Porsche 911 Carrera S 2016 Review

Porsche 911 Carrera S PDK Coupe
International Launch Review
Tenerife, Spain

An all-new direct-injected twin-turbo boxer engine gifts Porsche's upgraded MY16 911 Carrera and Carrera S a new level of refinement and performance. Combined with styling and equipment tweaks including an all-new infotainment system incorporating Apple interfaces (Google is still to come), the facelifted Carrera range packs more power, torque, pace and grace in a choice of coupe or cabriolet body styles. Carrera 4 and Targa variants will follow (very) soon. Added standard equipment goes some way to ameliorate substantial price rises, but the big story’s performance…

We’ve covered the reveal, published the product news, attended in-depth briefings of the tech rundown, and we’ve even published a first ride. But now we’ve actually driven the car that is yet another step-change in the evolution of the world’s most desirable everyday sports car, the Porsche 911.

Porsche’s 911 Carrera and its powered-up S partner are now both turbo. Twin-turbo, in fact.

Their boxer six-cylinder engines have been shrunk to 3.0 litres and redesigned with two turbos and their intercooling paraphernalia resulting in a modest mass increase (around 20kg model for model) and a triumph of ‘gram strategy’ weight reduction.

I’ll spare you the suspense. They’re good and, yes, they still sound like 911s. Real 911s – especially when you want them to…

The move to turbocharging for the non-Turbo (note capital T) 911s is arguably even more controversial than the car’s various generational evolutions to water-cooling, adopting a longer wider platform and, shock horror, moving to electric steering. But like all of those changes, it’s essentially necessary for the car to remain viable as buyer expectations mount and emissions -- and the various taxes and regulations that relate to them -- tighten.

The real triumph here is that the engineering squad behind the turbo ‘9A2’ boxer engine has managed to maintain a significant part of the signature sound and feel of the superseded 3.4- and 3.8-litre atmo engines.

The 9A2’s capacity is large for a ‘downsized’ turbo engine and static compression ratio is high (10.0:1) – both moves to retain genuine performance from the ‘bare’ unboosted core engine. The Borg-Warner turbos themselves are small and provide only very moderate boost levels.

The nett, seat-of-the-pants effect is a more frugal 3.0-litre turbo engine with the lusty feel of a naturally aspirated engine of 4.0litres or larger.

All the stats have been quoted in our other stories but essentially model for model the new Carrera (272kw/450Nm) and Carrera S (309kW/500Nm) are around 15kW and 50Nm up on the cars they replace. The real-world effect of the torque kick that forced induction delivers is that at normal road speeds (peak torque comes from just 1700rpm), the new cars have around 40 per cent more twist on tap than their predecessors.

Although the updated PDK automated double-clutch gearboxes have been programmed to grab higher gears earlier (FYI: seven-speed manuals are still offered), there are still big gobs of performance available with just a very modest application of throttle.

Indeed, the way the Carrera S coupe and cabriolet added speed at the car’s launch this week on the Atlantic island of Tenerife, at less than half throttle, was impressive. Somehow even more so than full-throttle launches and ascensions through the gears.

For the record, equipped with the optional $5950 Sport Chrono Package, the PDK-equipped Carrera S Coupe now breaks the four-second barrier 0-100km/h (3.9sec). The Carrera’s time is a tardy 4.2 sec. Please note irony…

Even more impressive to my mind is the new car’s Nordschliefe lap time – insiders say 7min 30sec for the S fitted with the Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC), which includes the Turbo-derived rear-wheel steering system that is now optional on this generation Carrera -- faster than the previous 997-series GT3.

If the turbo Carrera performs like this, we can only imagine where the new engine generation will take the real Turbo!

Porsche claims a 12 per cent reduction in fuel consumption for the new cars in terms of the NEDC testing cycle (Carrera 7.4L/100km; Carrera S 7.7). But more to the point, the engineers reckon the real-world savings will be substantial. Although nobody buys a 911 as an eco-bus, that’s an indication of the performance reserves the new car packs.

The new turbo engines are the centerpiece of the 991.2 update, but there’s substantially more to the offering. Both the front- and rear-ends have been redesigned – the rear in the main to accommodate the new engine’s requirements for more cooling air. At the pointy end, every 911 now gets active aero louvres that limit the feed of air to the front radiators. This has substantial drag and downforce benefits, experts say.

When they arrive Down Under next March, the new cars’ talents and technology will come at a cost, with price increases across the range. Porsche Australia counters that along with the engines there are a couple of useful additions to the standard equipment list.

Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) adaptive damping is now standard on both Carrera and Carrera S (previously a $3000-plus option) Down Under.

The PCM infotainment system is also all-new and evolves to a touch-screen based system that includes Apple CarPlay and other app-based functions. Android phone users will have to wait for their turn. The system includes BOSE DAB+ digital radio and there’s now a reversing camera standard.

A multifunction steering wheel is also included in the Aussie spec. Specify Sports Chrono ($3890 manual, $4790 with PDK) and that wheel will also have Porsche’s equivalent of the Ferrari manettino – a rotary dial that allows you to choose from standard, Sport, Sport+ and Individual drive modes.

Derived from the hybrid mode switch of the 918 Spyder supercar, depending on the equipment level of the car, the Carrera the dial changes the PASM system, active engine mounts, PDK shift mode and sports exhaust.

In addition, in PDK-equipped cars (now a very large percentage of 911s delivered Down Under), the dial also gets a ‘push to pass’ style button which Porsche calls Sport Response. When pressed “the drivetrain is pre-conditioned for maximum acceleration for 20 seconds... In this mode, the optimal gear is engaged and engine management is adjusted for even more spontaneous response for a brief period of time”.

The countdown timer that then appears on the dash is a bit of fun.

There are other ‘hidden’ changes – as in the GT3, you can now select neutral in PDK cars by pulling both paddles back simultaneously. And also like the GT3, the PDK shift lever action has been reversed -- pull back to go up a gear and push forward to go down, just as it should be...

The car also features Stop Start Plus which kills the engine while you’re still rolling (under 7km/h). A new Intelligent Fuel Cut system saves fuel when the engine management system senses appropriate conditions. This is a different feature to the coasting function that the 911 already used and retains.

Key differentiators in spec between Carrera and Carrera S are brakes and wheel sizes. The Carrera gets four-piston front callipers and 330mm discs while the S adds two pistons and 20mm. The base car rides on 19-inch wheels, the S on 20s. In this generation the rear wheels and tyres are wider in both cars. Now the S rides on 245/35 fronts and whopping 305/30 rears.

Typically, our 911s have a higher level of standard equipment than most markets. It’s got to be said, however (cue old chestnut), that we still have some of the most expensive 911s in the world. Our international press colleagues were gobsmacked when told a Carrera S starts Down Under at over $250K.

But hell, it’s only money…

As noted above, we drove the Carrera S in both coupe and cabriolet configurations – both of them PDK. Back-to-back on some at times very tortured bitumen, it’s clear the soft-top lacks the ‘carved from billet’ feel of the coupe, but that aside there’s very little noticeable difference in real-world performance.

The biggest is aural. The high-pitched trademark whistle of a turbo is very clearly heard when you’re top-down in the cab, especially at low speed and on part throttle. In contrast, the coupe is much quieter than previous generation 911 in terms of engine and induction noise at light throttle openings. Then, thank goodness (and a whole bunch of engineering), once prodded into anger the new mill delivers a tradition dose of 911 tunes.

Multiple strategies come into play to get the sounds just so. The standard four-pipe exhaust gives good ‘throat’ but the optional sports exhaust ($5890) adds even more drama. A measure of the science that’s gone into getting this right is the split centre positioning of the sports exhaust. It’s reminiscent of the GT3 or GT4’s set-up, but the pipes are set further apart to maximise the resonant effect of the discharge.

The flip-side of all this aural strategy (ie: the relative calm at low engines speeds and small throttle openings) is the new 911 will at the same time be a better car to live with everyday.

Porsche steadfastly refused to go the synthetic root to deliver the all-important boxer tunes. Instead, it uses two mechanical sound symposers than ‘pipe’ real ‘live’ induction and engine noise forward into the cabin. Combined with (for example) the crackle, snap and pop, the S engine and Sports exhaust (above) deliver on the overrun when in Sport or Sport+ modes, they work a treat.

The rest of the experience is as you’d expect, with great feel through both ends of the car and one of the best blends of ride and handling of any car available today.

This was in particular contrasted with the Macan GTS we drove the same day on the Tenerife roads. Where the standard-setting SUV at times felt over-sprung yet under-damped — except in ‘maximum attack’ Sport+ mode — the Carrera S at all times felt ideally suspended.

There’s still a requirement for you to drive to the car’s rear-engined dynamic characteristics (specially to maximise the front-end grip and wonderful turn-in) but there’s none of the bad habits you’re ‘informed’ mates who have never drive a 911 in anger will espouse.

It still defies my belief system how Porsche’s engineering teams get such a physically flawed chassis layout to feel so inherently balanced.

2016 Porsche 911 Carrera S PDK Coupe pricing and specifications:
On sale: March
Price: $258,750 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol flat six-cylinder
Output: 309kW/500Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed PDK dual-clutch
Fuel: 7.7/100km (NEDC Combined)
CO2: 174g/km (NEDC Combined)
Safety rating: TBC

What we liked:
>> Mid-range power delivery of new twin-turbo six
>> Retains 911 character, yet more refined
>> Still amazing blend of ride and handling

Not so much:
>> Pricetag is still an issue
>> Sport Chrono and PDK options are steep, but necessary
>> Cascading switchgear not a favourite

Now read the Porsche Macan GTS review