Porsche 911 Review

The Review

Track Days Supercars Porsche 911 911 (991) - (2012) Carrera 3.4 (350 Hp) PDK

The everyday super car that drove like, err, the everyday super car.

Summary

So like everyone else about to drive a 911 on a track I was hugely excited to drive the legendary 911. The every supercar built to do what a Porsche does best. The good news is, that I wasn't let down! The bad news was that, what Porsches actually do well is comply! I wanted to go left, the car went left. I want to go right, the car went right! It accelerated on demand and stopped on demand. It did everything as expected! But it wasn't ever that exciting overall. Getting into the car, it was a nice cockpit. Everything laid out well and a good driving position from the seat to the steering wheel. Getting started around the track, was business as usual for the 911. Covering ground with composure and grace as you would expect. I was able to push the car through the long sweeping corners as easily as the tight hairpins. It never really grumbled and I never felt like I was going to come unstuck, even with only the rear wheels being driven. BUT, and this is the flip side, the power! Coming down the straights, it felt like all the power was reserved for when the needle hit around 5,000 revs and suddenly the car would burst to life and want to go faster. Of course, being a track day meant that around that magic 5,000 rev 'come to live' mark, the instructor shouted "change up" and we were back outside the power zone again. One other thing for me, which might be a personal preference is around the 'sound'. When I think supercar, or even performance saloon, hot hatch or anything else that spends any time on 'the ring' I want it to shout at me. Bark, scream, roar, howl, or something that makes the 5 year old in me come out. As the everyday version of the everyday super I don't think this is Porsche's focus for the regular 911, so what I got was a relatively muted hum every on the faster straights. So I never really got to see what the mighty German masterpiece could do with the gloves off, but based on the balance and compliance that I saw, I am pretty sure it is the car everyone talks about.

Would I recommend it? YES

As a track car, you probably don't get much better than the 911, in all of its various guises. So from that side it already has my vote. On top of this, the fact that it never felt rattled or unbalanced on the track made it feel like it belonged where it was. Ultimately, I think if I was able to really unleash the car, I would have been able to push to a score of 9.