Just bought 987 - How can it be driven?

Car is a 2005 2.7 [245bhp] 987 Tiptronic. Owned for 1 week and loving every minute of driving it.

Bit if a stupid question, but I've never owned a sports car before. Just wanted to know what is possible without killing the car.

Is it safe to ever red line it? What revs should I change gear?
Car has 19" wheels with 265/35 x 19 tyres, does this affect stability/performance? I've not plucked up enough courage to switch off the PSM yet.

Car has a small puff of white smoke on start up. Also a little bit of smoke when I stop if I've just driven it hard on country lanes, but smokes goes away. Is this anything to worry about?

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Regards
Bob

BobBooker said:

Car is a 2005 2.7 [245bhp] 987 Tiptronic. Owned for 1 week and loving every minute of driving it.

Bit if a stupid question, but I've never owned a sports car before. Just wanted to know what is possible without killing the car.

Is it safe to ever red line it? What revs should I change gear?
Car has 19" wheels with 265/35 x 19 tyres, does this affect stability/performance? I've not plucked up enough courage to switch off the PSM yet.

Car has a small puff of white smoke on start up. Also a little bit of smoke when I stop if I've just driven it hard on country lanes, but smokes goes away. Is this anything to worry about?

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Regards
Bob

Click to expand...

You can take the car to red line, there is a rev limiter to prevent you from damaging the motor. However if you downshift inappropriately the rev limiter will not protect you in that circumstance. More significantly if you do damage your car while downshifting the "incident" will have been logged by the onboard "black box" as a stage 2 over rev. Porsche considers this type of incident very serious. Porsche will utilize that type of over rev to deny warranty repairs.

The wheels and tyres you have do affect stability and performance. Most likely your car is equipped with one of 2 types of tires, Michelin PS2's or Continental SportConti's. Both are agressive tires designed for maximum performance. Unless your at the track, keep the PSM switched on. It's a good safety net, keeping in mind physics still do apply.

The puff of white smoke is normal at start up with flat 6 engines, don't worry about it.

Finally in terms of how to drive it...DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!!!!!!!! This car can take more that what most anyone can throw at it. Have fun and welcome aboard. Oh and where are the pics of this new ride.

Paralizer said:

Oh and where are the pics of this new ride.

Click to expand...

i would have been disappointed if this hadn't appeared.......

Welcome aboard!

Enjoy the ride! Especially those twisties. Like Paralizer said, "drive it like you stole it".

One more thing ........... all noobies must do too. (Baxter forgot )
Put your location and car image on Babblers map: Googlemap

Yours truly
The Welcome Aboard Boxster Committee

actually with the tiptronic, the computer will not do a down shift until the car has reached the appropriate RPM, so you really can't over rev a Boxster with a Tip
so even if you have the car in manual mode and call for a down shift with the steering wheel buttons. The car will not down shift until the computer senses proper RPMs will be maintained.

and the same program upshifts the transmission at red line regardless if the car is in complete automatic mode or manual mode.

Whoops, my bad. I didn't notice the car in question was a tip. Just kinda went with the assumption it was a manual. Guess a tip does kind of eliminate that over rev issue.

Pics

Thanks for the great replies. Attached are a few pics of my new ride.
These were the ones taken by the dealer, a bit better than I could manage.
It was the wheels that first attracted me to this one.

I find myself getting up earlier now and inventing places that I need to go.

Thanks again
Bob

BobBooker very nice car but unfortunately I see you have a major problem with the car that needs to be addressed. You'll need to take it back and have them put the steering wheel on the correct side of the car. Steering wheels are supposed to be mounted on the left side of the car, not the right.

Bob,

Taking it to the red line is OK, just make sure it is completely warmed up first. The car has a rev limiter to keep you from over-reving and damaging the engine. BUT... beware - be careful how many times you let the car hit it, because the ECU logs that info, and Porsche likes to use it as an "out" and deny certain warranty repairs based on it should somethingmajor happen in the engine.

The puff of smoke at startup is a flat 6 trait, and is normal as long as it is short lived and only on startup after a day or so of sitting. If it continues for much more than 30 seconds, or continues as you drive away, you may have another problem and should have it checked.

The car can almost assuredly handle a lot more than you will be inclined to "let it out" for now, or are capable of driving it currently. Search this board for "DE events" and read up. These are great opportunities to learn how to drive a Porsche harder but safer at the same time. Even a Porsche can't ignore the laws of physics, but the PSM will let you know your pushing the edge and keep you out of trouble for the most part - unless your really over cooking it. The fact is, you will probably use up your supply of intestinal fortitude long before the car loses it's supply of grip - for now anyway.

Enjoy the car - you will appreciate your choice every time you climb behind the wheel of it.......it never gets old......

Master of Zin-Zan

Back in the day when I ran Italian motorcycles (Ducati and LaVerda) there was a phrase we used for going out and taking curves up in the Asiago and Monte Berici mountainous areas: Zin-Zan (try and use a Francais pronunciation for effect). That's precisely what the Boxster is, a pure Master of Zin-Zan.
It's what keeps me jumping into the cockpit everytime the road is dry (when it's not, I go old foggie with my AW Volvo).
I love the Boxster's TIP as I can pop it into manual for our "Snake" road we have here, and let that puppy whine up into the revs.
'Course now that Paralizer has informed me there's a "Black Box" I'm wondering if in fact the TIP in manual will keep me honest - I know it'll downshift for me without my actually paddling down...but it appears to stay up in the uh-oh zone when I'm powering through twisties.
I now have 21K kilometers (12k+ miles) on my 5-month old 987, and a fair chunk of that is backroad - yes, I drive ALOT.
Anyway, indeed, as Paralizer so perfectly put it: drive the sucker like you stole it - veritably!
Congratulations, Bob. Enjoy EVERY second of it!

dedes said:

Enjoy the ride! Especially those twisties. Like Paralizer said, "drive it like you stole it".

One more thing ........... all noobies must do too. (Baxter forgot )
Put your location and car image on Babblers map: Googlemap

Yours truly
The Welcome Aboard Boxster Committee

Click to expand...

I hadn't done that either....just added myself to the map as well.

yap...drive it like you stole it eventhough it's a tip...mine is a tip too and AX time...hellooo thumb shifter

after years of playing Gran Turismo and Forza..the thumb plays really well during AX and I love it....

Left thumb: Downshift b4 the turns
Right Thumb: Upshift (don't really use it coz' it goes by itself just b4 hitting redline)

wow....
Gerry's back, long time to hear from you!!