The contemporary Porsche lineup ranks slightly below the Turkmen tax code and the rebuild instructions for a Dell'Orto carburetoramong maddeningly complex foreign things. To wit: the four-wheel-drive 911, the Carrera 4. The next iteration of the new 991-generation 911 is available in Carrera 4 and more powerful Carrera 4S versions. As with the two-wheel-drive versions, the Carrera uses a 3.4-liter engine, the Carrera S employs a 3.8-liter version of the same flat-six engine, and there are convertible versions of the pair. There will be a pop quiz on this. Open-book answers will not be allowed.
Autoweek recently sampled both the coupe and convertible versions of the 4 and 4S in scenic Graz, Austria—the hometown of a Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It rained for our entire stay. Being a seasoned convertible veteran, I knew that you're nothing if you don't drive in the wet with the top down—and with the sure-footedness of Porsche's all-wheel-drive system and Porsche Traction Management (PTM), no force of nature could stop the Porsche's own force of nature. You know what? Maybe things aren't so complicated at all.
What's it like to drive?
Embracing the Austro-German region's love of kitsch, we drove the 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, which is located in a mustard-colored two-story house on the outskirts of the industrial city of Graz. It's his childhood home, see, from whence he came to take the bodybuilding world by storm, marry a Kennedy, rule the eighth-largest economy in the world, and star in Kindergarten Cop—arguably his finest 98 minutes. (It's for sale on DVD here, with Junior on the same disc!) Presumably the bronze statue of him flexing in his '70s Venice Beach days didn't exist when he was a toddler.
"I'm gonna come with you just to tell you how uncool you are," said Andrew, a British chap who followed in a coupe while I and a Canadian journalist drove in the convertible—with the top down.
"Two dudes?” I replied. “In a 911 Cabrio? Top down in the rain? Going to the Schwarzenegger museum? We are the epitome of cool, my friend."
The 911 Carrera 4 that we drove there, raindrops sailing over our heads, uses an all-wheel-drive system based on that of the outgoing 911 Turbo. Power can be diverted to each rear wheel individually or almost entirely to the front wheels via PTM—“though this is quite an academic value,” said an increasingly terse German engineer. This is the part where you'd expect us to say that it grips like Arnold. Well, no—that would be too easy a metaphor. But it holds the road like a champ, offering superb feedback and agility with seamless power delivery. According to Porsche, the AWD system only adds 110 pounds to the weight of the car, a fair trade for its impact on acceleration and roadholding. Launch Control, we are happy to report, works as well as it does on any other Porsche, and it's extremely easy to use.
New for 2013 is a rev-matching system, available on seven-speed manual cars with the Sport Chrono package. Press the Sport Plus button and when you downshift, the 911 will blip the throttle (a technical term: We asked the engineers, and they agreed) to match revs. You'll enjoy a boomier exhaust note, coming from way back there somewhere. Similar to the system Nissan employs in the 370Z, it enabled us to nail perfect shifts, every time.
Convertible top or coupe, power remains the same for Carrera and Carrera S models: 350 hp for the smaller Carrera engine, 400 hp for the “big-block.”
Do I want it?
If you're in Schwarzenegger's adopted state of California, then no. Unless you really enjoy the subtly widened hips and the jet-age rear reflector strip, and paying $8,930 more for those features. (Moving up to the 4S costs a whopping $14,600 more, highway robbery for 50 hp.)
“Why would the Carrera 4 exist?” asked one journalist during Porsche's product presentation, “if the two-wheel-drive model already grips and handles so well?”
Because globally, the Carrera 4 and its zootier 4S sibling comprise at least 34 percent of all 911s sold. Of course, in snowy European climes like Austria and Switzerland, the breathless Germans told us that AWD 911s account for more than half of all 911s sold. And the Turbo model, of course, needs an AWD system to put down its screaming Teutonic firepower. If anything, the Carrera 4 and 4S are sedate testbeds for that system.
It also seems perfect for a drive through a wet Austrian autumn to pay tribute to the Schwarzenegger himself. He does own a Porsche, but we didn't see it parked at the museum. We didn't see anyone parked at the museum, for that matter. His car? A 911 Turbo Cabriolet—with a very necessary AWD system, of course. We say he's earned it.
2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4/4S
ON SALE: Now
BASE PRICE: $91,030 Carrera 4, $14,600 Carrera 4S
DRIVETRAIN: 3.4- and 3.8-liter, 350- and 400-hp, 287- and 325-lb-ft flat-six; AWD, seven-speed manual or PDK automatic
CURB WEIGHT: 3,153 lb
0-60 MPH: 4.5 sec, 4.1 sec (mfr)
FUEL ECONOMY (EPA city/hwy/combined): 19/27/22 manual, 20/28/23 PDK
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121109/carreviews/121109808#ixzz2CGZDRD63
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