2016 Porsche 911 Carrera S India review, test drive

Have turbos spoiled the 911? Or is this new 911with the downsized twin-turbo motor the best one yet?

Published on Sep 07, 2016 07:00:00 AM

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2016 Porsche 911 Carrera S India review, test drive

Yes, the rorty flat-six blare and the chainsaw snarl are reduced because of the turbos, and the crispness in the throttle at both, low and higher revs is missing too, but this car gains so much mid-range grunt, it now feels more junior supercar than grown-up sportscar. But is it really a surprise? Porsche has plenty of experience force-feeding 911s (40 years in fact), and hasn’t the ‘turbo’, the one with sledgehammer-like performance, always been the car to get in the range? Still, I miss the sharpness of the non-turbo motor, I miss having to work hard to get more from the engine, I miss the theatre, and the 8,000rpm, well... is 8,000 rpm. This pulls hard past 7,000rpm too, but it’s done its best by 6,500rpm and that’s a bit of a downer.

What’s taken a big step forward, however, is the steering. It now feels nice, meaty and direct; a far cry from the first electric units on the 911. As the roads open up, I begin to drive the new 911 S with more confidence. It’s still damp and it still feels greasy in bits, but the car is goading me into stepping up the pace, and I just can’t resist. Sport+ puts the car in the right mode and with the PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) selected, the car feels even ‘tighter’ and more nimble.

No four-wheel-drive system, so steering remains uncorrupted and pure.

As I start loading up the suspension, I get a bit of scrub and initial understeer from the lightly ‘weighted’ nose, and compared with other mid-engined cars, the manner in which it turns in isn’t as crisp. But the overall poise on this new car is so good, it feels extremely relaxed and in control. And the harder I go and the later I brake, the better balanced it feels, and the additional power helps neutralise the understeer. Accelerating out of corners, with even just a little slip at the rear is such a thrill.

Does the four-wheel steering on this car really help? And does the car feel a bit more ‘loose’ because it’s a convertible and it doesn’t have the stiffness of a hard-top? Yes, the rear-wheel steering should have made it both more agile and more stable. And the fact that the car is a drop-top, must have made a difference too, but don’t ask me where and how.

What does help, especially in our conditions, is that the ride’s bump absorption is just so much better. There’s no skipping and hopping over bad patches in this new car and there’s very little crashing through potholes either. This means you can add power with a bit more confidence, secure in the knowledge that our roads won’t try and rip the suspension off. The ride in fact is so good, the car actually feels comfortable to drive even on our city roads. When was the last time we experienced that? And Porsche has made this car even more practical in our conditions; you can now raise the nose by a good 40mm and even keep it up until 35kph.