So Ladies and Gents, some of you may know I own a 996 Targa, well today was the day it was due its annual service.
Recently a Porsche garage has opened up quite close to me in Portsmouth, so the fact it is so much closer to home makes it a lot easier to get it serviced, I had been in to enquire about service costs recently, and asked what courtesy car I could have for the day, to which I was surprised to hear a nice brand new 911 (usually they offer Boxsters) so I duly took the day off and booked my car in for a service.
So arrived at Porsche first thing this morning to drop my car off and be handed the keys to a new 911 Carrera S.
First Impressions
Well the car isn't in a very inspiring colour being a dull silver, although the big wheels set the car off nicely along with the red calipers indicating it is an S model, the 4 exhausts on the rear looked just right size wise, but the rear looks too fussy just because of the excess of badges on the rear, would much prefer a clean rear or just Carrera S like the previous version.
Inside the new 911 is a real step up, from the previous model and makes my version look much older than the 10 years it is. The inside takes the modern layout for the latest Porsche models being very similar to the Panamera, which I am familiar with, inside you get a bit of kit as standard with the S model, but not loads, but you do get the latest Porsche Satnav and a Bose system, as well as some buttons for PASM and Sport, the best bit was the fact this car had a manual gearbox!
Couple of pictures:
Engine and Gearbox
The engine produces near on 400HP from a 3.8 flat six, so plenty of poke.
After letting the engine warm up I tested these power claims and I can say they are true, the way the car picks up especially from low revs is incredible, I had a few interesting moments on the cold damp roads first thing, with a little back end action but nothing too hairy that the electronics didn't curtail. The engine sounded incredible, especially with the PSE button turned on increasing the howl especially at the top end.
Now with all the new EU rules on CO2 this car is surprisingly low on emissions (230 or so per km) this is helped with the start stop tech, which for a 3.8 engine is quite impressive and turns on and off with barely any interruption, much less annoying than the system in my dads (diesel yuck) Panamera which with the tractor engine is a bit horrible.
The engine was surprisingly frugal giving me 19.2 MPG over 230 miles today.
Now driving an auto 95% of the time meant my first few gear changes were a bit robust, but soon got used to it, with this new 911 they have introduced a 7 speed manual, which is something I was intrigued by to see how well it works in practise.
The gearbox had good solid changes like any Porsches, but I felt it was a bit fiddly around the 5/6/7th gears, mainly due to the fact when changing into 6th it sometimes got stuck in the gate trying to move to 7th, and then on the way down it felt a bit wierd as I like to come down gears individually just didn't feel right going from 7th to 6th. Other than this gripe the gearbox was good although the clutch felt heavy at first though this might be my auto box weak left foot.
Chassis/Steering etc
So there has been a lot of talk about the steering being changed to electronic power steering for this model, all I can say is that it did not bother me in the slightest, with the info coming back through the wheel being plenty and the steering being as direct and heavy as all hydraulic steered porsches I have driven in the past, this combined with a great Chassis meant after about an hour I was really leaning on the car and felt very confident pushing with all the power at some quite scary speeds.
This 991 had PASM as standard, this is electronic damper control for the unitiatated. I have driven a few Porsches with this system fitted and the difference between it being on and off is night and day, however with this version the difference was much less noticable with the ride being absorbing in both modes but when it was on the body roll reduced noticably, but kept the bump absorption ability. A good system overall and really gives you confidence once again when chucking it around.
This car had a "Sport" button, however I couldn't really figure out what it did except stop the car telling me I needed to change up a gear to be economical.
Toys
So as I mentioned earlier this car had the PCM satnav and Bose system, this includes ipod connection and had the optional bluetooth connection, as I knew the ipod was standard plugged in my ipod in the glovebox and turned up the tunes, blimey for a small cabin this has a brilliant sound system, although the bass was a bit on the strong side.
I then paired up my phone using the bluetooth, this could not have been simpler, press phone search for phone then put in code on phone, having experienced some other manufacturers systems why can't they all be this easy?
The satnav is a bit old school with only 5 digit post code searches, but it works well enough with touch screen and it also displays a mini map in the instrument binnacle which is a lovely touch, along with various music, temperatures and car related items.
Overall
As a package the new 911 is bloody brilliant in all honesty, however I don't have 85k to spend on a new one which is probably about where this car would have been with the options added. Unfortunately it has highlighted to me how old mine is and is making me hanker for a C2S 997 even more. If I could afford this car I would have certainly specced up different colours, but the spec it came in had enough gadgets inside and for the chassis, I don't think the car needed any more electrics added to it.
Thanks for reading, few more pictures, apologies for the quality they were quick snaps taken on the phone, although it does hide how filthy I got this car today....
TL
R people - get a 911 if you have 85k to spend
Recently a Porsche garage has opened up quite close to me in Portsmouth, so the fact it is so much closer to home makes it a lot easier to get it serviced, I had been in to enquire about service costs recently, and asked what courtesy car I could have for the day, to which I was surprised to hear a nice brand new 911 (usually they offer Boxsters) so I duly took the day off and booked my car in for a service.
So arrived at Porsche first thing this morning to drop my car off and be handed the keys to a new 911 Carrera S.
First Impressions
Well the car isn't in a very inspiring colour being a dull silver, although the big wheels set the car off nicely along with the red calipers indicating it is an S model, the 4 exhausts on the rear looked just right size wise, but the rear looks too fussy just because of the excess of badges on the rear, would much prefer a clean rear or just Carrera S like the previous version.
Inside the new 911 is a real step up, from the previous model and makes my version look much older than the 10 years it is. The inside takes the modern layout for the latest Porsche models being very similar to the Panamera, which I am familiar with, inside you get a bit of kit as standard with the S model, but not loads, but you do get the latest Porsche Satnav and a Bose system, as well as some buttons for PASM and Sport, the best bit was the fact this car had a manual gearbox!
Couple of pictures:
Engine and Gearbox
The engine produces near on 400HP from a 3.8 flat six, so plenty of poke.
After letting the engine warm up I tested these power claims and I can say they are true, the way the car picks up especially from low revs is incredible, I had a few interesting moments on the cold damp roads first thing, with a little back end action but nothing too hairy that the electronics didn't curtail. The engine sounded incredible, especially with the PSE button turned on increasing the howl especially at the top end.
Now with all the new EU rules on CO2 this car is surprisingly low on emissions (230 or so per km) this is helped with the start stop tech, which for a 3.8 engine is quite impressive and turns on and off with barely any interruption, much less annoying than the system in my dads (diesel yuck) Panamera which with the tractor engine is a bit horrible.
The engine was surprisingly frugal giving me 19.2 MPG over 230 miles today.
Now driving an auto 95% of the time meant my first few gear changes were a bit robust, but soon got used to it, with this new 911 they have introduced a 7 speed manual, which is something I was intrigued by to see how well it works in practise.
The gearbox had good solid changes like any Porsches, but I felt it was a bit fiddly around the 5/6/7th gears, mainly due to the fact when changing into 6th it sometimes got stuck in the gate trying to move to 7th, and then on the way down it felt a bit wierd as I like to come down gears individually just didn't feel right going from 7th to 6th. Other than this gripe the gearbox was good although the clutch felt heavy at first though this might be my auto box weak left foot.
Chassis/Steering etc
So there has been a lot of talk about the steering being changed to electronic power steering for this model, all I can say is that it did not bother me in the slightest, with the info coming back through the wheel being plenty and the steering being as direct and heavy as all hydraulic steered porsches I have driven in the past, this combined with a great Chassis meant after about an hour I was really leaning on the car and felt very confident pushing with all the power at some quite scary speeds.
This 991 had PASM as standard, this is electronic damper control for the unitiatated. I have driven a few Porsches with this system fitted and the difference between it being on and off is night and day, however with this version the difference was much less noticable with the ride being absorbing in both modes but when it was on the body roll reduced noticably, but kept the bump absorption ability. A good system overall and really gives you confidence once again when chucking it around.
This car had a "Sport" button, however I couldn't really figure out what it did except stop the car telling me I needed to change up a gear to be economical.
Toys
So as I mentioned earlier this car had the PCM satnav and Bose system, this includes ipod connection and had the optional bluetooth connection, as I knew the ipod was standard plugged in my ipod in the glovebox and turned up the tunes, blimey for a small cabin this has a brilliant sound system, although the bass was a bit on the strong side.
I then paired up my phone using the bluetooth, this could not have been simpler, press phone search for phone then put in code on phone, having experienced some other manufacturers systems why can't they all be this easy?
The satnav is a bit old school with only 5 digit post code searches, but it works well enough with touch screen and it also displays a mini map in the instrument binnacle which is a lovely touch, along with various music, temperatures and car related items.
Overall
As a package the new 911 is bloody brilliant in all honesty, however I don't have 85k to spend on a new one which is probably about where this car would have been with the options added. Unfortunately it has highlighted to me how old mine is and is making me hanker for a C2S 997 even more. If I could afford this car I would have certainly specced up different colours, but the spec it came in had enough gadgets inside and for the chassis, I don't think the car needed any more electrics added to it.
Thanks for reading, few more pictures, apologies for the quality they were quick snaps taken on the phone, although it does hide how filthy I got this car today....
TL
R people - get a 911 if you have 85k to spend
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