Update 1: Porsche 911 Turbo, the Ultimate Winter Car

For the last 2 months, I’ve been whining and complaining on our forums about how boring the 996 Turbo is. Monday night, after our first dusting of snow on the roads, I take it all back. But first, let’s go over the progress of our 911 Turbo winterization program.

Intro: Porsche 911 Turbo, the Ultimate Winter Car

Our first modification was a set of winter tires provided by Integra Tire on MacLeod Trail. Due to the 996’s AWD system, there’s only a small number of winter tires that fit the 996 Turbo. We choose a set of Hankook Icebear W300’s, 225/40R18 up front and 265/35R18 out back. These tires have average grip in snow and ice, but grips well on cold dry pavement, which is a great compromise for Calgary’s winters. Because the 265’s require a 10″ rear wheel (factory rear wheel is 11″ wide), a new set of winter wheels were required, and was provided by Kulu Motorcar.

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Intro: Porsche 911 Turbo, the Ultimate Winter Car

I’m a Mercedes-Benz guy, have been for the last decade. It comes as a surprise, even to myself, that I ended up back where I started, behind the wheel of a Porsche. My first real sports car was a Porsche 944 Turbo, which I owned since high school, and drove to it’s grave 5 years ago with a hole in the block of the heavily modified engine. I missed her while she was gone, for a few months anyways. Looking back, with all the money that I spent, and the toxic love/hate relationship that I had with the car, I vowed not to get back into a Porsche again.

And here I am today, with a 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo sitting in my garage, a month away from winter. You’ve all seen those Porsche Everyday commercials. This is supposed to be the ultimate winter car. I’ve read about it, heard about it from other owners that winter drive their 911’s in the winter, and see them on the road, which made me curious… is it really the Ultimate Winter Car?

With that being said, here’s the introduction to our 911 Turbo, Ultimate Winter Car series. Let’s take a look at the car that we’ve aquired:

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Porsche Accuses Nissan of Cheating on the ‘Ring

As a relatively portly sports car, the Nissan GT-R has amazed people the world over by posting blistering lap times on the Nurburgring, far faster than its specifications might allude to. It was rumoured after the initial stock GT-R lap that the car was running on non-production tires, but when a Nissan rep mentioned it was running on “cut slicks” it was brushed aside as a translation error and soon faded from the collective memory. Today, the controversy is back.

In their clean white laboratories in Stuttgart, some Porsche engineers got together, analyzed the GT-R data and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t just fast; it was too fast. Something didn’t quite add up, so they did what any men of science would do; they got some stopwatches, some calculators, a driver, a GT-R, two 911’s, and headed for the Green Hell. Ah, Germans. Where would Internet car arguments be without you? Maybe you should have taken a Z06 along as well.

So, what did the driving deacons from Deutschland find? Pretty much what their theoretical calculations told them they should expect. Their chassis designer/Ring expert driver got the 911 Turbo and GT2 around in times of 7:38 and 7:34 respectively. The Nissan, however, couldn’t be persuaded to break the 7:54 mark, over 25 seconds off Nissan’s claimed lap record. Why? We’ll let August Achleitner, Porsche’s 911 product chief, explain.

“This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car. For us, it’s not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres.”

He went on to say that the 7:29 time only made sense if the car was running on semi-slick tires, just like it was accused of doing many months ago.

That said, Porsche’s claim is not likely to put a dent in the GT-R’s sales numbers, with the bulk of cars being purchased long before they hit the showroom floor. US $69,850 US $76,840? A pittance for a car capable of defying the laws of physics!

I wonder how Porsche will respond when the Nissan GT-R V Spec Nurburgring laptimes are released.

Source

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Proof that Car & Driver Is In Bed With BMW

I’m sure you have all read countless comparisons of the GT-R vs. every other car in the world and whether you like the Nissan’s latest sports car or not, the truth is, the GT-R slaughters much of its competition.

That is, until Car & Driver released their latest comparo pitting the GT-R against a Porsche 911, and a BMW M3. The Car & Driver test drivers chose the M3 as the winner in the comparison citing the fact that it is a more practical package that both the 911 and GT-R.

A naturally aspirated 4.0-liter V-8 can’t deliver the massive torque of the blown sixes, but the M3 delivers its 414 horsepower in a linear and consistent manner from idle to its 8300-rpm redline. No lurching, no drama, no sudden explosions of boost. And the sound the BMW V-8 makes is due a Grammy. It’s a V-8 note not often heard outside racetracks, while the Nissan and the Porsche both sound as though they could wear a Dyson label.

The author is quick to point out that the M3 is the cheapest of the three, and near the end when explaining why the M3 is the best of the trio, he again mentions the M3 was able to offer the “hassle-free” performance at a price that undercuts the GT-R. Seriously, the M3 is only about $6,000 cheaper than the GT-R. I could see this argument being made if the price difference was similar to the price gap between the GT-R and the 911 (the 911 in the comparison was about twice as much as the GT-R) but a difference of $6,000 on a $70,000+ car is peanuts especially when $6,000 buys an ass whopping.

In this group of radical cars, the M3 emerged quickly as the voice of reason. The extremist voices of the Porsche and the GT-R are just not present in the M3. It never shouts, utters complaints, or makes any unbecoming demands. Road and tire noise are subdued, the fabric-covered seats are perfect, and there is a back seat and a real trunk.

In my mind, I have always thought that car magazines were paid off by car manufacturers. There has never been any solid evidence and I chalked it up to the differences being small and subjective that would allow a comparison to sway in anyones favor (ex. C32 vs E46 M3 and C63 vs E92 M3). In a comparison of sports cars, who would suggest that the car that was most practical would win?

Whats next? Throw in a Toyota Prius into a sports car comparo and say that the Prius is the best because it had the best mileage? Car & Driver FTL!

Oh and if you want a translation of the article, hit up this analysis on our forums:
M3 Beats GT-R and 911 Turbo