Basemodel Bliss: Canyon Carving With A 991 Carrera 7 Speed Manual

"Andrew T. Maness" (theroadlessdriven) 04/28/2015 at 12:00 • Filed to: Porsche, 911, Save The Manuals, Andrew Maness, The Road Less Driven, POV Drive, Drive Tastefully

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Every time I jump in the drivers seat of my buddy’s 991 911 Carrera I’m a bit giddy. The first time it was just sheer excitement, I’d never driven a 911 before and I was beyond ecstatic that my first experience with the car was going to be in a new one with a manual transmission.

The next couple of times were just as exciting as that first drive but eventually the outright joy of piloting the rear engined legend subsided and I found myself connecting with the car on more of a real level. It’s like if you met your favorite celebrity, had a wild night partying but then hung out a couple more times and end up joining the same book club. Underneath all that bravado lies a regular old human being and the same goes for the 911.

It’s just a car (albeit a very good one) and once I’d moved past the holy crap 911! phase and was in the lets do work mindset, I found myself enjoying the 911 in a whole new and perhaps more profound way. I’m now able to focus on everything the car is telling me and that’s good because there is oh so much information coming in through the steering wheel, the throttle and the seat.

At this point I feel like I’ve taken the car to its limit on public roads, at least as far as one can without closing them down to allow for a bit of sideways corner action. Maybe I could squeeze a few more miles per hour out of it here and there but then I’d be letting the car control me instead of me controlling the car and that’s just reckless amateur bullshit. The only place where you should ever let a car urge you to push harder is at the track, keep that in mind as you watch.

Quick note so ya’ll don’t feel like you’re loosing your mind. The lovely soundtrack provided by the sport exhaust is not the original audio from the canyon run. That audio was garbage so I recorded another section of road and dropped that in as the backing track. For that reason there will be times when what you hear doesn’t match what you see. I’m sorry about that but I thought the sport exhaust symphony was more important than continuity.

Cheers!

Andrew Maness writes about cars because he has one and also has a computer. He’s been known to drunkenly tweet as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and upload photos to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He also has a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and thinks talking about himself in the 3rd person is really weird but knows it’s necessary if he wants to be taken seriously as an automotive journalist.

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E92M3 > Andrew T. Maness 04/28/2015 at 12:26

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I remember my first time. It was a 997 S. My buddy let me drive it to the track because he needed to work on the way. It was better than I ever expected. I always thought they were overhyped. Once we got to the track he let me run one of his sessions. That’s where the car blew me away. The brakes, the handling. It could brake and corner twice what my S2000 could. It all made sense, i could justify the price after that.

Andrew T. Maness > E92M3 04/28/2015 at 12:33

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Yeah, the first time I just kept laughing and thinking “THE HYPE IS REAL, THE HYPE IS REAL!”

Kinda ruins all other cars and as I cannot currently afford one, that’s a bit soul crushing haha.

CBRacerX > Andrew T. Maness 04/28/2015 at 15:22

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I would encourage you to seek out a friendly 996/997/991 Turbo owner next, and failing that a 997/991 Carrera S owner. Everything you liked about the base model will get even better...

B_dol > Andrew T. Maness 04/28/2015 at 20:06

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I agree fully. I found out just how magical the 911 is this summer after lusting for years... It’s my next car in fall of 2016.

Long Live the Longdoor > Andrew T. Maness 04/28/2015 at 22:43

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...for Porsche’s flat 6 engines. They sound the best!