I posted the review below on another site, and a slightly different one here on the 997 board: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...t-weekend.html
Thanks to Manifold for getting the ball rolling here.
I absolutely don't want to engage in a "Which is the real 911?" debate. The 997 and 991 are both great. Different in important ways.
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My drive in the new 991 this weekend (02/04/12) consisted of 1/2 hr, unsupervised (except for my wife). In Sport mode the whole time. No freeway driving. No track. I'd characterize it as moderately aggressive.
The roads were dry. Some were a bit dirty with the sort of winter grit typical in the north-central US. Lots of twists.
No speed above 80, and nothing stupid - almost no traffic.
The car was a black 991S with PSE and 20" standard-issue rubber. Edit - Apparently these were winter tires. Well-appointed, not loaded.
Many thanks to Eddie, both for the courtesy and hospitality at the dealership.
Full disclosure:
I've driven sports cars for almost 40 years. Some light amateur competition driving quite a few years ago. I'm no pro.
Our current '09 997.2 PDK is my only long-term Porsche frame of reference.

Cliff's Notes version: The 991 really is a new generation of Porsche. Comparisons to the 997s are inevitable, but in a way futile. It's just a different vehicle. Bigger, wider, more modern, more gadget-y. Different.
That said......holy cats.....there is just no denying it's a terrific car. The 991 has a fluidity that the 997 doesn't. No doubt the wider track helps a lot. It is solid. Not rock-hard solid, but almost electromagnet-smooth-solid. The PDK produces lightning shifts. There is a nice broad power curve. Tremendous, almost linear acceleration. Stunningly on-track in the curves, even through the road grit. Just unreal there! Yet at the same time, it is very comfortable behind the wheel. Silky? Maybe. Almost too easy to drive.
It's just a hell of an achievement IMHO. It's a hell of a car.
What's upgraded from the (immensely satisfying) 997.2? Well, in terms of overall performance - just about everything. Honestly, after taking a good long look around the body and the interior, I did not want to like driving it anywhere near as much as I did.
SO, every self-respecting 997 owner will be waiting in line at the sales desk by later this week? Probably not.
The 991 is just a very different car. And the overall 'feel' of this model, if not its actual 'character' is.....different. I think the 997 is a sports car first. The 991 is a grande touring car first.

Visuals: Porsche designers have done a great job disguising how big the car is. Not an easy chore. The 20" tyres look less like buggy wheels than I expected. The longer nose helps balance the car visually. The 10 o'clock / 2 o'clock vantage points are actually quite nice. The car looks good from there. The rear is less ugly than expected. Still, not exactly what you'd want to say about your prom date is it?
Inside, everyone knows the Panamera console module is largely cut and pasted there. Truth be told, its very functional and very convenient. So why did I hate it? Because it really heightens that isolated / sedan / game console feel in the car. And there's plenty of that already inside. It's missing only a cappuccino-maker and some swanky remote control drapes.
The windscreen is huge. God help you if you ever need to replace that thing. That take a few minutes to get used to. The door cards are a bit of a c*ck-up. I do like the video display which can be transferred to the dash, immediately to the right of the tach. And the electric seat bolster extension is (sorry to admit it) great. Direct rear visibility is surprisingly hampered by the aft glass slope angle though.
BUT - the real overall change here is to that of a bigger car. More volume. More shoulder room. More elbow room. It sounds bigger. No joke. Close the doors and listen. Every sensory input tells you you are in a bigger machine. And yes, there's something disconnecting about that.

On the road: Put aside the impression of 'bigger' for just a moment. I think the car is very very good. The sense of fluidity that the 997 just began to develop is polished near to perfection here. The 991 is bit like the Cayenne, sometimes you can't believe what it's doing. And it seems to accomplish things naturally. Keep the revs in any part of the power curve, and the PDK won't let up. No hesitation / instant shifts. Your whole body stays pressed back in the seat. The car tracks perfectly. The 20" tyres seem just a bit heavier through the steering wheel. But whatever it may have given up in 'nimble' it more than made up for in 'planted'. Body roll is so subtle and so smooth, it almost feels like flat corners have a bit of bank. On most pavement it's a bit silky, providing enough input via the steering, but shaving off the annoying bits. Nowhere is this more apparent than in lumpy / juddering pavement corners. The car seem to have the annoying sharp part of the input damped a bit, just enough. Side-to-side, it's crisp but very controlled, almost forgiving. I really disagree with a few who have commented that they felt the 991 was stiffer than the 997.
The PSE sound is fun. Very. A bit like a video game - fun for a while. Great to show friends. Ultimately distracting.
Overall there is plenty of feedback, but....it's different. It's more restrained. Not uncommunicative, not softer, just a bit more 'friendly' and maybe a bit more 'refined'. Little doubt that supermodels will prefer the 991 to the 997. It's less likely to harsh your mellow.

Conclusion: What the 991 has, I think, is fluidity. It is quite remarkable that way. It is very modern. It's more of a sensitive, new-age thing. When it kicks you - which it is perfectly capable of doing - it will kick you in the seat of the pants. Rarely it seems, will it wind up and kick you in the crotch....at least not on purpose.

So if somebody offered us a very good deal to trade up, would I?
No, I really don't think so. Not now. I like the (relative) compactness of the 997 - there is a greater sense of agility. The 997 is a more sensory-acute experience. For me, the fun factor is of the 991 is clearly there. But I think that the 'friendly' part would eventually prove seductive. It would ease me into a more complacent, a less focused, driving experience. And that's not what I want. At least not yet. And maybe not for a while.

Like the 993, I think the 997.2 may be the last of an era. From here on in I think the base 911 models will be Grand Touring cars first.

I suppose that the 993 guys felt similarly when the 996 was introduced. "It's too comfy." "It's less likely to bite your head off."
Such is modernity.

 

Great review and writeup. Thanks for sharing.

 

Nice. Thorough. Concise.

 

Thanks for the write up. Did the car have PDCC?

 

Tom what an amazing review, so elequintly put together. Wonderful for sharing. I am looking forward to testing this myself sometime this week!

 

Yes, a much more perceptive and thorough review than what I've seen from the 'professional' reviewers. Articulates well both what I like and don't like about the 991. A great illustration of why these online forums can be a valuable resource.

 

Great review - some good points nobody has discussed.

My only beef with your argument is that you keep saying "bigger". As someone who has driven the the car I didn't feel it at all. I do feel the added performance in the wider front track - it's a different sensation - and the wheels have been moved to the corners of the car. But I actually thought it felt identical in size to the 997 when parking, standing next to, sitting in, cramming into the back seats, etc. I might go as far as to saying I felt even more encapsulated in the (edit) 991.

Are you sure it wasn't an illusion of road feel and larger windscreen? The sub 2" length addition is mostly bumper filling per porsche.

I think your fluidity comments are dead on. Glad Porsche engineers were able to get rid of the "little red wagon" feel of the 997.

 

My guess is that the longer wheelbase is the main reason it feels bigger (and heavier), with the wider front track being an additional factor. Agreed that it's not that much bigger externally or in the interior.

 

Hey Eric and Manifold -

Thanks. You guys make a fair point about 'bigger' comments. They weren't as precise as should be.

There were two issues for me, the wheelbase / track of the car, and the 'feel' both inside and out. I agree that the car does not, at least at first glance, look a lot bigger. Somewhat, not a lot. I think the lower stance helps with that.

But the overall length is up, what(?) 2+", the wheelbase is up 4" and the front track 2 or so inches wider. The business part of the car occupies more real estate. That was my primary point. My impression (which could have been distorted by the all black car) was that it looked more massive.

As for the interior: Eric, I absolutely agree about feeling encapsulated, but not in a positive sense. I thought there was a lot of furniture was in my way.
The word I'd use to describe my sense of the interior is more "massive". The whole sense of everything there (again to me), from the amount of shoulder / elbow room, to that bloody awful console, to the amount of passenger volume behind me, was a sense of a more volume. It just felt more commodious than the 997, with more 'stuff' in it as well.

I have no clue what the actual interior volume of the two models compares. It could be that the actual volume in 991 is down due to the lower stance and the furniture. I was really talking, and not too precisely, about the impression of aggregate space.

Thanks again.
Oh and the 'little red wagon' was very funny. I loved it.

 

great review....any chance it had bose? what did you think of it?

 

Excellent write up and delivery of your impressions. No test drive planned in the immediate future on my part -I will quite certainly test one and eventually buy one before long. It is great however to see what others think and your delivery was succinct and nice to read...dare I say "fluid"?

 

I'm not sure - had everything switched off so I could pay closer attention.
Sorry I couldn't help with that one.

 

I don't see the problem with the 991 being more GT, and a luxury car first and sports car second. For those looking for the hardcore sports car experience, don't they have the GT3 and similar variants out there with manual trannys?


ps.bigger is better coz the 997 looked too small compared to its competitors and Porsche realized that.

 

geez, itīs a luxurious sportscar and NOT a sporty GT!
No Granturismo is able to run the Ring in the low 7.40s.

 

Quite true, I misworded my statement a bit