Conceived as a larger, more comfortable successor to the Porsche 356 and originally powered by a 2.0-litre, 128bhp flat six engine, this effervescent sports car has kept up with the standards of the market’s freshest performance machinery through nearly half a century of technical evolution and refinement. The new 911 is both entirely familiar and very different, compared with its predecessors. Technologies such as direct fuel injection, turbocharging, four-wheel drive and, most famously, water cooling have been seamlessly integrated, but all the while the 911's legendary and utterly beguiling motive character has survived undimmed. But never has this car taken such a significant leap as the one that delivered it from 997 to this generation, the 991. With 90 percent of the car’s mechanical ingredients new or improved, this 911 features completely new axle dimensions, electromechanical power steering, a downsized engine, a construction richer in aluminium than ever before.
The new Porsche 911 Carrera S operates on a much higher performance plane than the seven-year-old model it replaces. With a 0-62mph time of 4.3sec and a top speed of 188mph, the new model storms up the strip 0.2sec faster and extends 2mph beyond the old Carrera S when running an updated version of the seven-speed PDK gearbox.
Porsche has held true to 911 tradition by raising the output. Power climbs by 14bhp to a new peak of 394bhp at 7400rpm, in the process taking its specific output beyond 100bhp per litre. Torque also improves by 13lb ft to 234lb ft at 5600rpm. With the drop in weight figured in, the bump in reserves provides for a 16bhp per tonne increase in the vital power-to-weight ratio at 282bhp per tonne.
