Page 45 - Motor Trend (February 2020)

with the pavement and ABS. At minimum,
it was distracting, and at worst it hurt
some of our confidence in the car—despite
knowing it needs only 1 foot longer to stop
from 60 mph than the Porsche.
The 911 put it in starker relief. Step on
the Porsche’s brake pedal, and it doesn’t
feel as if you’re pushing hydraulic fluid
around so much as pushing the brake pads
directly into the discs with the ball of your
foot. You always know exactly how much
stopping power you have left by just the
feel of the pedal. It’s an astonishing feat of
engineering. And the 911 can do it all day,
all the way to threshold.
Similarly, the 911’s steering offered The squircle looks odd, but it keeps the
more feedback midcorner; you knew instrument screen unobstructed, and
your hands get used to the shape.
exactly how much front-end grip you had.
Not to diminish the Corvette’s steering,
which was as accurate and precise as the
911’s. Indeed, the Corvette’s more damped
steering was a virtue on faster sections of
our makeshift track.
At triple-digit speeds, the Corvette
feels planted, but all the extra kickback
in the 911’s steering makes it feel nervous The Corvette is nearly this good (and
and light up front the faster you go. better than any Corvette before it),
Nervous or not, the 911 saw up to 8 mph but having to navigate the limits of the
higher maximum speed on our “track.” Chevy’s ABS and understeer right at the
You can put it down to greater cornering critical moments makes you focus on
speeds and the ability to roll hard into the car as well as your driving—and thus
the throttle just after the apex—having costs you the precious tenths you lose to During our figure-eight testing,
the rear end rotate you slightly in the exit the 911. With a time delta this small, the Reynolds, who almost always shifts
direction as it digs in and whips you off 911 spends less than 1 percent of the lap manually in this drill, found the ’Vette’s
the corner harder than the Corvette could. ahead of the Corvette, and that’s where dual-clutch good enough to not bother.
Add together those 911 advantages, you’ll find it. The Corvette makes you feel Walton and I thought the same on our
though, and you get a car that never like you’re in a supercar; the 911 makes pseudo track—though he said he had an
asks you to think about anything but you feel like you’re part of a supercar. instance or two where he might’ve gone
your own driving. Giving you exactly the Where you won’t find time is in the down one more gear than the computer
feedback you need from your inputs and Corvette’s hot new transmission. Many did. If you prefer to pull the paddles,
predictable behavior at every turn, the sports car makers have tried to match you’ll find the Corvette responsive and
911 lets you focus on being a better driver, Porsche’s class-defining PDK dual-clutch happy to let you pull a downshift that
not driving the car better. It may be a gearbox. Precious few have come close. drops you just under redline. It’ll let you
semantic difference, but bear with me. But the Corvette does—on the first try. sit there, too, and stall at the fuel cutoff

No exaggeration, this is what the finish of
a 911 versus Corvette track battle would
look like, the Corvette right on the 911’s tail
through the last corner and across the line.

FEBRUARY 2020 MOTORTREND.COM 45