What is Porsche Wet Mode?

Porsche has added Wet Mode to its driving modes on its latest sports car.

Debuted this month on the eighth-generation 992 Series 911, Porsche claims the system is a world first and is expected to roll it out on other models across its line-up.

The wet road driving program is fitted as standard equipment on the 2019 Porsche Carrera S and all-wheel drive 4S. It is, says Porsche, particularly suited to the 911’s combination of wide tyres and unique rearward biased weight distribution.

But according to the company’s engineers, the technology has wider applications.

Porsche Wet Mode uses acoustic sensors in the front wheel wells to "recognise sprayed-up splash water". Using these sensors, the car is able to detect a wet road surface even if the windscreen wipers are not switched on.

Wet Mode then "preconditions" the 911’s stability and traction control systems and if the conditions are wet enough it prompts the driver to select Wet Mode via a dashboard switch or a drive program dial on cars fitted with Porsche’s Sport Chrono option.

If the driver activates Wet Mode, the Porsche Stability Management (PSM), Porsche Traction Management (PTM), aerodynamics (rear spoiler), optional Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) Plus, and throttle and gearbox maps (toning down responsiveness) are then modified to "guarantee the best possible driving stability".

"From 90km/h, the rear spoiler is adjusted to maximum downforce, the cooling air flaps open, the accelerator pedal characteristic is flatter, and PSM Off or Sport mode can no longer be activated," Porsche explains.

Porsche reckons the Wet Mode driving program is based on a concept that the Porsche Advanced Development department had "already developed to functional maturity in the middle of the 1990s, as part of the Prometheus European research programme [sic]."

And how’s well does Wet Mode work? As they say in the classics – let’s go to the video.