Twins Vs 991 911
 

I recently had the opportunity to drive a 991 Carrera (base) PDK for a few days and i wanted to share my thoughts.

I've had my BRZ since 2013 and mostly loved it (minus check engine issues). This wasn't my first spin in a 911, but it was my first experience in a "modern" 911.

First impressions:

The steering was pretty damn close to the twins. It had an even heavier feel. I want to say it was slightly larger than the twins steering wheel (diameter-wise). It definitely felt very nice though, with great feedback. Obviously the fit and finish of the interior was leaps and bounds over the twins, but it was a 90ish-K car.

Acceleration was incredible, i understand now why people complain of the twins being under powered. I came from a civic, so obviously the BRZ was step up in power/overall driving. That type of power with a perfect chassis and you feel like god. My lady friend drives a Q50 and it hauls, but feels disconnected. Imagine that type of power in a BRZ and that's pretty much what the 911 feels like. The interior was so damn quiet as well. Once the sport mode button was pressed the Porsche became a beast and sounded AMAZING (especially in tunnels). I instantly fell in love with the 991, it takes all of our cars weaknesses and eradicates them. I have always been a Porsche fan, and this experience sealed the deal. Not going to buy one anytime soon, but hopefully in the future.



I really do consider the BRZ/FRS the poor man's Porsche. I've driven a lot of "fast" cars both used and new around our price range and there is no other car in it's class that compares IMHO, in terms of driving feel. Maybe the new miata...This is by no means an actual comparison as both of these cars are classed differently. Assuming my engine doesn't crap out on me, my new goal is to make the my BRZ as close as possible to that driving experience. All i can say is i'm still very happy driving my BRZ, but now aspire for greatness (cheesy i know).

Great. Thanks for sharing!

Nice write up I'm a Porsche fanatic as well and one day. This is what I saw the other day....
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How's the footwell in the 991, is it wide like the BRZ? I've driven older Porsches and I always find the footwell cramped.

It's interesting that you refer to the twins as a "poor man's Porsche;" because that's what they called the 944/944 turbos when they were released. Having owned a NA 944 and later a Turbo 944, I think the comparison is accurate. My BRZ is really close in driving experience to the NA 944.

Yep , the goal when I supercharged the FR-S was to build a poor man's Cayman. Really the only thing left to do is eventually go with 8" or wider wheels with 235 or 245 width.

In case you haven't seen this thread:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79671

I really liked kiichiro's post here, it got a lot of hate and there may be some opinions there that can be debated but the reality is that there is much more in the price of a Porsche than a big engine, nice interior, and a badge, everything from the bushings and suspension links to the door handles is taken to the next level that will be next to impossible to match when starting out with a Toyobaru, sure with enough money and smarts you could match or exceed the performance in any area you deem important, but you could apply that effort to the Porsche and see gains there as well.

And the 912, 914, 924 as well as the FC RX-7 were also called 'poor man's Porsche' and probably a few others I'm missing.

I do think that if you forced Porsche to come out with a $25k coupe with a flat engine it would be very close to the Toyobaru in terms of styling and overall performance. Actually if anything they might sacrifice a bit of practicality to match the performance of the 86 and Miata.

RX-7:
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Ma...V-09-AP-04.jpg

944:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._944_Turbo.jpg

having owned a 944 as well, I think the 86 twins are hands down better in every single way :iono: I just couldn't click with the 944, which was disappointing, as I always thought they were one of the most beautiful Porsche's of all time.

I'll share my impressions as well in about 3 weeks. I'll be driving down to San Francisco for a mini vacation. My friend and I are renting a 991 911 (base) for 3 days, and we've got some canyon roads planned out. Gonna bring a couple of GoPros to document the action.

Had some time in the 991 Carrera S (MT) myself.

For me, the steering on the 991 was a let down. The FR-S has more mechanical feel surprisingly and seemed to provide better feedback. At the very least, my expectation for the $100K+ car was not met. While the clutch and shifter are fantastic, 7 speeds it too many. Modern gearing also means even the top of 3rd gear is too fast.

280 miles on the best CA backroads and I was smitten with Porsche, but determined to pick up a 997.2 or 987.2 Cayman S instead. The only way to describe the whole experience is that the Porsche does everything the FR-S does, only much much better.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3nMjui8uTw"]GoPro 911 2K15 - Full - YouTube[/ame]

I'm not sure about the 914, but the 924 and 944 were still up there price wise when new. WAYYY more than the twins.

914 started super cheap at $3,500 it competed with Mustangs in 1970, but it underperformed so hard they beefed it up and by 1974 it was $5k (also due to economic factors), at the time ('74) a base 911 was ~$10k. ($24k & $48k in modern money respectively).

http://www.caranddriver.com/comparis...omparison-test

http://classicmotorsports.com/articles/porsche-914/

And yeah, I thought the 924 and 944 undercut the 911 more significantly, I guess they learned their lesson as the 914 didn't do too great, charge the premium, make the performance solid.

I did however find this very entertaining review of sports cars from 1979, looks like the SA RX-7 nearly outperformed the 924 for about half the money:

http://www.caranddriver.com/comparis...omparison-test

http://media.caranddriver.com/files/...un-vehicle.pdf

http://media.caranddriver.com/files/...erformance.pdf

The 13b FB rx-7 outperformed the na 944 as well.

It's fairly wide, i would say maybe a little larger than the twins. Not cramped at all.