BEHIND THE WHEEL: Porsche 911 Carrera S
SATURDAY JULY 25, 2015
I am not going to beat about and go straight to the point because the 991 Carrera is quite the perfect car. Torque has been spread throughout the rev range giving the car more urgency down low so there’s no need to reach for higher rpm compared to its predecessor in city drives. Having a newer version of the PDK, low speed jerkings are a thing of the past. Gears now shift within a blink of an eye, up or down and in and out of coasting. The comfort that these suspensions provide too have been vastly improved enabling the Carrera to crunch more miles than ever.
PRO
Looks and feel expensive
Telepathic gearshifts
Overall comfort
Noise
CON
Some heart has been leaked away
Pricier than before
SPECIFICATION
3.8-litre flat-six
400hp 440Nm
7-speed PDK
0-100 km/h: 4.1s
Top speed: 302 km/h
From RM 930,000
Gone is the hydraulic steering, replaced with an electric setup that’s to me largely accurate yet precise. I’ve got no beef with it even though it might be a tad light , lacking that hydraulic feedback or shake from a rear-engined car. You just have to have; Sports Chrono, Sports Exhaust (PSE) along with active dampers (PASM) installed for the full 911 experience. The first option works pretty much like before while the new sports exhaust system gives you more noise and crackle (especially on Sport not Sport +). Lastly, active dampers will grant you two cars first, a supple riding bona fide grand tourer second, a track weapon.
As much as it is perfect but in truth, it is at best near-perfect. It is a better successor only if you have all the above mentioned options otherwise you would be left wishing that you had spent more to fill the centre console. The fact that the center front grill has come off and loosely fitted seat belt columns on the B-pillar after a year of ownership are quite unacceptable for something that is nudging a million ringgit. The 991 as a whole has been given proper upgrades as everything looks and feels expensive (if you tick the full leather option).
" Flat-6 and sports exhaust are two things one can never get enough of "
Having spent an entire day in a 991 Carrera S doing the slow as well as fast bits (more of the latter), it has earned my utmost respect for only consuming 16.5 litres of fuel every 100 km. It has covered about 300 kilometres but I can’t help to feel that it has left me wishing for it to be more driver-involving. Even in Sports Plus mode, push it hard into a bend on a sunny day, it would first understeer then balance it out for you. Push harder and give it a flick would only grant you a little slide which is all good if a balanced handling characteristic is what you are after.
Porsche’s launch control system is the most straightforward one in the industry, steel brakes bite hard while the 3.8-litre block alongside the sports exhaust system takes centre stage. The noise it produces is one thing no one can never get enough of.
At the end of the day, it does make you think if the Carrera S was deliberately made disconnected to leave room for more involving upcoming models. This means you'd be needing two 911s, a Carrera for everyday and a GT model for the weekends. As frequently as that comes to mind, my heart was left wanting the cruder, rawer 997.