New 911's don't come along very often. This is the new 992 from Porsche. It's bigger, it's better,
it's faster, it uses less fuel. What I want to know is,
"Is it still a sports car?" THE 992 PORSCHE 911 All right, girls and boys, you've got
the keys to the new 911 and 992. When you're a bit of a car geek like me,
what do you do? You go and poke around in it, don't you?
Come and poke around! And the first thing
that you have to test on a sports car... the door handles, of course. I push the button,
the door handle comes out. Put my hand under, open it.
This is sacrilege. Is that really a 911?
It should have a normal handle. Lock it, goes away. Now, I think it is actually
quite a neat solution, but... See, I'm opening it now. Come on! That's a bit of nightmare, isn't it?
I think it's just... Right, there we go. That is quite heavily sprung. I think this is quite controversial. Now for fear of you all switching off,
let's go and drive the thing. Now, as we said, this is an unexpected
first early go in the new 992. I'm in a Carrera 2 S. It's bright yellow, it's got some
bits and bobs, PDK gearbox. The manual's not available
until next year apparently. And because it's Germany,
we can't go out on the road, you need winter tires,
and winter tires are fairly hopeless. So we're at Hockenheim, which is frankly meaningless
for an everyday car like a Carrera S, but it gives us the chance
to try the steering, I suppose the ride and the handling
on a flat surface, and the engine and the gearbox, obviously. So, first things first.
It feels very 911, which is great. I'm sitting low in the seat, I've got a right amount of support
around my kidneys, steering wheel is just the right size, and, well, to me, it feels like it's just
inherited the last GT3 steering. This complaint over electricity
powering the steering, it's gone for me. It doesn't sort of wriggle about and rise
the way that the old air-cooled cars did with their hydraulic steering,
but, you know, times have moved on,
it's changed, get over it! What you end up with is a very agile car. It doesn't feel any bigger
than the last 991, and I think one overarching point
I'll make, this feels like a heavily facelifted 991,
not an all-new car. That's what it feels right to me.
And underneath it probably is. There's more aluminum in the construction, but ultimately this is a 991 plus, which means a 992, I suppose.
I'm confusing myself now. I love the way the steering loads up
during the corner. I really do. There's a greater sense of connection
than there was with the previous car. This engine, for a turbocharged motor,
listen to it. To me it sounds like a normally aspirated
flat-6 from a 996. And the response... You really are just not aware of the fact
that it's turbocharged. Yeah. They really are getting somewhere
with this turbo charging. And it's fast too. This doesn't feel
an awful lot slower than my GT3 Touring. Sorry, what was my GT3 Touring. Okay, time for some more cabin geeking. I think, before we get into
the details of it, they've done a pretty good job here.
This feels very 911. You've got classic rev counter
ahead of you, it's surrounded by ancillary instruments. The two on the outside are
completely obscured by the steering wheel which is a bit odd, but you end up with five clock faces
and a screen in the middle here. That feels classically 911 to me. This little gear lever,
that looks a bit inadequate on the films and the photos I've seen
already, is far better in real life. The quality is high,
and it's pretty common sense in here. There's a bit of stuff
I don't quite understand. The separation of the damper button
out on the dashboard here, which I don't quite understand, and this cup holder. What's going on here? Why have we lost the lovely
double cup holder here which is so practical
if you live with a 911? I've now got this. What do you do
with that? That's just very odd. The other cup holder is right over here,
which I can't really reach, and I use both of them
in my 911 certainly. Seat's comfortable, good driving position,
nice and low. Steering wheel, bang on. Since the 918 Porsche's steering wheel
game has been strong. This three-dimensional rev counter
is absolutely superb, okay? Its typefaces and the needle design and
that central little point there is 1970s. So a lot of this cabin harks back
to the long bonnet cars of the 1970s. I think they're rather beautiful. As you can see when we switch
the ignition on, this is Panamera, Cayenne, Macan.
It's the standard Porsche layout. You either love it or you don't.
I think it works very well. It means you get a huge variety
of options for the screen. It can show you performance data, it can show you where you're going,
where you've been, and play around with the chassis
and everything. I think it makes sense. So, it feels nicely 911 in here to me. Backseat space pretty good. Never underestimate the back seats
of a 911. I use mine the whole time
for my little people, it separates the car from just about
any other sports car. Glove box, not a bad size. These door bins,
I'm being a real 911 geek now, if you look over there,
that one down there, there used to be a hinge bit behind,
underneath where your elbow goes, they've now left that just open.
I think it's quite a good solution, because I used to spend a lot of time
flexing that forwards and backwards. That bin just ahead of the door handle
is crucial, that's where you put everything
of any value in a 911. They've just lined it with a bit more
carpet this time. Isn't that interesting? The interior door handle
is very interesting. I can't quite believe
I just said that, but it is. It's flush with this nice panel here
and it allows your hand to get in there. When you pull it,
it's quite heavily sprung. What happens is, it really shunts the door
away from you. In the 991, when you try to open the door, you have to get your elbow and give it
a massive bang to get it to open. They've worked that out
because it's got an extra spring. You just touch it
and the door really flies open. Not too far, just enough,
it's been German engineered. I will say one thing though
the first three times I did it, I got my little finger caught in there. There could be some very nasty pinky
personal injury claims coming Porsche's way. What do we think then? I think it's a clever blend of next gen
and recognizable 911. Porsche is very good at this stuff. There's something so reassuring about
the latch still being in the same place. Just there move to the right,
up she pops. I love that. And look, it's a space
in between two front wheels. That looks about the same size to me. I could quote something in liters
but it doesn't mean anything. What I can tell you is
a couple of bags will go in there and that will swallow more than
you think it should by looking at it. That's all you need to know
about the 911's bonnet. Hasn't got its sticker up there,
worth 20 grand less in the trade already. Bang! Let's have a look
down the back here. I warn you, you're about to see
something spectacular. The new 911's engine. Watch this. There you go, in all its glory, two fans from a gaming PC and a plastic badge that says 3-liter S. Is that how far we've come?
Isn't that so disappointing? You spend 120 grand in a new car
and you've got not much to show for it. And listen to this.
That is the sound of plastic. But overall, from the outside,
I think it's a pretty good effort. I'm not the arbiter
of what's good and bad looking. Look, you see I've slept
in these clothes for about a week. I know nothing
about the sartorial side of life, but, to me, the wide hips and now the single-width body style,
so a 4 S is the same width as a 2 S, is a good-looking car. It's got a load of hip,
a load of shoulder, tapers down to the front,
it looks aggressive. A 4 S is the same width as the outgoing
991 4 S, so it's not got any wider. And the one thing that doesn't
come across in the photographs, this LED strip that goes all the way
across the back of the car looks very flat and two-dimensional. But when you see the car in the raw,
there's a real taper across the top. The curvature here
as you walk around the car means it's got a really nice round ass. The 992 is very much a 911 plus. The motor in this S model
gains a particular filter and some new turbos
and ends up with 444 horsepower and 369 foot-pounds of torque. It's a little heavier too despite more
of it being made of aluminum. It's a really fast car. Gearbox, I was expecting a little bit more
from this PDK transmission. It's very, very smooth,
and it's very positive, but the shifts in the sport mode
are a little bit lackluster. I pull the leaver and it's nothing like
as quick as it is on a GT3. What happens if you back it in a bit
I wonder. So it's got a locker in there,
in this Carrera 2 S model. The cabin, the more time I spend in it
the more I like it. It's got rear seats, it looks like a 911,
sounds like a 911. I mean, what's not to like? Really. Tell you what,
whilst you're sort of contemplating that, I'm going to see if I can wreck these
new Pirelli's, they've just been fitted... Is it still a sports car?
That's the question. I close the bidding.
It is very much a sports car, you know. It really is very much a sports car, because it's lively
and it wants to have fun. It's got personality as well. Yeah. It doesn't bristle the way
that the old 911's do, but no cars do anymore,
they're too competent. You can't have the competence
this has as an everyday car, the comfort, the convenience,
the usability, and expect it to be just as thrilling
as they used to be. It'll do that all day long,
that's enough for me. Comfortable on the motorway and quiet,
I'm not getting the road noise. I can't tell you anything
about the ride though, nothing. Because it's so flat here. So we need to get it on a good old
bumpy British Road and tell you. But first impressions,
yeah, as expected, it's not a revolution. It's a really sensible, clever
evolution of a 991, with a great new cabin
and fantastic engine. I can't really complain. There you go.
