you were correct

The 2002 Turbo Service Information, Page 5-4, section "Bodyshell 911 Turbo/911 GT2" states:

"Extensive reinforcement measures in sill, roof frame and seat pan area increase the flectional and torsional strength by a further 25%".

Then it goes on to list what else changed...

I guess I'm wrong once per year and this is it

Roy

ps. I asked a buddy in service operations at Porsche to fax me the relevant pages of the Product Information and Service Information...

 

And it's only January!

Thanks for digging that up in the book.

 

Here is the text from a 2001 model year press release -

"With the special design of all load-bearing structures and the use of special, high-strength metal panels, Porsche’s engineers have made the bodyshell even stronger and more stable than ever before. Torsional and flexural stiffness, for example, are approximately 50 per cent better"

Here is the text from a 2002 model year press release -

"reinforcements on the side-sills, around the roof frame and seat floor panels serve to further enhance the active safety of the car. In all, these improvements improve flexural and torsional stability by another 25 per cent on the Carrera coupés and by 10 per cent on the cabriolet models"

So the pre-2001 Carrera's were 75% less rigid than 2002?? (50% from 2001 + 25% from 2002 improvements) - hard to believe.

Bond

 

that math is not correct. if 2002 stiffness was increased by 25% thenn 2001 is 80% as stiff (80*1.25=100).

Are you saying that 2001 was a 50% increase over 2000? That would make 2000 about 65% as stiff as 2001 and about 50% as stiff as 2002. You can't just subtract the percentages.

Either way, "stiffness" is a very loaded word and who knows what specific set of data they are actually talking about. Odds are that while it seems like a big change, the actual data is not all that important and the change in driving experience is fairly negligable.

 

I call BS

 

Yes, you caught me on my "quick and dirty" math for the sake of the post - I guess my point was whether there were actual improvements back-to-back for model years 2001, then 2002........

Bond

 

Bond

Here's my take. I think the Porsche press release refers to the initial work done in developing the 996. Here's another Porsche quote...

There's the "50%" they are referring to in the 2001 release.

The 2002 is 25% stiffer than previous 996's, after the 996 was initally 50% stiffer than the 993.

 

Thanks Dock - your last post put it all in prospective. offroadr35 had a good point also - what are the data points?, and how does this translate into a better car?.

It would seem that, since the 996 was designed by computer to optimize the strength vs. weight, it would have been difficult to go back into the design (in 2002) and add a few pcs of sheet metal here and there to gain another 25% - did the computer analysis miss something the first time around?

Also, is there any reason to believe that the TT was stiffer all along since this was the first year of the 996 wide body, and why have a one year only set of sheet metal dies (for 2001 wide body) only to revise for 2002 + years? - UNLESS the wide body and standard is virtually identical (are the frame rails and suspension mounting points the same for both wide and standard).

By the way, did anyone ever determine why the 2001 TT was preferred by some of the experts in the Excellance article (Dock, was this your original post?)

Bond

 

Nope, I just opined that they chose the '01 because thay liked cars that were less stiff . That's what regenerated the discussion again with Roy.