The result of stepping on the gas is quite shocking, even in automatic guise. The S squats down slightly as it shoots forward,
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| The S squats down slightly as it shoots forward, the sound of rushing wind over the top and into the sides of my open-face helmet almost deafening. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
the sound of rushing wind over the top and into the sides of my open-face helmet almost deafening. I've driven quickly in drop-top Porsches on rural roads and highways before, and life without a helmet is definitely better and quieter than life with the awkward devices, but track rules are track rules. Despite the high-quality soft-top, that is quite silent when fixed in place, I'm more of a coupe person. Therefore, a quick shuttle from the pit area across the paddock to a makeshift autocross course found a Carrera S coupe, complete with a six-speed manual transmission. Now that's more like it. I have to admit to liking some of the high-tech F1-style sequential gearboxes, like the one in Ferrari's F430,
BMW's M3 or best of all, Audi's TT, but regular automatic boxes aren't my thing unless fitted to large luxury cars, SUVs or pickup trucks.
The six-speed in any modern day Carrera is a thing of beauty, rowing through the gears with a defined precision
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| The Sport Chrono Plus package is a technophile's dream. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
never before experienced in a 911. The clutch is easy to modulate too, and all pedals are ideally placed for fancy "heel-toe" footwork. The autocross course was quite short, and not particularly difficult to negotiate, but it suited its purpose of demonstrating the new Sport Chrono Plus package very well. Sport Chrono Plus, by the way, is a technophile's dream. Capable of counting laps, keeping track of a driver's best time and displaying all laps on a digital graph, the Sport Chrono Plus package also modifies the car's engine management characteristics plus the behavior of PSM and PASM systems.
