Top Gear 991 Review
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Top Gear 991 Review
in fact 2 reviews and obviously not written by Jeremy 
http://www.topgear.com/uk/porsche/911/road-test/carrera-s
As we sweep and dive along the Chumash Highway, in the foothills of California's stunning Santa Ynez mountains, it's clear that the new 911 Carrera S is no slow-burn, hard-to-fathom, funny handshake machine. It's dark, I've just got into it, and I haven't got the slightest clue where I'm going or how long it'll take to get to wherever it is I haven't heard of. Not the ideal start, then. But this is immediately and emphatically a genius motor car.
Where to begin? Well it fits the driver perfectly. You get in, twiddle the seat adjustment thing, and within seconds you feel like you've just pulled on a second skin. It's not too upright, its extremities are as easy to place as ever, and it's palpably a place in which to do business.
The new 911 gets the same car-shaped key as the Panamera, a chunky plastic billet that slots in to the left of the wheel (there's no start button in here). It fires up with the same ripe, ****-ended roar as every other 911 you've ever driven, then settles into that distinctive pulsing beat. So far, so familiar. Our test car is the PDK auto - a drive in the seven-speed manual will have to wait, I'm afraid - a system that I've never particularly enjoyed before. At least Porsche has abandoned the nonsensical buttons that blighted the first PDK cars in favour of conventional but logical column-mounted paddles.
This must be the easiest sports car in the world to drive. The PDK slurs through its seven ratios imperceptibly, and drops into seventh for a 70-80mph freeway cruise. The first big revelation: there is barely a whisper of wind disturbance around the door mirrors, and almost no mechanical noise whatsoever.
California, like so many other places right now, is too broke to invest in its road network, so much of the surface is a nasty, mottled tarmac quilt. The next surprise is that, like the Ferrari 458 and McLaren 12C, the new 911 has an unusually composed and compliant ride. At one point we cross a railway line, but instead of getting generously airborne you'd hardly know it was there. The 911 glides over the expansion joints like a limo, and this on the shiny new, lightweight 20in alloy wheels. It's better, in fact, than the last Panamera I drove, and that actually is a limo. The 911's overall refinement is extraordinary.
Up into the mountains now. That's one side of its character; time to unravel the other, more important one. There are a lot of buttons on the Carrera GT-inspired ****pit centre console, and the 911 has an entire alphabet's worth of acronyms, but hitting the Sport button sharpens up the engine dynamics and gives you total control over the PDK's shifts. Push another button, inscribed with what looks like a pair of owlish spectacles, and you link both exhaust manifolds via a flap-controlled exit on the silencers. It sounds far more exciting than it reads, and the exhaust note swells to something truly epic on full-throttle upshifts. In battle mode, the 911 can still clearly muster a Wagnerian soundtrack if you want it to.
It takes just three or four corners to realise that, far from being neutered by its changes, the new 911 substantially raises the bar. Yes, the trademark front-end lightness has all but gone now, and as a result that inimitable 911 sensation of being pushed out of a corner as if by a giant hand is wound back too. But it's now less an act of faith to commit to a fast corner, and the traction out is as monumental as ever. Should you encounter anything unexpected in the middle of the corner, meanwhile, the Porsche now simply shrugs it off and sails on round unperturbed.
In other words, it's a less extreme experience, and if you were being really hard-assed you might say it's not quite as memorable. But it's dazzlingly effective, and the 911 Carrera S is now a more rounded, less quixotic animal as a result. And one, let's not forget, that manages to average 9.5l/100km and emits just 205g/km (with the PDK), while pumping out 400bhp, hitting 62mph in 4.1 seconds, and doing almost 190mph. They're amazing numbers, although I'd argue that it doesn't feel quite as expressive and free-revving as before, and its mid-range is a teensy bit constricted. While the new 911 is aiming for - and achieves - an impressive cleanliness for such a powerful car, in so doing ironically it's become slightly less organic.
All things considered - its price, its performance, its economy and emissions - it's pretty clear we're talking about the world's best sports car here. The 911 used to be as much defined by its quirks and foibles as it was by its genius. Well, the foibles have gone. The genius is now more ingenious than ever.
__________________________________________________ ________________
Porsche 911 overall verdict
http://www.topgear.com/uk/porsche/911/verdict
"The 911 is a masterpiece, but so it bloody should be. They’ve been fiddling with it for 50 years"
Still the benchmark against which manufacturers and punters alike measure everything else, the Porsche 911 is the quintessential sports car of yesterday, today and most likely tomorrow too. Ubiquitous it may be, but there’s a good reason for that.
http://www.topgear.com/uk/porsche/911/road-test/carrera-s
- 991 Carrera S PDK, £81,242, Driven November 2011
As we sweep and dive along the Chumash Highway, in the foothills of California's stunning Santa Ynez mountains, it's clear that the new 911 Carrera S is no slow-burn, hard-to-fathom, funny handshake machine. It's dark, I've just got into it, and I haven't got the slightest clue where I'm going or how long it'll take to get to wherever it is I haven't heard of. Not the ideal start, then. But this is immediately and emphatically a genius motor car.
Where to begin? Well it fits the driver perfectly. You get in, twiddle the seat adjustment thing, and within seconds you feel like you've just pulled on a second skin. It's not too upright, its extremities are as easy to place as ever, and it's palpably a place in which to do business.
The new 911 gets the same car-shaped key as the Panamera, a chunky plastic billet that slots in to the left of the wheel (there's no start button in here). It fires up with the same ripe, ****-ended roar as every other 911 you've ever driven, then settles into that distinctive pulsing beat. So far, so familiar. Our test car is the PDK auto - a drive in the seven-speed manual will have to wait, I'm afraid - a system that I've never particularly enjoyed before. At least Porsche has abandoned the nonsensical buttons that blighted the first PDK cars in favour of conventional but logical column-mounted paddles.
This must be the easiest sports car in the world to drive. The PDK slurs through its seven ratios imperceptibly, and drops into seventh for a 70-80mph freeway cruise. The first big revelation: there is barely a whisper of wind disturbance around the door mirrors, and almost no mechanical noise whatsoever.
California, like so many other places right now, is too broke to invest in its road network, so much of the surface is a nasty, mottled tarmac quilt. The next surprise is that, like the Ferrari 458 and McLaren 12C, the new 911 has an unusually composed and compliant ride. At one point we cross a railway line, but instead of getting generously airborne you'd hardly know it was there. The 911 glides over the expansion joints like a limo, and this on the shiny new, lightweight 20in alloy wheels. It's better, in fact, than the last Panamera I drove, and that actually is a limo. The 911's overall refinement is extraordinary.
Up into the mountains now. That's one side of its character; time to unravel the other, more important one. There are a lot of buttons on the Carrera GT-inspired ****pit centre console, and the 911 has an entire alphabet's worth of acronyms, but hitting the Sport button sharpens up the engine dynamics and gives you total control over the PDK's shifts. Push another button, inscribed with what looks like a pair of owlish spectacles, and you link both exhaust manifolds via a flap-controlled exit on the silencers. It sounds far more exciting than it reads, and the exhaust note swells to something truly epic on full-throttle upshifts. In battle mode, the 911 can still clearly muster a Wagnerian soundtrack if you want it to.
It takes just three or four corners to realise that, far from being neutered by its changes, the new 911 substantially raises the bar. Yes, the trademark front-end lightness has all but gone now, and as a result that inimitable 911 sensation of being pushed out of a corner as if by a giant hand is wound back too. But it's now less an act of faith to commit to a fast corner, and the traction out is as monumental as ever. Should you encounter anything unexpected in the middle of the corner, meanwhile, the Porsche now simply shrugs it off and sails on round unperturbed.
In other words, it's a less extreme experience, and if you were being really hard-assed you might say it's not quite as memorable. But it's dazzlingly effective, and the 911 Carrera S is now a more rounded, less quixotic animal as a result. And one, let's not forget, that manages to average 9.5l/100km and emits just 205g/km (with the PDK), while pumping out 400bhp, hitting 62mph in 4.1 seconds, and doing almost 190mph. They're amazing numbers, although I'd argue that it doesn't feel quite as expressive and free-revving as before, and its mid-range is a teensy bit constricted. While the new 911 is aiming for - and achieves - an impressive cleanliness for such a powerful car, in so doing ironically it's become slightly less organic.
All things considered - its price, its performance, its economy and emissions - it's pretty clear we're talking about the world's best sports car here. The 911 used to be as much defined by its quirks and foibles as it was by its genius. Well, the foibles have gone. The genius is now more ingenious than ever.
__________________________________________________ ________________
Porsche 911 overall verdict
http://www.topgear.com/uk/porsche/911/verdict
"The 911 is a masterpiece, but so it bloody should be. They’ve been fiddling with it for 50 years"
Still the benchmark against which manufacturers and punters alike measure everything else, the Porsche 911 is the quintessential sports car of yesterday, today and most likely tomorrow too. Ubiquitous it may be, but there’s a good reason for that.
- Comfort
Despite being smaller than your average high-end sportscar, the 911 is superbly packaged. It feels far more spacious than you'd give it credit for from the kerbside, and the new '991' rides smoothly and noiselessly at ridiculous speeds, even on rutted tarmac.
- Performance
The base 911 gets a 3.4-litre flat-six with 350bhp that, equipped with Porsche's double-clutch PDK ‘box, sprints from 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds. That's precisely 0.1 seconds quicker than before. The Carrera S gets the ‘familiar' 3.8-litre boxer engine with 400bhp, and mated to the PDK gearbox hits 62mph in 4.3 seconds. Both times drop even more with the optional Sport Chrono Pack: 4.4s for the Carrera, 4.1s for the S.
- Cool
In the grand British tradition of thinly veiled envy, anyone seen driving a 911 is treated with utter contempt by all other road users. The 911 is a cool car. We all know that. But we also accept that if you drive one you will be regarded as a tosser.
- Quality
The modern 911 is still beautifully built and able to rack up ridiculous mileage without showing a trace of wear and tear.
- Handling
After three decades of seemingly inexplicable end-swapping, the 911 is now an extremely compliant, planted and predictable creature. Combine this with truly sublime steering and you have one of the finest set-ups available.
- Practicality
The 911 is an icon of impracticality; the car the divorcee buys when he no longer has the kids to worry about. There's a reasonable amount of load space if you include the useless rear seats, but it's all split up and fairly inaccessible.
- Running costs
It costs an absolute bomb to buy, insure and fuel a 911. And if you so much as scrape it, it'll cost another bomb (so by now a bombardment if you will) to get it patched up. Go in carefully with very deep pockets.
Last edited by catchmyshadow; Nov 20, 2011 at 08:08 AM.
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EVO
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Car Reviews: evo Car Reviews
Driven: all-new Porsche 911 Carrera S
Rating:
The all-new 991 iteration of the Porsche 911 coupe, driven for the first time in Carrera S form. But has it been worth the wait?
By Harvey RubinovichNovember 2011
What is it?
The 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera, codenamed 991 for no particular reason other than Porsche is running out of codenames beginning with '9, and this one was still available, for now available as a rear-drive coupe but soon to be joined by a full pipeline of variants. The standard Carrera uses a direct-injection 3.4-litre 350bhp flat-six de-stroked from the old 3.6-litre for fuel savings, while the Carrera S has a 394bhp 3.8-litre that is mostly carry-over. The seven-speed comes as a paddle-shift PDK or, intriguingly, as a manual with an extra dog-leg to the far right for the economy cruising gear.
It's on sale in Europe next year, but we've already driven it in the USA.
Technical Highlights?
Many colours are available, but all will be green(er). Aluminum bodyshell content rises to 45 percent now that the roof, floor, doors, bonnet, front wings, and forward crash box are all alloy. That holds the kerbweights down to just under those of the previous model.
On a longer wheelbase with a lower roof and wider front track, Porsche is trying out several new technologies aimed at saving fuel, including its first use of electric power steering. This risky dalliance with a known buzz-kill uses a rack-mounted motor and extensive control logic to filter out unwanted 'noise' through the steering while preserving what's we're told is 'useful' feedback. More petrol pinching comes from stop/start, deceleration-only battery charging, and a coast-at-idle function for PDK-equipped cars that decouples the engine in some coasting scenarios. For handling, a new active anti-roll bar uses compact hydraulic cylinders in place of stabilizer-bar links to help keep the car flatter through corners, plus a torque vectoring system that selectively activates the rear brakes in concert with a locking differential, mechanical or electronic depending on the configuration, for aiming the car at apexes.
What’s it like to drive?
It’s only 30mm longer overall, but with the windscreen center point moved out 75mm over a deeper dash, and a sloping center console evocative of the Panamera’s, the new 911 feels much bigger from the captain’s chair.
Some of the old 911's intimacy is lost, but road noise drops considerably inside (at 80 mph you can hear the Sport Chrono clock ticking, for example) and functionality and comfort both rise - even for the long-suffering back seat passengers, who get another 30mm of legroom.
The longer wheelbase and more equitable axle-weight distribution does as advertised and imparts greater stability, so there’s less vertical bounding through turns and better front-end bite out of the corners. Note: we drove only the 3.8 equipped with the optional dynamic engine mounts, which in the previous car helped greatly in keeping the **** planted.
The steering is indeed more filtered, with most of the hyper-organic jiggles and tugging tossed out. There's still a progressive ramp-up in steering effort that feels natural enough for a car that sells mainly to older folk who aren’t cross-shopping an Exige. The brakes are solid and trustworthy, and they and the differential give the new 911 a sharp lift-throttle turn-in that it never had before.
How does it compare?
People who have always wanted a 911 shouldn’t feel that they’ve missed their moment. The 991 is smoother, quieter, larger, more comfortable on a long drive, but it’s still fundamentally a 911.
So the basic arguments for and against remain the same if you’re looking at, say, the Jag XKR, the Maserati Gran Turismo, or a used Aston. It may be less exotic, but the 911 remains a blue-chip choice and more of an engineering wonder than its rivals.
Anything else I should know?
Porsche has been masterful at expanding the roles the 911 can play, from cushy around-towner for solicitors to hell-spitting track demon. It’ll be interesting to see how this luxed-up enviro-911 morphs into a GT3, or even a GT2. Assuming such things aren’t banned in the coming years.
NEWSCAR REVIEWSDATAVIDEOSFEATURESBUY NEWUSED CARSBUYING GUIDESTRACKDAYSCOMMUNITYWIN3 ISSUES FOR £1SHOPFORZA 4
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Car Reviews: evo Car Reviews
Driven: all-new Porsche 911 Carrera S
Rating:
The all-new 991 iteration of the Porsche 911 coupe, driven for the first time in Carrera S form. But has it been worth the wait?
By Harvey RubinovichNovember 2011
What is it?
The 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera, codenamed 991 for no particular reason other than Porsche is running out of codenames beginning with '9, and this one was still available, for now available as a rear-drive coupe but soon to be joined by a full pipeline of variants. The standard Carrera uses a direct-injection 3.4-litre 350bhp flat-six de-stroked from the old 3.6-litre for fuel savings, while the Carrera S has a 394bhp 3.8-litre that is mostly carry-over. The seven-speed comes as a paddle-shift PDK or, intriguingly, as a manual with an extra dog-leg to the far right for the economy cruising gear.
It's on sale in Europe next year, but we've already driven it in the USA.
Technical Highlights?
Many colours are available, but all will be green(er). Aluminum bodyshell content rises to 45 percent now that the roof, floor, doors, bonnet, front wings, and forward crash box are all alloy. That holds the kerbweights down to just under those of the previous model.
On a longer wheelbase with a lower roof and wider front track, Porsche is trying out several new technologies aimed at saving fuel, including its first use of electric power steering. This risky dalliance with a known buzz-kill uses a rack-mounted motor and extensive control logic to filter out unwanted 'noise' through the steering while preserving what's we're told is 'useful' feedback. More petrol pinching comes from stop/start, deceleration-only battery charging, and a coast-at-idle function for PDK-equipped cars that decouples the engine in some coasting scenarios. For handling, a new active anti-roll bar uses compact hydraulic cylinders in place of stabilizer-bar links to help keep the car flatter through corners, plus a torque vectoring system that selectively activates the rear brakes in concert with a locking differential, mechanical or electronic depending on the configuration, for aiming the car at apexes.
What’s it like to drive?
It’s only 30mm longer overall, but with the windscreen center point moved out 75mm over a deeper dash, and a sloping center console evocative of the Panamera’s, the new 911 feels much bigger from the captain’s chair.
Some of the old 911's intimacy is lost, but road noise drops considerably inside (at 80 mph you can hear the Sport Chrono clock ticking, for example) and functionality and comfort both rise - even for the long-suffering back seat passengers, who get another 30mm of legroom.
The longer wheelbase and more equitable axle-weight distribution does as advertised and imparts greater stability, so there’s less vertical bounding through turns and better front-end bite out of the corners. Note: we drove only the 3.8 equipped with the optional dynamic engine mounts, which in the previous car helped greatly in keeping the **** planted.
The steering is indeed more filtered, with most of the hyper-organic jiggles and tugging tossed out. There's still a progressive ramp-up in steering effort that feels natural enough for a car that sells mainly to older folk who aren’t cross-shopping an Exige. The brakes are solid and trustworthy, and they and the differential give the new 911 a sharp lift-throttle turn-in that it never had before.
How does it compare?
People who have always wanted a 911 shouldn’t feel that they’ve missed their moment. The 991 is smoother, quieter, larger, more comfortable on a long drive, but it’s still fundamentally a 911.
So the basic arguments for and against remain the same if you’re looking at, say, the Jag XKR, the Maserati Gran Turismo, or a used Aston. It may be less exotic, but the 911 remains a blue-chip choice and more of an engineering wonder than its rivals.
Anything else I should know?
Porsche has been masterful at expanding the roles the 911 can play, from cushy around-towner for solicitors to hell-spitting track demon. It’ll be interesting to see how this luxed-up enviro-911 morphs into a GT3, or even a GT2. Assuming such things aren’t banned in the coming years.
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hmm, Jeremy traditionally dislikes Porsches, but those reviews praise the 991.
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I'm assuming you are referring to the TV show and not the magazine?
Bias in which direction?
Clarkson pretends to hate 911s, but has given them some positive reviews in the past (the 996 turbo comes to mind).
Hammond is a big proponent of 911s and has owned several.
May has owned a 987.
In any case, the Top Gear show has a large entertainment factor to it that you have to look past that to get to what they really think about the cars.
Bias in which direction?
Clarkson pretends to hate 911s, but has given them some positive reviews in the past (the 996 turbo comes to mind).
Hammond is a big proponent of 911s and has owned several.
May has owned a 987.
In any case, the Top Gear show has a large entertainment factor to it that you have to look past that to get to what they really think about the cars.
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Pistonheads.UK
Check their comment about the 07 speed manual.
http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=52&i=24729
Check their comment about the 07 speed manual.
http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=52&i=24729
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I'm assuming you are referring to the TV show and not the magazine?
Bias in which direction?
Clarkson pretends to hate 911s, but has given them some positive reviews in the past (the 996 turbo comes to mind).
Hammond is a big proponent of 911s and has owned several.
May has owned a 987.
In any case, the Top Gear show has a large entertainment factor to it that you have to look past that to get to what they really think the cars.
Bias in which direction?
Clarkson pretends to hate 911s, but has given them some positive reviews in the past (the 996 turbo comes to mind).
Hammond is a big proponent of 911s and has owned several.
May has owned a 987.
In any case, the Top Gear show has a large entertainment factor to it that you have to look past that to get to what they really think the cars.
All very true. I watch for the laugh and the occasional Volvo wagon jumping campers segments. As for the reviews, their actual comments are often well taken, it when they give there ridiculous reasons for liking or disliking a car that it get silly. I like reading good things, hate reading bad thing, about something I like and spent a lot of $$$ on. But at the end of the day, I care more about what you all think, and what I think.
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