The new Porsche 991 is a fantastically capable sports car. The 911 has always been such a sweet-handling car that straight-line performance never really mattered. But that doesn’t mean it’s no good at it. Here’s a video of a casual quarter-mile run recorded somewhere in the U.S., and the new Porsche manages 12.04 seconds. In comparison, the Ferrari 458 Italia does it in 10.8 seconds.
The Ferrari of course has 160 more horsepower. And that shows how good Porsche’s time actually is. The Carrera S has 400 hp coming from a 3.8 liter flat-six engine. It is one of those cars that is actually quicker with the tiptronic transmission, the PDK, than the manual gearbox. With the seven-speed manual it goes from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds, but with PDK that’s 4.3 seconds.
The Porsche 911 Carrera is priced from £71,449 and the Porsche 911 Carrera S is priced from £81,242. Standard equipment on all models is leather interior, sports seats, automatic climate control, Bi-Xenon headlights, 7-inch colour touch-screen Porsche Communication Management with satellite navigation, a universal audio interface offering MP3 connectivity, Porsche Stability Management (PSM) and a three year warranty.
The Carrera S adds 20-inch alloy wheels, Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) and Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) with rear limited slip differential, in addition to the power advantage of the larger 3.8-litre engine. Fitted to every 911 is a Porsche Vehicle Tracking System (VTS), a sophisticated vehicle security package approved to Thatcham Category 5 standard, and customers will also be able to explore the potential of their new car by participating in a complimentary course at the Porsche Experience Centre, Silverstone.
