![\"Spying](\"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/2da875f496cc72289c6680ebb235685e3a03f4a1\/c=520-0-3608-2322&r=x513&c=680x510\/local\/-\/media\/2016\/05\/04\/DetroitNews\/DetroitNews\/635979592069543231-s4-payne.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been club-racing mid-engine, vintage Porsches all my adult life: Porsche 904, Porsche 906, Porsche 908.<\/p>\n
All are exquisitely-balanced, apex-carving knives. Their engines are in front of the rear axles where God intended them to be. They were the models that made the sports car marque\u2019s reputation in the late 1960s as it amassed a trophy-case full of world championships. The Porsche 917, 956, 962 and 919 \u2014 all mid-engine masterpieces \u2014 continued the winning tradition into the 21st century.<\/p>\n
And yet the brand\u2019s celebrity icon is the aft-powered 911. An automotive artifact that shared ancestry with the original VW Beetle. Yet not even the Bug has a rear-mounted power plant anymore.<\/p>\n
Mid-engine heroes have come and gone, but King 911 has carried the flag into battle for generation after generation of Porsche fans. It is the winningest-ever Porsche on Sunday, and the most-sold on Monday. Like its Yankee rival front-engine Chevy Corvette, it has defied convention for over half-a-century by resisting mid-mounted physics. And Porsche has laughed all the way to the bank.<\/p>\n
Selling more than 30,000 vehicles apiece year after year, the volume\u00a0of 911s<\/a>\u00a0andCorvettes<\/a>\u00a0produced is the envy of every other manufacturer even as we all know \u2014we know!<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 that they are technical dinosaurs. But just as Coca-Cola\u2019s secret formula has dominated taste buds for a century, so have Porsche and Corvette\u2019s mastery of \u2014 respectively \u2014 rear-mounted boxer engines and push-rod, small-block V-8s. They have adapted to the ever-changing demands of the brutally competitive sports car market.<\/p>\n \u201cDrive a 911 every once in a while to remember what a great car feels like,\u201d my pal and ex-Detroit News colleague Scott Burgess likes to say. Last week, I drove the new 2017 911 (run, don\u2019t walk, to your local showroom). The first 911 to feature a turbocharged, flat-six as its base mill, it is the most significant engine upgrade since Stuttgart changed its flagship from air-cooled to water-cooled power plants in 1998.<\/p>\n Brother Burgess would be proud. To drive the new 911 is to pilot greatness.<\/p>\n As a mid-engine disciple, I was skeptical. The new 911, known at Porsche as the 991.2 \u2014 that is, Version 2.0 of the all-new 991 platform introduced in 2012 \u2014 is the first 911 I have spent a full day with since my first racer\u2019s school in 1980 as a fuzzy-faced 18-year-old. I was quick but raw. I successfully negotiated the pylon-choked race course in Ohio to the school\u2019s satisfaction, though I melted the tail-happy car\u2019s clutch in the process.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve gotten better \u2014 as has the 911.<\/p>\n In between my 911 dates, I have danced with numerous Porsches \u2014 and not just the 1,400-pound, tube-frame track legends of yore. The mid-engine 914-6. The 50-50 weight-balanced, front-engine 944. And the peerless, tossable, mid-motor 2016 Cayman\/Boxster, dollar-for-pound the best sports car on the planet. Surely, the 911 \u2014 100 pounds heavier than the Boxster, its engine hanging out its keister like a four-wheeled Kim Kardashian \u2014 would be the lesser athlete.<\/p>\n Not. Bigger in every dimension than its mid-mill stablemate, my 911 tester \u2014 base model, $90,450, manual, fire engine red \u2014 seemed to shrink around me as I settled into its form-hugging, bolstered \u201cSport Plus\u201d seats. Key on the left as always. The world\u2019s best manual box to my right.<\/p>\n Its Boxster-like, firm chassis-and-suspension a scalpel in my hands, the 911 shredded Northern California\u2019s twisty roads.<\/p>\n Chassis engineering aside, there is method to Porsche\u2019s rear-mounted madness after all. With the engine in the stern, the Porsche has space for (small) rear seats so the kiddies can share in the fun. Rear-end heavy, the car dives deeper into bends with less weight transfer compared to its athletic peers, allowing for beautiful, throttle-induced rotation through corners instead of speed-scrubbing understeer.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd with the engine\u2019s weight over the rear wheels, the traction out of the corners is unmatched,\u201d says Porsche powertrain engineer Bruno Kistner, who flew in from Stuttgart to take a bow.<\/p>\n Oh, yes, about that turbocharged engine.<\/p>\n I thought Porsche\u2019s controversial switch to turbos \u2014 not just its high-price, high-horsepower Turbo \u2014 would dominate my review. Green theology obsesses governments today, especially in Europe, and automakers are under pressure to lead carbon-celibate lives even as their customers demand more performance. Porsche\u2019s solution ingeniously satisfies both poles.<\/p>\n Maintaining its core boxer-six, the 911 only shaved piston displacement from 3.4 to 3.0-liters then upped the \u2019roids with twin, small turbochargers anchoring each cylinder bank. The result is an engine that pulls like an ox \u2014 full torque is reached at just, cough, 1,700 revs \u2014 all the way to 7,500 rpms, just 300 shy of the previous mill. No lag. No low-rpm hole.<\/p>\n Porsche had to widen the rear tires to 11.5 inches to help plant the prodigious, 331 pound-feet of torque (a 15 percent gain). Were it not for a faint turbo whine (more pronounced in the convertible), you wouldn\u2019t know this was a forced-induction mill<\/p>\n All this plumbing added weight to the engine, but Porsche\u2019s historical obsession with light-weighting \u2014 behold the drilled key on my 1,380-pound, 1969-vintage 908 racer \u2014 shaved pounds elsewhere so that the drivetrain gains just 44 pounds overall. Typical of the 911\u2019s timeless, teardrop shape, small subtleties differentiate 991 Version 2.0 from 1.0. Most obvious are two vents immediately behind the rear wheels which exit air from the red-hot turbos. The rear grill strakes flip vertical. Rear taillights are more three-dimensional.<\/p>\n I love to man-handle sports cars, so I\u2019d buy manual. But tack on a few grand, and the optional PDK gearbox on a 420-horsepower Carrera 4S (AWD for more grip, natch) is a delight with lightning-quick shifts and available mode selector on the steering wheel with an F1-like \u201cpush-to-pass\u201d button.<\/p>\n Spying a dotted passing line on California\u2019s Pacific Coast, I punch the button and the box jumps from seventh gear to third and hurtles the 911 past traffic.<\/p>\n Ninety-five grand has never seen such performance. So which icon to buy? Rear engine 911 or front-mounted \u2019Vette V8 Z06?<\/p>\n The two are as different as their national stereotypes. The Z06\u2019s explosiveness is unmatched on an asphalt battlefield. The 911 lacks the Corvette\u2019s nuclear firepower but gains in pinpoint accuracy.<\/p>\n Either will do, though I prefer the Porsche\u2019s more controlled aggression. So much for assumptions. Greatness, thy name is the rear-engine 911.<\/p>\n 2017 Porsche 911<\/p>\n Specifications<\/p>\n Vehicle type:\u00a0Rear-engine, rear- or all-wheel drive, 4-passenger sports car<\/p>\n Price:\u00a0$90,450 base ($97,010 Carrera; $138,550 Carrera 4S PDK as tested)<\/p>\n Powerplant:\u00a03.0-liter, \u201cBoxer\u201d 6-cylinder<\/p>\n Power:\u00a0370 horsepower, 331 pound-feet of torque (base Carrera); 420 horsepower, 368 pound-feet of torque (Carrera S and Carrera 4S)<\/p>\n Transmission:\u00a07-speed manual; 7-speed, dual-clutch PDK<\/p>\n Performance:\u00a0Zero-60: 4.3 seconds (base, manual Carrera); 3.6 seconds (4S with PDK): 191 mph top speed (Carrera S) \u2013 manufacturer numbers<\/p>\n Weight:\u00a03,153 pounds (base, manual Carrera as tested); 3,285 pounds (Carrera 4S PDK as tested)<\/p>\n Fuel economy:\u00a0EPA 20 mpg city\/29 mpg highway\/23 combined (base, manual Carrera); EPA 20 mpg city\/28 mpg highway\/23 combined (4S PDK)<\/p>\n Report card<\/p>\n Highs:\u00a0Classic shape; precise handling<\/p>\n Lows:\u00a0Zero engine access; turbo takes edge off raspy six howl<\/p>\n Overall:\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been club-racing mid-engine, vintage Porsches all my adult life: Porsche 904, Porsche 906, Porsche 908. All are exquisitely-balanced, apex-carving knives. Their engines are in front of the rear axles where God intended them to be. They were the models that made the sports car marque\u2019s reputation in the late 1960s as it amassed a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18512,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18510\/revisions\/18512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}