Porsche 911 Carrera 4 (2012) first official pictures

Porsche has a new four-wheel drive - but it's not the Macan crossover, or an SUV of any description. The new-generation 911 has had the all-paw treatment, growing wider wings and fatter tyres in the process.

It's also lost around 65kg compared with the old 997 Carrera 4, and Porsche claims it's a good deal faster too. Expect a premium of around £6000 for the all-wheel drive 991 cars.

Give me the numbers on the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera 4

The rear wings are blistered by an extra 22mm, allowing the fitment of rear tyres 10mm wider than those worn by a rear-wheel drive 991 Carrera.

Fashioned from an aluminium-steel composite, the new 991 Carrera 4 works out around 65kg lighter than the outgoing 997, and an appetite for fuel that's 16% lower as well.

What about the 2012 Carrera 4's performance numbers?

All-wheel drive inevitably brings with it yet another Porsche acronym: PTM = 'Porsche Traction Management', but at least the performance is easier to digest.

Engines are the same units found in the back of two-wheel drive 991s, meaning a 345bhp 3.4-litre flat six in the Carrera 4, and a 3.8-litre pushing out 395bhp in the Carrera 4S.

In hard-top trim, and equipped with a PDK dual-clutch gearbox, that equates to 0-62mph in 4.5sec (4.1 in the C4S) and a top speed of 177mph (186mph in the C4S). For comparison, the fastest 991 you could buy previously launched to 62mph in 4.3sec.

Can I have my 911 Carrera 4 as a convertible from launch?

You most certainly can. The soft-top gets the same body extensions and all-wheel drive tech, but loses out slightly in the sprint stakes owing to its extra heft. Bank on the Carrera 4 Cabriolet hitting 62mph in 4.7sec and hitting 175mph; the C4S cab's extra 50bhp means 4.3sec 0-62mph and 184mph flat out.

Anything else I should know about the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera 4?

The relentless march of technology is ever more apparent in the 911. In the new all-wheel drive cars, a new menu in the instrument cluster displays how the PTM all-wheel drive is serving up torque between the front and rear axles.

Meanwhile, Porsche's adaptive cruise control system debuts on the 911 Carrera 4, controlling distance to traffic ahead and vehicle speed. When ordered with the PDK transmission, the 'ACC' system adds 'Porsche Active Safe' which can help prevent front-end collisions. Handy, when the most basic Carrera 4 starts from £77,924, rising to a massive £96,619 for a C4S soft-top - and that's before you start dabbling in the options list.

Porsche 913

Forgetting the Panamera, Cayenne and Macan, Porsche offer a pretty well-rounded sports car range. Starting with the Boxster and Cayman, and moving up the multitude of variations of the Porsche 911, all the way up to the 918 Spyder supercar. But there is a HUGE price gap between the top of the range 911 Turbo ($250,000 will all the options ticked), to the 918 Spyder ($800,000). Somewhere in that range Porsche could surely offer something to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. Something like the 913 possibly? Conceived by the fertile mind of Rene Garcia, a professional 3D modeller who has created conceptual vehicles and highly detailed models for some of the biggest movies of the past decade, including the Matrix Trilogy, Transformers, the latest Star Trekthrillers and The Avengers, the Porsche 913 is an exquisitely rendered design in every detail. It has a bit of the 918 Spyder about it, but there’s also a lot of originality to the design. It looks like a Porsche, but a

Lamborghini Canto – What the Murcielago could have been?

Back in the late 1990s, when Lamborghini were starting to realise they needed a replacement for the ageing Diablo, they started reviewing design proposals from various automotive design firms. Zagato’s offering was the Zagato L147 SuperDiablo, or as it was to be later known, the Lamborghini Canto. The Lamborghini Canto first appeared in 1998, it arrived only two years after another Zagato designed Lamborghini concept had been unveiled, the Diablo-based Raptor. The cars shared a number of similar features, including the wraparound windows, triangular lateral air intakes, and trademark double-bubble roof. However of the two, the earlier Raptor was probably the better looking. Clearly Ferdinand Piech – head of the Volkswagen Group – thought so too. After VW bought Lamborghini in 1999, one of his first decisions was to review the Canto’s development and redesign the concept. The car was re-engineered and the rear extensively restyled to include smaller air intakes. The engine was also up

BMW GINA

The BMW GINA changes the design rulebook concept which features clever use of materials and technology. The GINA acronym stands for 'Geometry In "N" Adaptions'. The 'N' stands for infinite. Quite logical really... While at first glance the BMW GINA appears to be nothing more than a modified and stretched BMW Z4. As soon as the doors are opened it reveals its true nature. Covering the lightweight spaceframe of the BMW GINA are not conventional metal bodypanels, but instead an elastic, rubber-like material is stretched across the structural members and wire frame to form an attractive design which follows BMW's flame surfacing styling philosophy. This elastic material has given BMW's designers more options when designing various moving parts of the GINA concept. The doors for example have no shut line along their front edge as the material just moves with the door. At the rear the electro-hydraulic adjustable spoiler rises and lowers under the skin of

Road Strikers

Search This Blog