If they have made the car longer, without moving the engine forward, won't that be bad for handling?

 

That depends what you mean by handling. At a certain "sweet spot," the 911 exhibits both the stability of a longer wheelbase (high speed handling, you might say) and yet the agility to change direction and respond with minimal delay to steering and throttle inputs at variable rear wheel slip angles -- if you think of handling in terms of getting around a race track, a longer wheelbase becomes a liability because the race is won in the turns, a too-short wheelbase becomes a liability because the car is not stable in the turns or on the straights.

In the early 911 SWB cars (short wheelbase) the handling was notoriously flighty and nervous in the turns. After '69, the longer stance of the 911 had found that sweet spot -- the famous "giant killer" was born. In my humble, it would be another two decades and the type 993 before the 911 would resolve numerous pluses and minuses in its evolution to reach a new sweet spot. Now, the 997.2 GT3 RS 4.0 has found the most recent combination of variables to achieve a new sweet spot -- front and rear track width, wheelbase, overhangs -- all factors finally coming together to deliver astonishing handling. And interesting to note: two decades after the 993. Will we have another two decades to wait for the next one?

 

Not necessarily because the 991 seems to have become wider, which will compensate for it getting longer. Therefore, the engine weight would still be balanced with the rest of the car.

 

I agree with all that and would add another factor. The flow of air across and under automotive bodies was always hard to foresee. Designers operated more from experience of past successes and intuition than knowledge of this causes that. Turning always involves airflow that is not directly in line with the body form, and of course any crosswind has the same geometric effect as does rotating the body.

The early designs suffered badly from lift increasing in front but not so much in the back whenever the effective angle of the wind was at certain positions off centerline. It is nearly impossible to create a body form that has downforce in a design that is practical for entering driveways and such, but at least designers today can reduce the lift, which is really what they accomplish with wings in back and flow control devices in the front. Racecars do generate positive downforce of course. Either way, when you add aerodynamic forces to the body structure you change the ride characteristics. If you have a suspension that changes camber or toe-in or what have you when the body rises or when it descends, then the driver will encounter effects with no apparent cause. That's certainly one aspect of what I consider bad handling.

All that is something we can do a better job of predicting today with full-scale wind tunnels available and with serious compute power to massage the data we generate in such tests. I doubt it will take twenty years to find another sweet spot of all those factors.

Gary

 

Do not worry about that part. Porsche is specialist on that.

I heard that the 991 has a completely new chassis that gives it the ability to achieve incredible levels of performance. So much in fact that the 991 C2S is around as fast around the Nordschleife as the 997 GT3 is!!! The C2S will also achieve a 0-60 time in under 4 seconds with the help of Sport Chrono and PDK

 

I really hope this is the case. It would make waiting so rewarding. Delayed gratification is so hard to subscribe to when it comes to 911 shopping and when you are driving around in a camry. It is much easier said than done.

 

i still say that if they can at least stretch the interior of the cab enought to allow for the removal of that negative angle of the rear seat backs - the 991 cab's will be killers!!

 

The extra length isn't so bad particularly if it is there so they can stick a KERS between the motor and gearbox.

 

Render

 

wow - great pic's of what it will likely be.

 

I don't have the time to dig through all the threads, but has there been any talk of how balanced this car is relative to the 997? If it is longer, then I would think that the engine is a little more balanced toward the front than the 997. Just wondering.

 

The KERS, being mounted between the motor and gearbox, would move the weight forward a bit. We shall see if this is true. At one time Porsche conquered the world with turbo boost, now it is with electric boost. That is poetic!

 

When can we expect the 991 to debut? If it's going to come out as a 2012 model I would expect a debut sometime early in the fall? Any word?

 

All I know is that I really want to see this in person. I am soooo close to putting my Z06 back on the market and this would be great to fill the parking space in the garage. I love my Corvette, but I have always dreamed about a 911.

 

Well put sir.