All-new Porsche 911 is made to carve up roads and racetracks with precision
The Clark International Speedway has been host to several car launches over the past two years, with varying degrees of appropriateness. There has probably been none as suitable to the track as this, the all-new Porsche 911 Carrera. We have driven its sibling the Panamera four-door, and it acquitted itself well, and even the Cayenne SUV had its moments. But this, the crown jewel of the Porsche empire, is practically born ready to race.
The new Carrera follows the classic 911 shape, iconic since the 1960s: round headlamps, pronounced fenders, and boomerang-shaped roof. Porsche claims that despite the familiarity, 90 percent of the components are new or substantially re-engineered that they’re virtually new. Strikingly new are the slim, tapered LED taillights. The rear spoiler folds flush into the rear deck when not in use. Some of our colleagues found the rear a little too refined, but the quad exhaust pipes provide a suitable exclamation point.
Just forward of the exhausts, in the traditional 911 rear-mounted position, is a boxer six-cylinder engine. On the Carrera, it’s a 3.4 liter with 350 hp, while on the 3.8-liter Carrera S, power is bumped up to an even 400 hp. The “base” goes up to 100 kph in a quick 4.8 seconds, and on to 289 kph. The S goes all the way to a supercar-territory 304 kph. In a nod to more stringent (US and European) government regulations, the “downsized” engine even comes with reduced fuel consumption and emissions. Auto start/stop shuts down the engine when the car is at a standstill.
Seven forward gears are on the new 911, either via a manual gearbox, or the Doppelkupplung sequential double-clutch transmission. The first six gears are spaced closely for performance, while the seventh is a long gear for more efficient long-distance cruising. A host of electronic assists like torque vectoring and active anti-roll system aid the car to deliver better cornering.
On the track, the 911 is markedly easier to drive than its predecessors. Purists may bemoan the loss of the palpable rear-weight bias, but even for expert drivers, the new Carrera is as smooth as whipped butter. Responses are razor sharp, with a high degree of control. We didn’t get to give the brakes much of a workout on the Clark circuit, but as always, they’re immensely powerful and capable of hauling the car down instantly from very high speeds. Sitting in the perfectly-positioned driver’s seat, with the near-vertical steering wheel and huge tachometer front and center, with the boxer six wailing behind our back, we are once again reminded of the brand’s famous tag line from the 1990s: Porsche—there is no substitute.
