My new Carrera GTS has (finally) arrived...
After a wait of 6 long months, I finally collected my Carrera GTS on Friday. (In fact, Budster and I collected our cars from the same dealer no more than two hours apart). It was a wait made all the more painful by the fact that I was Porscheless for 5 of those months - my agreement with the OPC required me to deliver my 997.1 C2S by the end of June to guarantee the good trade-in valuation they had offered me). Anyway, all's well that ends well and in this case the wait was certainly worth it.
It feels a little strange to be posting about collecting a new car when, in the eyes of many, that car will already be "old" - so for those who are purely focused on the 991 and have already decided that the 997 belongs to history, please stop reading HERE.
As an aside, I gathered some interesting stats from the dealer: In total, 73 GTS coupes and 18 GTS cabs have been sold in the South African market. Of the 73 coupes, mine is the only manual - while, similarly, only one of the cabs is a manual. Also, since its launch, a total of 15 GTS4s have been sold in the local market (8 coupes and 7 cabs) - and all of them were PDK. This implies that out of a total of 106 GTS/GTS4 models sold in this market, only 2 are manual, with mine being the only manual GTS coupe in the entire country. Talk about exclusivity! (Before I get bombarded with self-righteous messages educating me on the meaning of exclusivity, let me hasten to add that that was meant as a JOKE).
Initial driving impressions? It's a little early to be too specific, since my roundhouse tour of the Cape Peninsula yesterday added only 200 km and - more importantly - I'm trying to take it easy during the run-in period (shifting up by or before 4,500 rpm and generally trying to be gentle with my right foot - which is proving to be incredibly difficult).
What I can say is that this car feels terrific - taut and properly sorted, with all of the controls (steering, throttle, clutch, gearbox, brakes) being properly weighted and responsive. Apart from the sport exhaust and sport chrono package, my spec also included the -20mm Sport PASM suspension with limited slip differential - and it was a good choice. While some may feel that this makes the ride too hard on less-than-perfect roads, I think it's just right (and I haven't even fuly experienced the effect of the LSD yet). I left the short-throw gearbox off my spec list and, again, I think it was a good choice - the standard gearbox already has a fairly short throw, with a very satisfying, mechanical feel to the shift.
How does the GTS stack up against my 997.1 C2S? Again, it's early days, but my first impression is that the GTS is definitely a step ahead. It just feels that little bit more special and inspires a great deal of confidence. I can already feel the effect of the additional 53 bhp and the DFI engine obviously has a somewhat different feel and sound to it - while the PSE doesn't quite measure up to the throaty sound of the one on my C2S, it does add a satisfying soundtrack. The GTS is obviously not a GT3, which remains the ultimate trackday tool - but given that tracking opportunities here are few and far between, my car will spend 95% of its life on the road, and it feels like the perfect compromise for that purpose.
To hasten the run-in process (and have some fun along the way), I've decided to take off a week or more to explore the +- 25 mountain passes in the Western Cape. It will take a lot of discipline not to plant my right foot, but I can't think of a better way to run in (and bond with) my new GTS than taking it on an extended road trip. I'll be covering a lot of the same ground as Easy and will certainly post some pictures when I return - having seen some of his pics from previous trips, I'm sure mine will not match up in quality, but at least there'll be a 911 in the foreground.
I took a few pictures yesterday, but later discovered that the memory stick had failed and corrupted most of my pictures. Fortunately, I managed to scrounge some pics from my son (taken on his iPhone, so the quality's not great).