Pelican Parts Forums - Show me you’re car comparing to others.

Quote:

Originally posted by svandamme
LOL 0.3 seconds later you can see the rear fender off the 911 and the i Modena is already out of the picture , heading for the pits for maintenance

Perhaps...but who is having more FUN? I submit this...written and sent to me by a dear friend for your consideration:

" 356 No. 3 0104

So -- I ask again, why would anyone keep an ole 356 Porschesaurses around.

A few years back, I was buzzing around PIR (Portland International Raceway) in the 356 playing Walter Mitty, making noise, and enjoying a rare Oregon blue-sky day. A fellow PCA member with a new Tiptronic, ABS, and wizbang equipped C-4 asked me to show him the line around the track. Having never been in one, I hopped behind the wheel with relish.

The 964 rocketing down the dragstrip and under the bridge. Gears automatically selected at optional RPM by simply slapping the lever back a few times. We blasted into turn one (hard right) at warp speed, gave the lever 4 or 5 forward slaps, stabbed the brakes, and cranked the power assisted wheel.

The ABS switched braking corner to corner as the C-4 unloaded the right rear, the Tiptronic downshifted itself into the proper gear, and when the gas was stabbed at the late apex -- the 4 wheel drive shifted power back and forth between the steam roller gumballs exerting maximum traction and blasting down the short chute into turn 2.

Effortlessly we hosed 2, popped the shifter a few times screaming toward 3 -- and on around the track. I had just driven PIR in a Porsche I had never been in, faster than I had ever been around PIR -- and as smooth as a George Benson riff.

A far cry from my 356. The technological marvel I had just unbuckled from was truly amazing....and I had not driven it within 40% of its potential!
But something-- something important -- seemed missing.

Yet Porsche AG just keeps making them better-- When not designing trucks, Porsche used the ensuing decade to turn that state-of-the art C-4 into a 10 year old used car.

Visualize this--- I bring the 356 through turn 10 and cross the PIR drag lights at its maximum speed of 113 mph. Launching from the traps is a 2004 Carrera GT. Exactly 7.6 seconds later, the Carrera GT coming off a dead stop, will blow past the 356 like a roadside beer can. After nipping the 356 in the quarter mile, the carbon-fiber wonder will disappear under the bridge, and have time to accelerate to 200 mph before turn 1 breaking. That will the last the little coupe will see the GT until a rear view mirror appearance early in the second lap.

With all of this, what could possibly be missing?

Perhaps its simply visceral like the machine I'm composing on. This IBM rip-off is near perfect. Corrects spelling, grammar, finds words, moves thoughts, changes font, then saves, sends, and prints the results with no real effort. A technological achievement with which my Big Chief Tablet and #2 Ticonderoga pencil cannot compete.

Yet with all the perfection, I ask myself, .......would I rather get a dancing interactive audio-enhanced electronic e-mail from Dawn, or hand-written "I Love You" penciled on the back of a used envelope?

No question..... technology be damned!

Perhaps what's missing with the Teutonic state of the art marvels are the tooth marks and worn down eraser of that old pencil. Perhaps its just my interaction with hi-tech.

Come into the corner to hot in the 356,-- Blipping the throttle trying to find second gear, braking to hard and to late, tires shrieking, rear coming around, dragon teeth looming.....

A maximum adrenalin rush as the 356 claws itself out of a butt gripping dirt track slide with a high exhaust wail....... at 50% the speed, 40% the brakes, 20% the horsepower, and 0% the assists.

Its just a different experience. Not better... not worse.... just different.

To quote Mike Robbins who has driven a 356 on the far side of 800,000 miles.... "Its just more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a fast car slow." "