996tt first drive
03-17-2008, 10:51 PM
#1
Intermediate
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
996tt first drive
Alright, so here goes... I am not a frequent poster but I just had an amazing first experience in a 996tt. Every once and a while I enjoy reading someone else's gloat, so I thought someone might enjoy mine! So I have owned 5 P-cars so far, one of them sold on to another guy on this board, which I will mention later. I also have the blessing and curse of having a friend who owns a dealership, hence the reason I can't seem to hold on to the same car for too long! Every time he gets something cool in, I have to go and drive it then next thing you know it somehow ends up in my garage! So on with the story.
I almost always make it to the 12hrs of Sebring, as does my buddy Vic (the friend who owns the dealership) this year was no exception. About 6 months ago, I sold my 996 and bought a Elise, and coming up to the race the choices were to drive the Elise, my wifes car or a work truck, of course the choice was the Elise. So I was having lunch with Vic complaining about the 3 hour Florida straight road drive in an Elise that has a great ride however not the must comfortable over an hour, it's loud, stiff and hot because there is no point in putting the top on, why buy a convertible and keep the top on, it's like mandatory bikini's at strip clubs, there is no point. So Vic says, "I'm getting in a '01 911 turbo car in on Thursday, if you want to drive that go ahead" I was like are you sure (the whole time thinking he has ridden with me before right?), he reconsidered and decided to ride with me... this was not to preserve the car, I am a very cautious driver and take care of everything to the same degree of many of you on this board, but more so, to preserve his dealer tag's reputation with the Florida Highway Patrol!
I would love to tell you all the mods this car has however 1 I don't know all of them so I don't want to misrepresent anything and 2 this post is getting too long already. Maybe I will reply later with them if interested
Early Saturday morning I head over to meet him, of course I spent all of Friday night reading the threads in the forum to bone up on car behavior anything to look out for...in the other forums I never saw so much conversation about Type I & II over-revs, clearly a bigger issue in Turbo's. I meet him at his shop throw the overnight bag in the back and off we go. I took it easy on my way out of town, I wanted to way until the temp gauge broke the 180 mark. This gave me a chance to feel out the car a bit, it felt much the same my non-turbo 996 did, 1st gear felt very short to me, making a mental note of that to shift early so I didn't trigger an over-rev! The suspension on this car is tight, as expected, it only has 30k miles, tighter than the Elise, but after driving that it felt big. So it took a bit of getting back into the Porsche mentality, the old don't take your foot out of it style! So after a couple of miles of short-shifting we were up to temp and one light from the on-ramp. I looked over at Vic and gave him the old, "did you bring your helmet" joke, he didn't laugh.
The light turned green, I eased out of the clutch, once fully engaged I laid into the throttle, for what was only a second because once she spooled up, I was creeping up on 6000 rpm in a hurry. I hit second and punched down the peddle, this is where the fun began! The on-ramp is a sweeping left hander, I lined up slightly right with a plan on making a perfect apex however when the power poured on I landed a little late in the corner. Didn't get the lateral G's I was looking for but I was set for a flat out third run! This is where I realized that second is fun, and third will get you arrested! I think I left the corner in 120 mark and had no problem merging into traffic. We then had about 70 miles of highway time, this was actually very pleasant, the upgrade speaker package (Bose I assume) is much better than the ones with the stock CDR-220 I had in my 996. And it was nice to have a closed cabin with strong A/C once again! So the rest of the highway time was kind of lame but I had a detour in mind. It tacked on about 30 miles but it gave me some sweeping corners around the orange groves and quite a few stop and goes. I can't tell you how many times I would slow at a newly yellow light just to get the sucked back in the seat feeling again! It handled better than my C2 I attribute that to the suspension mods and the extra rubber, all of this was expected. I had to restrain myself some as I had Vic in the passenger seat the whole time, all that I needed was a little disruption in a corner to unload the rear end and show him what the pendulum effect is like.
We got to the track in 2.5 hours with the extra 30 miles, the best detour yet. We didn't have Porsche Platz parking but we were in the reserved RV lot with his RV, the car still got plenty of attention. There are some sweet rides there after checking out the field and realizing how quite the Audi TDI race car is I thought I better go and check out the sponsor tents. The new Audi R8 is amazing, I felt it was much better looking in person than the Superbowl commercial! Then I made it over to the Porsche Platz, I was gawking around, with another friend of mine when I made mention of a 993, telling him how I owned an identicle one that I sold on Rennlist about 18 months ago, biggest mistake of my life! My comment was, all it needed was a little fade in paint work on the front left fender from a buffer burn, so as we walk up, what do we see other than clearcoat burn on the front left fender. That was pretty cool, I don't remember the gentleman's name who bought it, but I didn't see him around so I went on to check out the 997 GT3 that was sitting there, man are they good looking! So my day was pretty much complete only made better by Porsche taking 3 of the top 4 spots that night.
The ride back the next day was just as exciting however I was overcome by the nauseating feeling that I had to give this baby back. Unfortunately she is a bit out of my budget at the time, but if anyone knows anyone who wants a '05 Black on Red Elise with 11k miles, let me know, I would let her go to get another 911! I think I am having withdrawals!
Sorry for the long post, but I still have perma-grin from this weekend and had to share as my wife is tired of hearing about it... a couple of pics of her in my driveway here as well. I had to see how it would look in the stable too! Sorry it's dirty, I'm not the one selling it...
Cheers - Craig
I almost always make it to the 12hrs of Sebring, as does my buddy Vic (the friend who owns the dealership) this year was no exception. About 6 months ago, I sold my 996 and bought a Elise, and coming up to the race the choices were to drive the Elise, my wifes car or a work truck, of course the choice was the Elise. So I was having lunch with Vic complaining about the 3 hour Florida straight road drive in an Elise that has a great ride however not the must comfortable over an hour, it's loud, stiff and hot because there is no point in putting the top on, why buy a convertible and keep the top on, it's like mandatory bikini's at strip clubs, there is no point. So Vic says, "I'm getting in a '01 911 turbo car in on Thursday, if you want to drive that go ahead" I was like are you sure (the whole time thinking he has ridden with me before right?), he reconsidered and decided to ride with me... this was not to preserve the car, I am a very cautious driver and take care of everything to the same degree of many of you on this board, but more so, to preserve his dealer tag's reputation with the Florida Highway Patrol!
I would love to tell you all the mods this car has however 1 I don't know all of them so I don't want to misrepresent anything and 2 this post is getting too long already. Maybe I will reply later with them if interested
Early Saturday morning I head over to meet him, of course I spent all of Friday night reading the threads in the forum to bone up on car behavior anything to look out for...in the other forums I never saw so much conversation about Type I & II over-revs, clearly a bigger issue in Turbo's. I meet him at his shop throw the overnight bag in the back and off we go. I took it easy on my way out of town, I wanted to way until the temp gauge broke the 180 mark. This gave me a chance to feel out the car a bit, it felt much the same my non-turbo 996 did, 1st gear felt very short to me, making a mental note of that to shift early so I didn't trigger an over-rev! The suspension on this car is tight, as expected, it only has 30k miles, tighter than the Elise, but after driving that it felt big. So it took a bit of getting back into the Porsche mentality, the old don't take your foot out of it style! So after a couple of miles of short-shifting we were up to temp and one light from the on-ramp. I looked over at Vic and gave him the old, "did you bring your helmet" joke, he didn't laugh.
The light turned green, I eased out of the clutch, once fully engaged I laid into the throttle, for what was only a second because once she spooled up, I was creeping up on 6000 rpm in a hurry. I hit second and punched down the peddle, this is where the fun began! The on-ramp is a sweeping left hander, I lined up slightly right with a plan on making a perfect apex however when the power poured on I landed a little late in the corner. Didn't get the lateral G's I was looking for but I was set for a flat out third run! This is where I realized that second is fun, and third will get you arrested! I think I left the corner in 120 mark and had no problem merging into traffic. We then had about 70 miles of highway time, this was actually very pleasant, the upgrade speaker package (Bose I assume) is much better than the ones with the stock CDR-220 I had in my 996. And it was nice to have a closed cabin with strong A/C once again! So the rest of the highway time was kind of lame but I had a detour in mind. It tacked on about 30 miles but it gave me some sweeping corners around the orange groves and quite a few stop and goes. I can't tell you how many times I would slow at a newly yellow light just to get the sucked back in the seat feeling again! It handled better than my C2 I attribute that to the suspension mods and the extra rubber, all of this was expected. I had to restrain myself some as I had Vic in the passenger seat the whole time, all that I needed was a little disruption in a corner to unload the rear end and show him what the pendulum effect is like.
We got to the track in 2.5 hours with the extra 30 miles, the best detour yet. We didn't have Porsche Platz parking but we were in the reserved RV lot with his RV, the car still got plenty of attention. There are some sweet rides there after checking out the field and realizing how quite the Audi TDI race car is I thought I better go and check out the sponsor tents. The new Audi R8 is amazing, I felt it was much better looking in person than the Superbowl commercial! Then I made it over to the Porsche Platz, I was gawking around, with another friend of mine when I made mention of a 993, telling him how I owned an identicle one that I sold on Rennlist about 18 months ago, biggest mistake of my life! My comment was, all it needed was a little fade in paint work on the front left fender from a buffer burn, so as we walk up, what do we see other than clearcoat burn on the front left fender. That was pretty cool, I don't remember the gentleman's name who bought it, but I didn't see him around so I went on to check out the 997 GT3 that was sitting there, man are they good looking! So my day was pretty much complete only made better by Porsche taking 3 of the top 4 spots that night.
The ride back the next day was just as exciting however I was overcome by the nauseating feeling that I had to give this baby back. Unfortunately she is a bit out of my budget at the time, but if anyone knows anyone who wants a '05 Black on Red Elise with 11k miles, let me know, I would let her go to get another 911! I think I am having withdrawals!
Sorry for the long post, but I still have perma-grin from this weekend and had to share as my wife is tired of hearing about it... a couple of pics of her in my driveway here as well. I had to see how it would look in the stable too! Sorry it's dirty, I'm not the one selling it...
Cheers - Craig
03-17-2008, 11:07 PM
#3
Intermediate
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I wish! I have to save for a couple more years. Also, sorry about the typo's my wife had dancing with the stars going in the background and the girl in yellow distracted me during my proofreading!
03-19-2008, 12:42 PM
#7
Intermediate
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
They are plastic covers painted, as Alexander said, but the cool thing I thought was they used chrome covers on the little light washer pop-ups. Looks pretty good IMO. I am usually not a fan of any body "sizzle" that does nothing for performance, but I thought this car looked pretty darn nice with the changes. I think the Aero Kit is factory.
Every time I check it out again, I start thinking it is time to sell the Lotus.... But I am going to drive around again to make sure
Every time I check it out again, I start thinking it is time to sell the Lotus.... But I am going to drive around again to make sure
Trending Topics
03-19-2008, 01:29 PM
#8
Advanced
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 85
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
They are plastic covers painted, as Alexander said, but the cool thing I thought was they used chrome covers on the little light washer pop-ups. Looks pretty good IMO. I am usually not a fan of any body "sizzle" that does nothing for performance, but I thought this car looked pretty darn nice with the changes. I think the Aero Kit is factory.
Every time I check it out again, I start thinking it is time to sell the Lotus.... But I am going to drive around again to make sure
Every time I check it out again, I start thinking it is time to sell the Lotus.... But I am going to drive around again to make sure
DON'T sell the Lotus!! Well, I'm a car keeper, so I kept my Lotus and just waited until I could add the 911 turbo to my garage!
They are admittedly very different, and honestly I haven't driven my Esprit much since I got the 911because the sheer unadulterated thrill of raw power is SO addictive!!!
Last edited by Superfly; 03-23-2008 at 09:28 PM.
03-28-2008, 04:19 PM
#9
Intermediate
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Alright I did it, I made the compromise with the wife, I can sell the Lotus replace with a boat and get a 996tt for a daily driver.... so now, I have the Lotus on the market, if anyone knows anyone who is interested don't hesitate to let me know. Here is the e-bay link. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...219697727&rd=1
