Well, since my car is ****, which many of you know, I will end up in a new 911 one way or another. I decided last night, with P or without them. That being saiid I realize I should review the options I got and thought I would provide a bit of my thgouhts. These are of course my personal taste so no blasting..

Keeper features:

1. the S. No I dont want a 4s, or cab.. Just an S.
2. All leather interior - Once you have it.. you just cant go back.
3. Seats - I really dont care about the extra movement with the better seat, but I am considering the sports seats (I will need to check).
4. Sport crono - Of course
5 - Bose - of course
6. - Bluetooth and audio interface - Yes

The ones I am on the fence about or may be leaning against:

1. Black with black wheels, white taillights, black interior strip. - Black on Black looks awsome. I however would rather drive than clean. I doubt I will get black again and may go for the aqua blue.
2. Navigation module - Frankly this is a useless system that is far outclassed by my 200$ cell phone with google maps and nav. The cell is free and the nav on the car is 2k. Updates are not free(on the car) and the lookup of stuff near me is never good. The menu is tough so I think it is best thast I pull over anyways. Frankly I know where I need to go. It may be weird but I just dont see the need for it. A few times I need it I can just suction my call phone to the window.
3. Clear bar - It just looks bad in black. I dont know if it shows less on lighter colors but I might just be willing to go without and fix.
4. PSE - I know it sounds nice, but its heavier and does nothing.

Items I wish I had and will get:
Park assist
Dynamic cornering lights.

Anyway just my .02 cents six months after purchase.

My original black on black was 106 list.. If I got better seats I would be aroudn the same number maybe a bit less.

Am I missing anything?

Here is a picture of my other car.

 

i wish i had power seats because with that option the side mirrors slant down with in reverse so that you can see how close you are to the curb. I have the dynamic lights and love them!

 

My S sounds very similar to your original car. I love the sport seats and think they are a great option . . . .but I also don't knwo what they cost as an extra option on a 997.2

I think DCL's are awesome, but I have a 997.1 and obviously didn't have that option avail to me.

I agree with your assessment of the Nav system.

The last thing I want to make sure I mention is regarding your choice of color and clear bra. I LOVE Black cars and have had a few, but black shows swirl marks the first week you own it. Those swirls drive me crazy! I have never had a dark blue color, but I would suspect that swirls are pretty visible as well. I have owned a silver car - swirls were never an issue. My 997.1 now is white and I love it (although it is also tough to keep clean).

Lastly, I have a 3M Expel clear bra on the entire front end of my car (wrapped around the edges of the hood, fenders etc). I THINK IT LOOKS FANTASTIC and will have my next car completely wrapped. And, I think a completely wrapped black car would avoid swirls. Just my thoughts. Your clear bra may not be something you are happy with because of the product that was used, the installation method, or the installer's quality of work. However, I am thrilled with mine.

Good luck on your choices and looking forward to pics :-)

 

I appears from the photo that you live in Noe Valley - I lived there for a couple years on Diamond street before we moved to Marin...back to the subject - I have the full leather, in black, with the carbon center console, handbrake, shifter and steering wheel - I had them installed after purchase, and while expensive, I think they really make the interior (everyone comments on them when they first get into the car). I wish I had PSE - there are definitely times when I would go for the louder growl if I had the choice, and am considering the fabspeed dual tone exhaust. (3 grand plus install is tough to take for the PSE...). I think the sports seats are very cool, but as I daily drive my 997.2, I would hesitate on them because I bet they aren't as comfortable as the stock seats- if it was only a weekend car, sports seats for sure. I also wish I had contrasting red stitching to match the guards red exterior, and maybe a bit of alcantara here and there to add some texture.

My car has a set of 20" HREs, and if I purchased new, I wouldn't worry about wheels because I almost always go for aftermarket wheels on my cars. Deciding which ones to get is half the fun of getting a new toy.

best of luck with your purchase - my salesman at Sonnen in Marin is a great guy - let me know if you'd like to work with him and I'll put you in contact.

tim

 

To the OP: since you reported clutch issues... Have you considered PDK for your next car?

Why Bose if you care about weight? The STD stereo is actually quite good.

 

I have not considered the pdk. I have always had a manual. As for Bose I love good sound. Is it heavy?

Oh and yes I live there in sf. Sonnen is good.

 

My car can drag the Bose around OK, so an "S" should have no problems.

 

The Bose adds weight and robs significant space in the rear tray area. I think that the std stereo sounds better and I am not alone in that opinion - ask mdrums who is in the audio industry...

Also... for me... park assist and cornering lights have no place in a sports car.

 

I would have added sport suspension which lowers the car (~20mm) and comes with the limited slip diff.

 

... or add LSD by itself with std PASM.

 

I don't know what the weight penalty is, I can't find a source for that. Our S with the Bose only totals 3160 lbs with full fluids, so it can't be terrible with a stock 384 hp to haul that around.

Do you notice a loss of space on the rear tray? I can't see any effect at all, but of course I'm not looking at a non-Bose car side by side. Do you have pictures of that part of your car, Adias?

While I'm thinking of it, I agree about the LSD, subject only to driving one to make sure it has no harmful effects in normal driving. Our car seriously needs a limited slip diff at the track.

Gary

 

problem is - essentially you need 2 cars - one has to be a GT3, stripped with full cage, Recaro HANS seats, for pure fun, and another should be either Panamera or 997.2 turbo.

Lack of ability to afford both results in crazy hybrids like one I have now, half street 997, half GT3, but I like it the way it is.

As of options, as you start rebuilding your car, it is all modular and just a matter of time what to put in. Treat it as a LEGO thing - one stuff comes in, other comes out, it is all dynamic.

 

If I could do it all over again, I would have a 997 GT3, a lot more car...for more money though.

 

Gary: The Bose adds, on a coupe, a heavy sub-woofer box filling the whole rear shelf, behind the rear seat-backs. It robs useful shelf space and adds weight high above the car's CG. Of course, it is not a lot of weight (even though it adds also additional speakers all around), but every ounce counts. I know what good, clean, linear, wide-range frequency sound is and I find the std stereo very good. See below a photo of my car's Bose-less rear shelf.

My car has LSD and it works fine on the public roads.

 

Gotcha. Now I can picture it. You have two steps up to the window, whereas we have only one. I do think they made a reasonable trade-off and I like it better than putting a subwoofer under the pax seat which I believe they did in the past.

We find our single wide top shelf to be quite useful when shopping, though I suppose the subwoofer might scramble our eggs if we played heavy metal on those days.

Gary