With power fed to all the four wheels, the über practical Porsche Carrera 4S is a worthy companion within city, on the highway or on a racetrack
THIS IS THE NEW CARRERA 4S, THE FIRST four-wheel-drive version of the seventh-generation 911.
In addition to the existing Carrera 2 range, Porsche India have recently introduced four new variants to their 911 line-up: the Carrera 4 equipped with 3.4-litre boxer engine capable of 355 PS and 390 Nm and the Carrera 4S, powered by a 3.8-litre 405.71 PS flat-six, both available in hard-top coupé or soft-top cabriolet options. In fact, these new all-wheel drive models are going to replace a successful previous generation that accounted for about 34 per cent of the total model sales.
What distinguish the Carrera 4S that I got my hands on from its Carrera 2 stable-mates are the more flared rear arches that cover a 36 mm wider track and broader tyres (305/30 ZR 20). It still retains the classic 911 silhouette with distinct round headlights, voluptuous body and a roof-line that drops beautifully to create this iconic shape.
The interior offers two lightweight, sporty and very comfortable seats that are electrically adjustable. The seat backrest can be folded to stow luggage in the 160-litre rear storage compartment. There’s another 125-litre luggage space under the bonnet of this rear-engined coupé. I found the classic layout of the dashboard very captivating with the familiar five round dials that provide various key information. There’s even a 4.8-inch colour display in the instrument cluster that shows information about the all-wheel drive, audio, telephone, map display, trip computer and tyre pressure, etc. If you have ordered the Sports Chrono Package (Rs 2.24 lakh) the display also offers interesting info such as the Gforce, graphically illustrating the longitudinal and transverse acceleration.
Porsche never give their customers a chance to grumble about the quality and fit-and-finish of their cars and the 911 Carrera 4S is no exception to this rule. If god is in details then the interior of the 911 is a pantheon for polytheist. The centre console is embellished with classic fashioned rotary dials and switches, dedicated to perform a certain function. It also has a more modern approach, using the seven-inch touch-screen to control these functions, depending upon your preference.
The important question for this model is whether the all-wheel drive system makes the impressive 991 even better? Porsche still use a compact and lightweight set-up of two packs of wet multidisc clutches to relay torque between the axles and the rear wheels. During normal driving conditions, the C4S powers mainly the rear wheels with just five per cent of the 440 Nm torque delivered to the front wheels, which helps in improving fuel efficiency.
The winding uphill roads of our test drive had the best and worst on offer, some great road surface, with stretches of broken road and loose gravel and occasional unnatural wet patches created by dripping water tankers trying to negotiate the zigzag uphill road. This set-up made for an engaging drive to explore the dynamic limits of this rear-engine sports car while darting around narrow, unfamiliar terrain. Unlike the previous generation, the new 
Carrera 4S seems not only faster over wet or bad road, but has the potential to even lap a dry track faster than a two-wheeldrive Carrera 2. The credit for this goes to the wider rear track, obese tyres and to Porsche’s traction management system (PTM) that splits the torque in milliseconds, sensing the condition of the road surface. In situations when the rear wheels are on a patch of loose gravel or water while the front ones are on dry tarmac, the
4S momentarily becomes a front-drive car pulling you out securely. When I tried to create a more dramatic frame by
accelerating hard on slippery ground with the ESP switched off, the moment the car turned in the PTM adjusted the torque flow so that it did not overburden the lateral grip of the tyres. Although my photographer remained unimpressed, I certainly admired this excellent piece of engineering.
The brake-based torque vectoring system ironed out any under-steer that cropped up, while the PTM evened out potential instability. The all-wheel-drive 911 has razor-sharp abilities. The electrically assisted steering feels uncorrupted and precise, as this Porsche simply dances to your tune. During a turn if I felt uncertain all I needed to do was add a little more power and things became better brilliantly. It’s amazing to see the front wheels helping to pull the car out of the corners, which is also visible in the instrument pod’s torque-distribution gauge. This, of course, is what makes a 911 such a delight to drive.
Our test car came with the optional PDK (automatic dualclutch automatic seven-speed) transmission which is delightfully quick and the ratios perfectly spaced for optimum grunt and economy. Switch to the Sports Plus mode and the throttle response becomes more aggressive, the PASM with adjustable electronic dampers becomes firmer, PDK goes into a race-track shifting mode and the optional sport exhaust (Rs 2.89 lakh) lets If I had a 911, I would want
to drive it every day, simply because it is so practical out a very racy note. And when we whipped the 911 to squeeze the best out during the performance runs, it dashed from 0-100 km/h in a very quick 5.23 seconds, covering a kilometre in just 22.87 seconds with the speedometer at 232.08 km/h! Then there is the launch control feature, where you bring the supercar to 5,000 revs, release the brake and it catapults you off the line with a beastly roaring sound.
But it’s not just the performance that makes the Porsche 911 a very worthy purchase. It also makes great sense in urban driving. You get an engine stop-start system that saves fuel every time you come to a complete halt. There is also Porsche’s new Active Safe system, which uses the distance-control function of the adaptive cruise control to prevent rear-end collisions. For instance, if the system detects a potential crash, it gives out visual and audible
warnings. If, for some reason, the driver ignores those, Active Safe quickly prods the brakes, increasing to full-ABS application.
If I had a 911, I would want to drive it every day, simply because it is so practical. When in normal driving mode it delivers power is such a superbly refined manner and happily tugs about in city traffic without growling at the domesticated cars around, humming merrily in tune with the auto-shifts. Despite the low seats it’s easy to see the world outside, which makes driving and parking in cities a lot easier. Moreover, the good ground clearance of this car is another attraction as you can drive over hefty speed-breakers without chewing all your nails off. Other small but vital features like being equipped with great a air-con, top-notch music, park assist and even an operational navigation system further endorse the practicality of this sportscar priced at Rs 1.46 crore (ex-showroom, New Delhi). Add these together and you have a superb companion, be it an epic journey or just a trivial trip.
It has classic 911 silhouette with distinct round headlights, voluptuous body and a roof-line that drops beautifully to create this iconic shape
If I had a 911, I would want to drive it every day, simply because it is so practical
Story: Sarmad Kadiri
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
