Yesterday, I attended a Porsche driver event with my new 981.
It's a newly started event that my dealer here includes with the purchase of a new Porsche, it's a half day training with professional instructors from Porsche Sport Driving School.

It's on a race track, but more intended to make you familiar with the features of the car, such as PASM, PTV, PSM, ABS etc and to make you a safer driver.

It really showed what an awesome car the new Boxster is. It performed superbly on the slalom course that was one of the things we did. The balance of the car is amazing and steering feel was very exact and responsive, no negative effect of the new electric steering in that exercise!

I thought I performed pretty decent on the slalom course, but then I got an opportunity ride along with the lead instructor from Porsche Sport Driving School in a Carerra GTS. He's a former rallye champion and after that ride, it felt like my internal organs had swapped places inside my body. Holy crap!

It's amazing to see what a Porsche is capable of when pushed, it's obvious that we never get even close to the limits of this car even during aggressive driving on public roads. It was really impressive to slam the brakes in 160 km/h (100 mph) and feel that the car just stopped in a straight line, nothing dramatic at all. The short stopping distance of a Porsche is just mindboggling!

During the theoretical part, they explained thoroughly how the different systems in the car works and some questions we had were resolved:

One question was regarding the chassie settings on cars with and without PASM. A car with PASM has a softer setting in normal mode than a non-PASM car. This will add comfort in normal mode, but it will not affect "sportiness", since the system will adapt to your driving style instantly should you take a corner aggressively. If you activate sport mode on PASM, it will have a default stiffness that is notably stiffer than a non-PASM car, but it will revert to a softer setting if the road suddenly gets rugged and you start driving more carefully.

PASM will always work in the background to have the optimal chassie setting for every condition, using the PASM button will only tell the system what the desired default stiffness is. The instructors thought PASM was a great system and worth having.

The dynamic transmission mounts included with the Sport Chrono Package were discussed as well. I know that some people argue it's "just the transmission mounts" in the 981, while the 991 have dynamic engine mounts. Here is the story behind it:

The dynamic engine mounts in a 991 are supposed to limit the movement of the engine during hard cornering. This problem is specific to the 991 due to the position of the engine. In a Boxster, the position of the engine makes this a non-issue. In the Boxster, you have the gearbox in the rear. Therefore, the dynamic mounts in a Boxster is there to make sure the gearbox stays firmly in place during cornering, since it's prone to influence the dynamics when it's far from the center of the car.

In a 991, dynamic engine mounts makes sense. In a Boxster, dynamic transmission mounts makes sense. OK, the tranmission weighs less than the engine, so the drive train layout makes this of a lesser problem in a Boxster than in a 991 in the first place, but the Porsche engineers have adapted the dynamic mounts logically to the characteristics needed for each model.

The Sport Chrono Package includes the G-Force Meter, that was a pretty fun feature during this day...

 

Looks like a fun time

If you don't go to a track every so often, your missing the best part of these cars!

 

Kederek,

I know the 981 is new but do you usually go to the track? I’m just wondering how much track experience you have had.

I like what you said about the PASM and Porsche’s quality. I have always referred to Porsche as a “driver’s car”. For some reason (to me) it seems that it was designed by drivers for drivers... everything is ergonomically correct, it’s smooth and a pleasure to drive.

I’ve driven a few more expensive cars (ferraris, lambs) and though they were impressive and cool, they just didn’t seem to be thought out as well as a Porsche is if that makes sense. I could drive a Porsche all day and not be frazzled, I don’t know you could say the same about many other performance cars.

Glad you had a good time and thanks for the write up. Until I get mine in, I’ll have to live vicariously through everyone else’s lives....lol.


Just out of curiosity, what did the instructors think of the new 981 in general? I wonder if the P guys that drive the 911’s think the 981 has stepped up their game.





Mark

 

Just look at the 981 review by Chris Harris.. He basically says he thinks the 981 is better than the 991... And he owns a 997 gt3 rs 4.0

My experience is just how well the Porsche performs.. Not just speed and precision but durability... Nothing feels "fragile"... My past cars I was always worried something would brake... I dont need cool down laps , nothing... Just keeps on going

Porsche... Built for a beating

 

I don't have much track experience. I took the old 987 twice to Nürburgring and I was also there with a BMW. I did decent lap times, so I know how to get a car around a track without embarrassing myself, but I can't call myself track experienced.

Having experience from quite a few BMW's before moving to Porsche, I agree with what you say: Porsche are built by drivers for drivers.
I really liked BMW, but there is a difference in philosophy. BMW designs a basic road car and spice it up to be a great drivers car. Porsche designs a race car and tunes it down to be a road car. Both companies want to achieve the ultimate driving machine, but they approach that task from opposite starting points. That's the difference, as I experience it.

I have tested some other great cars, like Ferraris, but what amazes me with a Porsche is what ShahulX says above: they are built to be driven and to last. You never worry that something would break down. They feel increadibly solid.

The Porsche instructors didn't speak out about any specific model, like the 981, but they had plenty to say about Porsche in general.
Their opinion mirrors what we said above: the cars can take an increadible amount of beating and they are built for it. They assured us that we will never even get close to what the cars can take. They were especially impressed with braking performance and said that PCCB, while being a great development, wasn't really needed unless you were a hard core track enthusiast. The standard brakes are increadible according to the instructors. After what we did that day, I can vouch for it myself!

Remember that these guys were not employed by Porsche, they drove a lot of other cars at other events, and they have serious racing experience.

An interesting point they had about PSM (Porsche Stability Management): Most of the PSM system can be turned off with a button. They never did that. They said that the system only kicks in when it's absolutely needed and at that point you're so close to violating the laws of physics that you're screwed anyway. According to them, the "PSM off" button is just a gimmick, very few can do better lap times by turning PSM off. In other brands you need to turn such systems off to go on the track, but not in a Porsche.

It should be noted that the chief instructor I rode with through the slalom course had his Carrera GTS in standard mode. No Sport button, PASM in standard mode, PSM was on. He told me that he didn't need it any other way, the car is that good. PASM was working for him even in standard setting since it senses his driving style, PSM didn't kick in even through he was driving in a manner that scared the living daylights out of me... As a pro driver, he felt the limits, he kept the car just a notch below them all the time. The Porsche engineers knew the limits as well and designed the car to allow him to drive that way without any systems limiting him.

 

Kelderek,

Great info, thanks for sharing.

+1

 

+2

Thanks so much for your thoughts and opinions. One thing I’m thrilled about is after all the reviews I’ve read, I haven’t heard nor read anything negative about the new 981.

I believe this will be an amazing car and we’ll all be thrilled with it.

 

Still a couple of weeks before the delivery of my 981, but I will tell you that the wait is more bearable while reading your posts. K, your commentary has been very helpful especially today's info regarding PASM. Also, thanks for the pics. Your car is beautiful. I noticed there was another 981 at the track as well. O, I enjoy your enthusiasm, and I look forward to hearing more from you when your gem arrives.

 

Yes, there was another 981 at the track, in Platinum Silver.

Our cars were the two our dealer had in their first production slot. We placed our orders on the same day and we had our cars delivered on the same day! I picked mine up a few hours earlier, so I can claim to be the first... whatever that is worth, LOL

The company which arranged this Porsche Driver event owns three Porsche dealer locations in Sweden, so they must have had similar allocations for the other two locations as well and it's likely they have been delivered too, but they didn't turn up at this event anyway!

 

I appreciate it. I’ve had nice cars in the past but nothing this nice. I know this is a drop in the bucket for some folks that can afford $200K+ cars but for me, this will be my nicest/most expensive car. In fact, out of the $82K total, I’ll be financing either 40 or 50K of it.

So yes, I am excited because I love the fact that a Porsche is a driver’s car. I (like so many of you) have a lot of seat time at the track and truly appreciate the thought and ergonomics that Porsche engineers build into their cars. Like I always say, “it’s a car built for drivers by drivers”. I just love how they feel like an extension of me and the car and I are integrated.

Definitely can’t wait....


Mark

 

Great thread! I'm getting awfully tempted to get the 981 myself

One question I have is if it's worth getting the PTV (Torque Vectoring) and Sports Chrono for a manual 981. Any thoughts??

 

The benefit of Sport Chrono for a manual 981 is the dynamic transission mounts. You also get the stop watch and the G-Force meter, but that falls more into the "gimmick" category.
With PDK, you also get Launch Control and faster gear shifting in Sport Plus mode.

It's more value with PDK, but the dynamic transmission mounts will add both comfort and sportiness even with MT.

PTV is a system that the instructors at the event I attended were very impressed with. However, I believe it mostly benefits you on the track. I haven't tried it myself, but it seems unlikely that you notice any significant difference on a normal road.

 

+1.

And thanks for the write up!

 

"They said that the system only kicks in when it's absolutely needed and at that point you're so close to violating the laws of physics that you're screwed anyway."

I don't know. I was at Barber last weekend and the PSM/ABS or whatever else was in play was quite intrusive in one particular place, a quick left-right kink where the curb on the right is used. It didn't like that at all - I'm trying to get back to WOT when all of a sudden wheels start braking, upsetting the balance I need to stay on the track at track out. Scary. And I wonder if R-comps will just make it worse? My PS2s were squalling like mad and I couldn't use all the brakes I have w/ them.