The Carrera S is traditionally the best-selling version of the Porsche 911 in Singapore. Does a new turbo engine alter its fundamental character?

SINGAPORE — It’s been a good week for fans of the Porsche 911 here, with six, count’em, six new versions of the iconic sportscar launched here. But here’s a review of the new Carrera S, traditionally the best-selling variant of the 911 in Singapore.

It can be hard to tell when a 911 is new (or, to be more precise in this case, heavily updated) because they all conform to an unmistakable design, but this 991.2 model is probably as different under the skin from the previous 991 generation as the new iPhone SE is from the iPhone 5S — another example of how staying with a classic design doesn’t mean you can’t change everything underneath.

For what it’s worth, you don’t actually have to be a Porsche nerd to identify the new 911s. There are new LED lamps (they’re directional, and super bright at night) and a restyled front bumper, designed to visually widen the face of the car.

At the back, the engine cover has vertical slats now, and the lights are new. On cars with the Sport Exhaust option, the tailpipes are placed a little closer together.

The door handles are new as well, but probably the easiest identifier is the slim LED strip at each corner of the front bumper; the hell-raising 911 Turbo has them in pairs.

Speaking of turbos, the basic 911s now breathe through a pair of them, which is a major change.

Given the hushing effect of turbochargers we can already imagine 911 traditionalists griping about how the latest car won’t sound right, but just think of the benefits: more power and torque from a smaller engine (so, a smaller road tax bill), and less thirst.

READ MORE > What about the basic Carrera?

Besides, fire up the Carrera S and the first thing that strikes you is how it still sounds like a 911, with that chattering, blatting, bass-heavy symphony of six cylinders, rumbling at you from the back.

It’s still an easy car to drive at town speeds, too, with light steering, a decent view out of the road ahead, and a fairly petite body that’s easy to guide through cramped conditions or tight carparks.

But you don’t buy a 911 to pootle about in the city, no matter how well it works in that setting.

So you do what seems natural the first time you come to a clear bit of road, and nail the accelerator. And jeez, this thing is fast. The previous Carrera S was mighty quick, but this one is on a whole new level, springing into action with only a vague rumour of turbo lag, and then bending your face with violent acceleration all the way through the rev counter.

The car behaves like a 911, too, the steering lightening up while the nose rises under that hard-hitting acceleration, with just the tiniest hint of a squirm from the rear tyres.

Turbo engines sometimes run out of top-end puff, but the Carrera S has a seemingly endless reserve of gusto so you end up using all the revs merrily. It can apparently do 306km/h, and given how the engine feels, you can believe it.

It’s prodigiously quick through bends, too, summoning so much grip from the tyres that even if you barely know what you’re doing behind the wheel, you can get the Carrera S through corners at some pretty unbelievable speeds.

You can specify the active rear wheel steering from the 911 Turbo and GT3, which helps to sharpen turn-in response even more, while making the car more stable at highway speeds. It costs $9,152, but you might as well, if you’re going to splurge on a 911.

While you’re at it, another must-have option is the Sport Chrono Package (for $8,474), which adds a nifty chronometer to the dashboard, but more importantly makes sharper engine and transmission settings available to chop the 0 to 100km/h time from 4.1 to 3.9 seconds.

New with the Sport Chrono pack is a drive mode selector, in the form of a rotary knob that lives on the steering wheel. Twirl it and, you guessed it, you can alter the 911’s basic characteristics from a civilised baseline (“Normal”) to a snarling, hooligan mode (“Sport +”).

The best new feature though, is a Sport Response button that you press to activate 20 seconds of maximum thrust. The way the Porsche responds to it is the way a sleeping bear would would react if you stepped on its tail, I’d imagine. Suddenly everything gets all shouty and frantic, and the 911 just unleashes everything it has to give in one long, sustained pounce to the horizon.

It sounds gimmicky, but in practice it’s hilarious, addictive and above all, enjoyable. That is the whole point of a car like the 911 as a whole, of course. It’s perfectly usable on a day-to-day basis, but for close to 600 grand it’s never going to be anything other than an indulgence.

For now there are five other new 911s to choose from, of course, but it’s clear that the new turbo engine does plenty to boost the performance of perhaps the single most iconic sportscar in history, while enhancing its basic character instead of detracting from it.

Even if the Carrera S had been the only one launched in Singapore, it would have still been a good week for 911 fans.

NEED TO KNOW Porsche 911 Carrera S
Engine 2,981cc, 24V, twin-turbo flat-six
Power 420hp at 6,500rpm
Torque 500Nm at 1,700-5,000rpm
Gearbox 7-speed twin-clutch transmission
Top Speed 306km/h
0-100km/h 3.9 seconds (with Sport Plus)
Fuel efficiency 7.7 L/100km
CO₂ 174g/km
Price $508,888 without COE
Availability Now

READ MORE
Meet the six new Porsche 911s now on sale in Singapore