Test Drive

At lunchtime my wife, Jen, and I went back to Porsche of the Main Line to make a final decision on the color. Being mid-day and very sunny this would be the best time to see the colors in all their glory. The Macadamia Metallic Cabriolet had been pulled out of the showroom and parked out front; it stands out even looking across a parking lot full of Porsches. Our salesman, Randal, pulls around a Meteor Grey car and parks next to the Macadamia for comparison. The 911 exhaust note sounds fantastic while he backs it up next to the other car. The Meteor Grey is nice and stands on its own, but in comparison to the Macadamia it seems dull and I worry about it just blending in with traffic. OK final decision, Macadamia Metallic w/ Sand Beige interior it is.

I ask about a taking the gray Carrera out on a test drive, as it's very close to the car I'll be getting, just a year older - it's a 2008 Carrera S coupe. They allow Jen and I to take it out for a spin around the loop. It's already running so after Randal grabs a copy of my license and the dealer tag I climb in and start adjusting the seat and mirrors. Even just pulling through the parking lot I can tell this car is very nice to drive; with decent power at lower RPM and a shorter first gear than my 944 Turbo it's more drivable at these speeds.

The drive is short but impressive. While mid-day traffic the day before the Fourth of July was light, I still managed to get stuck behind somebody driving under the speed limit. Oh well, no worries, I row through the gears up and down enjoying the light flywheel and fast engine response as I blip the throttle on downshifts. The exhaust sounds as good or better on the inside of the car as it does on the outside, and I this isn't even the sport exhaust. The ride is smooth as can be for a PA road - then I found the sport suspension button and pressed it - then I felt the usual rough ride I have come to expect in PA. Another press of the button and it felt like I teleported to a Maryland road. Neat. This car drives nice, everywhere, at any speed in any gear.

The only thing that was slightly disappointing was the one or two times I really got into the power band it didn't feel that much, if any, stronger than my Turbo. Of course this is a seat of the pants impression so I could be way off. There are a number of other factors that could have influenced this impression - for one it was a hot day and my Turbo would have been down on power significantly on the same day, plus the turbo surges hard in the mid-range RPMs after having no power down low, so the jump feels like a lot - where the Carrera's torque curve is much smoother through the RPM range. Finally, the 2009 Carrera has 30 more HP and 15 more foot-pounds of torque than the one I was driving.

We pull back in to the dealer and begin discussing the next steps with Randal. He shows us the dealer's allocation schedule and I decide to go ahead and lock up one of the very few open slots with a deposit. Now I just need to finalize my option configuration to lock in the order. I hope to run through the options one last time this weekend and check with the Porsche specialty shop I use, Dougherty Automotive, to see if there is anything else I should get with the order early next week. The only other thing I want to do is to contact Vu Nguyen at PCA again just to confirm the timeline and what needs to be done with paperwork. Otherwise hopefully I'll be confirming / finalizing the order by the end of next week.