The 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S Is So Good it Ruins Other Cars
Any time a new generation of Porsche 911 comes out, that’s going to be a milestone. I probably get asked about 911s more than any other car, and so this time around, I’ve made a point to get as much seat time as I can in one.
I flew to Germany to get a 992 Carrera 4S from the factory, drove it to Leipzig, put it on a plane, flew it to Ohio, and then drove it from Ohio to Atlanta. I even made a stop at the Tail of the Dragon at first light, and had one of the finest road-to-yourself drives of my life. In total, that was around 1,400 miles.
On that trip, I found little fault with the new 911, save for a soul-sucking economy mode, easily disposed of with one button, and its new buddy, eighth gear, which runs and hides in Sport. In almost every other way it matches or exceeds the previous generation car, especially in the interior, which was already class-leading. There’s no manual transmission, yet, but we’re holding out hope.
On track during R&T's PCOTY, where I filmed this video, the rear-drive Carrera S is so good at everything that it ruins other cars. It has an effortless way about demolishing a lap time, about gliding over that rough set of curbing, about making minuscule mid-corner adjustments, and about powering down smoothly out of a corner. It feels like you can’t break it, and it’s mostly right.
As usual, PDK sets the standard for speed and smoothness, with zero interruption in torque on the way up, and zero interruption of balance on the way down. Though the body keeps getting bigger, the engine keeps moving, relatively, inward, which means Porsche have finally dialed out a lot of those ‘widow maker’ handling characteristics, leaving behind a car that is more than happy to smoothly wag its tail like a runway model.
Perhaps the 911’s greatest asset is its versatility. It's a daily driver, a road tripper, a canyon carver, a luxury item, a snowmobile, and a track star, all in one. Though nostalgia may rule 911 worship culture, the new ones are still the cars to beat.
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