Car UK May 2019

MAY 2019 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 43

First Drives

More relevantly for law-abiding types, you

can still open or close the roof at speeds of up

to 32mph, just like the old model, where some

soft-tops insist you stop. It’s an invigorating

experience, for all the right reasons. With all

windows and the top down, this Porsche is an

archetypal crossflow convertible that consumes

a gallon of fuel every 26 miles along with two

fluid ounces of industrial-strength hair gel. To

attenuate the storm, you can close just the front

windows, or all four windows, or deploy the

effective wind deflector that pops up behind you,

almost as big as the projection screen at a drive-

in movie.

In many convertibles you have to manually

clip the wind deflector in place, but here it

deploys from the rear bulkhead at the press of a

button, unless the plus-two rear seats are occu-

pied or the front seats are pushed too far back.

It’s much less fiddly, and the benefit is quickly

noticeable: even at speed with the wind deflector

in place, this feels very much like a coupe with an

extra-large sunroof open.

It drives like a coupe too, with a structure

that feels barely troubled by the decapitation,

even if the fact is that the bodyshell is actually

less than half as stiff. Our car gets the delicately

implemented optional rear-wheel steering (just a

few corners are all it takes to convince you of its

worth) and the 10mm lower sports suspension.

The latter option is a first for a 911 Cabriolet,

enabled by even faster-acting adaptive dampers.

Truth be told, it’s definitely on the firm side

around town with its huge 20-inch front and

21-inch rear tyres, so if your focus is low-speed

jaunts and laid-back sun-seeking, that set-up is

probably worth a swerve.

The payback comes at speed, where the

restlessness eases to flow with the surface, and

through the twisties. Here the 911 mesmerises ⊲

First drives

THE FIRST HOUR

10 seconds

Roof looks sharp.

Bum’s a bit bigger

22 seconds

Did that roof really

drop in 12 seconds?

Yep

5 minutes

It’s stiff in town on

lowered sports

suspension. No

wobbles, though

30 minutes

Roof-down, the

cockpit’s nicely

cocooned

45 minutes
On a brilliant road
you forget you’re in a
cabrio – you’re just in a
sports car

Seats now mounted

slightly lower, small

steering wheel, central

tacho – it’s no softie

The new Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet pro-

duces 444bhp, and makes 391lb ft from 2300rpm.

It can scorch from zero to 62mph in 3.8 seconds,

and is capable of a pretty refreshing 188mph

top speed. This is all very well, but an almost –

almost! – equally impressive performance figure

is the time it now takes the fabric roof to go from

fully closed to please-pass-the-suncream open

• at 12 seconds in either direction, it’s a full two
  seconds swifter than its predecessor, despite the
  roof being much the same.
  Secrets to this extra speed include stronger
  electric motors and a lighter folding mechanism
  with reduced moments of inertia. Like before,
  there are compromises: neatly packaging the
  Z-fold roof below a metal tonneau cover and
  above the 3.0-litre flat-six means the rear end
  has to lift by around 10mm – a tiny figure that
  does nonetheless make the rear end look bulkier,
  especially roof-down – and weight increases by
  70kg over a 911 coupe owing to extra bracing,
  taking the 4S to a hardly feathery 1635kg.
  But this new soft-top does retain many of the
  coupe’s strengths. Available in black, red, blue
  or brown, the fabric roof is stretched taut and
  crisp to preserve a coupe’s athletic definition,
  and even matches its 0.30Cd drag figure. That’s
  primarily due to the improved fit of the fabric
  skin, a smoothly integrated heated rear window,
  and the four rigid composite elements that form
  a seamless arc. An extra fleecy layer sandwiched
  between the unchanged outer and inner layers is
  said to drop noise levels by 10 per cent (and roof
  operation is quieter too).
  Out on the road, noise levels really are impres-
  sively hushed for a convertible. It’s only above
  125mph that conversation either peters out or is
  absorbed by the awesome Burmester high-end
  sound system. Even close to V-max, ballooning
  of the roof isn’t an issue.

▲

PLUS

Faster, quieter roof;

drives like a coupe;

great engine, handling

MINUS

▼

Heavier; pricier;

noisier than a coupe

roof-up