Instrumented Test
TESTED
It’s one of the longest-running acts in the business: The Porsche 911 turns a limber-as-ever 50 this year. As skillfully performed as the dance of the seven veils, Porsche continues to tease out ever more powerful, more capable, and more expensive versions of its new 991-platform 911. It’s a dance we’ve seen many times before, yet we still linger, natural curiosity piqued, clenching our wallets ever more tightly, as veils flutter to the dance floor and the choreography intensifies.
We recently had the chance to hook up our gear to an all-wheel-drive, 400-hp Carrera 4S, a bridge between the base Carrera and Turbo. In the stair step of Porsche pricing, the $106,580 Carrera 4S is $14,600 more dear than the $91,980 Carrera 4. For the extra tip-jar donations, the 4S brings 50 more horsepower, greater grunt of 37 lb-ft, bigger front brakes, standard torque vectoring, and PASM aerodynamic upgrades and electronic dampers (both optional on the Carrera 4). It also features a 0.3-inch-lower ride height, as well as 10-mm-wider (245/35 section) tires on one-inch-larger (20 inch) wheels. Porsche claims the 4S is 0.4 second quicker to 60 than the 4, although we saw that differential between this PDK-automatic-equipped 4S and a rear-drive Carrera we tested in 2012. So, in pure accelerative ability, the Carrera 4S’s 4.0-second 0-to-60 time is an incremental improvement over that of the base rear-drive Carrera.
Get a Grip
But the 1.05-g skidpad number posted by the 4S is a significant 0.07 g stickier than what we saw from the base 911, highlighting what sets the Carrera 4S apart from the large field of high-performance sports cars: the intangible, hoovered-to-the-tarmac security delivered by the AWD setup and standard Porsche Traction Management system. The Carrera 4S is literally a stab-and-steer proposition, especially when equipped with our test car’s $4080 PDK transmission. Mash the throttle, and the car catapults off the mark. Turn the wheel, and it changes direction obediently. The quick reflexes, the traction, and the stability can make any Carrera 4S driver look like a pro behind the wheel. Plus, in wet or slippery road conditions, all-wheel drive can make a huge difference.
The Carrera 4S lives in the realm of all-wheel-drive, high-performance sports cars that cost less than $150,000. It’s an exclusive club that includes such disparate bedfellows as the chunky Nissan GT-R and the new-age Audi R8 4.2 V-8, but even though these cars will match or beat the Carrera 4S in acceleration, they fall short of the Porsche in braking and roadholding. And beyond the numbers, the 911, even in swollen 991-series form, simply feels a bit smaller on the road than the Audi or Nissan, and it translates into a more intimate driving experience.
Our $145,585 2013 Carrera 4S tester came decked out with $39,005 worth of options. The $2330 Premium Plus package upgraded the excellent seats with memory, heating, and ventilation and brought keyless entry and start, active headlamps, and more. A $3465 Adaptive Sport Seats Plus package added stiffer, inflatable bolsters for a total of 18 adjustments; a $4120 black/gray leather trim package draped door and dash trim in hides; $1870 trimmed out the backs of the front seats in leather; and $490 snagged a sport steering wheel. Other adds included a glass sunroof ($1990), Burmester premium audio ($5290), front-and-rear sonar park assist ($990), black paint for the wheels ($1635), electric-folding side mirrors ($320), set-it-and-forget-it adaptive cruise control ($2490), wheel spacers ($490), a rear wiper ($360), and body-color paint for the key fob ($335). Finally, our test car sported the $2950 sport exhaust, roll-reducing Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control ($3160), and the $2370 Sport Chrono package (it includes Sport Plus mode for more-aggressive throttle and shift maps, PDK launch control, and a cool g-force dash display).
Plan B
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention one more choice in the high-performance sports-car realm—and that’s Porsche’s own mid-engined Cayman, which is all-new for 2014. There are a large number of Porsche buyers who wouldn’t even consider purchasing anything other than the 911, but a Cayman S can be had fully loaded—so, almost $40,000 of options—for about the cost of a base Carrera 4S. Although we have yet to test the Cayman S, the junior Porsche coupe should deliver a huge percentage of the performance we saw from the 4S at roughly 70 percent of the price. The Cayman certainly doesn’t lack for style or performance, either, the only major deficit in this head-to-head being the lack of an all-wheel-drive system. As conundrums go, it’s a nice one to have—it’s not as if you could go wrong.
