“Power, comfort, handling, design… if this were the last sports car we ever drove, we’d die content.”Sam Reitman, Co-President, TrackWorthy Group Ltd.
Instead, we crafted a fourth, longer and more southerly alternative. Why? Significantly more of our DIY route was new to both of us than any of Google’s suggestions. Moreover, we set aside five days for the drive, and we wanted to use all five!
The Thompson was well located in the heart of The Gulch, a central, trendy Nashville district. The staff were attentive and charming, the styling modern and chic, cleanliness was A+, and there was an excellent hotel restaurant. The valet also happened to be a car nut, and the two of us spent a good amount of time bonding on the topic.
It’s hard to go wrong with The Four Seasons; however, our expectations were justifiably higher considering the price. We were proud to see our Canadian brand shine, with only one exception: The hotel was filming some sort of highlight reel featuring its main restaurant’s kitchen. As a result, dinner service was embarrassingly awful, and the hotel did not, in our opinion, compensate appropriately. If you’re going to film your restaurant, do it at off hours and not at the expense of paying guests. That said, the majestic desert setting, palatial suites, complete with private yards and hot tubs, and employees that have erased “no” from their lexicons, made it hard to leave unhappy. Plus, breakfast at Proof was awesome (get the Huevos Rancheros).
Southern-most Segment. Finally, the segment of our trip approaching and skirting the U.S.-Mexico border, especially between Abilene and El Paso, Texas, was particularly interesting. Visiting many of the gas stations and their host “towns” felt like entering a time warp. They were simultaneously enchanting, eerie, quaint, and weird. Pictured below is a gas stop we made in the forlorn Sierra Blanca.
Little Rock, Arkansas. Sounds so charming, so captivating — a little rock in Arkansas. Hometown of former U.S. President, Bill Clinton. Maybe we didn’t hit the right spots, maybe we were tired, maybe the places we stopped were having an off day. Sadly, we were a bit disappointed. If you ever find yourself choosing between South on Main or any other place for lunch, choose the latter. We stopped at South on Main. Aesthetically, it was quite appealing. Let’s leave it at that.
Speed Traps & Congestion. Again, this may have been more a function of bad timing rather than bad route. However, most of the drive was on highway loaded with well-hidden speed traps. Even worse – or, perhaps, better from a not-getting-stopped standpoint – there was so much congestion for the majority of our route that the speed traps were nearly totally pointless. Nearly. We did receive a friendly warning from an officer the night we stretched our stamina between El Paso and Tucson. In truth, given (a) how close to the speed limit we were driving, (b) how close to the Mexican border we were at the time, and (c) how quickly the officer let us go when he saw us, we weren’t convinced that catching speeders was the officer’s chief interest.
The route may have fallen short of anticipatory imaginings, but the new 991.2 C4S surpassed them. With an abundance of power, precise handling, aggressive beauty, reliability and surprising comfort, she drove like a dream. Even after spending nearly every waking moment in the car for five straight days, the hairs on the back of my neck still prickle whenever the engine ignites for a new drive. For all the details on the car’s build, click here, then click “Open.”
Handling. Though equipped with an abundance of power, Porsche 911s have not garnered reputations for winning drag races (exceptions: GT2 RS, GT3 RS and Turbo S); rather, experts generally acknowledge that 911s truly shine because of the perfect balance between power, responsiveness and handling that fifty-five years of German engineering have achieved. The rear-axle steering – now available on all 911s – made a noticeable difference in stability at high speeds and turning radius at low. On our drive, the car was truly a symphony on wheels, with each component playing its part, achieving precision we could feel in each minute turn.
Sadly, our route was mostly flat and straight, so this particular drive was far from ideal to showcase my point. However, in an upcoming post, we’ll visit some famed California Canyon roads to demonstrate this Porsche’s pavement-prancing prowess.
I chose Graphite Blue Metallic with 20” RS Spyder Design Wheels. I also ordered the key fob painted in the same Graphite Blue, which comes with a leather case in the same color – a classy touch. For most of his career, my father in-law has worked as an executive at major U.S. defense contractors. He was very involved in several of the stealth fighter and bomber programs. When he first saw my car, he commented that its colour is the same as that which his company initially used to camouflage the stealth aircraft. If I had any doubts over my colour choice, they immediately vanished.
For the interior, I decided on leather in Graphite Blue and Chalk, which includes deviated stitching in Chalk – I’m definitely a fan of deviated stitching.
For a sportier feel, I selected the multifunctional, heated steering wheel in carbon fiber, as well as interior trim in carbon fiber.
Perhaps one of my best calls was to upgrade the instrument cluster and Sport Chrono clock dials so that they’re all white. When I received the car, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the interior roof liner was done in a rich matching Graphite Blue Alcantara.
Although the sports exhaust package doesn’t produce a drastically different sound compared to the standard package, the centrally-mounted twin tailpipes are very sporty. And the optional fuel cap with aluminum look and finish definitely elevated refueling a tad along the drive.
An additional minor positive point of distinction when comparing the 991.2 to the 991.1: I could never tell when the spoiler was up in the 991.1 from the cabin looking through the rear-view. In the 991.2, as soon as we hit the highway and accelerated to speed, I noticed it emerge into view. This pleased me.
Times have certainly changed. Our 991.2 C4S was equipped with 14-way Power Sport Seats with memory, which are heated and ventilated. The ride was quite smooth (when we didn’t turn on Active Sports Suspension), and neither of us suffered any aches or pains after our hours on the road. Moreover, gas mileage was fairly impressive – we averaged 9.3 liters/100 km (about 25 mpg).
The infotainment system, with optional Bose sound system, performed significantly better than the version in the 991.1 – faster, better interface and equipped with Apple Car Play. We used the Audible app to help pass time quickly during particularly boring route segments.
The optional LED Headlights, which include the Porsche Dynamic Light System Plus were outstanding. They illuminate significantly brighter and whiter than Xenons – they literally projected daytime a good distance in front of the car.
We experienced zero issues with the car and were very impressed with its comfort level.
The trend toward turbo hasn’t dashed all hope in this department, however. We recently reviewed a 991.2 GTS Cabriolet, one step up Porsche’s performance ladder from the C4S, and that car sounded properly angry, especially under decent acceleration. So, perhaps Porsche will apply its magic to “lesser” 911s in future generations similar to what it has done on the 991.2 GTS. Or, perhaps environmental regulations will ultimately squelch the scream of the sports car for good.
The PDK: SPORT Response Button. Supposedly, it’s “for fingertip activation of performance-oriented engine and transmission setups.” So, it’s supposed to give you super powers for twenty seconds? From our perspective, especially when driving in manual mode (which was nearly the whole drive), pushing it didn’t really change much. It certainly was nothing like that red button from Men in Black. It seemed a bit gimmicky and we didn’t experience the value. That said, it’s merely part of the optional Sport Chrono Package, which does offer other clear benefits, like multiple driving modes, a performance display and Launch Control.
It’s Low. Generally, that’s a good thing. And it’s only about a centimeter lower than the 991.1. For some reason, we noticed significantly more scraping driving in and out of driveways, strip malls and other plazas. And with every scrape, it felt like a piece of my soul died. Not really. But, it definitely elicits a cringe and helpless frustration—no level of caution or skill can prevent bottoming out in many situations. In hindsight, the optional Front Axel Lift System would have been a good call.
No Torque Curve? It annoyed us some to see that Porsche still hasn’t made the real-time torque curve display available in 911s other than in the top end models. Porsche is just finding more ways to differentiate their highest-end (?) editions. It wouldn’t cost them anything more to put it in all 991.2s, and access to the real-time torque curve is not the reason someone’s buying a Turbo S over a C4S. That said, the torque curve is so incredibly flat in the 991.2 that receiving live torque updates probably isn’t actually all that valuable. Most of the time, you’re at peak 368 lb.-ft.
Google Maps. It should have it. It doesn’t. It’s not even an optional app within Apple Car Play. Unfortunate.
We loved every moment we spent in this car. The positives FAR outweighed the minor nit-picks. Power, comfort, handling, design… if this were the last sports car we ever drove, we’d die content.
There were two main issues with this drive. The first was the route. It wasn’t picturesque, and it didn’t offer adequate opportunity to showcase the car’s handling and performance. The second was the car’s newness. Even if there were segments of open road that encouraged speed and hard acceleration, we didn’t have enough break-in millage on the car to feel comfortable pushing it to its full potential.
As such, many more videos with this 991.2 are in the works:
Long Drives and Car Meetups. We’ll also test the car’s fuel economy under more realistic driving conditions and compare fuel economy in normal driving mode to Sport. To do so, we’ll drive up the famed Pacific Coast Highway as far as we can on one tank of gas in Normal mode, then refill and repeat the same drive in Sport. Along the way, we’ll stop at a Coffee and Cars event to see what TrackWorthy beasts lurk around Malibu these days.
Back to T.O. We’ll re-traverse the continent back to Toronto, this time taking Google’s recommended northern route, which should be more scenic and offer more dramatic topographic transitions. More importantly, it should also promise more open road, enabling us to shoot a video that is much more driving focused.
If you have any additional requests or recommendations, please contact us at info@trackworthy.com. We’d love to hear your creative ideas and we’ll do our best to incorporate them.
Photographs and Videos © Copyright TrackWorthy Group Ltd. 2018
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