Porsche 911 Carrera 4S
German sports car has been the bench mark in this class for years. Can it see off the Jag?
MODEL TESTED: Porsche 911 Carrera 4S
PRICE: £98,418 ENGINE: 3.0-litre turbocharged flat-six, 444bhp
IF it’s a four-wheel-drive sports car with around 450bhp you’re after then the 911 Carrera 4S has always been in the frame – and it’s no different with this 992 version that was launched last year. At £98,418, it is more expensive than the F-Type, but the details show these two cars are close rivals on many counts.
Design & engineering score 4.2
THE first is the engine. The 911’s
3.0-litre flat-six – heavily revised for the
992 over the previous version – produces an identical 444bhp to the F-Type. However, while it still uses forced induction like the supercharged Jag, the Porsche has two turbos to squeeze more air into its engine and make more power from a relatively low capacity compared with the F-Type.
Those turbos help to produce 530Nm of torque, and while this is 20Nm less than the Jaguar, it’s produced 200rpm lower down in the rev range at 2,300rpm and sustained until 5,000rpm.
The power and torque are sent to all four wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox – again, another new development for the 992 over its predecessor – with an adaptive electronic limited-slip differential at the rear featuring Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus.
There are adaptive dampers, too, which control the MacPherson-strut front and multi-link rear suspension layouts. Our test car also featured a sports exhaust (£1,844) to match the Jaguar’s – and like the F-Type, this latest generation of 911 uses much more aluminium and lightweight materials to help keep the weight down. At 1,565kg, the Porsche is 178kg lighter than the Jaguar.
The equipment specification is broadly similar, with parking sensors, climate and cruise control, leather sports seats, LED headlights, sat-nav and some modern smartphone connectivity. You also get heated seats as standard, whereas they’re part of a £500 package on the Jag that also adds cooled seats. However, a reversing camera is part of a £464 package yet it’s standard on the F-Type.
Even though the Porsche is significantly pricier, the quality feels higher and this partly justifies the difference. The return to the horizontal design elements seen in older 911s really works, too.
Driving score 4.7
HOW the 911 drives is another justification, because it’s superb. The performance is stunning. Both cars have superb traction, but the 911 feels just a little more secure, and with its launch control it rocketed from 0-60mph in just 3. 2 seconds. This is incredibly quick for a ‘normal’ non-motorsport 911.
With the turbos boosting its in-gear performance, it outshone the Jaguar here, too, taking 3.3 and 4.8 seconds between 50 and 70mph in fifth and sixth, both around half a second faster than the F-Type.
In the higher gears the 911 is a bit more sluggish when the engine drops off boost, as we’ve seen, but its eight-speed gearbox is more responsive than the Jag’s and is adept at delivering the performance when you need it. It’s smooth but shifts are quicker, and in manual mode it easily has the measure of the F-Type’s eight-speed automatic transmission,
delivering crisper, quicker up and down shifts and a greater connection between car and driver as a result.
The steering reinforces this, because it’s more communicative and direct. The Jag’s is still great, but the Porsche’s is just a few notches better, with a nicer, more consistent weight and better response. There’s also more grip and better body control, so the 911 can corner harder, faster and with more composure.
However, occasionally it feels a little harsher than the Jaguar when cruising, but it’s still comfortable. The bigger issue is that there’s a lot of tyre noise in the 911 on the motorway – more than the F-Type. Otherwise, it’s nicely refined.
Practicality score 3.6
SURPRISINGLY for a sports car, visibility in the 911 is really quite good, which helps particularly when you’re manoeuvring. However, in the move to the 992 generation the 911 has grown in size again and now feels like a big car, so you might want to think about the optional £1,592 rear-axle steering that helps to tighten the turning circle.
Otherwise, the 911 is relatively practical for a sports car with such high performance. There is 132 litres of boot space in the luggage area in the nose, and it’s a relatively uniform shape, while the 911’s trademark – its 2+2 seating layout – means there’s space for two small passengers in the rear. If you don’t need that, fold the two back rests down and there’s another 264 litres of luggage space, which takes the total to 396 litres of load volume.
Ownership score 4.0
TOO few owners responded for
Porsche to rank in our Driver Power 2019 satisfaction survey, but the brand is known for its reliability. Euro NCAP hasn’t tested the car, but AEB is included and you can add lane-keep assist as part of a £749 pack, and blind-spot alert for £581.
Ownership will be a case of costs, so it’s worth bearing in mind factors such as insurance if you’re considering buying one of these cars. The Jag will cost our example driver £867 a year, the Porsche £1,167.
Running costs score 3.3
OWNING and running these models will be pricey. On top of the big fuel bills, if you’re a private buyer depreciation will be steep. It’ll be worse on the Jag, because our experts predict it’ll retain 45.4 per cent of its value over three years/36,000 miles, compared with 63.7 per cent for the Porsche. This equates to depreciation of £44,190 and £35,765, offsetting the Porsche’s higher price.
Testers’ notes
“Now that even ‘normal’ 911s are turbocharged, their motors aren’t quite as noisy, plus a petrol particulate filter strangles sound further. The sports exhaust gives a bit more of that flat-six growl the car is known for.”