A new 911!

If Saab is sitting on the edge of a bottomless pit to eat its lunch then Porsche is safely in the comfort of its own home. What I mean is, whilst Saab is struggling Porsche doesn't seem to be sharing the pain.

What is the code for the new model? Well I'm not sure but I have heard rumours that Porsche isn't calling it the 998. The model that has been unveiled is the standard Carrera and the first thing about it that strikes me is that Porsche have completely restyled the car. Only joking, it looks virtually no different at all from the previous models, There are some minor changes however that you would have to specialise in 911s to notice without a spec sheet in front of you. The biggest is that the mirrors have been moved to the top of the doors. The standard size of the rims have been upped to 19 inches and you can have 20 inch wheels if you so desire. The last major difference is that the rear wheels have moved back by 70mms to help improve rear stability.

The standard Carrera has a 3.4 litre straight six which is down on the previous models 3.6 litre but don't fear as power has increased to 350bhp. Oh and guess where the engine is situated because you might be shocked to hear the answer? At the back. Oh, you're not shocked, never mind. The combo of this engine and Porsches PDK gearbox can get the base car to 60mph in 4.6 seconds which is brisk if not startling. The Carrera S will get 3.8 litre like the old model but tweaked a bit to produce 400bhp allowing a 60 time of 4.1 seconds.

New chassis features include an optional anti roll system to help you go faster and electric power system. This sets alarm bells ringing because electric power steering is usually devoid of anything that resembles feel but if anyone can create feel in a system like that it's Porsche! Whatever these new features will do for the car I bet the 911 will still handle brilliantly.

Something that I think has universally improved is the interior. I for some reason I never liked the old 911s interior because although it had good quality materials, it was steeply angled and created a sense you were being cocooned. This new 911 borrows heavily from the Panamera with some switches coming in straight from the big four door. There is still a more upright slant than in the Panamera and the radiator vents are angled in toward you. But unlike the cocoon like claustrophobia of the old model this new one looks a little bit more embracing and snug.

The price like the old model stays reasonable at £71,449. This is a high performance supercar and they're asking only 71K. To get this straight, the Honda CR-Z Mugen (now scrapped by the way) costs £150,000 which is more than twice as much as the Carrera. The other bit of news pertaining to the relative cost to run this car is the fact that the engine only produces 194g/km of CO2 which allows it to fall into a lower tax band than you'd think.

If you want one which I bet a lot of you do then you'll have to wait until the 17th of December. When that day comes it'll be interesting to see how it stacks up against the current line up of competition. Interesting for sure but until then thankyou for reading and join me again in two days time. I'm busy at the moment and this can take time to do so I'm compromising by blogging once every two days!