Sport Classic Impressions
04-23-2023, 11:02 PM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Sport Classic Impressions
Hi … 
Fair warning, this might be the most long winded TLDR driving impression after 50 miles anyone has ever composed. This is a first impression commentary, my views will evolve with time and miles but I think there’s worth in noting how a thing or a person moves you at first interaction, for it is the moment where expectation meets realization … anything subsequent is a refinement/evolution of that first impression but will never have a greater imprint. Think first prostate exam.
First, I have to be honest … the Sport Classic wasn’t a 911 I really yearned for, partly because I never thought I would be offered one, and mostly because I’m trying to go after all the NA stuff before it gets taken away from us. When it was released I thought it looked gorgeous, I also thought it would be fast like all other 911s, but I didn’t care much about getting another turbo. I loved my 991.1 TTS as the best ‘Swiss Army knife’ sports car ever, but I was never more bored going fast as I was in my 991.2 GTS PDK cab, and I could not make use of what was in my 991 GT2RS so I never connected with it ... so I would have been fine never owning another TT again. But through fortune and circumstances that are beyond me, and with uncommon kindness and trust from my dealership, they got an extra SC allocation last fall and offered it to me. I said yes, because of course I’m going to say yes.
Context aside, and noting that I am not a car reviewer nor do I claim any authority as such, these are my first thoughts on the 992 Sport Classic …
I think of modern 911s as running two distinct identity paths, each with its own dial. What I mean by that is that I see the GT path as a distinct one and the non GT path equally as distinct. In my experience and engine configuration notwithstanding, I have experienced the GT cars as ones with the same ethos but dialed up through the trim levels. As in the GT3, 3RS, 2RS, are the same fundamental experience that increases and becomes more acute as one goes up through the trim levels. Same thing with the non GT cars where one gets a similar foundational experience that gets dialed up from the base Carrera, to the S, GTS, Turbo, and Turbo S. As I waited for the Sport Classic I was intrigued to see in which of those two paths it would belong in and then ascertain where in that path it slotted into.
Here’s the thing about this car, and this is the thing that makes it so special and that I have yet to see mentioned in any press release or review … it doesn’t belong in either of those two categories. It is a driving experience that stands out as completely unique, not GT, not TT, not a 2RS Touring, it is its own thing incomparable to anything else in the current 911 lineup. Driving this car isn’t picking a permanence level in the GT line or TT line, it is for better worse depending on your personal preferences and sensibilities, its own thing. That’s hard to do in a car that has a gazillion trim levels … it is utterly unique.
How so? Well now I have to use references to other trim levels, but that’s only for the sake of being descriptive and not to compare it to GT cars or other 911s. Meaning I have to use references that we are all familiar with in order to paint the picture, but not to compare it with the others. Let me see if I can do it by braking it down in categories …
- Aesthetics: From the outside it is the most beautiful modern 911 I have ever seen. As good as it looks in pics and videos they simply do not capture how stunning it is in the flesh. It is so beautiful that it would be worth its price as a sculpture without an engine. So far as I can tell, having owned a bunch of these things, it is a perfected visual expression of what this car can be. The fact that it is so biased towards form yet still has so much function is a design and engineering marvel. The interior is also quite special, but it isn’t the headline … the overall form of the car is. The gold details are subtle, the painted stripes are beautiful, the bubbles are wankworthy, but it’s the little details like making the stickers match the stripes in light grey (as opposed to white in the Speedster and GTS heritage) that make all the difference. It really is something else.
Brakes: Not going to spend much time on this. PCCBs are awesome.
Sound (I have the lightweight glass): At startup from the outside it sounds exactly like a TTS, as in not great. However, once you start moving, and I mean from the first moment you’re on throttle, I think it sounds really really good. I was shocked because my expectations were so low. It’s not a flat six but it sounds better than any TT I’ve ever heard. The NA part of the engine is a lot more audible than any TT before it and the decelerating burbles are also a lot more aggressive than any TTS. It’s like they isolated the NA on the way up and the TT on the way down. I love it so much I’m not even getting valve modules. Don’t get me wrong, it is no screaming high revving NA, it just has more scream in it than any TT has a right to have.
Gearbox: This was the biggest surprise of all from a driving dynamics pov because I like many others thought that this car should have the GT six speed. Here’s the thing about this gearbox … 6th and 7th might as well not exist., I was on the highway today going 75mph at around 4000rpm in 4th. From an engagement POV it is exactly as involving at the six speed in my GT3. The gear ratios are such that you are constantly rowing through them, as opposed to say a GT4 with you can get to 70mph in 2nd gear. The only real difference that I can feel in the two gearboxes is that the six speed is more ‘notchy’ and direct as if there is a gate under the leather boot, whereas the seven speed feels smoother and more relaxed … but that’s actually perfect for this car which isn’t track focused. It would have been great with the six speed, but I don’t feel any compromise with the seven, in fact I think it better suits the ethos of this model. And it's not like it's a 915 in there, the differences between it and the six speed in the operational range are fractional.
Acceleration and power: It’s fast. From a standing start it is as fast as a manual GT3 because in both cases I cannot shift fast enough to make use of the HP in either. If I can’t shift fast enough to use 500 I won’t be able to shift fast enough to use 550, or whatever the exact numbers are. However, and this is a big however, once you start moving it has a lot more power than the GT3 at the bottom end. So much so that you have to be mindful of angles before flooring it even with warm tires or else you’ll slap tank your way into stuff. The car in Sport + has a lot more ‘want to kill you’ in it than a GT3, and that’s the best thing that I can say about a car or a woman. This is one of the things that makes it so different from a TTS which, despite so much more power, takes free will out of your hands. This thing will let you pay the consequences of poor decisions and will reward you in the best way for precise inputs. I'm still in break in mode so I cannot speak as to how it behaves at to the top end of the rev range, but my expectation is that it won't have the top end apotheosis of the NA 4.0.
Handling: This is the aspect that I have to get more miles under me to have a valid opinion. From the little I can tell it is stiffer than a TTS but less stiff than a 992 GT3. My sense is that a 992 GT3 in soft mode is about the same as the SC in Sport + mode. It doesn’t have the front bite of the 992 GT3. Normally I would say isn’t that type of car so it doesn’t need it, but the truth is once you’ve experienced that turn in precision you never want to live without it. I’ll see how I feel about it after a few twisties. My sense is that I wish it had the GT3 front suspension, but maybe the entire package would have suffered as a result so I'm not going to second guess the engineers with such few miles under me.
Overall: In the few miles that I have driven the car feels very special to me, there’s something reminiscent of the 911R, not because they drive the same way but because just like the R the package is much greater than what would would expect from its assembled parts. This car is VERY special to drive … it doesn't have the drama of a GT3 or RS but it does have a sense of overall occasion and joy in being engaged in it. Just like the R there is fairy dust in it, not the same dust, but fairy dust none the less. The playfulness of the rear end, the brutal performance under its elegant skin, then never ending shifts, the hips, it’s a wonderful thing no matter what Mr Catchpole or other experts tell you. As I mentioned at the start, so many of these 911s provide duplicate experiences only variable in degrees not aspects … the Sport Classic stands on its own, whether or not you’ll like it depends on whether your sensibilities connect with its unique attributes. If you like a supermodel with a foul mouth and a few fetishes this car is for you.
One might ask themselves, is the Sport Classic as ‘good’ as other limited edition cars like the 911R? My answer to that it is to me. In the end to me the R was a perfected expression of the modern 911 GT car … the Sport Classic ins’t perfect, but it is more distinct and unique. It doesn’t have a category to perfect, it is its own wonderful category, and it is equally special. If a wonderful genie came to me and said I will gift you one of the two but that’s the only car you could have for the rest of your life, I would take the R … but not by much, and that’s the best thing I could say about the Sport Classic.
Of course other owners might have a different takeaway, this one is mine.
Sorry about all the words ... and it's only been 50 miles.
Fair warning, this might be the most long winded TLDR driving impression after 50 miles anyone has ever composed. This is a first impression commentary, my views will evolve with time and miles but I think there’s worth in noting how a thing or a person moves you at first interaction, for it is the moment where expectation meets realization … anything subsequent is a refinement/evolution of that first impression but will never have a greater imprint. Think first prostate exam.
First, I have to be honest … the Sport Classic wasn’t a 911 I really yearned for, partly because I never thought I would be offered one, and mostly because I’m trying to go after all the NA stuff before it gets taken away from us. When it was released I thought it looked gorgeous, I also thought it would be fast like all other 911s, but I didn’t care much about getting another turbo. I loved my 991.1 TTS as the best ‘Swiss Army knife’ sports car ever, but I was never more bored going fast as I was in my 991.2 GTS PDK cab, and I could not make use of what was in my 991 GT2RS so I never connected with it ... so I would have been fine never owning another TT again. But through fortune and circumstances that are beyond me, and with uncommon kindness and trust from my dealership, they got an extra SC allocation last fall and offered it to me. I said yes, because of course I’m going to say yes.
Context aside, and noting that I am not a car reviewer nor do I claim any authority as such, these are my first thoughts on the 992 Sport Classic …
I think of modern 911s as running two distinct identity paths, each with its own dial. What I mean by that is that I see the GT path as a distinct one and the non GT path equally as distinct. In my experience and engine configuration notwithstanding, I have experienced the GT cars as ones with the same ethos but dialed up through the trim levels. As in the GT3, 3RS, 2RS, are the same fundamental experience that increases and becomes more acute as one goes up through the trim levels. Same thing with the non GT cars where one gets a similar foundational experience that gets dialed up from the base Carrera, to the S, GTS, Turbo, and Turbo S. As I waited for the Sport Classic I was intrigued to see in which of those two paths it would belong in and then ascertain where in that path it slotted into.
Here’s the thing about this car, and this is the thing that makes it so special and that I have yet to see mentioned in any press release or review … it doesn’t belong in either of those two categories. It is a driving experience that stands out as completely unique, not GT, not TT, not a 2RS Touring, it is its own thing incomparable to anything else in the current 911 lineup. Driving this car isn’t picking a permanence level in the GT line or TT line, it is for better worse depending on your personal preferences and sensibilities, its own thing. That’s hard to do in a car that has a gazillion trim levels … it is utterly unique.
How so? Well now I have to use references to other trim levels, but that’s only for the sake of being descriptive and not to compare it to GT cars or other 911s. Meaning I have to use references that we are all familiar with in order to paint the picture, but not to compare it with the others. Let me see if I can do it by braking it down in categories …
- Aesthetics: From the outside it is the most beautiful modern 911 I have ever seen. As good as it looks in pics and videos they simply do not capture how stunning it is in the flesh. It is so beautiful that it would be worth its price as a sculpture without an engine. So far as I can tell, having owned a bunch of these things, it is a perfected visual expression of what this car can be. The fact that it is so biased towards form yet still has so much function is a design and engineering marvel. The interior is also quite special, but it isn’t the headline … the overall form of the car is. The gold details are subtle, the painted stripes are beautiful, the bubbles are wankworthy, but it’s the little details like making the stickers match the stripes in light grey (as opposed to white in the Speedster and GTS heritage) that make all the difference. It really is something else.
Brakes: Not going to spend much time on this. PCCBs are awesome.
Sound (I have the lightweight glass): At startup from the outside it sounds exactly like a TTS, as in not great. However, once you start moving, and I mean from the first moment you’re on throttle, I think it sounds really really good. I was shocked because my expectations were so low. It’s not a flat six but it sounds better than any TT I’ve ever heard. The NA part of the engine is a lot more audible than any TT before it and the decelerating burbles are also a lot more aggressive than any TTS. It’s like they isolated the NA on the way up and the TT on the way down. I love it so much I’m not even getting valve modules. Don’t get me wrong, it is no screaming high revving NA, it just has more scream in it than any TT has a right to have.
Gearbox: This was the biggest surprise of all from a driving dynamics pov because I like many others thought that this car should have the GT six speed. Here’s the thing about this gearbox … 6th and 7th might as well not exist., I was on the highway today going 75mph at around 4000rpm in 4th. From an engagement POV it is exactly as involving at the six speed in my GT3. The gear ratios are such that you are constantly rowing through them, as opposed to say a GT4 with you can get to 70mph in 2nd gear. The only real difference that I can feel in the two gearboxes is that the six speed is more ‘notchy’ and direct as if there is a gate under the leather boot, whereas the seven speed feels smoother and more relaxed … but that’s actually perfect for this car which isn’t track focused. It would have been great with the six speed, but I don’t feel any compromise with the seven, in fact I think it better suits the ethos of this model. And it's not like it's a 915 in there, the differences between it and the six speed in the operational range are fractional.
Acceleration and power: It’s fast. From a standing start it is as fast as a manual GT3 because in both cases I cannot shift fast enough to make use of the HP in either. If I can’t shift fast enough to use 500 I won’t be able to shift fast enough to use 550, or whatever the exact numbers are. However, and this is a big however, once you start moving it has a lot more power than the GT3 at the bottom end. So much so that you have to be mindful of angles before flooring it even with warm tires or else you’ll slap tank your way into stuff. The car in Sport + has a lot more ‘want to kill you’ in it than a GT3, and that’s the best thing that I can say about a car or a woman. This is one of the things that makes it so different from a TTS which, despite so much more power, takes free will out of your hands. This thing will let you pay the consequences of poor decisions and will reward you in the best way for precise inputs. I'm still in break in mode so I cannot speak as to how it behaves at to the top end of the rev range, but my expectation is that it won't have the top end apotheosis of the NA 4.0.
Handling: This is the aspect that I have to get more miles under me to have a valid opinion. From the little I can tell it is stiffer than a TTS but less stiff than a 992 GT3. My sense is that a 992 GT3 in soft mode is about the same as the SC in Sport + mode. It doesn’t have the front bite of the 992 GT3. Normally I would say isn’t that type of car so it doesn’t need it, but the truth is once you’ve experienced that turn in precision you never want to live without it. I’ll see how I feel about it after a few twisties. My sense is that I wish it had the GT3 front suspension, but maybe the entire package would have suffered as a result so I'm not going to second guess the engineers with such few miles under me.
Overall: In the few miles that I have driven the car feels very special to me, there’s something reminiscent of the 911R, not because they drive the same way but because just like the R the package is much greater than what would would expect from its assembled parts. This car is VERY special to drive … it doesn't have the drama of a GT3 or RS but it does have a sense of overall occasion and joy in being engaged in it. Just like the R there is fairy dust in it, not the same dust, but fairy dust none the less. The playfulness of the rear end, the brutal performance under its elegant skin, then never ending shifts, the hips, it’s a wonderful thing no matter what Mr Catchpole or other experts tell you. As I mentioned at the start, so many of these 911s provide duplicate experiences only variable in degrees not aspects … the Sport Classic stands on its own, whether or not you’ll like it depends on whether your sensibilities connect with its unique attributes. If you like a supermodel with a foul mouth and a few fetishes this car is for you.
One might ask themselves, is the Sport Classic as ‘good’ as other limited edition cars like the 911R? My answer to that it is to me. In the end to me the R was a perfected expression of the modern 911 GT car … the Sport Classic ins’t perfect, but it is more distinct and unique. It doesn’t have a category to perfect, it is its own wonderful category, and it is equally special. If a wonderful genie came to me and said I will gift you one of the two but that’s the only car you could have for the rest of your life, I would take the R … but not by much, and that’s the best thing I could say about the Sport Classic.
Of course other owners might have a different takeaway, this one is mine.
Sorry about all the words ... and it's only been 50 miles.
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04-23-2023, 11:04 PM
#2
Rennlist Member
Great read - thank you 🙏
04-24-2023, 12:23 AM
#3
Wonderfully written. Thanks for sharing!
04-24-2023, 12:37 AM
#4
Rennlist Member
Thanks for all of those (well-written) words.
It’s 5am here in Stuttgart, in bed with Mrs. Mathfuzzy, on our delivery day. I did the usual wake up check of email (thankfully Sunday night in the US still, all is quiet) and then hopped over here to see about any new Sport Classic content. Imagine my surprise.
This car has made me acutely grateful to a number of people, which is another story for another thread, but know that you’re on the list. It’s been a good way to start what will be a very, very good day.
It’s 5am here in Stuttgart, in bed with Mrs. Mathfuzzy, on our delivery day. I did the usual wake up check of email (thankfully Sunday night in the US still, all is quiet) and then hopped over here to see about any new Sport Classic content. Imagine my surprise.
This car has made me acutely grateful to a number of people, which is another story for another thread, but know that you’re on the list. It’s been a good way to start what will be a very, very good day.
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04-24-2023, 12:54 AM
#5
Rennlist Member
Enjoyable read. Now photos.
04-24-2023, 12:56 AM
#6
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
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UncleDude (04-24-2023)
04-24-2023, 10:24 AM
#7
Rennlist Member
You nailed it @soulsea I can’t wait to see your thoughts after 1000 miles. Get to work.
the SC really does straddle the 2 sides of the 911 characteristics. One thing we noticed is that the turbos didn’t kick in right away, and because of this, there are a ton of NA driving emotions.
the SC really does straddle the 2 sides of the 911 characteristics. One thing we noticed is that the turbos didn’t kick in right away, and because of this, there are a ton of NA driving emotions.
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04-24-2023, 01:17 PM
#8
Absolutely poetic - huge congratulations and thank you for this.
Favourite line:
"The car in Sport + has a lot more ‘want to kill you’ in it than a GT3, and that’s the best thing that I can say about a car or a woman."
Favourite line:
"The car in Sport + has a lot more ‘want to kill you’ in it than a GT3, and that’s the best thing that I can say about a car or a woman."
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Peruna (04-24-2023)
04-24-2023, 02:12 PM
#9
Fantastic write up. Looking forward to how your thoughts evolve as you get more miles in her.
04-24-2023, 04:07 PM
#12
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
And thanks everyone for the kind remarks, and my apologies for the catastrophic syntax errors and missing words ... I reread the damn thing a hundred times and still messed up a bunch. What kind of terrible person say permanence when they mean performance? This guy that's who.
Last edited by soulsea; 04-24-2023 at 04:22 PM.
04-24-2023, 05:14 PM
#13
Rennlist Member
Huge congrats! Appreciated your first impressions ownership review - will stay tuned for future updates. Enjoy in good health in spirit!
PS: Been away from RL for the last ~6 months, and it's been hard finding refreshing threads like this amidst all the physical threat / GF-swipe left-flex / ADM discussion rubble. LOL
PS: Been away from RL for the last ~6 months, and it's been hard finding refreshing threads like this amidst all the physical threat / GF-swipe left-flex / ADM discussion rubble. LOL
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Matt(inMA) (04-25-2023)
04-24-2023, 06:59 PM
#14
Great writeup. It sounds like the SC has a lot of the 930 Widowmaker in it - and in that sense, you can't slot it into the two modern paths.
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porschemeister (04-25-2023)
04-25-2023, 02:43 AM
#15
Nice write up, fully agree the Sports Classic moves in its own space. Also within the first few 100 miles it reminded me of the 930s I used to run as daily cars in the 80s, in the way it moves around and power delivery. Great driving cars.
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