastic engine sound (which honestly I think is louder than my NPP Corvette inside the car) - they just feel more advanced. When you pop the boot to look at the engine, there isn't one - everything is covered by plastics and you can't see anything more than a few vents on the 911, you can't see ANYTHING on the Cayman. The Porsches aren't gonna be as good for big smoky burnouts or massive donuts or anything like that, but they are so easy to drive fast it's insane.
Overall, it was an awesome experience. I got to go with my dad and we traded pot shots all day about my Corvette vs his Porsche. Porsche has a really great group of people that work for them, and that own their vehicles. There wasn't a single person there that wasn't nice, and they even had positive things to say about my owning a Corvette. For a totally free event, they really treated us great. I'm sure they sold a few cars to some of the other guys that were there, but honestly they sold me on one later on down the road. I can say now my next car is going to be a Cayman S or a 911, unless I have to get another SUV for some reason.
FWIW, Chevy needs something just like this for the Corvette.
