Porsche 911 Carrera Review
Published: 3rd September 2007
Porsche 911 Carrera
The 3.6-litre engine, hidden behind the beautifully louvred rear cover, produces 329.5 PS (that’s 325bhp in old money) at a lofty 6,800rpm and 370Nm (273 lb ft) of delicious torque, which peaks at 4,250rpm but seems ever-present. ‘Point and squirt’ is too ‘common’ a term for this car but that’s exactly what it does. The smile that you see on Porsche drivers’ faces isn’t smug complacency, it’s barely concealed delight.
Where legal, the top speed of the test car is 177mph. That’s fast enough for anyone with a strong sense of self-preservation, and I make no apology to the racing drivers of the Carrera Cup, the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup or American Le Mans Series.
That top speed figure is for the 911 Carrera with the 6-speed manual gearbox rather than the 5-speed, Tiptronic S, which takes 5.5 seconds to do the 0-62mph sprint – half a second longer than the manual. In day-to-day driving, the extra 0.5 seconds doesn’t matter a jot but in choosing the Tiptronic, you do miss out on the snappy, short-throw gear-change, which is more like flicking a switch. It is worth going through the gears, just for the joy of it and the accompanying noise, simply adds to the experience.
Of course, this moves you further away from the official fuel consumption figures of 17.5mpg, 34.9mpg and 25.7mpg for the urban, extra-urban and combined cycles, respectively. It’s not very eco-friendly - neither is the CO2 measurement of 270g/km but it is a good bit cleaner than it used to be.
Another first for the 911 Carrera is that it now has rack and pinion steering with a variable transmission ratio. If the last sentence means very little, it translates as very precise steering, it goes where you point it - when you point it and it is very easy to park. In fact, it is simply, very easy to drive and live with - even trips to the supermarket aren’t out of the question. Yes, Porsche owners go shopping too, from time to time. I have seen them filling up the 135-litre, luggage compartment, under the bonnet, with carrier bags. And that brings me to the suspension and balance.
The Porsche Active Suspension Management system (PASM) is standard on the Carrera S but was an option fitted to the test car. It offers sporting and comfortable damping for long journeys and a stiffer, ‘very sporting’ set-up for performance driving. The difference is evident when the ‘Sport’ button on the centre console is pressed and the car seems to draw itself in with a sharp intake of breath.
