It’s all turbo to all four wheels in this 911
More power but also more efficient fuel consumption in new varieties of Porsche
JOHANNESBURG— The cop stepped into the road and waved us over. I left my hands on the Porsche’s steering wheel and waited as he walked, very slowly, alongside.
There’s no messing with the police in South Africa, and especially not when you’re driving a $140,000 car past a Johannesburg shanty town. Besides, I knew why he’d pulled us over.
“Sir, you must come to a complete stop at a traffic light that is broken before proceeding,” he said. The fine is about $80, preferably cash. “Are you from South Africa?”
The bright orange 2017 Porsche 911 Targa 4S had German licence plates and the steering wheel on the left, which was a challenge on the lefthand-drive roads. I didn’t need any more problems, which is why I’d slowed to a crawl but not stopped at the broken light.
After all, in carjacking Jo’burg, it’s not illegal to drive through red lights after dark. Our open-topped sports car was an affront to the poverty of the nearby tin shacks.
He asked for my licence and I offered to fetch it from my bag, locked securely in the trunk. When I flipped up the front hood and he peered into the luggage compartment, he was astonished. “Where is the engine?” he said. “I want to see the engine.”
Another officer wandered over and we showed them what we could of the rear-mounted 3.0-litre flat-six, hidden beneath a screen. And we showed them how the hard roof opens and closes automatically, and they peered into the cabin to see the controls.
“What is that?” asked the younger cop, pointing at the steering wheel.
“That” was the Drive Select switch, a rotary dial on the steering wheel. It was first found on Ferraris and now resplendent in the new 911. It sets the drive parameters to Normal, Sport, Sport Plus, or Individual, and in the centre is a small button that, when pushed, switches everything to Maximum Sport for 20 seconds.
It’s an option intended for overtaking on all but the most expensive Turbos, on which it’s standard, but it’s money well spent — the car drops a couple of gears, opens the exhaust flaps for better noise, stiffens the suspension and steering and generally makes you feel like a Driving God.
“I want to hear it!” cried the cop. “You can go if you press the button — make it sing!”
And with him holding back traffic to let us onto the road, I pressed the button and mashed the throttle to the floor. The 911 Targa dug all four wheels into the hot asphalt and roared like a lion as it surged forward, clearing us from trouble just as fast as we dared.
Like all the new-for-2017 911s, the Targa 4S engine now makes 20 more horsepower than before, creating 420 hp at full strength. That’s 50 hp more than the base Targa 4 and Carrera, and more than enough for the road, even with the Targa’s heavy roof mechanism forcing the engine to shift more weight.
But when money’s not a constraint, you can have even more with the Turbo and Turbo S models, which are now good for 540 hp and 580 hp, respectively.
The naming terminology has become confusing: the 911 was always available as a normally aspirated flatsix in the Carrera and Targa, or turbocharged in the Turbos. But now they’re all turbocharged with a more efficient system in everything except the unchanged GT3 RS racer. What will happen to that is anyone’s guess — Porsche engineers only gave a well-rehearsed shrug when asked the question.
The turbos allow more power but, more significantly, better fuel con- sumption. You might not really care as a wealthy owner, but Porsche cares as a carmaker legally required to reduce its overall fleet consumption and emissions over the next few years. Combined consumption in testing is improved by about one litre every 100 km for the Targas and Carreras, and 0.6 litres for the Turbos, even though power is up and acceleration to 100 km/h from standstill is quickened by at least a couple tenths of a second.
This is why all 911s come with automatic start-stop technology to turn off the engine at a standstill and save a few drops of gas, even though you’ll burn more whenever you make the engine sing. The motor doesn’t sing during official consumption testing.
The new 911s are now also available with all-wheel-drive, and Porsche claims the system is improved thanks to a new organic material that gives the clutch plates better grip. It’s an option on the Carreras (for about an extra $8,000) and standard on the Targas and Turbos.
I drove the top-of-the-line, $214,800 Turbo S for a few hot laps on the soon-to-be-reopened Kyalami racetrack.
It’s certainly a fire-breather that’s more than capable of forgiving my driving faults. It slid predictably when I messed up a corner, pulled hard to 200 km/h when given the chance and hauled down speed through huge 380-mm brake discs.
Those ceramic brakes, stock on the Turbos and optional on other models, made a noise on the sedate drive back to the hotel. It was the only way we could know the car had been raced and abused by media all day.
They worked well enough as they adjusted to gentle use on the road, and the car drove like a pussycat, but I hoped it wouldn’t draw attention from any police. Talking my way out of one traffic stop in a day was quite enough, thank you.