Well, you knew this was coming. Porsche has followed up the debut of its freshened 997 rear-wheel-drive range with the introductions of the all-wheel-drive 2009 911 Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S. Visually, the C4 and C4S are immediately distinguishable from their 2WD counterparts via the red reflector strip spanning the width between the taillamps. That's a nice touch that brings back some fond memories of the 911s of our youth. The C4's rear bodywork is also wider than that of the 2WD cars. Up front, you'll find the same schnoz introduced a couple of weeks ago.
As with the Carrera and Carrera S, the C4 range also gets the new, direct-injected engines and the optional seven-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) twin-clutch gearbox. Power is up, and so is efficiency, while emissions output goes down. The Carrera 4's 3.6L flat six makes a stout 345 horses, and the step-up Carrera 4S pumps out 385 ponies from its 3.8. It's not just the engine and tranny that are new -- the previous car's all-wheel-drive system has now been replaced by Porsche Traction Management, which trickles down to the C4 from the mighty 911 Turbo. Want to scoff at lousy weather and still drive a 911? Come October (in Europe) your new ride will be waiting.
Climbing into a Porsche 911 is always good for one's spirits. The story with this car is the PDK (Porsche's dual-clutch automatic) transmission, and I have a few thoughts on that: First, Porsche got the hardest part right, which is to say they tuned the initial clutch engagement for a smooth step-off. If you think that'd be easy, try driving a Lamboghini with e-Gear or a Nissan GT-R sometime. Second, the shifts seem really, really quick to me. I don't know how many milliseconds they quote, but it feels as fast as a Ferrari sequential-manual box.
However, the shift buttons on the steering wheel are super-lame. Here's how you do a paddle-shift: You mount big-ass levers on either side of the steering column, with left for down and right for up. That's it. That's how Ferrari and Lamborghini do it (not to mention Mitsubishi) and it works. But it's like Porsche can't admit that the Italians got it right, so they have this weird button system that's less intuitive and offers the tactility of a PlayStation controller. Come on, Porsche. Just admit that Ferrari knows what they're doing on this one.
My other beef is just with a non-manual 911 in general. One of the pleasures of a 911 is listening to that grumbling exhaust note, and a clutch gives you more freedom to play around. Not just blipping the throttle, but even when you're parking, you can rev it up a little bit as you let the clutch out, blip it some, make it sound like a high-strung beast that doesn't want to go quietly in to that good parking spot. With the computer in control, you just park. That's it. Part of the glee of 911 ownership, neutered.
One other thought concerns the seats. I am not Andre the Giant, and at about six feet, 180 pounds, I am too wide for the seats. The 911 seats look like they were molded around Mary Kate Olsen's shoulder bones. What gives? Germans are a hearty, schnitzel-eating people. They are deluding their beefy, beer-swilling Hun selves by building seats sized for tapeworm-infested woodland fairies.
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