Grip

Here was the first major surprise. I took the car onto my favourite bit of twisty wide road. Here the 968 gets into great long balanced slides at about 90 mph. In the 911, I'm starting to lose my bottle at about 85. The front seems to turn in a little more than it ought to, but the back sends scary "about to go in a big way" signals. We seems to be going quicker in the 911, because the ride is bouncier and less stable than the big fat sliding 968. But the Boxster is different to both. It turns in quickly and seems to load up evenly on both axles. It feels like you're cornering really quickly at about 85. Go up to 90, it still grips, but I detect that the steering is reaching that point where more input does not equal more cornering. But still no slide. So I go round again, still at a very fast feeling 90, and I heave at the wheel at the apex to force some scrubbing understeer. But the car just turned in! "**** ME!" yelled my passenger. I thought the same, but tried to look cool. That feeling of the steering telling you the car was about to understeer was a blatant lie. We gave up at this point and went home in awe.

I tried a few low speed roundabouts to get some typical understeer or some power-out oversteer and failed miserably. Tail between my legs, I went home. I will try again soon, but the conclusion is that there is plenty of grip for road use.

In mid February I'd just got the car back from a 2 week stint in the dealer (waiting for parts to fix an oil leak) and I needed some re-acquaintance. So I went into the mountains of North Wales along a route I regularly do on my bike - see the slideability section for details...

Coming out of junctions in the wet gives a good impression of what the car's capable of (and makes a mockery of 4wd). There is a surprising amount of grip available, and when the rear does break away it's huge fun holding it in the slide. No nasty snatching or twitchy behaviour, so smiles all round.

At the Nurburgring, I drove alongside some interesting machinery, all of us on the limit (and some a little beyond). At first the grip levels feel so high that you are throwing the car around a little to get it to start sliding. Once big four wheel drifts are mastered, you can concentrate on smoothing out and going faster. It really is very easy indeed and even when you overcook it, the car slides and subsequently slows in an "OK, I'll take over here and sort you out" kind of way. Driver skill unfortunately was a bigger factor when it came to making comparisons on the circuit. I made two 993s look very foolish, but was struggling to keep up with a large Mercedes with three people in it. On the road, you are not going to have a problem. Posers will never know what this car is capable of. And they'll probably specify traction control...

The 996 feels slightly different. Overall the ride is a touch more supple (a little less bouncy). At low speed there is less grip from the front, causing interesting understeer at junctions and roundabouts. The rear end's not going anywhere. As your speed increases and you feed the car into corners, there is a huge amount of grip available. It all feels quite different to the Boxster (see steering) with the rear not moving ("planted" is the over-used expression I think) and all the action happening at the front end, but the quantity of grip is enormous. I'd like to have a go at the track to see how easily its fat bottom would change directions, but on the road I lost my bottle before it lost traction.

Caution: beware of lack of supply of tyres. I waited 6 weeks for my Pilots...

For those who have lost their copies of Christophorus and whose dealers didn't know there was such a thing as a winter tyre, here's a table of all the tyres you're allowed to use on your Boxster (summer tyres are in red, winter tyres are in blue):

* If you use a 225/45/17 rear tyre size, then you can fit either a Pirelli Winter 210 Asimmetrico's or a Dunlop SP Winter Sport M2.

If someone would definitively tell me the difference between the "N" ratings, then I'll put it here!

Porsche are pretty twitchy about the use of 18" wheels, quoting the possibility of rear suspension failure owing to increased loads (??). I guess they're best avoided.