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PCH1: 63 miles in heaven
I love even more Pacific Coast Highway south of Carmel. A sumptuous road, breathtaking scenery over the jagged coast, more than 60 twisted miles without a single junction. A mix of pool table perfect tarmac and rough patches, with the odd stretch of gravel if you’re lucky enough to encounter a road work zone. Viewpoints make you want to stop every mile, yet you wish that you wore diapers to complete the stretch without ever stopping for a biological reason. Stuffed with minivans during week-ends, empty during week days. Short of a race track, this is ideal playground to gauge a car of that caliber. And what a caliber ! Grip is phenomenal by road driving standards if you take care to brake hard till turn in, the car is amazingly nimble, darting its way through endless direction changes with superb agility. The road, the scenery, the sun, a highlight of today’s automotive production, what else could you possibly crave for ?
As anticipated, front ground clearance is problematic. The shallowest ramp requires a strategic and cautious diagonal approach and in spite of constant car, the front lip has to be considered as a consumable. The instrument cluster provides all the required information, the voltmeter of the 996 series makes way for a much needed oil temperature gauge. The instrument cluster includes a tire pressure monitor using transponders located in the wheels. Accuracy remains to be assessed though. Sampling period is around every minute.
The tire pressure monitor.
The 996 GT3 was stripped of any driving assists, except ABS; the 997 GT3 inherits traction control (TC) with two levels: the standard setting, a more daring setting when the “Sport” button is enabled, and the brave mode where you’re on your own. TC only uses engine torque management and rear brakes, so it is by no means a disguised version of the Porsche Stability Management (PSM) system found standard on the rest of the 911 line-up. Engine break-in is not conducive to exploring the behavior of the gizmo, but in normal mode, TC intervention is anything but subtle, just as binary as ASR on a pre-F430 Ferrari.
In the quality department, fit and finish are a huge improvement compared to the 996 series, even if annoying and frankly unacceptable squeaks and buzzes remain. The stiff suspension is can’t possibly be blamed on a brand new car, build quality and design are. Hard to understand why Porsche can’t deliver consistently the same standards as Audi and some Japanese brands. It is equally hard to understand why the Zuffenhausen outfit cannot resolve seminal reliability issues which have been plaguing water cooled engines for nearly a decade, including prominently the Rear Main Seal (RMS). Stories from 997 GT3 and GT3 RS owners are burgeoning on specialized forums with nearly new cars leaking oil. I am going to scrutinize my garage floor frequently.
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