Update - Rennteam 997 Carrera S Driving Experience
Another advantage of the PCCB I just found out during the last couple of hundreds of km is...clean rims! There is almost no visible brake dust on the rims, even after hard driving. A short water jet over the rims and they look like new, incredible.
The new hydrophobic side windows work pretty well, I experienced this during heavy rain falls over the past few days. At the same time I wish I had a rear windo wiper.
The front window wipers work very good, even at higher speeds.
Speaking of rain: driving on completely wet streets during heavy rain falls is pretty easy, the tires are very good in rain and they still provide a pretty good grip even on wet surfaces. Even from standstill, traction on wet streets is impressive and it is much better than traction on my former E55 AMG or even my wife's SLK 32 AMG on DRY pavement, as unbelievable this might sound. Maybe this has to do with the optional limited slip differential (part of the 20 mm chassis option which I have on my car). The PSM lamps comes on very seldom, even with the sport button (chrono sport package) activated. Driving with the activated sport button (chrono sport) on wet streets isn't too much fun though because you put too much power on the street and the rear slips away pretty easy, even if the PSM has the whole thing under control up to a certain point. One good reason not to have the sport button active all the time (as somebody suggested) is driving when it is raining. Definetely not recommended.
The 20 mm chassis impresses me more and more but I have to confess now that sometimes it is a bit too stiff and I'm not sure I would like to have this setup on a daily driver.
I also have to be always careful with street bumps or when I enter a garage or parking lot because my car sits very low. Not to speak about being extremely careful when parking the car next to a boardwalk because the low profile wheels can be damaged pretty easily.
The adaptive sport seats have really grown on me, they provide perfect side grip and are highly adjustable. Only the high price tag makes them a little bit questionable but whoever doesn't care too much about money, they're really highly recommended.
The gearbox works very very well, nothing changed with the first impression. But sometimes when I'm waiting at a red light with the gearbox in neutral, I have problems to put in the first gear. This happened only twice but I'll watch it closely. Maybe just some sort of adjustment is needed, I'll keep you guys updated.
The clutch works pretty well and doing a brutal start from standstill without really burning the clutch is pretty easy, there is no need to rev up to 5000 rpm and then release the clutch instantly. It works less "brutal" too, no need to stress the clutch too much.
The rev limiter jumps in VERY hard when reaching the end of the rev band, a lot of people will be very surprised how hard it works. It actually cuts off power immediately and you have to be prepared for it. Of course this happens only with the chrono sport package and the activated "sport" button. Usually, the rev limiter works pretty smooth.
Fuel consumption (mixed driving city/country roads/Autobahn, always as hard as possible) is around 16 litres / 100 km, oil consumption is now almost non-existant.
I filled up engine oil around 500 km earlier and the digital gauge still shows a full oil level (I didn't overfill!). Pretty impressive.
The engine/exhaust noise is pretty loud, at certain rpm figures and especially over 5000 rpm REALLY loud and a lot of people on the street usually turn heads when I pass by.
I wonder how the sport exhaust improves the sound, it definetely can't be much louder because people would probably start to throw stones or eggs at my car.
The Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires need temperature for perfect grip, I found out that the optimal temperature is around 25-30*C or slightly higher. The tires don't like cold temperatures too much, below 15*C the Michelin started to be a little bit slippery at almost all driving conditions. This doesn't mean you can't drive the Michelin tire below 15*C but it definetely means that at temperatures below Zero degrees Celsius or slightly over, you have to be very careful with this tire.
The rear tires also get pretty hot after passionate driving, I can't hide the feeling that this is part of the original chassis setup, done by purpose to provide a better grip.
I don't like the window openers (switches) too much, the position isn't too good and the switch for the driver side window should be bigger.
The sunroof works great and with open side windows too, you get almost a Cabriolet feeling. Best part: you don't feel the air from outside too much like on the Cayenne for example where you get a middle ear inflammation, even if you open the window just a few centimeters.
A problem I didn't expect is...my wife. She almost threw up after I did some fast turns and she asked me to slow down. This actually never happened before and it seems that the new 20 mm chassis really does a good job because it does a turn like it is running on rail tracks. My little daughter just loves it, she says it feels like a roller coaster (she is 3 years old and has only a limited roller coaster experience from Universal Studios and Disneyworld in Florida), especially since she can sit only in the rear due to the still not available airbag deactivation switch retrofit kit.
The integrated phone (PCM, ROW only!) works pretty well, the navigation system works very good too. I encountered two times a little software bug when the music was playing (after turning on the engine) but the PCM showed a "loading CD" message and all other functions were completely blocked and not accessible. Turning the engine off, waiting a few seconds and turning it on again made the bug disappear. But a software update to fix this would be nice.
I was also surprised to see that the internal CD unit of the PCM reads all copy protected music CDs, no problems with various copy protection systems. I have sometimes problems with the CD player in my wife's SLK 32 AMG and I also had problems with the COMAND system in my former E55 AMG. Another positive surprise: the CD unit in the PCM system supports CD text, so you get the information about the song and artist in the display if the music CD uses this feature. This is good news for people who love to burn their own music collection because CD text really makes a difference.
Now everbody will ask: is there something he doesn't like about the 997 Carrera S after driving it for almost 2800 km?
Well, I already mentioned the seat memory buttons in the door but otherwise, I can't think of anything I really don't like. Of course I would love to have more power but I think the GT3 and Turbo will take care of that. I'm not sure if the 997 Carrera S is worth going for if you already own a facelifted 996. But if you're sure that the 997 GT3 or Turbo are out of question for you or if you just want to have fun for the next 2-3 years, the 997 Carrera S is the right car for you.
I'll do another update as soon as I experience something new, something bad, something good or something weird. Stay tuned.