997 Turbo Supertest and my thoughts
Sorry for adding my "wisdom" 
that late but I had the usual things to do...work, work and...family...and work. 
After reading the Sport Auto Supertest of the 997 Turbo, I was pretty disappointed. 7:54 min...only 2 seconds faster than a 996 Turbo with 60 HP less and street tires, a car more than 6 years old? Ouch.
Then, I started to compare the results from the Nuerburgring with the results from Hockenheim. I also compared the 997 Turbo track times with the 997 GT3 track times. Honestly...something is wrong.
I understand the Hockenheim time and it is only logical that the GT3 is a tick faster on the same tires, simply because the lower weight is a huge advantage on such a tight track, despite the lack of power compared to the 997 Turbo. So yes, the Hockenheim track time is logical and I think it is valid.
What about the Nordschleife time? Slowlier than the GT3? With 65 HP more, AWD and a top speed of 282 kph? The fastest time the GT3 achieved was 273 kph, still pretty impressive (and telling a lot about the power figure of the test car) Actually, the 997 Turbo should have gained around 3-4 seconds compared to the GT3, maybe even slightly more. So what happened? Was the tested 997 Turbo underpowered? I doubt it, judging by the performance figures. Was the tested GT3 too powerful? Maybe but this still wouldn't explain the track time difference between both.
Here is my theory of what happened:
Horst v. Saurma, the well known editor-in-chief of Sport Auto and certified racing car driver, had difficulties driving the 997 Turbo on the Nordschleife. He admitted it in the Supertest and believe it or not, I actually believe him. He actually confirmed what I told people over here at Rennteam.com several times but apparently a lot of people didn't believe me. The 997 Turbo IS tricky to drive...with PSM turned off and Sport mode (Sport Chrono) activated. Porsche apparently has chosen a very annoying (for an AWD car) oversteer setup for the 997 Turbo, making it fun to drive in drifting competitions but in real life, this heavy oversteer isn't fun at all after some time. This is one reason why I hate it driving the 997 Turbo with PSM turned off, simply because it is dangerous and makes the car pretty much unpredictable at high speeds. You need a lot of driving skills to manage to "survive" such "fun", trust me.
To be able to reproduce Horst v. Saurma's experience, I put Michelin Sport Cup N0 tires on my Turbo to experience myself how much the tire setup influences this "tricky" behaviour.
Well, the Pilot Cup tires are great for twists and turns but they really suck on the Autobahn or very fast tracks. The steering gets more nervous and more direct (which is good at slow speeds and narrow curves but not that pleasant at 300 kph in an Autobahn curve) and the tires need to get warm first. With cold Michelin Sport Cup tires, the 997 Turbo shows heavy understeer (actually it is more of a sliding...) and even heavier oversteer. As soon as the tires are warm enough to be very sticky and provide a lot driving fun at slower speeds in twists and turns, the behaviour of the tires changes completely: no more understeer but still a pretty annoying oversteer, even more than with the stock tires, no matter if Sport Chrono is turned on and PSM is turned on or off.
Meaning: you have to be completely nuts to get Sport Cup tires unless you really want to track race the car on a regular basis, trying to squeeze out the last possible fraction of a second. Honestly: I think that although the stock tires (Pilot Sport 2) aren't THAT sticky as the Cup tires (warm), they provide a much better overall capability than the Cup tires, especially for street driving. Just imagine how long it takes to warm up the tires when it is cold outside, I was just lucky we had outside temperatures of 25*C and sun over the past few days.
Bottom line is, believe it or not: I think that the Nordschleife track time would have been better with stock tires, as weird as this may sound. I won't even start to get into an argument regarding Tiptronic and manual because I think that there isn't much difference on the Nordschleife. The acceleration advantage of the Tiptronic would be eaten up by the more responsive manual and the LSD.
The 997 Turbo is still a fantastic car and you shouldn't let the Sport Auto Supertest confuse you. Check out the Hockenheim time and you'll understand.
Also, it is NOT Horst v. Saurma's fault that he didn't like the tricky behaviour and apparently had problems dealing with that. I have the same problems when turning PSM off, one reason why I don't do that anymore.
I think that Porsche made two mistakes in the 997 Turbo development and unfortunately the Supertest unveilled these mistakes pretty well: the PASM suspension setup isn't really track worthy, no matter how well it may work but more important is the HORRIBLE oversteer setup of the AWD.
What use is it to the driver if Porsche puts on of the most advanced electronically controlled AWD systems in the 997 Turbo if they program an extreme oversteer setup to this AWD? I really don't understand why they did that. Yes, my 997 Turbo has traction problems in tight turns, incredible. My 543 HP tuned RS-Tuning 996 Turbo NEVER had traction problems and even with PSM turned off, it showed less oversteer than my current 997 Turbo. I just don't get it.
Maybe the whining of customers regarding the too "perfect" and neutral AWD setup of the 996 Turbo made Porsche change their philosophy. Personally, I don't like it and I hope there will be sooner or later some sort of electronic update/upgrade to correct this mistake.
Of course I'm no engineer and I'm not a professional race car driver anymore. Maybe my opinion is just biased by my personal experience but exactly here's my point: Porsche needs to build their cars for their customers, not to satisfy a falsely understood sportiness which actually turns to be a "tricky" driving behaviour.
The 997 Turbo is difficult to drive at the limit, I said that many times before Horst v. Saurma tested the car for Sport Auto. It is time that Porsche takes this serious and tries to adapt the AWD setup and maybe even the tire setup to offer a more neutral experience, even at the cost of losing some drifting fun.
Regarding my Pilot Cup tires: I'm stuck with them and I leave them on for further experience. Hopefully I get the chance to testdrive them a bit more extensively on a track, for comparison reasons. More to come for sure...
that late but I had the usual things to do...work, work and...family...and work. After reading the Sport Auto Supertest of the 997 Turbo, I was pretty disappointed. 7:54 min...only 2 seconds faster than a 996 Turbo with 60 HP less and street tires, a car more than 6 years old? Ouch.
Then, I started to compare the results from the Nuerburgring with the results from Hockenheim. I also compared the 997 Turbo track times with the 997 GT3 track times. Honestly...something is wrong.
I understand the Hockenheim time and it is only logical that the GT3 is a tick faster on the same tires, simply because the lower weight is a huge advantage on such a tight track, despite the lack of power compared to the 997 Turbo. So yes, the Hockenheim track time is logical and I think it is valid.
What about the Nordschleife time? Slowlier than the GT3? With 65 HP more, AWD and a top speed of 282 kph? The fastest time the GT3 achieved was 273 kph, still pretty impressive (and telling a lot about the power figure of the test car
) Actually, the 997 Turbo should have gained around 3-4 seconds compared to the GT3, maybe even slightly more. So what happened? Was the tested 997 Turbo underpowered? I doubt it, judging by the performance figures. Was the tested GT3 too powerful? Maybe but this still wouldn't explain the track time difference between both.Here is my theory of what happened:
Horst v. Saurma, the well known editor-in-chief of Sport Auto and certified racing car driver, had difficulties driving the 997 Turbo on the Nordschleife. He admitted it in the Supertest and believe it or not, I actually believe him. He actually confirmed what I told people over here at Rennteam.com several times but apparently a lot of people didn't believe me. The 997 Turbo IS tricky to drive...with PSM turned off and Sport mode (Sport Chrono) activated. Porsche apparently has chosen a very annoying (for an AWD car) oversteer setup for the 997 Turbo, making it fun to drive in drifting competitions but in real life, this heavy oversteer isn't fun at all after some time. This is one reason why I hate it driving the 997 Turbo with PSM turned off, simply because it is dangerous and makes the car pretty much unpredictable at high speeds. You need a lot of driving skills to manage to "survive" such "fun", trust me.
To be able to reproduce Horst v. Saurma's experience, I put Michelin Sport Cup N0 tires on my Turbo to experience myself how much the tire setup influences this "tricky" behaviour.
Well, the Pilot Cup tires are great for twists and turns but they really suck on the Autobahn or very fast tracks. The steering gets more nervous and more direct (which is good at slow speeds and narrow curves but not that pleasant at 300 kph in an Autobahn curve) and the tires need to get warm first. With cold Michelin Sport Cup tires, the 997 Turbo shows heavy understeer (actually it is more of a sliding...
) and even heavier oversteer. As soon as the tires are warm enough to be very sticky and provide a lot driving fun at slower speeds in twists and turns, the behaviour of the tires changes completely: no more understeer but still a pretty annoying oversteer, even more than with the stock tires, no matter if Sport Chrono is turned on and PSM is turned on or off.Meaning: you have to be completely nuts to get Sport Cup tires unless you really want to track race the car on a regular basis, trying to squeeze out the last possible fraction of a second. Honestly: I think that although the stock tires (Pilot Sport 2) aren't THAT sticky as the Cup tires (warm), they provide a much better overall capability than the Cup tires, especially for street driving. Just imagine how long it takes to warm up the tires when it is cold outside, I was just lucky we had outside temperatures of 25*C and sun over the past few days.
Bottom line is, believe it or not: I think that the Nordschleife track time would have been better with stock tires, as weird as this may sound. I won't even start to get into an argument regarding Tiptronic and manual because I think that there isn't much difference on the Nordschleife. The acceleration advantage of the Tiptronic would be eaten up by the more responsive manual and the LSD.
The 997 Turbo is still a fantastic car and you shouldn't let the Sport Auto Supertest confuse you. Check out the Hockenheim time and you'll understand.
Also, it is NOT Horst v. Saurma's fault that he didn't like the tricky behaviour and apparently had problems dealing with that. I have the same problems when turning PSM off, one reason why I don't do that anymore.
I think that Porsche made two mistakes in the 997 Turbo development and unfortunately the Supertest unveilled these mistakes pretty well: the PASM suspension setup isn't really track worthy, no matter how well it may work but more important is the HORRIBLE oversteer setup of the AWD.
What use is it to the driver if Porsche puts on of the most advanced electronically controlled AWD systems in the 997 Turbo if they program an extreme oversteer setup to this AWD? I really don't understand why they did that. Yes, my 997 Turbo has traction problems in tight turns, incredible. My 543 HP tuned RS-Tuning 996 Turbo NEVER had traction problems and even with PSM turned off, it showed less oversteer than my current 997 Turbo. I just don't get it.
Maybe the whining of customers regarding the too "perfect" and neutral AWD setup of the 996 Turbo made Porsche change their philosophy. Personally, I don't like it and I hope there will be sooner or later some sort of electronic update/upgrade to correct this mistake.
Of course I'm no engineer and I'm not a professional race car driver anymore. Maybe my opinion is just biased by my personal experience but exactly here's my point: Porsche needs to build their cars for their customers, not to satisfy a falsely understood sportiness which actually turns to be a "tricky" driving behaviour.
The 997 Turbo is difficult to drive at the limit, I said that many times before Horst v. Saurma tested the car for Sport Auto. It is time that Porsche takes this serious and tries to adapt the AWD setup and maybe even the tire setup to offer a more neutral experience, even at the cost of losing some drifting fun.
Regarding my Pilot Cup tires: I'm stuck with them and I leave them on for further experience. Hopefully I get the chance to testdrive them a bit more extensively on a track, for comparison reasons. More to come for sure...
Keep buying technology and you will eventually learn that software coding is a game of mathematical compromises.
) brilliantly w/the 4000lb 599 for wkends and occasional daily-use 
); still has glaring turbo lag and an effeminate exhaust note...yet lacks Bluetooth/iPod compat, adult-sized fuel tank and trunk space for mere urban commuting duty.... 
and my 997 4s is going in three days 
