Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet 2021 Review

The old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ certainly rings true with the Porsche Carrera 4S Cabriolet, which is priced from $313,700 plus on-road costs.  

Porsche doesn’t miss you when you start ticking the options box either, so after a handful of additions our test vehicle is priced at $344,220 plus ORCs. But, hey, you only live once!

That price sees the Carrera 4S Cabriolet sitting roughly in the middle of the 911 range, between the 911 Carrera Coupe ($236,300) at entry level and the top-of-the-range Turbo S Cabriolet ($494,500).

The Porsche 911 is an iconic sports car that needs no introduction and 4S Cabriolet is one of 14 current 911 iterations – not including the flagship GT2 RS, GT3 RS and GT3 models. The ‘4’ stands for four-wheel drive, the ‘S’ for sports and ‘Cabriolet’ for fold-away soft-top. 

Standard inclusions (soft-top aside) on the 4S Cabriolet are ‘Porsche Communication Management’ and ‘Porsche Connect Plus’ which via a 4G telephone module enables you to use your smartphone to control things like on-board climate control, seat heaters, and your favourite song can be set and playing before you’ve even set your sights on the car.

Navigation, infotainment, wireless internet access as well as conventional Apple CarPlay are all included in this very smart system. Digital radio and a Bose Surround Sound audio system with a 10.9-inch infotainment screen are also standard, but the fitted options are worth noting.

Our test car was equipped with LED Matrix headlights ($6100), a Sports exhaust system with silver tailpipes ($5400), 20-/21-inch exclusive Carrera wheels ($4980), Sport Chrono with Porsche Track Precision App ($4890 ), rear-axle steering ($4720) and Park Assist including surround view ($2170) – in addition to some cosmetic enhancements like embossed headrests, leather interior and a GT sport steering wheel.

We tend to class a car as ‘safe’ by how it performs in a crash, but I’d argue let’s avoid the crash to start with! The Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet is definitely safe if you do come unstuck but its ‘safe’ advantage lies in its surefootedness.

Porsches out-handle and out-brake just about everything on the market and the 4S Cab is no exception. So for any given situation the threshold for losing grip is so much higher than most other cars, therefore making it a safer prospect.

Four-wheel drive is an obvious strongpoint in wet and slippery conditions, as are the super-wide 245/30 20-inch (front) and 305/30 21-inch (rear) tyres. Speaking of slippery conditions, ‘Wet’ mode is a new addition to all new 992-model 911s, complementing the ‘Sport’ and ‘Sport Plus’ drive modes.

Initially sceptical and guilty of thinking that ‘Wet’ mode was just an amped-up and more restricted version of Porsche’s stability control program, I was made to eat humble pie after experiencing it first-hand. When it’s activated manually via the rotary switch on the steering wheel, the stability management, traction management, adaptive aerodynamics, torque vectoring and drive responsiveness work in harmony to provide more stability and predictability.

It is clearly noticeable as a driver, particularly in the 4S as more torque is transferred to the front axle. It can also sense if the road is wet and suggest to the driver that he or she engages Wet mode.

If all else fails, the 911 4S Cabriolet is equipped with side impact protection elements in the doors, and head/thorax airbags that complement the full-size frontal airbags for the driver and passenger.

Being a soft-top, auto-deploying roll-over protection ‘pops-up’ are built in to keep the occupants safe if the vehicle does find itself tipped on its lid.

The Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet has a 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged horizontally-opposed six-cylinder petrol engine at its heart.

Porsche claims a power figure of 331kW or 450hp, and 530Nm of torque, but in my experience with the brand, those figures are worst-case scenario – like a 50-degree Celsius day in a high-altitude city like La Rinconada in Peru!

I have no proof of it, but the way this car performs I’d suggest that power figure is closer to 500hp.

Either way, the 4S Cabriolet dispatches 0-100km/h in 3.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of 304km/h. In comparison, the hard-top Carrera 4S has figures of 3.7sec and 306km/h – and like I said, these figures are also worst-case.

Being a 911 the engine is, of course, positioned behind the rear axle, so traction is rarely an issue even in the two-wheel drive variant. But the 4S Cabriolet’s blistering 0-100 times can be credited to the Porsche Traction Management (PTM) four-wheel drive system.

Coupled with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, torque can be varied between axles and optimised to the end that requires it the most. For example, if the rear is losing grip, more torque will be distributed to the front (in less than 100 milliseconds) to provide increased traction and stability.

Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus helps the 4S negotiate corners with seemingly far too much speed and is simply amazing to experience. The best way I can describe the feeling is that someone pins the rear of car with a stake into the ground and the car just pivots around it!      

To quote former Bathurst 1000 winner and chief driving instructor at Porsche, Tomas Mezera: “They cheat”.

He’s referring to how the Porsche 911 shouldn’t be able to do things it can do – particularly with its rear-engine layout. And he’s spot on – it shouldn’t be able to handle as well as it does around corners, be as fast as it is in a straight line yet drive so beautifully and be utterly docile on the road.

The electronic systems do an amazing job and are almost indistinguishable to detect as a driver. Like I said, it’s a unicorn.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s no Cadillac on a bumpy road, but for a car this sporty and capable – it’s comfortable. It hardly revs unless unleashed, it’s not aggressive until you want it to be, and the dual-clutch gear changes can only be heard, not felt.

The interior is minimalistic yet displays an unmistakeable prestige feel and the seats hug your torso to support the body during high G-force cornering. The seating position is the envy of most cars with the range of adjustment uniquely beyond the requirements of drivers like me over 180cm tall.

They call it a 2+2 but, realistically, only very small children can actually fit in the back seat. That said, nobody’s buying a 911 for a family run-about.

Boot space (or lack thereof) is limited but at 145 litres it can fit a large suitcase. Its packaging maximises every inch of space, and considering there’s an engine where the boot would typically go, it is sort of practical for a supercar.    

I think most people are aware that I have close ties with the Porsche brand through my instructing role at the Porsche Track Experience, and that could perhaps influence the tone of my report.

Well, I pride myself on providing honest and impartial feedback, and I just think I’m lucky that I get to experience an amazing machine like the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet on a regular basis.

The numbers, lap times and performance don’t lie and if you ask any race driver what car they’d choose to tear up the track, drive home and then do it again the next day – they would pick a Porsche.

If you follow my stories, then you know I always find a way to grab a sneaky lap time at Norwell Motorplex and I’ve been looking forward to the mouth-watering prospect of doing it in a 911 for quite some time.

The carsales record is 61.9 seconds in a Mercedes-AMG A45 S… until now.

The 4S Cabriolet did it in 59.8sec. And that was lap one and not even in ‘Sport’ mode due to the worry of breaking noise restrictions!

I may have even cut a lap around Queensland Raceway’s club circuit which produced a 58.7sec lap time. For those in the know, you know how fast that is – a time that’s breathing down the neck of the Porsche GT3 RS.

So it’s fair to say that my opinion is high of the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet. It can produce fast lap times on track as well as exhibiting exemplary on-road manners, all with the top down and the wind blowing over my bald head – what could be better?

Yeah, before you say it, I’ll answer the question for you – a full head of hair…

Disclaimer: Luke Youlden is a Bathurst 1000 champion, 2021 Porsche Carrera Cup series competitor, Tekworkx Motorsport mentor and chief driving coach, deputy chief instructor for the Porsche Experience and also works for Pilota Sportiva, whose clients include Audi Driving Experience and Volkswagen Group Australia.

How much does the 2021 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet cost?
Price: $313,700 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder twin-turbo petrol
Output: 331kW/530Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 9.6L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 220g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested