Driving Impressions

The Porsche 911's overall performance is nothing short of extraordinary, and that assessment applies to all variants. All have excellent grip, phenomenal stopping ability and thrilling acceleration, yet they are remarkably smooth for daily motoring. The sound of the engine is the first thing you notice after twisting the key. It's fantastic, and even better under hard acceleration. Sports car enthusiasts can easily recognize a Porsche by its sound, whether it's driving by on a country road or roaring past at Le Mans. All modern 911 engines are water cooled, but they retain the unique exhaust note we grew up with. The sound of a throttle blip during downshifts will make any driver feel like Hans Stuck. That fantastic sound of a Porsche engine revving is accompanied by massive and immediate throttle response. The thrust provided by the standard Carrera engine is intoxicating. It made me want to push the throttle to the floor every time the car left the apex of a turn, just to feel it accelerate out of the corner like I was powering out of Tertre Rouge onto the Mulsanne Straight. The steering can make the driver feel like the 911 is a soul mate, not an inanimate machine. It's very precise, so you can put the tires exactly where you want them, and it will always let you know how the front tires are gripping. This is one of many aspects that differentiates the 911 from Corvettes and Vipers. Yet the 911 is stable and steady at high speeds. The 911 is never darty, nor does it require constant corrections. The 911 skims very nicely over rough pavement. Indeed, it's relatively supple ride may be what separates it most immediately from the typical high-performance sports cars. You know the bumps are there, certainly, but they're seldom jarring or intrusive. Some hardcore Porsche old-timers say this refinement comes at a price, and that this latest-generation 911, with its fully independent rear suspension, has lost some of its feel. But we think the 911, regardless of model, offers plenty of feedback. You can sense the rear weight bias and you can actually feel the changing amounts of grip the front tires have as the car goes through an undulating corner. And of course, the smooth ride is relative. The 911 GT2 and GT3, with their race-inspired suspension tuning, are much stiffer, louder and bouncier on public roads. The two-wheel-drive models do have more trailing throttle oversteer than the all-wheel-drive models. That means that if you suddenly lift off the throttle in the middle of a turn, the weight shifts forward and the rear end lightens. Abruptly lifting off of the throttle while cornering hard in the middle of an on-ramp caused the rear of a Targa to come out a bit. It was easily controllable, but an all-wheel-drive Carrera 4S did not do the same thing during a similar maneuver. Having said that, the Carrera 2 is very forgiving, not like the wicked 911s of old. The Carrera 4S may offer better accident avoidance capabilities than any other car on the road. First of all, it has excellent brakes. Huge brake rotors and one-piece, four-piston calipers derived from Porsche's race cars, along with excellent weight distribution and massive tire contact patches, allow it to generate incredible braking forces. As a result, it scrubs off speed in no time. Its anti-lock brake system is excellent, allowing the driver to steer around the problem while braking at the threshold. Moreover, the brakes continue to work in top form after repeated high-speed stops that will ignite the brake-pad bonding agent on lesser cars. Porsche requires brakes to provide 25 consecutive full-force stops without fade. Yet they are easy to modulate in normal, lazy driving. While the Carrera 4 offers superior traction on slippery surfaces, Porsche designed its all-wheel drive system as much for improved performance on dry pavement. The AWD adds some weight and a substantial amount of money to the price, but it also i

Final Word

There are other sports cars with high levels of performance. And there are other cars with panache and mystique similar to that of the Porsche 911. You might argue that a Ferrari has more sex appeal, or that the more brutish nature of a Dodge Viper is what high-performance cars are really about. And you might be right. But those arguments don't really apply. By any objective measure, the Porsche 911 is truly one of the world's finest sports cars. The Viper might beat it on a dragstrip (or in One Lap of America). The Ferrari 360 Modena might sing more sweetly when it's wound up at ultra-high revs. And certainly a Corvette delivers overall value that's hard for any of these sports cars to beat. But no sports car can match the 911's combination of chassis sophistication, power, overall balance, tight, rugged build quality and general livability. And the 911 does that without sanitizing all the fun out of the package. The Porsche 911 is precision machinery. It is easy to drive, and very easy to live with. Perhaps best of all, satisfaction with the 911 will likely increase with time. You'll grow to like it more, not less, and that quality can be hard to come by in today's throwaway world. As they say, there is no substitute.