Porsche 911 Carrera 4S
All-new eighth-generation 911 takes its first steps on UK roads and doesn’t disappoint
Our five-star verdict
New added-width, 992-generation Porsche 911: meet famously narrow British B-road. Now here’s the good news: the 992 still feels pretty slim-hipped for a fullsized sports car. That it’s even more incisive and precise in its handling than its 991-gen predecessor means owners of old ‘narrow body’ cars will hardly notice the difference.
Anyway, the most revered sports car in the world hasn’t so much become wider as less narrow, which sounds like the same thing but isn’t. The 45mm of extra metalwork across its wings only brings the rear-driven version up to the same width as the old four-wheel-drive one. It has been done not only to improve the handling of the rear-drive car but also in response to customers who’ve asked for a wider-hipped, betterlooking, purist’s-pick rear-driven 911 for some time. These customers have been getting exactly that with the 911 GTS for a couple of model generations, but now they needn’t venture that far up the line-up.
The car is available as only a 444bhp Carrera S or 4S to begin with, and only with Porsche’s new eight-speed PDK two-pedal gearbox. (Convertibles of the same won’t be far behind the first coupés.) There’s the usual abundance of options to tailor the driving experience, such as lowered sport suspension, active four-wheel steering, active anti-roll bars, carbon-ceramic brakes and Porsche’s familiar Sport Chrono package. PASM adaptive dampers and an electronically locking rear differential are now standard.
An all-new seat design allows you to sit 5mm lower in the car; not that you’ll notice straight away. You’ll be too busy marvelling at the quantum leaps in perceived quality, on-board technology and crisp-edged interior style, which leave you in no doubt whatsoever that you’re sitting in a very expensive and advanced car.
New induction, injection and exhaust systems appear on the 3.0litre turbo flat six. Responsiveness is alleged to have improved in tandem with outright power and torque compared with the old Carrera S, but it’s the eight-speed gearbox that has altered the two-pedal 911’s driving experience more profoundly, giving you more cogs to keep track of and a bit more acclimatising to do to get an intuitive sense for gear selection.
The remarkable range and flexibility of the engine helps you along during that process. It’s nicely burly from 3000rpm but still vividly rewards you for hanging on above 5500rpm and endows the car with a performance level you’re unlikely to feel the need to upgrade on the road.
With optional four-wheel steering, active anti-roll bars and lowered suspension fitted and in all-wheeldrive form, our test car’s ride and handling compromise still seemed supremely measured and natural. Notably more agile and incisive through tighter bends than a likefor-like 991, it seemed a shade more vertically composed over bigger lumps and bumps, too, without totally sacrificing the 911’s dynamic calling cards: a front axle that gently starts to bob as the chassis knuckles down and handling that’s made more alive to pedal inputs by that rearward weight distribution. Even with four-wheel drive, the 911’s corning stance can be planted and secure on a balanced throttle or more enlivened mid-corner by either the withdrawal or the judicious application of power.
While four-wheel drive might introduce a compromise or two – to the car’s limit-handling predictability and purity of steering feel chiefly – this tester wouldn’t discount it on that basis. A Carrera 4S must be at least 95% as good to drive as a Carrera S; and 95% as good makes this a very special driver’s car indeed.