I jumped up and down when I saw Sam’s 911 in our driveway today @ Zen. He’d driven straight from QLD for tomorrows ALL STARS Australia Day show. After perving on it for a good bit he let me sit in it (whoo hoo!). The steering wheel is so close to the dash, which was loaded with cool analog gauges, all in German! I clutched in and surprisingly the gear throw wasn’t anywhere as vague as I thought it would be. Next I had to check out the pedal placement, and yup, it was super strange with the brake pedal being to your left, a big gap where the accelerator would be, and no deal pedal so you rest your left foot at the base of the centre console. I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the car, turns out he’d modified the door pulls so that when you pull it, the door opens. Very nice touch.
I appreciated the lines from the outside some more, all the while letting Sam know my intentions to buy one. He then asked if I’d like to take it for a spin!!! Seriously. Zi told me that one must never drive another mans 911 but how could I refuse? The driving position was spot on, the non-power steering wasn’t at all heavy and the clutch was friendly too (yet still had plenty of feel). A few corners in I’d realised how pathetically light the steering in my EVO was. Just going through a small s-bend I could feel how the would just urge you to go through corners faster and faster. I stop at the lights and look at the commodore next to me, it’s way up high in the sky which reminded me of being in my tiny, and low MX-5 a lot, expect that this car had a massive lumpy rumble coming from the rear. The girls crossing the lights gave us a nice smile too. :)
1st gear has heaps of punch. It’s actually quite violent. 2nd is much more linear though. The car feels small. You can use the drivers side frog headlamp as a gauge of where the front of the car is, vision out the rear was pretty bad though (lots of glare).
By the end of the drive I still hadn’t gotten used to the pedal placement but I’m sure it’s something I could get used to very quickly. So… I’m sold. 100% sold. Funny thing is that there’s a couple of people after my EVO, one of which just messaged an hour ago. I had all intentions to get one when I turn 40, but it might come a couple of years earlier! We’ll see.
PS: I’d totally forgotten that I had driven Howie’s 997 911 a few years back. Amazing car, so much power and response but completely disconnected in comparison to this car I drove today. I now understand why there’s so much love and respect for the classic aircooled 911’s.
