Official Photos and Info
Like any updated car whose changes stop short of a full redesign, the
2017 Porsche 911 Carrera bears the typical scars of midcycle fiddling.
There are new headlights, new taillights, and a new touch-screen
dashboard display. And that matters not one iota to us. In fact, those
are but infinitesimal flickers in a grand night sky compared to the new
911’s biggest step forward, which requires you step back and peek under
the engine covers of the Carrera and Carrera S. There, affixed to
familiar flat-six engines, you’ll find twin turbochargers. Close the
lids, and nary a script “Turbo” badge is visible.
We have entered a brave new world in which the base 911 Carrera and its
zippier Carrera S sibling have given up natural breathing for forced
induction. It’s been expected for some time
that Porsche would drop the Carrera duo’s naturally aspirated
flat-sixes for turbocharged versions. Still, now that it has happened,
we can’t help but lament the loss of Porsche’s signature and
wonderful-sounding non-turbo flat-six. And that’s all the space we’ll
devote to our mourning period. The new engine, shared in essentially the
same form by both the Carrera and Carrera S, is a 3.0-liter
twin-turbocharged ball of mechanical fury.
In the Carrera, the twin-turbo engine produces 370 horsepower and 331
lb-ft of torque; different compressor wheels, a special exhaust setup,
and a specific ECU tune nets the Carrera S 420 horsepower and 368 lb-ft
of torque. Both entry-level 911 models now serve up 20 horsepower more
than their non-turbocharged predecessors, while the Carrera’s torque
peak rises by 44 lb-ft and the S’s swells by 43. Both Carreras can
register 7500 rpm on their tachometers, a lofty engine speed for a
turbocharged engine. And both are said to be 12 percent more fuel
efficient, although final EPA fuel-economy estimates are still
forthcoming.
Porsche claims that the 911 Carrera with the PDK automatic transmission
and the Sport Chrono package shaves 0.2 second off of its zero-to-60
time (for a 4.0-second run) while increasing its top speed to 183 mph.
The S is said to hit 60 in 3.7 seconds, again a 0.2-second improvement,
while achieving 191 mph on the top end. We recorded a 4.4-second
zero-to-60 time and a 182-mph top speed in a manual-transmission 2012 911 Carrera, and the best we’ve gotten from a Carrera S—also
a 2012 model—was 3.6 seconds to 60 (top speed was claimed to be 188
mph). That means Porsche’s performance estimates for both turbocharged
911s are, as is usually the case, conservative. As far as transitions
affecting iconic nameplates with far-reaching consequences for
enthusiasts’ nostalgia go, Porsche’s embrace of the turbo is looking
good.
The Other Noteworthy Notables
The turbos’ only visual giveaways are a pair of 911 Turbo–like vents in
the rear bumper, a retro-appearing cooling panel on the rear deck, and
new exhaust outlets. A quadrant of LED lamps in each headlight and
taillight—which is fast becoming Porsche’s lighting signature—is
standard. Functional improvements were thrown at the 911’s interior and
chassis, too. A new seven-inch touch-screen infotainment display offers
Apple CarPlay integration, touch response familiar to smartphone users
(e.g. pinch, pull, swipe), and Google Earth and Street View maps. The
screen it replaces did none of those things, and it did so while looking
dated and being somewhat tedious to use.
Every Carrera now has Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM)
standard; the previously optional (on the Carrera, they were standard on
the S) active dampers lower the ride height by 0.4 inch and are keyed
into a new steering-wheel-mounted drive-mode selector on models equipped
with the Sport Chrono package. The selector is derived from that on the
918 Spyder and includes Normal, Sport, Sport Plus, and Individual
settings that, depending on which options are selected, manipulate the
settings for the transmission (on PDK-equipped cars), exhaust, PASM, and
the engine stop-start feature.
There’s trickle-down technology elsewhere on the new cars’ chassis, with
the rear-wheel-steering apparatus from the 911 Turbo and GT3 now
available on the Carrera S, as well as a supercar-like front-end
suspension-lift feature within the 911’s front struts that, at the press
of a button, raises the car 1.6 inches vertically to eke out extra
ground clearance for steep driveways and speed bumps. The rear wheels
are half an inch wider than before—now 11.5 inches—and the S gets mighty
fat 305 (vs. 295)-width tires.
In the Don’t Care, It’s Boring category of 2017 911 improvements, there are new safety features such as post-collision braking and blind-spot monitoring, as well as a coasting feature built into the adaptive cruise control on models with the PDK transmission. File these enhancements along with everything else that isn’t the new twin-turbocharged engine. As we said, the new engine is the updated 911’s most significant change. Well, that and the new prices. Assuming Porsche’s $995 destination charge holds, a 2017 911 Carrera will run $90,395—that’s $5100 more than a 2016 Carrera—when it goes on sale in March 2016. A $4500 increase applies to the 2017 Carrera S, which will start at $104,395. The Carrera cabriolet is $5500 more ($102,695), while the Carrera S cabriolet is now $4900 dearer ($116,695). For the added power and standard equipment, we can’t argue with those price increases. Will we miss the naturally aspirated flat-six? The better question is: Where can we find some sweet used “Turbo” badges?
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