Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerbs
Idk, gotta test drive.
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I have to say that when it comes to Porsche, I really agree. More than anything else, it's so necessary to drive it to understand it. I've had the good fortune to have friends give me seat time in their Cayman GTS, 911 Carrera T, and 911 GT3. and each one of them has left me with a very distinct impression that doesn't capture into numbers.
To me - and especially with the 911s - what the spec sheets and even the reviews couldn't capture is the feeling of consistency and perfection, down to the details. Take for example, the action of the shift lever slotting into each gear position: it is precisely the same tactile response into
every gear. By contrast, the S2000's mechanical action is right up there, but there isn't that deliberate sense of consistency. Then there's the steering, the throttle, the
pedal, yes even the
pedal experience is precisely tuned and concise and perfectly weighted, through its entire travel. Even the action of adjusting the HVAC vents. In every other car, they "just get it done". "Oh there's a dead spot". Oh there is a weird torque dip". "Oh there was a thunk this time but not last time, and only turning at 50 kph over a medium-sized cambered bump.": you never get that sense in a Porsche: they didn't "just get it done".
And you could get a lot of this by just sitting in one, but it seems until you combine all those feelings of consistency and responsiveness with driving time where you experience all the interactive perfection in
combination with that same consistency and responsiveness from the chassis and the motor singing up the revs, solidly putting Gs into curves, it doesn't finally click that holy shit, this all adds up to so much more than it should.
Driving a Porsche encourages you to savor the details. Too often we're just trying to get 'er done. There is another dimension for us to live, and it's not about how quickly we got from there to here, but
how, and how joyfully we did it.