This particular purchase has not been without its problems.
As my predecessor elected to retain the car upon the inverse of his garage, I came to the car and discovered it buried underneath 2 inches of snow. Anyone who’s anyone knows GT3’s hate the cold for long periods. They are wild, feral beasts that choose to dance upon warm environments and work themselves into sweated frenzies. Anything more than a couple of weeks in sub-zero temperatures, the battery dies.
And my battery was dead.
First trip to Halfords and I bought another trickle charger (typical when you REALLY need your trickle charger, it’s actually 50 miles north because a friend borrowed it). This was plugged into the car and after 6 hours, ignition turned. Great, still nothing. Another trip to Halfords and I returned with a new battery and £120 lighter of pocket. Official Porsche one costs £300.00 – I hope I will not need it come warranty inspection time, later this month.
At last, I’m out, winding down doing 40 mph on the North Circular with pleasant satisfaction upon myself. Not much can do this, I find being in a familiar car environment is the great antithesis to stress.
This is my first 997 in RS guise. After periods of ridiculing RS buyers for having too much money to burn, I find myself open to revenge criticism.
Comparisons between the two inevitable of course, but I’ll not be qualified to do so until limits are explored on track. What I can say from the off is how incredible susceptible the RS is to tramlining, the wheels finding solace amongst the rutted valleys within the tarmac. Especially so of late, as the snow and low temperatures have made a mockery of UK asphalt. I inadvertently went over pot-holes tonight that were violent enough to shatter my spinal column.
Noise is also amplified. Not only is the rear window made of plastic, so less able to insulate noise, but also the single mass flywheel makes for a very noisy clutch. The acoustic effect is there to accentuate the ‘trackday’ aspect of the RS, but what I found it does is make the standard GT3 so much more hospitable in times when you aren’t on the racetrack.
But these are minor negatives to what is, of course, a staggeringly good car. Perfect heel and toeing – not because I’m a heel and toe master, but simply because the car’s been built to allow me, nay, entice me to do it. In the same way the steering wheel position, relative to your seating height and arm length is just spot on and even when you’re at a traffic light you can’t help but feel you’re on the grid. It feels like that scene in Avatar where the Na’vi connect with various animals via the nerve receptors at the end of their hair. It’s just a raw, primal, fleshy connection between man and car.
Tonight’s weather conditions were treacherous, given the amount of crap on the roads, that wasn’t surprising. But the GT3, being the delicate tool that it is, is subtley attuned to these variations in road and weather conditions. Care and attention is required to avoid any heart in mouth moments that require quick flicks of the wrist and brave maintenance of throttle and steering alike, lest you end up like the poor Z4 driver tonight who inexplicably buried himself into the very foundations of Hammersmith flyover at 50 MPH. I couldn’t find the front of that car for the life of me. It simply was no more.
2009 was an appalling year, both commercially and personally. After having been subjected to countless burglaries and various episodes of the law working against me, it’s nice to be back in something that is familiarly excellent.
It doesn’t make 2009 alright, but it does make it easier to swallow.
Spot the coffee cup.
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Awesome! Viper green is hard to photo….. you have nailed it.:)
Fantastic car and awesome write up!! Nice to see you are up and running again!
We met at the Eurotunnel some year ago on our way to the Nurburgring, you with your white beast and me with my white beast, do you remember? :)
Enjoy your amazing car, she’s a beauty in Viper Green!!
Congrats!
Thanks!
Yours was a GT3 right?
Yes!!
Just bought a Gen2, canno’t wait to go back to the Nordschleife!!
Let me know if you have any trackday planned, will love to stretch my legs before the Ring season starts!
Congrats. Would like to see pics of that. What colour you get?
Went for white again! I was looking for a black car but not an easy task to find a LHD with the desired spec in UK!
I was lucky wanted to avoid the hassle of going in Germany to buy the car…especially because I had to get rid of my 430 and this was an even worst task!!
I found a good official dealer here in UK who bought my 430 and had this GT3 with delivery miles waiting for me!
Here a quick pic:
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/7703/g7tre.jpg
Hope to see you around, let me tell you again that your RS it’s really spectacular!!
Thanks Max –
Your car looks fantastic. I still think the Gen2 is the better car, but in the UK there is a large price difference between them right now.
Congratulations, what a car, I’m looking forward to your comparisons between this and the normal GT3.
If you allow me, I’d love to nitpick on your side sills, is there any chance we’ll see those in black, as they’re supposed to? :)
Enjoy this icon!
Hi Cem, Superb car, great colour, though loved the white one too. You may remember me I had the Silver Evo VI (from RCM)in Golders Green, a few years ago now… The Atom has gone in to storage for winter, picked up a black GTR and enjoying it, 1st time for an auto too. Hope to catch up with you soon, not literally.
Cheers, Rob
Hi rob course I do. Good to hear from you. Not atom weather though eh?
Yeah that’s an undecided point. It may be good to differentiate between a friend who has the same car and colour!
Beautiful car, the green lip on the rims looks fantastic.
BTW did you rethink the whole letter thing, or are you still going to publish it?
PS: the coffee cup is on the rear spoiler, last picture. It took me forever to find it.
G’day Don
Thanks – the rims and sils divide opinion. I think I’ll leave as is for now.
The letter is going up – was supposed to do it last night, but Forza 3 got in the way!
Nice car Cem. Carries the colour well.
Currently I have a GTR (member of your alternative site) but a viper green GT3……..give my back teeth for that. Looks great!