Porsche 911 Carrera, Supercar Performance All-Round

Porsche do many things so brilliantly that you're impressed as soon as you start asking the new Porsche 911 Carrera to get a move on. In fact, everything looks right as soon as you open the door and slide in. Quality beams at you, but more important on a fast car, once adjusted, everything seems in the right place.

So when I got onto my favorite test route, I'm getting the flavour straight away. Ease out of a T-junction, squirt into a tight S-bend, where the road narrows a bit, with walls on each side, another squirt and brake for the the right turn off onto a minor road.

Loves tricky bends and short straights

It's a tricky bend, more than a right-angle, and is followed by a left-handler. The 911 just sails around without any roll, and soon I'm accelerating hard no I'm not as there's a slow car in the way, and a bend ahead. Check brake, and wait till after the bend, and the road is clear. Floor the throttle; the car we're overtaking seems to stand still as we rocket past, the engine revs building from about 4,000 to 6,000 rpm in no time. Soon we're roaring along with the revs over 7,000 rpm and shift up.

It doesn't take long before you know that this car is as quick as they say it is, able to get to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds, and with a top speed of 177 mph.

Powerful engine in a light coupe

That's the 911 Carrera at its best. You hardly turn the wheel to steer the car out past the other car to overtake, the steering is that direct. You don't need to get into the right gear well beforehand, because the gearshift is so slick and quick that you're in the right gear in a sec.

With 325 bhp at 6,800 rpm and reasonable weight curb weight is 3,070 lb (1,395 kg) the 911 Carrera is lighter than many of its competitors. So you've got the acceleration to get past traffic easily even when you come up behind three or four in a row. Of course, you're helped by the fact that people expect a Porsche to shoot past them.

Unlike some supercar engines, the 911 also delivers its torque quite low down maximum torque is 273 lb ft (370 Nm) at 4,250 rpm. Although the red line on the dial is at 8,000 rpm, the cut-off speed is around 7,300-7,500, giving you plenty of revs to play with. Nor does the engine run out of steam when you get past peak power it just keeps roaring.

Superb engine as Porsche knows how

You soon realize that this is a superb engine, and that a flat-six can hack the pace with many a V-8. No problem, no dramas. It's matched by a super gearbox with a slick shift, so you don't find yourself fishing for the right gear as you can with some cars. It's always a piece of cake to get the power down on to the road.

Porsche has always understood the need for good clear instruments better than most, and the 911 Carrera is spot on. You get a central rev counter with a speedometer off to the left, but there's a digital speedo below the rev counter with the trip computer read-out. All the controls come to hand easily, and there's a simple but fine steering wheel hot hatches go in for all sorts of shaped rims these days, but Porsche doesn't need that. Simple and effective.

Light steering with good feedback

The interior is neatly trimmed with stitched leather, and the seat feels right from the start, giving a decent amount of lateral support.

The steering is quite light after all, there's not much weight on the front wheels but it tells you what's going on all the time. When you're driving on a long a straight road, it is best to hold the wheel lightly, and let it joggle a bit from side to side as the car negotiates the minor bumps and blemishes in the road. You can take you hands off at 80 mph, and the 911 continues on a straight line undeterred.

After a while, you feel that the steering is engaging you with the car and the road surface, and most of the time you hardly turn the wheel to change direction or corner. Turn in is quick without any hesitancy, and it is best to enter the corner so that you can accelerate out hard if you want to.

The 911 Carrera rides on Michelin Pilot Sport 235/35 front and 295/30 rear tires which provide masses of cornering power, so in normal circumstances you have plenty in reserve when you corner.

Swings through corners with ease

You can sail around most corners well within the limit, swinging through them at high speeds. Even so, the 911 can behave in a disconcerting manner at times. You tend to be thinking in terms of over steer, so when you enter a long slow corner and strong under steer builds up, which it can do surprisingly easily, you're not expecting it unless you've been driving 911s for years. But that's easy to get used to as it's predictable.

This under steer can also show itself when you enter a corner with adverse camber or with a poor surface. The front end just patters outward a bit. This is one of the features of the 911 that detracts from the whole, because you can't just wind extra lock on quickly in case that sets the tail wagging.

That apart,the car behaves very well. The brakes are very powerful, stopping or slowing the car very quickly without any appreciable pitching, and work well with the suspension, steering and power train to get you around the country very quickly indeed.

PASM and PSM

These days, Porsche gives you some extra electronics to help. First, there is PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) which is an option on the Carrera and standard on the Carrera S. Normally, PASM adjusts the damper settings according to conditions, so when you drive faster the damping is firmer. This is best for most motoring.

When you start driving hard along twisty roads you might want to switch to Sport as I did which lowers the car slightly, and keeps the stiff settings all the time. Not so good when you have to go slowly through a village with poor road surfaces, but the best when you're really pushing hard.

PSM (Porsche Stability System) is standard, and should you corner too fast for the conditions, PSM intervenes to maintain stability up to the limit, as they are careful to state in the instruction manual!

Superb driving machine

As a driving machine, the new 911 Carrera is a superb tool, offering terrific acceleration and the agility to sweep through fast bends with virtually no roll. It has a pleasant interior, with a luxurious feel, and is equipped as few cars are. If you opt for the Sport Chrono package you even get a built in stop watch as part of a system which adjusts the performance closer to that you would want on a race track.

Of course, the 911 cruises effortlessly and fairly quietly. With a reasonable space for luggage in the front and plenty of room on the back seats they're only for short people for short distances the 911 Carrera makes a practical grand tourer, especially since the fuel consumption is not bad at all.

If you're a 911 fan, you'll love this car because it moves the 911 forward giving you plenty of extra performance in all directions, but it's still clearly a 911. Looks great too.