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The Sport mode is so intuitive, so impressive that we ended up spending most of our time, even around town, in this setting. I was amazed by the Sport mode’s shifts and their timing while hurtling the new 997 through the twisties. It stayed in gear and slowed the car approaching corners with uncanny consistency, then executed lightning-fast upshifts mid-corner without upsetting the chassis. More than once, my driving partner and I exclaimed, “Did you see that? That was ridiculous!” The Sport Plus mode isn’t adaptive at all. It locks out the overdrive seventh and assumes you want to shift as quickly as possible. In this setting, an even throttle while rolling through town will hold the car in gear, even at 6500 rpm. Interestingly, Porsche’s own test drivers don’t bother with Sport Plus at Weissach. After demo laps with two factory drivers in Normal, Sport, and Sport Plus, we asked and both said the shifting when left up to the car was what they’d do on their own — and smoother and quicker in most cases. “I don’t use the paddles, there’s just no need,” said one. It’s a conclusion I reached, too, surprised by how well PDK thinks for you. This makes some sense considering the computing power present in this Porsche. Thanks to PDK, variable oil-pump sensing, PASM, and all of the other electronic gadgets, 2009 997s have 65 percent more memory capacity than the 2008 models and run at 120 mhz… It hasn’t been put to waste. Compared to the twin-clutch system in Nissan’s high-tech GTR, PDK is far smoother in Comfort and deals with low-speed situations and reverse much more gracefully than the GTR’s clunky, jarring shifts. On the other hand, Nissan’s system is poised at speed, encourages manual operation, and its fixed-position paddles behind the wheel are easier to commit to habit. Whether one gearbox is faster than the other is splitting hairs, but PDK lurches you forward on each shift without interrupting the power flow. Unless you’ve spent time with serious drag racers, it’s an experience you’ve never had before. In development, Porsche had to drop a bit of torque on upshifts to keep the chassis stable. The gearbox and mechanicals could deal with the power, but upshifts in turns upset the rear end and were thus deemed “unsettling” to the driver. Sport Plus’s Launch Control feature is activated by pressing the brake and stepping into the throttle quickly. When the revs reach 6500 rpm, you side-step the brake and the Carrera catapults forward. The system was optimized for coarse, medium-rough road surfaces, but it analyzes slip and other parameters and then adjusts power output in relation to that. Unlike the GT2, with its dry-clutch Launch Control, Porsche says PDK’s wet-clutch setup will withstand as many launches as you can. Apparently, Weissach test drivers couldn’t do more than 20 LC starts in a row due to neck fatigue. Still, one would think it’s gotta be hard on half-shafts… The added power led to a massaging of the spring/shock and anti-roll bar package across the Carrera line. The 3.6 still comes with conventional shocks, revalved to work with new spring rates and bump stops. Porsche’s electronically variable PASM suspension remains an option on the Carreras and standard on the Carrera S. The PASM-equipped cars also get new spring rates and anti-roll bars. A third suspension will be available for 2009 in the United States: PASM Sport, which reduces ride height by 20 millimeters instead of the 10-mm drop with the regular PASM system. Our only encounter with the new suspension happened on the Weissach test track during those hot laps with the factory drivers. PASM Sport features a more performance-oriented PASM system based on lessons learned with the PASM setups on the 997 GT3 and GT2. In addition to the lower ride height, stiffer springs, and revised damper valving, the package adds a mechanical limited-slip differential. Put through its paces, PASM Sport was obviously good for track work. The thrill rides also demonstrated how the PSM stability management works with the sport suspension. When flung around in the Sport mode with PSM on, PSM allowed about 15º of rotation before intervening. With PSM off, unchecked sliding and big grins were easily attained. Back behind the wheel, we found the new 911 is a deeply satisfying sports car. All of the launch cars have that familiar Porsche steering feel — razor sharp, with just the right weight and effort at turn-in but enough road feel to transmit what the front tires are doing. PASM has the ability to be fairly forgiving over lumps and bumps in its Normal mode. In the Sport mode, however, the computer-controlled dampers step the stiffness up a notch, giving you a good idea of just how rigid the 997’s body shell is. When it clamps down, already crisp turn-in gets crisper. We didn’t run the new 997S all the way to its near-190-mph terminal velocity, but we did note that its suspension tightens up over speeds of 115 mph or so, making a rough —for Germany — piece of autobahn feel fairly bumpy. There were times while driving aggressively on mixed-surface backroads that the bumps forced us to hunt for the suspension buttons to go back to the Normal mode. Once we did, PASM coped with the terrain. When things smoothed out, we found ourselves pushing buttons again, wishing PASM was as smart and intuitive as PDK… I expected a difference in the handling in a similarly equipped Carrera Cabriolet, maybe with less focus due to the open top. What blew me away was how nice the Cabrio was to drive in all conditions, especially on bumpy roads. Cowl shake is absent but, with the same suspension, the slightly less rigid chassis seemed to soak up some of the bumps that made the coupe feel nervous in the Sport mode. It was a bit easier to accurately place the car on inferior surfaces. In both PASM-equipped 997s, I found myself frequently playing with the buttons to adjust the car to road conditions. A brief encounter with a base PDK-equipped Carrera on 18-inch wheels without PASM led me to believe the standard chassis and 18-inch wheels is still a good compromise between ultimate performance and comfort. Speaking of wheels, standard Carrera issue is still a set of 18 inchers, now called “Carrera IV,” that make the Fuchs pattern out of Star Trek-shaped open fingers. The front wheels measure 18x8 and wear 235/40ZR18 tires. The rears have been widened by half an inch to 18x10.5 and wear 265/40ZR18s. Carrera Ss get handsome new “Carrera S II” 19s with a certain “Made in Italy” feel to them. They measure 19x8 with 235/35ZR19s up front and 19x11 with 295/30ZR19s out back. As usual, the latest Porsche stoppers are deeply impressive. Either 997 can be driven hard all day without experiencing fade. For the first time since 1998, the base 911 gets a real hardware improvement. The cross-drilled and ventilated front rotors on Carreras have grown from 12.52 inches in diameter to 12.99 and measure 1.34 inches thick. The rears move up from 11.77 in diameter, to 12.99 by 1.10 inches. New four-piston monoblock calipers, still finished in black, have added bracing to help reduce fade. Scoops on the front suspension and additional openings in the floor feed more air to the rotors to further increase resistance to fade. The Carrera S uses the same setup but for red paint on its calipers, eliminating the previous S’s big-brake advantage. Adding to the usual host of Porsche acronyms is Brake System Pre-Filling and Brake Assis-tant. Lift off the throttle quickly and fluid is automatically pumped to rest the pads against the rotors to quicken response. If the computer senses a hard and fast application of the brakes indicative of a panic stop, the system activates with optimal pressure for the shortest possible stop. Fortunately, this feature can be deactivated for spirited driving by turning PSM off or pressing SCP’s Sport button. From our brief time in the new 997s, it’s clear this is more than a mere refresh. The new engines and PDK are advances of the kind one usually sees in an all-new model, not an update. Top speed is up by two mph in the Carrera to 179 and five mph in the S, to 187, which breaks through the magic 300 km/h. PDK beats the previous Tiptronic to 60 mph by a second and is 0.2-second quicker than the manual, pushing the Carrera to 62 mph in 4.9 seconds and the 997S to 62 mph in 4.7. Order the Sport Chrono Plus box along with PDK and times drop further to 4.7 and 4.5, respectively, thanks to Launch Control — nearly half a second faster than the manual! PDK does, however, trim one mph from the top speed of both 997s. Against Porsche’s own figures for the first 997, the new Carrera has gained 45 pounds — largely due to its bigger brakes —to weigh in at 3,120. The S gains just 12 pounds to come in at 3,142. Adding the PDK system adds another 66 pounds, but that’s better than the 88 pounds added by Tiptronics past. Would I go for the $4,080 PDK system? Only if I wanted a 911 without a clutch pedal. It’s a fabulous replacement for the Tiptronic, but it can’t match a manual for driving satisfaction. Porsche, however, is confident PDK will change the way we Americans order our 911s. U.S. buyers clearly prefer 911s with manual transmissions, as only a third specify Tiptronic. Powertrain chief Neusser thinks PDK will narrow the gap to 50-50 in the States — more on par with European ordering habits. Whether he’s right remains to be seen, but we suspect the latest 911 will sell well, even in a weak economy. Quicker and more efficient than its predecessor, it’s business as usual. 
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