Anyone driven a 911 Turbo/GT3/GT2

Honestly, it would not make me think anything less of them at all. you are talking rubbish by assuming so.
i generally drive past an aston martin showroom twice a day, doesnt stop me looking at the same cars in the same spot twice a day.
my friend used to drive his r8 to work, it would be parked outside the window, everytime i stood up i would look at it.
 
Perhaps in our quest to appraise the validity of scott212's claim that the general populace do not consider the Porsche 911 to be anything particularly special, we should look to popular culture. And of course what better than a long running TV series watched by millions of everyday people the world over?

Cast your minds back to Series 6 of 'Friends', specifically the episode 'Joey and the Porsche' where the crux was that a completely standard 911 Carerra was, I am told, a 'godlike car to own'...

Never underestimate the lack of car knowledge of the general population. You can impress many of them by turning up in a 7 year old BMW provided you've polished it enough. Half of them will even think its reasonably new. They are not the benchmark by which cars should be judged.
 
[TW]Fox;14818824 said:
The problem with deliberately trying to sound intelligent in internet posts is you end up sounding a bit daft. Just type normally rather than looking for the most profusely eloquent way of phrasing your prose.

I could say the same about your analysis though.

Could anyone with little knowledge about cars sit down with you in a pub and have a conversation without you causing them to leave feeling completely and utterly thick and inadequate?

I'd honestly really like to meet you one day and put our internet personas behind us. I suspect we'd get on well.
 
Could anyone with little knowledge about cars sit down with you in a pub and have a conversation without you causing them to leave feeling completely and utterly thick and inadequate?

Quite easily. I've lost count of the number of times that in a non-car setting I've said something like 'Yea, it sounds like that Corsa is pretty good!'. It's just something you have to do, because the chances are the person the other end of the conversation isn't going to be convinced otherwise and you'll acheive nothing by trying.
 
Could anyone with little knowledge about cars sit down with you in a pub and have a conversation without you causing them to leave feeling completely and utterly thick and inadequate?
.

Probably only to those who think they know more than they do, so get made to look silly when he starts talking at the level you would be trying to be at ;]

he wouldnt cause them to look thick, the other person would do that themselves. this thread is a good example of that :p
 
[TW]Fox;14818840 said:
Quite easily. I've lost count of the number of times that in a non-car setting I've said something like 'Yea, it sounds like that Corsa is pretty good!'. It's just something you have to do, because the chances are the person the other end of the conversation isn't going to be convinced otherwise and you'll acheive nothing by trying.

I still think we could quite easily chat on for a long period of time because yo know very well I'm not as clueless about cars as you make me out to be. I know your feeling though, my brothers and their friends are 17-18 and spout out some comments which if posted on here would probably make your year.
 
Probably only to those who think they know more than they do, so get made to look silly when he starts talking at the level you would be trying to be at ;]

he wouldnt cause them to look thick, the other person would do that themselves. this thread is a good example of that :p

My problem is that I was honest and said I'm not an expert. I described my experience and I sometimes feel that a reply is more abusive than constructive. I'm much younger than you and Fox yet you treat me as if I'm some expert who has made a critical error of judgement.
 
My problem is that I was honest and said I'm not an expert. I described my experience and I sometimes feel that a reply is more abusive than constructive. I'm much younger than you and Fox yet you treat me as if I'm some expert who has made a critical error of judgement.


No, i dont treat you as if you are some expert, your posts are not that of an expert. your posts come across as if you are trying to be an expert, like with your FACT!!!! comment, or comments about a frankly fantastic car being pants (the cayman).
 
I've never bought and run my own car. I've always driven cars belonging to my parents. Perhaps actual age is irrelevant and experience in owning and driving cars is more relevant?

No, i dont treat you as if you are some expert, your posts are not that of an expert. your posts come across as if you are trying to be an expert, like with your FACT!!!! comment, or comments about a frankly fantastic car being pants (the cayman).

That's my perception though. I've only driven a limited number of cars and quite frankly if you've driven a Turbo straight after a Cayman it won't go down in your memory as being anything special.
 
I've never bought and run my own car. I've always driven cars belonging to my parents. Perhaps actual age is irrelevant and experience in owning and driving cars is more relevant?

experience is completely relevent, and from never owning your own car to driving a cayman (regardless of the other cars on the day), to say the cayman is unimpressive and then compare it to a mazda3 and a 330d saying those are better!!! come on. honestly? :/

the cayman felt slower than the mazda3 because the cayman is a better car and more suited to what it was doing, so it handled it better.
 
In my experience, I may be wrong, turbocharged cars seem faster. A 330d is slow compared to a Cayman but in the right situation feels faster. I didn't say the Cayman was awful it just wasn't what I expected although I assume you are correct in saying its handling is superior, that is something I do not have the ability to judge :)
 
In my experience, I may be wrong, turbocharged cars seem faster. A 330d is slow compared to a Cayman but in the right situation feels faster.

By that logic, an HGV feels faster still! :p

The "surge of torque" from a large ish engined turbo diesel does make it feel quick but I'd doubt very very much that a Cayman feels slower than a 330d.
 
ah someone else that has been having fun at Thruxton! I was there about a month ago and had the luck of driving all three of the supercars. I found the Cayman to be good fun but similar to other cars I've driven. After that drove the 997 turbo, Lambo and then the Scuderia. The 997 was really comfortable and as has been said probably the most practical day to day car. The Lambo was just so raw, great noise and presence. However actaully wasn't comfortable in it. My favourite was the Scuderia, basically mixed the best of both the 997 and Lambo. Amazing to drive, great noise and comfortable to be in. I want!
 
It's utter disbelief that despite stating I'm not the most knowledgeable person on this subject you still wish to throw around insults and act in such a manner.

Hold on a sec...you state that your not the most knowledgeable person on such a subject but yet you talk absolute ******** on the subject??:confused::p. If you have no knowledge on the subject then why subject yourself to ridicule exactly??...then you have the gall to sit here and moan about it lol.

Anyone who has a half a brain would tell you the 911's are a special breed of car and thats not just at track days...ive driven in a few myself including the 911 turbo and i can say hand on my heart that they are simply immense cars.

Am surprised Housey hasnt turned up to give his thoughts...
 
I had a good driving experience day in a Caterham 7. Cheaper car so they let you absolutely kill it. Shame it was my 18th birthday and it was raining so I was hardly pushing it.

An instrutor then took me out and I remember being blown away at how fast he could drive it :D

Had similar on a Prodrive half day in a 300hp+ Impreza, ex-rally driver whos car control was incredible. That car was odd though, the servo had been disconnected because people kept locking the brakes up due to no ABS, this meant that no matter how hard you pushed the brakes, it wouldn't stop very well!

Fox your involvement in the thread did not answer my original question or provide constructive response, only lead to another ridiculous manipulative argument.

I would tend to agree with this. Whilst a Porsche 911 may be special for some people, it hardly that special for a track experience. I want to be driving either a race/rally type car or something really Exotic. A normal 911 will be too compromised as a road car to be 'special' in the same way as a Lambo or Ferrari
 
Whilst a Porsche 911 may be special for some people, it hardly that special for a track experience.

He was talking about the car generally at that point, though I'm sure he'll relish your opportunity for him to scrape back some credibility by pretending thats what he meant all along :D
 
From my experience, people who don't know much about cars don't appreciate Porsches because they are prevalent on the roads.
I think this is a pretty fair summary and quite a common view on this forum too in the past; read into that what you will. Lots of people take a contrary view of things based on the perception and image associated with the people who drive them, finding small things to try and fit the stereotype (BMW's outside lane, now Audi as one such example..), often cutting their nose off to spite their face if you like and I think the 911 suffers from this as does Porsche as a brand.

I actually think the sweetest car Porsche makes is the Cayman S, a car that mixes all the elements of a sports car to perfection, balance, engine, brakes, steering, throttle, driving position and damping, I've not found a car that betters it’s all round components but then I've not driven them all. Problem with the Cayman S (for the shallow) is it shares a showroom with an icon and that is a battle it will never win, sadly. I've driven 997 GT3's, GT2's and Turbo's and though my experience of the GT2 was very short and involved a few islands and some duel carriageway it was enough to tell me it’s VERY quick, proper supercar quick. Not really a turbo fan as I am not really an RS4 fan. Both are in any objective sense epic cars, truly top of the tree, but both are simply so good they lose a little in the excitement stakes for me. I have STILL not driven a GT-R yet but if it's really better than a Turbo it must be incredible, but I suspect it will suffer from being too good, which I know makes no sense but it's a subjective thing.

GT3/RS are top of the tree from me for simply getting all the elements so right. Steering is from the top draw, engine is a peach with throttle response sharper than a sharp thing and simply the 'feel' of the things is what makes them so special but not everyone gets em. Chatted to a few people who detest them, think they are silly cars for the road and I think with the 996 I can see why people would have that view but the 997 sorts that in the main, it is much more of a road car first and still maintains the GT3 special bits.

If you are walking towards a Turbo, GT2 and GT3RS I would suggest you go Turbo, GT2 and then GT3. Get past the sheer push of the Turbo/GT2 and I feel the special nature of the GT3 will start to show. It’s simply sharper than the GT2 and much sharper than a Turbo and to me that's why I prefer it, same reason I love the CSL and don't find the RS4 as compelling. Nothing about competence really either, I'd NEVER take a Cayman S over a GT3....NEVER but I think objectively the Cayman S is the more rounded achievement.
 
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