Yes, to me the 993 TT is the best there is. However the GT2'3's are very nice :)
2300# with a 3.2l motor and 915 trans. No AC or heat, but still plenty of luxary with power windows, GT2 seats, full dash, carpet etc... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
2,198 pounds on the corner balance scales with a full tank of gas and all other fluids......326 HP and 7,500 RPM.......Yeeaaahhhhaaahhhh !!!! Versus a 3,131 pound brand new 2008 MY 997 S with 385HP.......hmmmmmmm. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Can someone tell me what air cooled does for your driving experience compared to water cooled? I'm a new Porsche fan... I love mid-engine cars, and have finally turned to Porsche now that they have the Cayman (looks like a 70's style Dino to me). Just waiting for Porsche to add another 50 hp.
I am waiting to restore a matching #'s 67 911S. I am waiting on a vacancy. I heard these cars are fun.
Let me (I drive a 993 as my daily) give this a try. Air cooled is not just about the sound, the fact that it positively will not freeze in the winter nor overheat in the summer, or the obvious weight and weight distribution advantages for a rear engine car. It is about the engineering principles of the matter. It practically arises to the level of the use of overhead cams versus pushrods (and note that the Corvette people make a pretty good case for pushrods, BTW). Or, in the Porsche world - it is the equivalent of what the twelve cylinder engine did for Ferrari. The end of the true 911 track with the ultimate 993 is as if Ferrari refused to build any engine with more than 8 cylinders after the 550/575 Maranello run was finished. This is why many of us who have driven air-cooled 911 cars all of our adult lives (my first was a 1969 911T Targa, back in September of 1969)...are hanging on to our last 993s as if they were the Mona Lisa. Now, don't get me started on the hot oil smell from the heater...
The "real Porsche" debate has been a staple of Porsche boards. My answer: the last real Porsche was the 356. The 911 is a high volume car for poseurs.
Just for argument's sake, tell me why a 928 is not a real Porsche. It is the only one designed from a clean sheet (by Porsche engineers) of paper with no parts bin sharing. 928s get thrown under the bus by many P owners.
That's an old joke, I'm looking for a real response from some P and F car guys. I'm sure you can do better than that. 928: adjustable height coil overs all around, double wishbone front suspension, weissach rear suspension, near 50/50 bias, 4 piston brembo brakes all around. Some good stuff from the factory.
It is not a bad car, but it sort of flew in the face of the light GT traditions of the 356 and 911. Porsche also was rather arrogant in the way they handled the advertising when it (and the 924) were first brought onto the market - they went so far as to intimate that they were going to drop rear engine cars altogether because that sort of design was somehow "outmoded". Also, remember that like the Chevrolet Corvettes of that day, almost all of them were sold with automatic transmissions. Long-time traditional 911 owners like myself were pretty horrified by all of that. The 928 also got a pretty well-stuck reputation as a hard and expensive car to maintain. Anyway, back to the 993...I consider it as certainlyy the last of an era - an era I am sad to see left behind.
Porsche was thinking that the 911 would not pass safety and noise standards in the US (Ralph Nader) as they were getting stricter and harder to meet. A rear engined car has both engine noise and exhaust noise at the rear, and not really a crush zone for rear impact either. As well they believed the emissions would be easier to keep clean on a water cooled engine too. This was what they were thinking about from about 1971 through the '70s, and a 928 design was what they came up with as they were afraid of losing the US market. However, the crash safety and noise didn't keep ramping up as they thought in the US. I believe some of the US car manufacturers started to influence Washington telling them if the safety stuff got too strict it would hurt their sales and profitability (Lee Iacocca among others). Agreed the 928 had a bad reputation for gremlins, even new they came back to the dealer a lot. It was a complex car, by '85 there were 42 fuses in the fuse board.
996 Turbo, GT 2 and 3 all use the GT1 block. So good they continue to use it in the 997 GT3 Cup racing car. Where the street GT3 uses the 997 block.
Personally, I bought a 996 1999 with aero-package several years ago. Car looked HOT HOT HOT!!! If the interior were of the same caliber as previous cars, I might have kept it... I think that the new 996, with the aero-package, looks way better than a 993. Seems like most of the folks on the street agreed... Unfortunately, the interior is pure crap. It feels like a TONKA toy. The motor sound also is muted... Test drove some 993's, and was let down. Having owned 911s, sc's, etc in the past... the interior was a complete let down. It looked identical to previous cars. I didn't want the "same" cars I had just sold... It just didn't feel that different... Now, the 993 turbo...that is a cool car. But I bought the testarossa instead... I still want a 993 turbo...
Would you believe that it had 8 forward speeds and 2 backward? Semi-automatic! And that you might make the case that it had front-wheel drive with a rear engine? (the driveshaft went up to the front and split out to drive the big front sprockets on the tracks). The big gas V12 had about 600 BHP, only enough for maybe 25mph. It (and the earlier Tiger 1) also were among the first tanks made with an automotive style steering wheel to regulate the turning motion of the tracks. BTW, most of the historians say this drivetrain was not really a Porsche design. While Hitler liked Porsche, his proposal lost out to Henshel. Porsche did make a few of the main turrets as sort of a consolation prize.
Interesting!!! As most know, most all Porsche projects had sequential design numbers (356, 550, 911, 917, etc). I smiled when I saw the term 'Porsche 101' before, as in the Porsche project history, a Porsche Typ 101 is a Tiger I tank. http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-vi-tiger-p-vk4501p-porsche-typ-101.htm Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes, that is the Porsche drive train on that Tiger 1. It was also used on the ill-fated self propelled assault gun Elephant (or Ferdinand - nicknamed after Porsche). This was I believe a motor-generator set with electric traction motors for the tracks. Porsche used this kind of electric transmission on his very early car designs as well. The production Tiger 1 & 2 drivetrain had the overlapped wheels shown on the picture of the King Tiger. That transmission is mechanical.
