Eddie Bello
911 Twin Turbo Air cooled

9.17 @ 161mph on DOT tires. Always surprises me when people don't know about that car.

There used to be pictures of that car pulling OBNOXIOUS wheelies. Unfortunately, I can't find any.

 

Well now...

I didn't really say that...

I just mean that if you're looking for comfort or top performance or a good ride or the ability to load in some golf clubs, there are far better cars for less money.

But...

It does indicate more money than brains to a certain extent.



The Boxster, in particular, never made any sense to me...

Half the Corvette's performance, all of the price.

 

And then the "high status" Porsche owner can sit back and laugh because THEY know how to drive their Porsche (while the average person would send it a$$ first off a cliff!) but you have to ask the question, does that make them smarter for choosing such a bass-ackwards car in the first place??

 

If you’ve ever driven a Porsche, especially one like the 911 Turbo as speed I think you would have part of your answer as to why people buy them.

Putting aside for the moment that some are deriding a car than has 480HP/460Tq and does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, and that has a level of exclusivity that few cars can have, there are many reasons to buy such a car that goes far beyond its specifications or how it performs on one track on one particular day.

If raw performance were the only way to measure the value of a car then another appropriate question to ask would be how many people EVER drive their car at its limits? I’d suggest not many. They may often drive it to THEIR limits but I’d say there are relatively few people who can push either a Corvette or a 911 to its limits or will even try. So…does that mean people shouldn’t buy cars like the ‘Vette or 911; I hope not!

Sure, some people only want a status symbol but how many people buy a Corvette for the same reason? Some people as snobs and always will be but that’s missing the point of cars like the 911 Turbo.

To be a truly great car it has to be more than just the sum of its parts; the Corvette is one of those cars; so is the 911. People can argue the engineering drawbacks, the price, the inevitable “HP for the $” argument and a myriad of other issues until the cows come home but a Porsche is still a Porsche and to own on is to possess something special and something that relatively few other people ever will.

 

Now waite a minute, Eric!

You know I know that the Impala SS is deceptively quick but I've never seen one beat a 911 around a Solo2 course if the 911 driver knew what he was doing; for that matter, I've never seen any of the F-Stock class be truly competative against a 911 and a decent driver.

If yours (or you) is that good I'd love to come see it!

 

Yeah, you're probably right .

 

Oh, make no mistake - put my car up against a properly driven 911, and there's little chance. But, such an occurrance is rare indeed; part of it is due to the fact that it's difficult to push a 911 to its limits, and part of it is frankly that fact that I'm probably less concerned about wadding up my Impala than I would be about taking an off-track excursion in a nice Porsche. It probably needs to be said that my car is no longer stock.

Still, the fact remains that there have been several 911s that have fallen to my Impala at autoX events, and informal polling after the events have indicated that 911 drivers are often quite wary of exploring the limits of their vehicles. Physics is a bitch.

 

Im sure a midget could out drive Tiger Woods ...

... if you made them stand in a phone booth.