I just completed a track day yesterday with my 997S at Pacific Raceways near Seattle. With only 470 miles on the clock, I reckoned it was broke-in enough!



Overall, the car was very smooth and had lots of tire grip. The day started wet, so the first couple of lapping sessions were on a wet track. I was having reasonably good traction around turns. By the end of the day, I put about 140 track miles on the car.

Traction and Tires

Tire traction was very good. The rear tires gripped well and I could get the power down nicely out of turns. Even in the wet. The tires had a very nice feel at the limit. I was power-sliding around tight turns and loving it. Front tires could be wider for track use, as understeer was present (more later).

Engine

Engine pulled strongly all the way to 7000 rpm. The exhaust and induction sound was nice, and many others commented that it didn't sound anything like a 996. It was noticably less power on the straights than my 996TT, but still very smooth.

Suspension

Suspension was very smooth and controlled. I was running in "Sport" mode, which firms the dampers and backs off the traction control. For about half the day I also had PSM deactivated. There is a fair amount of body lean. I wish I could lower the car a little. Stiffer sway bars may be useful for tracking.

There was a moderate amount of understeer, the same as most bone-stock 996s. The car just has the factory alignment, so with a more aggressive alignment, and perhaps a bigger rear sway bar, that should be reduced.

There are some tricky humps in this track (braking zone into turn 3, entrance and exit of turn 5a), and a lot of uneven pavement (T2, T7, T9). The 997 was very controlled over those. My 996 NA and Turbo (before suspension mods) would get floaty and scarey at those places. The 997 was just planted.

Steering

Steering was excellent. The progressive ratio was very nice around the track. I loved the steering. There was just enough road sensation through the wheel, without it jerking or bucking over bad pavement. The slightly smaller wheel felt good too.

Shifting

Shifting was good, although a shorter throw would be welcome, as the longish throw sometimes interfered with getting the right gear. The clutch pedal is a little smaller than in the 996, so it made heal-and-toeing a little difficult under heavy braking. Wider pedals would be nice.

Brakes

Braking was excellent. My car has the normal (non-PCCB) brakes. They felt as good as my 996 Turbo brakes. I didn't feel any fade throughout the day. Braking was very straight and controlled. Early in the day the ABS was activating a lot due to the wet track.

Sport-Chrono

I did play with this to time my laps. It's interesting, but kind of a pain because at each lap you have to push the function stalk twice. I sometimes forgot to press it. It's also hard to read the last lap time as you go by. It flashes it on the display for a second, which is not long enough. The clock timer on the top of the dash is too hard to read while driving fast. After each lap session, I played with the "Evaluation" screen to see bar graphs of my laps.



The picture above shows the evaluation screen. On the 2nd line, it reads the fastest lap, the currently selected lap (highlighted in orange), and the difference from the fastest lap. My lap times were all over the place in this set due to rain and traffic.

You can save each set in a "Trip". Once you have a number of trips saved, you select the ones you want to evaluate, and you can pick a particular lap as a "Reference Lap" to which it show relative times.



Seats

Anybody who tracks their car knows the importance of good seats and driving position. Happily, the 997 Adaptive Sport Seats are very good. They held me in place much better than 996 seats, and almost as good as race seats. The only thing I didn't like is that the head rest is pointed slightly forward and bumps into my helmet, causing me to either have a head-down positon, or to recline the seat slightly.




Overall Conclusions

My lap times were respectable, but not great, due mostly to understeering and too much body lean. Lowering the car and a better alignment should go a long way to improve that.

To give you some hard data points, my best time around this track (2.25 mile) was about 1:49. The best time I've recorded in my Stradale here was about 1:41. A pretty full race car will do it in 1:30 - 1:35 here. Most of my times that day were 1:50 - 1:52. I was not pushing the car too hard, as this was the first time I've tracked it. I'm sure I could get faster with more experience.

I would say the stock 997 is a major improvement over the stock 996 in handling, feel, and comfort at the track.

Six Year Difference




Joining the Family





Edit and Update:

Since writing this up, a lot of people have asked about the understeer and body lean. Let me put this into perspective. I've been running cars on the track lately that have little or no understeer or lean. So, I immediately noticed the change when I drove the 997 at the track. I would NOT say the 997 has too much understeer or lean. We are not talking luxo barge or anything like that. It's probably about the same as, or better than, a stock 996 from the factory. For safety, auto makers always favor understeer (esp the in the 911!). If you track it, you will benefit from dialing out the understeer and lowering the car. But out of the box, the 997/PASM drove very well on the track, and probably better than most/all stock cars you care to track. -Ray

 

HI,


nice report,thanks!



which tires did you use?







DDW

 

Michelin PS2. 295mm rear, 235mm front.

 

Very nice. Great to hear the 997s are getting out there to the track.

 

Great review thanks for sharing!

 

Ray - great review.

One query - how do you intend to lower your PASM equipped car?

 

That's the $64,000 question. I don't know. I'm hoping somebody will come out with shorter springs. PLEASE tuners! The 997S is worth it!

 

That was awesome. great to hear of the improvements. Nice job, Porsche.

 

Any GT3s at the track...?

 

Not that day, but I have been on the track when there were. There are at least 2 people around I know of who track them.

 

Great post Ray.
H&R or Eibach should have lowering springs out soon I would bet. Lowering springs should make it look better as would a Factory aerokit. I would like to get a factory Porcshe aerokit..............but all Tech Equipment is delayed.
Have a great weekend

 

Thank you for posting your impressions. ROW cars have a factory sport suspension option that lowers the car 20mm and adds an LSD. That should come in real handy on the track and I wonder why does the US market not get this option.

 

Thanks for the objective, unbiased writeup.
Feels like I was in the car with you.

 

Agreed. I've called two dealers, both of which went through PCNA back to the motherland to get an answer on US availability. No answer yet.

 

Very interesting report. I'm surprised about , "... a fair amount of body lean."

What is your opinion of the active suspension?

I bought a 997 and regret not getting the "S".