The 911SC Chronicles, Part II

(Dec 14, 2003, Sunday night)

I arrived in St. Louis in time to meet a friend for dinner.  By now, I was getting a good feel for driving the car, so I went to pick him up in the SC.  I warned him to bring his gloves along, but he did not complaint at all.  He thought the car really had what most people identify as the "911 look", with the big rear spoiler and the Fuchs wheels.  I kept surprising myself by how easy I found it to drive the car. I could not really power hard through the corners with the bald tires, but driving the car was fun!

By the time dinner was over, my wife had returned from the school function she had to attend.  It was too dark to really see the car, but the idling engine's sound was adequate to let her know I had arrived.

Monday, the 15th, was a very nice day.  A bit windy but sunny.  I used my lunch break to wash the car and empty it out.  Also, I wanted to mount the passenger-side speaker properly and fix its connections so it would work all the time.  As such, I took all the trim pieces on the passenger-side door off.

This gave me the opportunity to really get involved with the car and I was surprised by how good the interior actually looked.  I lubricated the door mechanisms and I cleaned every part as I re-installed it on the car. I had only expected the car to be basic and fun transportation, I had not expected the interior would clean up so well.

Originally, the car had been delivered with a green interior. Green seats, panels and carpetting.  The previous owner did not really care for all those green components, so he installed black door panels, rear seats, rear panels and the stock black seats for his 944S2 race car.  The dark green carpet is still on the car, but given the black floor mats, not much of it shows.  I must say, the visible portions of the green carpet make a nice contrast. While I do not plan to be obsessive about maintaining a spotless interior on this car, it is a nice bonus that its interior has so much potential. I have not had a chance to clean and vacuum all of it, but I think it will look great when I am done.

And, of course, all work and no play is no fun.  So, I went for a ride after work.  What an experience.  Not better or worse than my 944, but definitely different.  The manual steering does not call attention to itself, but it feels great.  The engine certainly calls itself to attention and its low-end torque makes it very usable when driving around the town.  The brakes feel great and this is where I would expect the low vehicle weight (2700lbs w/ the driver) also comes into play. Not much of an effort to slow the car down and a great level of modulation.

And the floor-mounted pedals?  I guess I got used to them right away, probably because I had test driven 911s before.  The clutch action is a bit different.  I have to fully press the clutch pedal, unlike in my other cars, in order to avoid any odd noises or signs of abuse from the transmission.  I have figured out how to adjust the brake pedal's height and the position of the throttle is adjustable, left to right, so heel and toe should not be too far into the future in this car.

Flat-out acceleration requires preparation like in my 944.  One cannot expect to just floor the gas pedal and have the car take off.  The torque is pretty good once the car sees at least 3500rpm and the engine seems to keep pulling to redline (with the appropriate soundtrack), making for a great experience. The seat of the pants feel is that the overall acceleration is slower than in my 944, but it is not bad, certainly enough power to accelerate away from trouble. The rush of the turbo's boost cannot possibly be duplicated here though, despite the 500lb weight advantage.  The 944 would probably leave this SC behind from rolling start tests or even from a dead stop, once it accelerated past about 40-50mph.

That is ok though.  I wanted to buy a 911 to experience something different.  And different it is.  It is a very involving experience. Once the car hits 55mph, wind and engine noise tell you the car is moving at 55mph. While it is not an untamed beast, the car definitely tells you what it is doing.  Due to the bad tires, I have not driven fast in the car, so I do not know what the car feels like at high speeds.  The wheels of my 944 will bolt right up to this car, so at some point I will install the Z-rated tires on the SC and go for a real drive.

As for that rear engine, residing way back in the car?  Maybe I am being very timid with the car, due to its bad tires.  It has not shown any signs of wanting to induce a spin, totally opposite to what I had expected (especially with these tires). I have been carefully experimenting with lifting off the throttle while turning and so far, the chassis dynamics have not alarmed me.  Same with applying brakes in the middle of a corner.  As I said earlier, I feel very minute amounts of body movement front to back or left to right, despite the compliant suspension.  Either I am just not provoking the car hard enough or maybe the car's tendency to spin is not nearly as bad as in earlier 911s.  Or, (I hope ;-) ) I have become a better driver and negotiate the curves well enough to help the chassis' stability in off-camber and trailing-throttle situations.

Only time will tell.  5 days later, I have still not driven any other car ever since buying this 911SC.  I am driving it to the movie theater tonight. It has been a great experience so far and it is everything I was hoping it would be when I first considered buying a 911 to play with.

Till the next time.  By then, the car should have either heat or new tires on it and hopefully my wife will have driven the car so she can add comments of her own.

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Last Updated Wed Dec 17 07:38:36 CST 2003