Living the Legend
Our contributing enthusiasts from around the world share their real-life experiences with their Porsche 911s
Real-world reports from our global collective of 911 owners
Through my role as experiences director at Porsche Club
GB, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the 17th International Porsche Club Presidents’ Meeting that took place in and around the Portimao race track in Portugal. The event was organised by Porsche for all the officially recognised Porsche Clubs around the world. The twoday itinerary consisted of test drives on local roads in the new Taycan Turbo S and 991.2 GT3 RS Weissach Pack plus plenty of track time in each car too.
We were also given insight into each car during detailed workshops around electric vehicle technology and Porsche Motorsport, both the development of their GT cars and their road to track to race programme, which was absolutely fascinating. Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take any photographs during the workshops.
The event was also an ideal opportunity to spend time with other
Porsche Clubs across the globe, share ideas and be surrounded by other Porsche enthusiasts!
So, let’s start with Porsche’s new electric vehicle – the Taycan. I was convinced, determined even, not to like an electric vehicle, but once you accept it does not have an internal combustion engine and does not make any noise, it is actually rather good. So good in fact, I found myself throwing a five-metre long, 2.3-tonne vehicle around like it was, well, a 911… Plus, I cannot begin to convey how ferocious the acceleration is in a straight line. With 761PS and over 1,000Nm of torque, it was quite unlike any other car I have ever driven, especially when you consider it will comfortably seat four adults with a large boot. Handling was precise and sure footed as you would expect from Stuttgart’s finest, with more poise and body control than you would imagine for a car of this size.
Readers will be pleased and relieved to know the GT3 RS Weissach Pack was on another level entirely. What a car!
GT3S have evolved so much since the original 996.1 was launched over 20 years ago. It was as accomplished on road as it was on track, with a soundtrack to die for! Portimao is an exceptional race track, with swooping curves and plenty of gradient change, so it really is a challenging track to drive around. To do so in such a special vehicle is an experience I will never forget! It also reminded me how much I like track days and has made me even more determined to book some track time in 2020 in my 997.1 GT3.
The whole trip was an unforgettable experience but I could not wait to get home and back behind the wheel of my GT3. I wanted to draw an immediate comparison between the brand-new Rennsport generation and my 2007 car. The similarities were immediately obvious. Focused and raw, yet civilised enough to drive on the road. The orchestra out back from the wailing flat six and central exhaust pipes. The purposeful rear wing and lowered suspension, plus the fact that you know you are driving something very special from the moment you turn the ignition key!
Having only recently got the 997.1 GT3, I was hoping the awesome time I had in the brand-new GT3 RS would not take the ‘shine’ off my car. I am very pleased to report that proved not to be the case. It’s proof once again that Porsche has an uncanny ability to make each generation of 911 GT3 feel special and unique in their own way!
The first priority this month was sorting out a couple of small but important problems with my 997 C2S… those issues being the fact that I seemed to have no heated seats since reconnecting my battery, and my driver’s side headlight has been permanently pointing downwards!
With average temperatures still set to be under 10 degrees centigrade for the next month in the UK, the heated seats were definitely missed on my first outing of the year, and as the sun set it was then that I realised I had reduced visibility on the road due to the driver’s side headlight pointing completely down towards the road.
So this meant a quick call to the guys at Revolution Porsche in Leeds, and after speaking to Russ Stanley, he informed me that the heated seat is a very simple and quick fix that involves plugging into the car with PIWIS (Porsche Integrated Workshop Information System) and performing a ‘vehicle handover’. It transpires this happens a lot on 997s after the batteries have either been disconnected or replaced – apparently the ECU gets a bit confused and the car needs to be told that it has heated seats again in order to recognise that it actually has them.
We also came to the conclusion that the headlights were probably due to a broken HBA rod that controls the headlight beam adjustment, this was confirmed when I found part of a broken HBA rod on my garage floor after reversing out of my garage!
With brand-new ones only being fitted 2,000 miles ago I could only put this down to it getting knocked when the Bilstein suspension was fitted last summer.
I took the 997 to Revolution the following week and both issues were solved in less than two hours and at minimal cost, result!
In other news, as I write this I have just booked into the highly regarded suspension specialists, Centre Gravity in the Midlands, to have a look at my new Bilstein B6 and Eibach springs set up on my car that was fitted last year.
After driving the car more and more, I’ve began to feel the car is riding too firm and harsh for a Cabriolet on the UK’S bumpy roads, making me think that I made the wrong decision and should possibly revert to standard springs.
Pete at Centre Gravity was very informative and helpful after briefly explaining my concerns: he told me it could simply be down to the firmer polyurethane Powerflex bushes that were fitted to the coffin arms at the same time as the suspension, or even a combination of the firmer bushes and Bilstein B6 suspension working too close to the bump stop’s limits.
I’m looking forward to visiting Centre Gravity with the hope of restoring some compliance and will be sharing my findings and conclusion next month!