Unbelivable drive with proper photos!!
I placed my order today for a 987 and got the dealer OPC demo for six hours on my own for an extended test drive. The weather was awfull but the car was superb. I can't get over how much better than the old 2.7 this car is.
The demo spec was a high launch car spec, common in most UK OPCs.
18 S wheels
Full sand leather (awful)
PCM
Heated electric seats
BOSE (unbelievable)
Xenons (not convinced)
Full climate (excellent)
I took the liberty of taking some shots for you all. The car is a few months old and has approx 4000 miles on it. It was a very very sweet sound and revved very freely to the line, It rode on 18 Michelin Pilot sports with standard suspension. I only got the back end out with PSM off and exiting a wet junction in 1st. The car was as stable at 115 (Vmax today) as it was cruising at 30.
I found the clutch light and very smooth and the brake pedal has acres of feel, unlike some press reports. Lauching yourself out of a junction is childs play and the back end just squats a little and gets on with getting the power down. The standard suspension was never flustered and I took the car on some nasty roads. There was a bit of windnoise (but only really when properly tanking on) but very little tyre noise and I felt the engine note was just right for a motorway cruise. There is a noticable 'extra' shove just after 5000 rpm, and thats when the howling begins. The engine really comes to life and stuffs you down the road on a bed of flat six aural cocaine. Very, VERY intoxicating stuff. My jaw is sore from the grin.
A point of note. This car gets cleaned often and the use of Alloy wheel cleaner has made a mess of the black Calipers, so much so they are now silver. It has also corroded the nuts and alloy wheel hub mount on the car. SO stay well clear of corrosive cleaners.
I thought the 5 speed box was excellent and precise, not at all vague as a few press reports have suggested. The brakes had absolutley NO fade (as you would expect and as Tiff showed last night on 5th gear) and the ride on the the standard suspension was extremely composed at high speed over some very nasty country lanes and potholes. Wet tarmac traction was immense and the car took various wet roundabouts with some understeer on a trailing throttle. Attack the roundabout on the power in second and the car might as well have been on rails, it was THAT good.
The variable steering was excellent and I feel that the car could take the 19 Carrera S wheel without PASM with no problem.
Visibilty out the back was better than I remember and parking was no problem (thus no park asist on my spec). I thought the width of view from the rear view mirrors was really good and you can also see the lovely curve of the flanks of the car as you drive, more pronounced than the 986.
The BOSE initally was a disapointment. I had burnt a selection of my finest tunes for the test run and after an hour of driving I got into the stereo. After discovering that the settings where all wrong, the system came to life. My God, it is loud. Not a hint of distortion and very clear, fast, crisp, bass. I discovered extra elements in some songs that I hadn't picked up on my home stereo (itself no slouch.)
The car was PSM equipped and I enjoyed playing with the Map (which will show the whole of Europe on 1 screen, just incase you forget what country you are in.) It isn't particularly easy to use at first, but it IS good for Radio controls and CD's etc. I found the navigation function farily pointless, but I didn't get into depth as this was never going to be on my list anyway.
The heated seats heat in two stages and heat up is very quickly. After a few minutes it does get very hot and I hardly turned it on for the rest of the day. The standard seats weren't as comfortable as I thought and after trying the Sports seats in the showroom after, I am convinced they are worth the extra money. I felt the electric adjustment was good, but didn't justify the cost.
The onboard computer is a nice addition to the 987. I was showing an average of 24.9 mpg after nearly 5 hours of consistently hard driving. I used half a tank of fuel in the time but didn't take note of how many miles I had driven. Needless to say, if you treat it nicely, I don't see an average of 30 mpg being a problem.
The bigeest suprise of the day for me was the Automatic climate. I had this labelled as a neccessary evil due to resale, and I thought with AC now as standard it would be a bit of a waste. How wrong I was. Temperature change was instantaneous and the system was never intrusive. It wasn't warm today (about 11 degrees), but I had the system set to 20 and it was just right. The display is crystal clear and very easy to read, and the contols are easy to feel for when adjusting while driving at speed. It is a very worthwhile additon to any spec.
I operated the roof several times today while driving and it is annoying when you stop the car half way through the cycle. If driving, one touch will suffice to get it in operation, however if you stop, it reverts into stopped mode (which requires a finger to be held on the button to complete the cycle). You get a very indignant 'bong' and are told on the disply that the hood cycle is incomplete. Pressing the button again soon sorts this. Not really critical, but could be annoying in traffic. The hood won't start its run over 30 mph, but will allow you to drive (accidentally!!) just over 30 during the cycle. It is very quick but you lose total rear vision at the end of the run. Buffeting with the wind defletor at speed is very limited and the flat six howl through any tunnels is intoxicating.
A serious point I noticed today was that when driving at speed and if you need to clear you windscreen, it takes a second or two for the wipers to get on with the job. I had a (potentially) nasty and uncomfortable moment at 80+ on a (deserted) country road when I simply couldn't see while the washers where doing their job. Also the xenons cleaning system is a seperate button to the screen wash. It seems to do the job but the spray from the jets makes it up to the windscreen.
The car is midnight blue and was spotless when I got it this morning. After about an hour is was filthy (as the photos will show), but that didn't stop me from ordering Basalt.
Overall and amazing driving experience and my delivery date can't come soon enough.
Here is my spec as decided.
987 2.7
Basalt Black metallic
Carerra S 19'' wheel
Sports seats with partial leather in black
Sports steering wheel
BOSE with wind deflector
Heated seats
Auto climate control
Mats and Coloured crests thrown into the deal
Can't wait. Enjoy the photos and I will add any thoughts if I remember anymore
The demo spec was a high launch car spec, common in most UK OPCs.
18 S wheels
Full sand leather (awful)
PCM
Heated electric seats
BOSE (unbelievable)
Xenons (not convinced)
Full climate (excellent)
I took the liberty of taking some shots for you all. The car is a few months old and has approx 4000 miles on it. It was a very very sweet sound and revved very freely to the line, It rode on 18 Michelin Pilot sports with standard suspension. I only got the back end out with PSM off and exiting a wet junction in 1st. The car was as stable at 115 (Vmax today) as it was cruising at 30.
I found the clutch light and very smooth and the brake pedal has acres of feel, unlike some press reports. Lauching yourself out of a junction is childs play and the back end just squats a little and gets on with getting the power down. The standard suspension was never flustered and I took the car on some nasty roads. There was a bit of windnoise (but only really when properly tanking on) but very little tyre noise and I felt the engine note was just right for a motorway cruise. There is a noticable 'extra' shove just after 5000 rpm, and thats when the howling begins. The engine really comes to life and stuffs you down the road on a bed of flat six aural cocaine. Very, VERY intoxicating stuff. My jaw is sore from the grin.
A point of note. This car gets cleaned often and the use of Alloy wheel cleaner has made a mess of the black Calipers, so much so they are now silver. It has also corroded the nuts and alloy wheel hub mount on the car. SO stay well clear of corrosive cleaners.
I thought the 5 speed box was excellent and precise, not at all vague as a few press reports have suggested. The brakes had absolutley NO fade (as you would expect and as Tiff showed last night on 5th gear) and the ride on the the standard suspension was extremely composed at high speed over some very nasty country lanes and potholes. Wet tarmac traction was immense and the car took various wet roundabouts with some understeer on a trailing throttle. Attack the roundabout on the power in second and the car might as well have been on rails, it was THAT good.
The variable steering was excellent and I feel that the car could take the 19 Carrera S wheel without PASM with no problem.
Visibilty out the back was better than I remember and parking was no problem (thus no park asist on my spec). I thought the width of view from the rear view mirrors was really good and you can also see the lovely curve of the flanks of the car as you drive, more pronounced than the 986.
The BOSE initally was a disapointment. I had burnt a selection of my finest tunes for the test run and after an hour of driving I got into the stereo. After discovering that the settings where all wrong, the system came to life. My God, it is loud. Not a hint of distortion and very clear, fast, crisp, bass. I discovered extra elements in some songs that I hadn't picked up on my home stereo (itself no slouch.)
The car was PSM equipped and I enjoyed playing with the Map (which will show the whole of Europe on 1 screen, just incase you forget what country you are in.) It isn't particularly easy to use at first, but it IS good for Radio controls and CD's etc. I found the navigation function farily pointless, but I didn't get into depth as this was never going to be on my list anyway.
The heated seats heat in two stages and heat up is very quickly. After a few minutes it does get very hot and I hardly turned it on for the rest of the day. The standard seats weren't as comfortable as I thought and after trying the Sports seats in the showroom after, I am convinced they are worth the extra money. I felt the electric adjustment was good, but didn't justify the cost.
The onboard computer is a nice addition to the 987. I was showing an average of 24.9 mpg after nearly 5 hours of consistently hard driving. I used half a tank of fuel in the time but didn't take note of how many miles I had driven. Needless to say, if you treat it nicely, I don't see an average of 30 mpg being a problem.
The bigeest suprise of the day for me was the Automatic climate. I had this labelled as a neccessary evil due to resale, and I thought with AC now as standard it would be a bit of a waste. How wrong I was. Temperature change was instantaneous and the system was never intrusive. It wasn't warm today (about 11 degrees), but I had the system set to 20 and it was just right. The display is crystal clear and very easy to read, and the contols are easy to feel for when adjusting while driving at speed. It is a very worthwhile additon to any spec.
I operated the roof several times today while driving and it is annoying when you stop the car half way through the cycle. If driving, one touch will suffice to get it in operation, however if you stop, it reverts into stopped mode (which requires a finger to be held on the button to complete the cycle). You get a very indignant 'bong' and are told on the disply that the hood cycle is incomplete. Pressing the button again soon sorts this. Not really critical, but could be annoying in traffic. The hood won't start its run over 30 mph, but will allow you to drive (accidentally!!) just over 30 during the cycle. It is very quick but you lose total rear vision at the end of the run. Buffeting with the wind defletor at speed is very limited and the flat six howl through any tunnels is intoxicating.
A serious point I noticed today was that when driving at speed and if you need to clear you windscreen, it takes a second or two for the wipers to get on with the job. I had a (potentially) nasty and uncomfortable moment at 80+ on a (deserted) country road when I simply couldn't see while the washers where doing their job. Also the xenons cleaning system is a seperate button to the screen wash. It seems to do the job but the spray from the jets makes it up to the windscreen.
The car is midnight blue and was spotless when I got it this morning. After about an hour is was filthy (as the photos will show), but that didn't stop me from ordering Basalt.
Overall and amazing driving experience and my delivery date can't come soon enough.
Here is my spec as decided.
987 2.7
Basalt Black metallic
Carerra S 19'' wheel
Sports seats with partial leather in black
Sports steering wheel
BOSE with wind deflector
Heated seats
Auto climate control
Mats and Coloured crests thrown into the deal
Can't wait. Enjoy the photos and I will add any thoughts if I remember anymore
seats!!!
