Today i dropped my 996 MY 02 for service at my dealer ... and took a 997 S 'til tomorrow. Today i drove 200 km with the car .. equipped with PASM and 18'' Winter Tyres ... here are my impressions:

Car is faster than my car ... especially above 200 km/h ... but you have to rev the car a bit higher to have an appropriate "feeling".

The built quality is much better in every detail !!! Great job on that !

I personally had mixed feelings about the steering ... but started to like it after a while ... it is completely different now ... much lighter to handle ... though very precise.

PSM starts to actuate quite late ... very good ... even light drifts where possible without any PSM activities.

With PASM at "comfort" setting the car felt like a BMW 5series Limo ... very impressive !

PASM at "sport" is not as harsh as the M030 on my car right now ... maybe i got that impression because the roll motion espacially at the rear axle has been improved a lot ... it doesn't give you these hard sounding hits on the rear axle any more ... ?!

Speeding at 240 km/h (Wintertyres !!!) i did not feel very comfortable in the car ... even with the PASM in "Sport" mode ... maybe it was the tyres which where 265/40 at the rear ...

Leaving the Autobahn ... the party began ... absolutely great fun on narrow backroads ... i think that is the playground the car was made for ... PASM Sport worked out great there. In general i had the feeling that the handling was engineered with the tendency of oversteering ... felt more like a 993 with that "roll" at the rear axle ... different from my 996 in any way ... that tends to have understeering ?!

Breaks (standard) where very good on that car ... wonder what the Ceramic stuff does with the car ???

Engine sound ... i think i would work on that :-)

For me ... the reason to get a 997 would not be about engine power ... the difference is not significant enough in my opinion ... it would be more about the setup and the handling of the car ... and the built quality. PASM is a nice thing when you use the car as a daily driver ... the comfort mode is very relaxing and calms you down after a hard day... if you want to !?

The 997 is a great car ... i'd say it is better in any way than the 996 ... but even the 996 performs on a level where many customers right now don't get close to the cars abilities ... so maybe they don't find many reasons to upgrade to the 997. Although i think most of the present 996 customers will go for the 997 because it can be driven much more comfortable ... PASM comfort mode, better seats, lighter steering etc. pp ... i don't think their decision will be made upon the efforts in driving dynamics ... which need a bit of an expertise at the steering wheel in order to be experienced. Those guys are waiting for the Turbo or the GT3 ... or are bridging the time with a 997S

Greetz