Awesome Photos Serge!! That first shot is incredible. It should be a poster. I'd hang it in my garage (only because my wife won't let me hang car pictures in the house ).

 

Thanks for the nice words guys!

This is David's car and he still had the tow hook from the previous week end @ Road A. Never had to use it though

 

This is probably getting old, but I can not resist getting pictures from DE's so you'll to suffer a few more. These are from a PCA week end at Road Atlanta a couple of weeks ago.









Red Porsche trio...



With my friend OPNielsen and his all-black 991 on my tail



Couple of pics showing off the new FVD exhaust tips (also had the X-pipe exhaust installed but will post a review later)





On my way to hydroplane and nearly hit the wall a few turns later. Lesson learned!

 

Les adventures de Serge! Very nice!!

 

The photo of the 911's in the rain is awesome!

 

^+1 yup quite a picture!

Serge, re the aquaplaning. Its just a personal impression but I feel that the 991 tends to be more prone to aquaplaning than my 997's. It may well be due to it being lighter or tire choice etc. Having said that, the 991S does tend to be more compliant to corrections under hair-raising moments.

Btw, I'm super happy that you were saved from the wall!

 

Did I miss the review?

 

Nope. Fine tuning a few things and the exhaust will be back on the car shortly. I'll post before & after pics, video's and sound recordings, I swear

 

This is not a 991 Post

There has been a lot of talk about the new Jaguar F-Type and the fact that it was targeting the 911. I was definitely looking forward to find out by myself and went to the Jaguar dealership today. Unfortunately, the only demo car they had was the V6S (380hp), not the V8S (495hp), but it was good enough to get a pretty good idea about the car.

Yes, the F-Type IS a good looking car. My only gripe is that its lines do not carry a lot of Jaguar DNA. Remove the badge, it will still look great, but you would not easily find out who makes it.







On the road, the car is pretty quick, takes off briskly thanks to its low end torque and you do not really need to chase hi rev's (F-Type comes with supercharged engines). The car is stable but seems easier to upset in a turn than a 981 or 991. It feels (and is) heavier too despite the use of a lot of aluminum. The hood is one huge piece of aluminum that goes from wheel arch to wheel arch which looks very cool when you open it...until you look at the engine compartment that is entirely covered in cheap black plastic.
The car had 15" brakes at the front that have good bite and should be able to take some abuse. The 8-speed ZF automatic gearbox is pretty quick and there is a nice little 'exhaust fart' when you upshift. Downshifting is uneventful as you do not get the nice little throttle blip that we got used to
The fit and finish is excellent but the nav/audio/video interface is too busy and looks cheap (a bit like an aftermarket unit). According to the car sticker, 53% of the parts come from Germany and 41% from the UK. With the new Jaguar ownership, I was afraid to find a lot more parts coming from low cost -and potentially lower quality- origins.

In a nutshell, the F-Type is a nice looking and very capable 'compact' muscle car. It is a great cruiser and probably an enjoyable daily driver for most people. Still, its biggest shortfall is the road feel or rather the lack thereof. To relate it to my personal experience, I did not feel more connected to the road than I was in my Audi S4. There is nothing wrong, but you just can not place the car on the road and in the turns with less than an inch accuracy like you can do with a Porsche and you never feel that you are 'one' with the car. So what you have read in reviews about the 'brute force' of the F-Type vs the surgical refinement of the 991 (and it applies to the 981 too) is correct.

Unlike what Jaguar says, it does not seem that they really had the 911 in mind when they designed the F-Type. It is a good car, but it is not a real competitor for the 911. People who buy sport-type cars for aesthetics, speed and status could cross shop between The F and a P-car. I tend to believe that the more enthusiast drivers would go for a Boxster vs a V6 and a C2S vs a V8S. Talking with the sales guys, they confirmed that the F-Type is attracting a lot of new (and younger) people to the dealership. I would personally never have been to a Jaguar dealership if it wasn't for this new car.

Nothing really new in this write up. My conclusion is that comparing the F-type to a 991 is a marketing trick. The cars have characters that are too different to be actually comparable.

One last pic: the dealership had received a V8S that was still in the showroom and looked absolutely great in polar white, with the extended red leather interior and the black forged wheels with CF inserts

 

Cool, thanks for taking the time to give us your impressions and pics!

 

Great write up Serge! Thanks for the real world, honest feedback. I was thinking of visiting my local dealer for a look too, which is odd, because like you mentioned, I have never been interested in seeing or driving a Jaguar before.

 

Long time no post

Just back from vacation... and returned the car 100% back to stock! The reason is that I am buying out my lease (should not have leased in the first place... I'd rather pay less and have 100% freedom to do what I want when I want to) and a 6 year/100.000 miles extended warranty was part of the deal, which means the car had to be certified.

Now that I have enjoyed the car in all its smoothness and comfort again (ventilated 18 way memory seats with easy access, lower cabin noise and no rattling without the rollbar, etc.), I am asking myself what I want to put back on the car I am 99% sure I'll reinstall the 15" BBK and I still have a FVD valved X-pipe exhaust to install. Headers? Hmmm, I'll first check how loud the exhaust is.

My big dilemma is about the cabin: the rollbar, 6 point harness and bucket seats are a lot more safe on the track BUT daily driving comfort, usage of the rear seats and functioning side airbags in the stock seats is also tempting.
I found a neck and head restraint that does not require a full 6 point harness (the R3) and this may be a solution to stay safe on the track without all the cabin mods.



First world problems, I know. I am not back on the track for another month, so I'll have time to figure it out.
Talking about safety and accidents, here is a saddening picture of a 3 month old 991 convertible caught in a chain collision I saw at the dealership today:



The driver is fine but the car is seriously damaged. Putting it back on the street would cost at least $50k (even the engine got damaged). I am pretty sure the owner would like to see it totaled, but this is going to be the insurance's call

 

Good question. I swap the seats back and forth before/after track days ... takes about 2 hours or so, not too bad. When you add the time to also swap brake pads, it does become quite a project everytime to get the car track ready....

BTW - got the 15" BBK front and rear ... on the track with Pagid RS29 pads the BBK's are just fantastic....quite unbelievable. On the road, I'm using the Ferodo pads that came with the BBK, but thus far I really don't like them. Sometimes they have initial bite, sometimes not. Takes quite a lot of pedal pressure to brake hard ... only got 300 street miles on the Ferodo's, so maybe a bit more bedding in will help....

Here's a vid from a recent track day at Road America

 

Very interesting Tom! You swap the seats (which I used to do too), but I guess it means you have a rollbar permanently installed in the car? Or have you found another solution?

On the Brembo BBK, don't you have bedding issues when you swap the RS29's and the Ferodo's? I have been advised against swapping brake pads... not sure what the right answer is. I am tempted by RS29 too. As far as Brembo pads are concerned, go for the HP2000 pads, the Ferodo F1000 are cr@p.

Serge

 

I use the RS29s with the stock set up, and they are amazing out on track. Highly rec. them.

As long as you can scrub the material, you should have no issues with swapping pads IMO.