Spotted this 991 Carrera with a duck tail on the Porsche stand at Essen. I was not entirely mesmerised by Porsche’s stand at this year’s Essen Techno Classica. Previous stands felt better as the heart of the action in Hall 3 with the rest of the Porsche World, rather than in amongst the VW-Audi Group offerings.
There were some nice Porsche cars on the stand, but all felt lonely surrounded by unrelated product. Maybe that’s just me. One thing I did like was this 991 Coupe with the duck tail spoiler: seemed to work well on the new shape 911.
The Porsche sales guys present couldn’t tell me much about the ducktail, apart from it would form part of an options pack. There was no information on said options pack, though they thought it might cost around €4,000 for the front and rear bumpers and this ducktail.
Fit and finish was perfect so I presume this was not a prototype – the plastic looked very productionised. The Porsche folks couldn’t tell me if it was factory fit, so maybe your dealer will have to paint it for a cost on top of that. You can see from the pics that it is static: the flap above opens up to check oil and – yes – water. Not much else to see, really.
The front end looks good and I like those wheels, but wonder how it would look with 19″ or 20″ Fuchs instead. Those wheels are coming: keep in touch with UK Fuchs dealers for more info on the bigger Fuchs.
Porsche has announced that it will take over the test facility at Nardò in southern Italy from next month. Take over means buy: Porsche Cars GB confirmed to me that that the company has bought the facility.
Nardò has been at the heart of European auto testing programmes for many years, and it sounds like that will continue. This will be a relief to the travelling technicians from many marques who like testing prototype cars and vans in the Italian sun! Some good Porsche friends among them.
The Proving Ground is famous for its 12.5-kilometre high-speed bowl, site of many Porsche speed tests over the years. One of the most impressive was the 200 mph run by the TechArt Cayenne Turbo in 2010. Equipped with 680 horsepower and a TechArt aerodynamic kit, the Cayenne was probably doing a true speed of closer to 215 mph, losing some of it through tyre scrub on the banking.
Nardò’s banking is designed so that there is no lateral force up to 240 km/h, almost 150 mph. Running at this speed in the outside lane of four, the steering wheel does not need to be turned. Interestingly, this is as fast as tests are allowed to be run unless the facility has been booked for exclusive use.
The stable climate at the facility, which is situated slightly inland from Italy’s southeast Mediterranean coastline, means the site can be used all year ’round. When Porsche takes over next month, the priority will be to update some of the facilities before opening the place for proper Porsche business, and making it available to other manufacturers. I look forward to visiting the place myself one day.
No doubt you’ve all seen plenty of cut-and-paste Porsche press releases on various websites about the 991. The new 911 is currently being driven by journalists and is bound to be well received. Pic tweeted by Chas Hallett from the Porsche museum media launch:
My main interest is the seven-speed manual transmission. Being a child of the four speed era, I struggle with six speeds, so seven should be suitably hilarious. Another Chas pic: no, he’s not a photographer, he’s the big boss editor of What Car.
New Porsche 911 991 Launched
Manufacturers fit multi-speed transmissions to lower emissions. The better matched each gear is to road speed, the less fuel you burn. Combine that with the stop-start technology fitted to the 991, and you get the lowest emissions yet seen on a Porsche sports car: 194 g/km. Panamera Hybrid makes 159 g/km, so the Porsche 911 emissions still have a way to go, but it’s reasonable progress.
194 g/km is the same as the Lexus IS 250 and the Saab 93 2.0T. From a 3.4-litre 911. That’s lower than a BMW 335 and is easily lower than my ancient 911 or any of my other cars: factory numbers for both the ’02 Subaru Legacy Outback and my ’96 E36 M3 are both knocking on the door of 230 g/km. Legacy a little lower as I run it on LPG. Landcruiser is diesel, so a different kettle of fish, but God only knows what an early ’90s 4.2-litre turbo diesel manual throws out.
Fuel economy is unlikely to be a focal point in new 911 road tests, but it fascinates me. I managed almost 38 mpg from the Carrera 4S I took to Essen in May of this year, so if the new Carrera can top 40 mpg in sensible use, that’ll be quite a thing. Perhaps I could have seen 40 in a C2 to Essen: I’m sure colleagues have reported mid-40s on C2 economy drives in the past. Who knows – maybe I could wring the new one out to 50.
Fantasy land and not the point of the car I agree, but efficiency brings benefits across the platform. Lighter weight with lower emissions mean you can carry less fuel to go the same distance. Less energy is wasted controlling more mass through tyres and suspension, which makes the car more dynamic. No future 911 will ever leap back to the 1100-kilogram air-cooled benchmark, but the 45 kilos saved by the aluminium body versus the old one will make a difference to how it performs, and how much energy it needs to make you feel alive.
Here’s some nice 911 video in German. I like German videos: no understandable marketing speak.
Here’s a Porsche review following my road trip to Germany in Porsche GB’s Speed Yellow 911 Carrera 4S (997) demonstrator.
Things I liked a lot: 29 mpg over almost 1000 city and highway miles, at cruising speeds and more. Excellent brakes: perfect for emergency avoiding action. Wonderful driving position and controls. Gorgeous gear shift. Beautiful engineering and build quality. Millions of airbags. Smell of genuine Porsche windscreen washer fluid. Excellent nav/stereo/trip computer, works a treat with iPod. 4wd – love 4wd.
Things I questioned: same amount of road noise from the rear as on the Carrera GTS. There must be a quieter 19″ tyre out there – it can’t just be ‘putting a driver in touch with the drive”. Exhaust button: I know people love it but I never bother. Same with the firmer suspension switch. The standard setup is just so good.
Hint of clutch smell when I parked up sometimes – maybe just because it’s new. I don’t think I’m hard on clutches. Hard to find Sports Chrono controls when you are a dozy idiot man who puts the book pack under the bonnet to make room in the glovebox. Lack of storage ‘bins” in the front: not like the old IBs with those massive door pockets. Small sunvisors with gaps in between them. Pretty small list, really.
Loved the colour (after a while). It turned more heads than the orange car. Love the dash layout. Great ventilation – set and forget. I only used the air con once, when the rain was torrential. Love the Porsche key and like the way things work for a little while when you take the key out. Love the very effective rear wiper and the great use of space in the back. Love how the car feels with half a tank of fuel, or the added bit of fizz when you just fill up and the fuel is freezing.
Options I would have: The car had beautiful leather seats but no heating elements. Come on all you Porsche drivers, fit heated leather to your cars! I’d heat the steering wheel too as it is a daily driver: 365/12. I would probably spec cruise for convenience. Front driving lights as high beam is literally a very high beam.
I’d go with a painted rear badge and centre console phone prep, plus the Sport Classic wheels. I’d delete Sports Chrono: I’m not lending it out and it’s not going on track. Black sports seats with black dials and black seat belts. Probably about £88,000 to buy that one? Can’t remember how much the Sports Classic wheels cost.
If money was no problem, would I buy it? The better question is would I buy anything else. Love the Carrera 4 and the S is the one. Amethyst Metallic for me, please Santa.
I had to share this official Porsche video. It’s an excellent bit of filming and editing, shot on location at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone, showing the GT2 RS at its wild best.
I’m posting this video for all those who insist that the only Porsche worth having is some obscure race special that was built in low volume back in the day, before being delivered to owners who drove the tits off them and sent them to the great Zuffen House in the sky.
It’s usually the case that the loudest shouters have never sat in their ‘one true Porsche’, let alone driven it. A large part of the attraction for some seems to be the unobtainability, but how pointless is lusting after the unobtainable?
The GT2 RS is another Porsche destined for this fate. All are sold out, there are no more to be built and many are bound to be destroyed. It’s just a matter of time before today’s 10 year-olds are tomorrow’s forty year-olds, banging on about how the 997 GT2 RS is the “only 911 worth having”, despite this video being the nearest some of them will ever get to it! As Jean-Baptiste Karr put it: “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose”!
I understand enthusiasm for a model, but not to the exclusion of all others. There’s something good in every Porsche, even if the best one can say is that it keeps the AG coffers full for Porsche Classic fun.
Anyway, all this rambling brings me to my point! Rare-groove snobs usually reckon that Porsche is trading on past glories and can’t build sports cars any more. To them we say: stick this mental 911 in your pipe and smoke those rear tyres, baby!
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