DRIVING REPORT (LONG)
As promised here are my impressions after a first extended spin with the Spyder. The wait for this spin was painful as we experienced horrible and rainy weather for two weeks in a row since I picked up the car in Zuffenhausen. Luckily Petrus showed some mercy on Saturday even allowing for some top down driving with temps climbing up to 15° Celsius.
For those just wanting the ExecSum, here it is: when the Spyder was sitting in the garage again after our first spin making these sizzling noises the car seemed to whisper in my ear: „did you like it“ ? and my answer was: „let’s do it again, baby“ .
For me the biggest accomplishment of the Spyder is that it feels like a thoroughbread sportscar even at legal speed – great, exactly what I wished for in this canyon carver type of car. Now if you ask me what exactly makes the difference in perception in this regard compared to the 981S PDK PASM I had before I won’t be able to pick just a single „culprit“, it’s the mix of all the nice ingredients (others would call it the parts bin exercise) Porsche used to set the Spyder somewhat apart from his siblings (though not sure about the GTS as I never drove one). Anyway Mrs. P-J more than once looked a bit stern into the drirection of the speedo as she thought I’d stretch the legal limits a bit too much while in reality I wasn’t – kind of new experience for her and him.
A big share of the driving experience certainly goes to the analogue X71 suspension (unfortunately I couldn’t spec this for the previous 981S when I ordered the car as the option was not yet available). It provides so much more feedback compared to the PASM suspension and therefore also gives more confidence when playing hard. At the same time it’s comfy enough (I’d say absolutely o.k. for a DD) unless you have to crawl on medieval type of roads.
Attacking hairpins and tight corners with the X71 supported by the mechanical LSD takes it to a new level in both possible corner speeds and driver involvement. Where my first Boxster (987S, PASM, manual gearbox with short shift) had to give up due to lack of LSD, the 981S PASM/PTV was more competent in terms of corner speeds but at the price of lacking some feedback compared to the 987.
The Spyder now hits a new sweet spot in this regard: faster than the 981S (of course I have no scientific proof here, but my analogue measuring equipment on the passenger seat confirmed) and providing all the feedback you want when exploring the limit of the rubber’s adhesion (well, at least almost „all“ the feedback….see later chapter on steering).
I spare some bandwith by not going into the details of re-iterating the numerous enthusiastic reports on the 6 speed manual – yes, it’s really that good ! Super smooth and precise operation absolutely supporting the flow you get into on a nice serpentine road. Though it would be nice if it had the bit more mechanical feeling and sound I enjoyed in the 987S (maybe they should employ a gear shift sound engineer).
Talking about sound……oh yes, they nailed it with this baby: it’s a more „mature“ bassy kind of sound compared to the higher pitched 3.4 and it’s not a monotonous sound, more like a melody though I can’t tell yet the refrain of the song near redline as I’m still breaking in the car (max 5,000 rpm until now). I found one (pleasant) mysterious thing with the melody of engine and exhaust sounds: the difference in loudness if you compare top up vs. top down operation is significantly larger than in the 981S PSE. I have no technical explanation for this phenomenon – in fact I would have expected the opposite due to the less insulated top of the Spyder. Anyway, for me this is the nicest sound of all watercooled Porsches this side of the Mezger engines (maybe besides 991 GT3/RS approaching redline and maybe on par with the 991.1 GTS models). Especially when driving with the top down this great sound adds so much to the overall experience, that I couldn’t even imagine to have a forced induction mill sitting behind me (even it would provide +100 horses and tons of torque).
Talking about the engine: as mentioned it’s not broken in hence the final verdict has yet to come but what I realised already (besides the additional power and torque compared to the 3.4L engine) is that the engine is more responsive and is more willing to happily transfer any order from the right pedal into spontaneous thrust. Again I have no scientific proof here, it’s just my perception and in this regard it may play a role, that my 3.4 S was PDK equipped rather than manual.
The often criticized long gearing is no problem for me (at least on public roads) as the engine provides sufficient low end torque. The automated double-clutch action on downshifts works like a charm (the applied amount of gas is always perfect regardless of whether you are in cruising mode or attack mode) and makes any driver look (and sound..) like a track hero.
As a lot of corners on shady roads were still damp or even wet when we went for our spin I permanently drove in Sport+ mode to benefit from the smoother gear transition. I actually sold the feature to the Mrs as a safety device of course knowing that PSM is more lazy in Sport+ mode allowing for some nice (and easy controllable) sideway action. Not wanting to re-initiate the ad nauseum discussion manual vs. PDK but the least I can say that while I really enjoyed 10 thousands of km in the PDK equipped 981S, I now love to row through the gears myself again – it just adds to the driver involvement (or perception thereof) and I almost forgot that the PDK machine never can do such a smooth gear shift than the man behind the wheel.
Another positive (and not expected) surprise is that the CarreraS brakes indeed provide a significant performance advantage over the 981S brakes (again no scientific proof, just perception even shared from Mrs. P-J from the passenger’s seat): I thought „this bit more brake can’t make a real difference“ but I stand corrected: the bite of the brake is much better without loosing the well known progressive force of any Porsche brake.
But now to the earlier mentioned caveat on „all feedback you want“: the steering is a clear improvement over the 981S (quicker, more direct, perception of more force when attacking corners), but of course it’s not on par with the hydraulic steering (for me 997 GT3/RS is the gold standard in this regard, but even the 987S provided more feedback) and probably never will be, though Porsch engineers obviously already managed to improve the electro mechanical steering compared to the very early versions in the 9X1 models. Having said that I would never go so far to say that it would spoil the overall experience. For me it just makes the difference between „perfect“ and „near perfect“.
Talking about perfection: the LWB seats are perfection, heaven, you name it – at least for my butt and that of the Mrs. and I am extremely happy about that (just had a couple of minutes „seat time“ in a stationary car before I ordered them). We have been sitting almost for 7 hours in the Spyder (just interrupted by a short coffee break at halftime) and felt like newborn after the extended spin (caveat: perception from other drivers may be completely different of course). Ergonomy for operation of the driving machine is perfect and so is the „grip“: while the LWBs are no kind of binding piece style track use only seats, your butt does not slide a bit during spirited corner actions. I am sure the grippy alcantara is a big plus here also. On top the snug fit of the seats and the Alcantara makes seat heating obsolete (maybe unless you drive with an open top at freezing temps) – another positive surprise (I was a bit sceptical on this one). Ingress and egress without scuffing the side bolsters quickly becomes second nature once you’ve got the hang of it.
First overall verdict: the Spyder is as much of a drivers car as possible and as little of an engineers car as neccessary due to regulations and mandatory tech features – at least if your requirement is to now and then go for a two weeks driver holiday as a couple (ruling out the more hardcore drivers cars due to lack of baggage space etc.).
BTW the Spyder also does not provide joy to the driver and passenger only but obviously also to other drivers on the road and pedestrians: I’ve never seen so many people smiling (in the way you see kids smiling in a toy store).
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public roads: Porsche 981S white/black/red, toll road : Porsche 997 GT3 Arctic/Black