It was good to catch up in deepest Suffolk with my old buddy Steve, and his Tiger Avon.
He rescued the car from a hard life on the race track, it is now fully road legal, so we decided to meet up and have a little countryside drive. Two very different machines, one has air con, one has air, one has, well, most things, and one doesn't have much at all! But both share the same ethos, being great driving machines.
The rest of the drive was thankfully without incident. The weather was kind, windows down to enjoy the sounds, as mine had windows from the factory, very useful things I find. I must apologise to Steve, as I think I was holding him up in the corners. But I guess that's what you get for weighing nearly 1.6 tons and having old tyres, well that's my excuse.
This isn't a comprehensive comparison test like many other good sites, just two mates having a few hours out and about, and away from all the normal day to day madness. Saying this, there are a few things that need to be said in summary.
Both cars focus on your driving pleasure, but at opposite ends of the spectrum. The Tiger is arguably more track focused, more hardcore, more responsive to any little input giving you a more raw feeling and lots of feedback. Whilst the Porsche is more luxurious, with its windows, a roof and radio as well as air conditioning, its steering input is a little less direct, and you have some delay in the throttle response due to the turbo lag (personally I do like that).
So, the Porsche is less track focused and more suited to driving more longer distances. Don't get me wrong, when you lean on the Porsche it really digs in and handles, but it doesn't fill you with immediate confidence like the Tiger does. One last point I should make, is that if you are after a weekend fun car, that is 1/4 of the Porsche price, then you know what you have to buy.
Does size matter? The Tiger has the same size rubber all round 205/50/15 and are around £400 for the set.
The Porsche has 225/40/18 on the fronts and massive 295/30/18 on the rears and will cost you at least double of the Tigers.
Tiger Avon: 0-62 in 4.6 to 8 seconds
Porsche 996 Turbo: 0-62 in 3.8 to 4.2 seconds
These times are varied due to the different specs each vehicle could have.
Huge thanks to Steve from www.coopers-garage.com in Mildenhall, for a really enjoyable few hours, I'm already looking forward to the next one.