The 911SC Chronicles, Part VI: Highway T
One of the finer aspects of living on the western side of St. Louis is
the easy access to fun, twisty country roads. Highway T, right
off of Highway 100 in Wildwood, MO is a good example. The kind of
road that is meant to be driven in a Porsche. Not too long ago, I
had some free time on a Sunday morning, so I decided to drive to
Labadie, MO for an ice tea. A friend would join in the ride on
his BMW R1200 motorcycle.
In preparation, I bolted up the MOMO rims with the Dunlop performance
tires on the 911 and went out for the drive. The car really came
alive on this road. The chassis felt very stable on the road,
inspiring me with confidence. No tail happiness, no nervousness
on off-camber corners. I am very pleased with the
performance. I had never driven a twisty road with this car so I
was concerned about the effects of trailing throttle oversteer.
Based on this ride, either I am an extremely smooth driver or the
rumours of trailing throttle oversteer are grossly exagerated.
Perhaps the tail will indeed "step out" if I were to totally lift off
the throttle in the middle of a corner with the engine at 6000rpm, but
I am not sure why a good driver would do that, unless they wanted to
play "toss and catch".
Another revelation from this ride were the similarities that emerged
between this car and my 951. Granted, the power delivery and
handling of the cars is very different, but both share one major
characteristic: they both drive like a Porsche. When driving the
car on a straight line down the highway, it is hard for the driver to
percieve this common thread, but once on the country road, all the
components fell into a wonderful synergy, defining a driving feel that
could not be mistaken for anything but that of a Porsche. To say
that I am happy to have a chance to drive around in this car would be
an understatement.
I hope you are enjoying these reports. Soon, the SC will get the
full H4 headlight treatment and it will lead a PCA driving tour to the
wine country (on twisty roads, of course).
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Last Updated Thu May 6 17:42:49 CDT 2004