CT4 fast enough?

[IcanTaycan]

Alright its a CT4 for me then! Thanks for all the feedback and recommendations. And to current owners of Taycan (all trims and models) huge thank you for also being the beta testers for the software, helping identify the bugs

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[bah1590]

Here is a good review on YouTube discussing the CT4 performance vs the other versions. If you start around the 6 minute mark he discusses how the CT4 measures up.

 

[PCAR-KAISER]

Here is a good review on YouTube discussing the CT4 performance vs the other versions. If you start around the 6 minute mark he discusses how the CT4 measures up.

To be fair when I watched this video prior to getting my CT4 I was a bit deflated.

In reality if you’re not driving mountain passes daily the CT4 is plenty fast!

I originally had a CT4S allocation which got cancelled so slipped into the CT4 as a stop gap. I actually think I’m going to keep the CT4 however. I’d rather put the difference towards a “fun car” like a manual 981 Boxster.

 

[tutis]

To be fair when I watched this video prior to getting my CT4 I was a bit deflated.

In reality if you’re not driving mountain passes daily the CT4 is plenty fast!

I originally had a CT4S allocation which got cancelled so slipped into the CT4 as a stop gap. I actually think I’m going to keep the CT4 however. I’d rather put the difference towards a “fun car” like a manual 981 Boxster.

FWIW, I have the CT4 here in Switzerland and get plenty of opportunities to go up and down the mountains here. In short, the CT4 is plenty fast enough. I bought it after testing 4S sedan, RWD sedan and CT4. When the car is already up to 30-50kmh the acceleration up to 120kmh is v similar to the 4S.

Yes 0-30 is faster on the 4S, and above 120kmh as well but I'm not launching the car repeatedly while I am driving (slow hairpin turns are taken at around 30 kmh), and speed limit in Switzerland is 120kmh on highway, and 80kmh on mountains (you'd be hard pressed to drive much faster than 100kmh in the mountains here, even with a 911 TS, and if you got caught you'd never try again...).

I think the 4S and Turbo have a little too much "on-off" behaviour tbh, you can brute force your way through the bends which isn't much fun. With my 911 I settled for a lower power version as the higher output engines are just too much and actually end up being more frustrating than anything else to drive, not rewarding in a way. I like to think of the 911 turbo on Swiss mountain passes as the equivalent of playing Monopoly with the kids and having unlimited funny money; you buy all the streets and put hotels immediately. Where's the fun in that? Much more fun to play with limitations

 

[MJDCT]

I thought i was driving a 4S on my test drive, got out and it was only a 4, so ordered a 4 and saved some cash.

 

[B61]

@tutis : i'm wondering how goes driving during winter times, with snow on the roads?
Any thoughts, experiences, tips? Of course, with winter tyres.

 

[bj33813]

CT4 = Cross Turismo 4 (four wheel drive).
RWD is available only as a sedan.

I stand corrected and thank you!

 

[McgR]

FWIW, I have the CT4 here in Switzerland and get plenty of opportunities to go up and down the mountains here. In short, the CT4 is plenty fast enough. I bought it after testing 4S sedan, RWD sedan and CT4. When the car is already up to 30-50kmh the acceleration up to 120kmh is v similar to the 4S.

Yes 0-30 is faster on the 4S, and above 120kmh as well but I'm not launching the car repeatedly while I am driving (slow hairpin turns are taken at around 30 kmh), and speed limit in Switzerland is 120kmh on highway, and 80kmh on mountains (you'd be hard pressed to drive much faster than 100kmh in the mountains here, even with a 911 TS, and if you got caught you'd never try again...).

I think the 4S and Turbo have a little too much "on-off" behaviour tbh, you can brute force your way through the bends which isn't much fun. With my 911 I settled for a lower power version as the higher output engines are just too much and actually end up being more frustrating than anything else to drive, not rewarding in a way. I like to think of the 911 turbo on Swiss mountain passes as the equivalent of playing Monopoly with the kids and having unlimited funny money; you buy all the streets and put hotels immediately. Where's the fun in that? Much more fun to play with limitations

[QUOTE="McgR,

Nice comment! Did you take rear wheel steering and torque vectoring? If it would be of use in a 4 CT I presume it will be on mountain roads.

 

[Swissbob]

@tutis : i'm wondering how goes driving during winter times, with snow on the roads?
Any thoughts, experiences, tips? Of course, with winter tyres.

Not good for the passengers!

 

[tutis]

@tutis : i'm wondering how goes driving during winter times, with snow on the roads?
Any thoughts, experiences, tips? Of course, with winter tyres.

I previously had a Cayenne with AWD and winter tyres in season, thought that was incredible and could go anywhere anytime (Which it could). Then I got a RWD 911 , slapped on some Michelin Pilot Alpin 4 and was blown away with how much the car could do in the winter. The 911 was so good that I bought the roof transport system to have the skis on the roof and took the 911 more than a few times for skiing day trips.

Fast forward to now, the Cayenne is gone and now replaced with the CT4 which quite frankly gets me everywhere the Cayenne could go (obviously I wasn’t off-roading but took it in unkept winter roads more than once). The CT4 as an added bonus has much much improved road handling compared to the Cayenne, particularly in winter time. The Pirelli Pzero winter are quite good on the car, just a bit less responsive than the summer tyres but that’s expected of any winter tyre. Traction is perfect, up and down the mountain with ice, wet roads, unploughed snow whatever. It could be down as well to very granular traction control from the electric power train. I think it’s just as good as the Cayenne in us a few cm of ground clearance which I didn’t need. Fun fact; the ESP (aka PASM) seems to allow for greater yaw angle as you kick it up in Sport and Sport plus. I am still experimenting with winter tyres and building up confidence to be more aggressive but it seems the car will allow for a little bit of angle coming out of hairpins under heavy acceleration. Not something I’ve been able to experience before in the dry and warm.

Don’t know how long the Pzero winters will last; the 911 originally came with Pzero Sumer which were great but were done by 12k km. The Pilot Sport 4S and PA4 now fitted to the 911 are well over 25k kms each and still have a season or so in them. Fingers crossed Michelin will carry over their Pilot Alpin range of tyres to Taycan with NF0 rating

 

[tutis]

[QUOTE="McgR,

Nice comment! Did you take rear wheel steering and torque vectoring? If it would be of use in a 4 CT I presume it will be on mountain roads.

No I didn’t take RWS or TV, for a couple of reasons.

1. First, the car i ordered was already heavily optioned and the salesperson kindly reminded me that options have very little impact on residual value; e.g. besides a few must have basics the extra cost for options get fully amortised during the lease period (and are also expected to have very little contribution on the future market value of the car). The salesperson‘s rule of thumb that I tried to stick to is that when you option enough to be at the price of the next higher up tier (in my case the 4S is the next one up) then it is time to switch to the higher tier rather than adding more options. In switzerland the CT4 is around CHF 110k, and from memory the 4S CT is around CHF 145k. So my CT4 was optioned up to around CHF 140k, which is also close to the limit I wanted to spend.
   
   
2. I didn’t test the Taycan with RWS, but I had previously tested a 911 with RWS and honestly thought it made the car feel a little strange. I could quite understand what the rear was doing in fast sweep corners (80-100kmh). I’m sure it shaves seconds off a Nordshleif lap and all but I prioritize driving feel above all, which is why the next 911 I get will have a manual even if that means 0.6 seconds less in 0-100kmh etc. Don’t care at all.
   
   
3. Regarding PTV, the salesperson advised me against it given first rule of cost of options given above but also said that the power of the CT4 was unlikely to overwhelm the car unlike say the Turbo and that in his experience the traction control on the Taycan is so fine/granular that it can shift power imperceptibly without PTV. Probably PTV shaves another 5 seconds on a ring lap, but again don’t care so much for that. The car without PTV and RWS is great fun, all the time. Maybe it would have been that much better with it, not sure, don’t care, ignorance is bliss.

I also want to highlight that I may not be your typical profile for Porsche cars; as I mentioned in other posts I got a lower-end 911 because I didn’t want too much power, got it in 2WD for driving feel (which is definitely a huge plus), and FWIW I think the Macan 2.0 is more fun than the Macan Turbo because of its lighter weight and the challenge to work its engine (hint you want to keep it in 2.5-5.5k RPM, not higher). Had the humble 2.0 for a while and thought it was a hoot to drive, even on steel springs

 

[McgR]

No I didn’t take RWS or TV, for a couple of reasons.

1. First, the car i ordered was already heavily optioned and the salesperson kindly reminded me that options have very little impact on residual value; e.g. besides a few must have basics the extra cost for options get fully amortised during the lease period (and are also expected to have very little contribution on the future market value of the car). The salesperson‘s rule of thumb that I tried to stick to is that when you option enough to be at the price of the next higher up tier (in my case the 4S is the next one up) then it is time to switch to the higher tier rather than adding more options. In switzerland the CT4 is around CHF 110k, and from memory the 4S CT is around CHF 145k. So my CT4 was optioned up to around CHF 140k, which is also close to the limit I wanted to spend.
   
   
2. I didn’t test the Taycan with RWS, but I had previously tested a 911 with RWS and honestly thought it made the car feel a little strange. I could quite understand what the rear was doing in fast sweep corners (80-100kmh). I’m sure it shaves seconds off a Nordshleif lap and all but I prioritize driving feel above all, which is why the next 911 I get will have a manual even if that means 0.6 seconds less in 0-100kmh etc. Don’t care at all.
   
   
3. Regarding PTV, the salesperson advised me against it given first rule of cost of options given above but also said that the power of the CT4 was unlikely to overwhelm the car unlike say the Turbo and that in his experience the traction control on the Taycan is so fine/granular that it can shift power imperceptibly without PTV. Probably PTV shaves another 5 seconds on a ring lap, but again don’t care so much for that. The car without PTV and RWS is great fun, all the time. Maybe it would have been that much better with it, not sure, don’t care, ignorance is bliss.

I also want to highlight that I may not be your typical profile for Porsche cars; as I mentioned in other posts I got a lower-end 911 because I didn’t want too much power, got it in 2WD for driving feel (which is definitely a huge plus), and FWIW I think the Macan 2.0 is more fun than the Macan Turbo because of its lighter weight and the challenge to work its engine (hint you want to keep it in 2.5-5.5k RPM, not higher). Had the humble 2.0 for a while and thought it was a hoot to drive, even on steel springs

Thanks! I only ordered RWS. Primarily because I have it now on my X5 and I don’t have any strange feeling and secondly because of lots of positive posts over here. And third because I am not listening to the sales rep because he kind of advised against it. He said the same a you did, that it would only matter when tracking the car. I ordered because I think it will be easier for parking. Still have two weeks to change my opinion. I don’t think it will have a negative effect on the car because it is standard on the turbo S. And I have owned 2 BMW with RWS and I know the feeling.

 

[bah1590]

To be fair when I watched this video prior to getting my CT4 I was a bit deflated.

In reality if you’re not driving mountain passes daily the CT4 is plenty fast!

I originally had a CT4S allocation which got cancelled so slipped into the CT4 as a stop gap. I actually think I’m going to keep the CT4 however. I’d rather put the difference towards a “fun car” like a manual 981 Boxster.

What I liked about the video is he said you could pretty much push the CT4 as hard as possible, enjoy the ride and still not get into trouble. My fear with the 4S or the Turbo variants is pushing a little too hard and losing control.

 

[f1eng]

What I liked about the video is he said you could pretty much push the CT4 as hard as possible, enjoy the ride and still not get into trouble. My fear with the 4S or the Turbo variants is pushing a little too hard and losing control.

About the only thing you can do wrong is to enter a corner faster than it can go round. Other than that the engineer who designed the electronic stability control will sort it for you.

I suppose switching off the stability control would be another thing you could do wrong but actually it is many years since sports cars were actually entirely driven by the bloke behind the wheel

 

[RinOC]

Well, yes and no. It depends. You’re welcome.

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