Gadgetory

well since going water-cooled there's only been three generations of Porsche 911 in fact this is the third and new generation it's called the nine-nine one let me point out to you the stuff you'll need as a Porsche spotter first of all the wheelbase grew four inches that's axle to axle but what they've done is shorten the overhang because the entire body only grew by two inches which you've got is a little more aggressive look it's not a big difference but it's a subtle sort of pushing to the corners of the wheels you've also got a little bit of a greater width in the front now gives the car viewed from the top a little more of a coke bottle shape again part of a more aggressive sporty stance you can spot this car mostly from the rear let's go back there real big difference now in the rear treatment and these taillights in particular they've got LED strings around them which illuminate but you can see they're much sharper point here and flatter that's the most controversial and biggest change on this car it looks a little bit like an Aston Martin part but I'm not the one who's gonna say that to their face oh by the way the spoiler now which lifts up here in the back and has been electrified for a number of years now works through software in conjunction with the sunroof they balance each other out depending where you've got them open to create the optimal lack of turbulence that's kind of cool another big innovation is the world's smallest engine cover look at this little guy it used to be small now its miniscule dear Porsche mechanics good luck in here now as you can see this is the 3.8 this guy's an S the standard car has gone down to a 3.4 but picked up five horsepower to 350 this guys picked up 15 horsepower in the bigger S motor to 400 on the nose interesting efficiency technologies are being used here as well you've got electric power steering now so you no longer have another rotating accessory with a belt dragging the engine down you've got some limited brake regeneration that's gonna build back electricity to charge the battery again taking load off the alternator so it has to work less hard the more things you can freewheel the less this engine has to run those and it can spend moving the car which is kind of the point on one of these now down here with this engine still looks like an engine a lot of things have changed many of them for efficiency first of all you no longer have a hydraulic power steering pump this car has electric power steering you have automatic start/stop when you come to a red light or a stop sign that's a little controversial in a car of this lineage let's see you've also got some brake regeneration hit the brakes and it puts a juice back in the battery taking some load off the alternator which takes some load off the engine and they now have adaptive engine mounts this is kind of like adaptive suspension when you're driving the car leisurely these electro hydraulic mounts will be soft and the engine can kind of you know bounce around and be decoupled from the car when you're really standing on it they stiffen up in the end it almost becomes like a stressed member of the whole frame of the vehicle it's not as nice a ride but when you're really on it you don't care you want the vehicle to tighten up very interesting technology and as you can see big difference inside they've gone to the kind of bigger upward sloping Panamera style console but I got to be honest they keep coming back to the longer wheelbase on this card intrigues me the most for a couple of reasons one it's rumored not confirmed that they kind of bumped up the size of the car that way to make room for a hybrid power plant Porsche has been doing lots of hybrid stuff around the fringes that wouldn't surprise me but unusual on 911 also you've seen that ad campaign Porsche everyday when you have a longer wheelbase you get a more comfortable ride I'm curious what the reception will be among the real serious 911 fans and this is considered a push toward the more comfortable everyday 911 that they may ask you but will probably sell like hotcakes if it's a more comfortable every driver either way we'll find out soon February of 2012 the on sale date for this car starts off at 83,000 base for a standard 911 97 for an S there's a lot of other improvements on the S by the way aside from just the motor