All-weather 911 arrives

Newswheel staff :: 13 May 2005 :: Filed under Four wheel drive, Mid / rear engine sportscar, Porsche, Porsche 911 Carrera 4, Europe & UK, US,

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The any reason, every season supercar

We weren’t crazy about the beaky, glassy-eyed 997-vintage 911 at launch and we’ve got a nasty feeling the passage of time won’t do it any favours, either. You’d have to try awfully hard to produce a 180mph performance car with less visual drama. Then again, the blue car above, complete with a new alloy wheel design, doesn’t look too shabby. And anyway, Porsche’s sensible supercar has never been about eye-candy in a conventional sense – it’s the rear-drive chassis, legendary flat-six engine and telepathic helm that keeps the car ahead of the opposition.

So, we’ll drop the aesthetic proselytising and focus on the juicy hardware. Porsche has wheeled out its latest all-season 911. The new four-wheel drivetrain apart, the Carrera 4 largely mirrors the spec list of the existing rear-wheel-drive 997. Those soulful flat sixes are carried over largely unmolested. The standard Carrera 4 receives a 3.4-litre mill in 325bhp trim and the Carrera 4S packs 355bhp from 3.6-litres. As with the previous Carrera 4, the viscous coupling AWD system delivers between 5 and 40 per cent of torque to the front wheels. Meanwhile, the PSM stability system gets an upgrade to include a pre-pressured braking system which eliminates the air gap between the pads and discs, thereby improving reactions times and reducing stopping distances. The system also detects when the driver has thrown on the anchors in a hurry and boosts pressure in a similar manner to Mercedes-Benz’s Brake Assist tech. As yet, there’s no information on the inevitable weight penalty of the new four-wheel-drive chassis but Porsche is quoting 4.9 seconds and 4.6 seconds to 60mph for the 4 and the 4S respectively. The cars top-out at 174mph and 179mph.

Unlike previous iterations of the Carrera 4, the new model comes as standard with rear wheel arches widened to the tune of 44mm (1 ¾ -inches). That allows Porsche to bolt on some serious rubber. At the rear, the vanilla 4 gets 295/35 ZR18 boots, while the 4S boasts impossibly low-profile 305/30 ZR19 rubber bands. The ride quality should be interesting.

The bottom line

As for pricing, if you’re British please look away now. The US to UK differential is as sickening as ever - $77,100 is the starting sticker for the base Carrera 4 compared with £62,930 in old money. Meanwhile the 4S will go for a slightly steep sounding $87,100 Stateside and £69,900 in Blighty. Best not do the sums, eh?

Linkage:
Porsche US
Porsche UK