October 28, 1999

This afternoon the Speed Yellow S (black/black) was ours for 4 hours. Let?s start with the S options:

[s_1]

Tiptronic / 981-full leather / 982-Soft leather seats / 573-AC / 551-windstop / 567-green sun strip / 601-Litronics / 695-CDR22 / 490-sound package / XMK-Roll-bar in ext color.

Total price as listed including delivery costs: 189.275 Dutch Guilders (~ 95K $ US)

I have to compare with Zoef (Zenith Blue) which I have driven for 18 months now, being a ?98 manual (17" and standard suspension).

[s_2]

First some non driving impressions of the S: the inside lining of the softtop looks pretty neat. I like the silver accents in the dark interior. The motor that operates the top is more noisy. The gap between front hood and bumper is less visible because hood is lower with respect to bumper and/or gap has become smaller. [s_3]The 3-spoke steering wheel not only is much nicer, it feels/'drives' better. Sound of starting the engine seems a little bit quieter. Idling indeed at ~ 700 rpm (800 rpm for MY97-99). With throttle a more 'mature' sound. A lot of haze already on rear plastic window.

Impressions after a few miles: from the inside (top up) the engine sound is quieter! (Zoef has not the luggage compartments below the roll-bars?). I like the overall sound of the S much better, sounds like more power, more roar but I wish it was more noticeable from the inside. With top down awesome sound from 4000 until 7200 rpm, no sweet point though. Brakes are awesome.

[s_4]Ok so how about performance. There are two ways to compare the two cars: drive one and then the other etc. or drive both at the same time. We did both! Changing car to compare the feel, driving together to judge the real performance. First of all I have to say that unfortunately I had to compare manual and tip. [s_5]Regarding the feel this is my impression: I like the S suspension more. A bit more tighter. Seems as if the wheels stick better to the road. I felt more confident in S going real hard through my favorite turns, probably I did it faster with S. The S definitely has more power, you can feel that, but do not expect a huge difference. More flexibility too but when passing those stupid Dutch road bumps (intended to reduce speed) and rpm is as low as 1000-1500 in 2nd, you still would like to have much more torque!

[s_6]This is how we compared real (low end) performance: S in front with Zoef behind. At certain speed and gear the S driver with one hand up, lowers hand as starting sign, both floor it and see who pulls best within this gear. In order to choose the speeds and gears I first recorded some gear/rpm/speed(kph) combinations for both S and Zoef:

3.2l engine:

2nd/1500/27, 2nd/2500/43, 2nd/3000/52, 3rd/2500/61, 3rd/3000/72, 4th/2500/85, 4th/3000/100

2.5l engine:

2nd/1500/25, 2nd/2500/40, 2nd/3000/47, 3rd/2500/57, 3rd/3000/68, 4th/2500/80, 4th/3000/93

On the busy Dutch roads it was not easy to execute our plan. Nevertheless we managed to test 5 different gear/speed combinations, each at least two times. The next gear/rpm figures hold for the S, Zoef drove in the same gear but with slightly higher rpm as shown by the above data.

2nd / 1500rpm : similar acceleration

2nd / 2500rpm : 2.5l is slightly faster!

2nd/ 4000rpm : similar acceleration

3rd / 2500rpm : similar acceleration

3rd / 4000rpm : similar acceleration

Quite surprising results. I would have expected the S (even a Tip) being much faster at these rpm?s. I?m convinced the manual S with different gearing would be much quicker in this test though.

[s_7]Then is the 3.2l Tip not quicker than the 2.5 manual? According to Porsches performance spec: 0-100 kph in 6.5s for Tip S and 6.9s for 2.5 manual. We did put it to the test, same procedure. The Tip S (in manual mode) appears to be MUCH faster. Apparently at high rpm it goes like a rocket. What a pity we couldn?t compare with the manual S.

My overall S impressions are very good. I love the suspension and it is much quicker. Low end torque for this Tip version is a little bit disappointing. Brakes are super. For sure the S gave me more driving satisfaction. Do not expect miracles but worth every penny in my opinion.

Rene