The 911 has a fan and enthusiast following which some manufacturers can only dream of. Needless to say, all the hype was jabbing at every active brain cell of mine as I reached to turn the key. With a thrum, the Boxer came to life and settled into a barely audible idle. Smooth and refined are definitely basic words there. Off to the hills it was then. The Targa 4S has all those little red lights above ‘Sport’, ‘Sport Plus’, the shock-absorber button and wiggly-car off button on the centre console turned off; the city’s average speed is surprisingly and painfully low. Leaving the traffic behind is an easy job; after all, the 911 doesn’t need Sport mode for that.
I then began to realise what it was about. The 911 is an incredibly practical car. Yes, there are cars with 600 PS and even 1,200 PS, but how much of that can you really use? It’s how much of the power the car lets you feel you can use that’s way more important. The 400-PS Targa 4S can accelerate quickly and reach blurring speeds in a hurry, but it doesn’t feel like it’s going to kill you. On the contrary, it makes you comfortable and brings a smile at how easy it is. It even urges you to push a little more to test your limits with it, rather than its limits. That makes it an incredible drive and an experience every single time you head out in it.
Before I knew it, we were at the base of the twists and turns and the road ahead would be exactly what I needed to see what this glass-top 4S could do. Tap ‘Sport’ first and the exhaust barks; a very nice acknowledgement. Foot down and 911 lunges forward, the G-meter recording rearward G as well over 1.0 G. Hard into the sharp left-hander and the four-wheel-drive system with those sticky Pirelli P-Zeroes, though letting out a squeal or two, keep you in full control, allowing 1.3 G of cornering force – yes, it showed! Not only is it incredibly sure-footed, but as the next immediate right-hander showed, it also changes direction just as quickly. Electric power-steering may be sacrilege to some, but I found it just as precise as I’d like it to be, with a near-perfect weighting too. Let’s not forget PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) is standard too. With the faster, wider corners coming, I tapped ‘Sport Plus’ and went for it.
