We write a lot about the 911 not because we are in Zuffenhausen’s pocket. Those pockets are emptier than usual, in any case. It’s because the 911 is an extremely good car. Not only this, but there’s also the depressing dearth of opposition to challenge it, which is a recent development.
This was a topic that I mulled often during those many miles in the new Carrera S. The competition: where the hell has it all gone?
Not that long ago, the Carrera S, a showroom powerhouse derivative that generally accounts for about a third of all 911 sales, could be tightly cross-shopped with a great many cars: the Jaguar F-Type, Nissan GT-R, Lotus Evora, Mercedes-AMG GT, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Audi R8 and Maserati Granturismo.
Even Lexus was involved with the sensuous LC 500. Now the Jag, Nissan, Lexus and Audi are gone. The V8 AMG comes only with unnecessary 4WD. The pricing of the Aston and Maserati has gone to the moon. Unlike the Evora, the Emira has no rear seats and poor storage, and it’s on thin ice anyway.
AMG is cooking up a CLE with a V8, but if it weighs less than a bull elephant, I’ll be amazed. The Corvette? Cracking car, and now made in RHD, but it’s just too flashy, isn’t it?
So we look to the BMW M4 CS. It’s a stunning machine: rapid, usable, and costs what the Porsche does. But is it not concerning that the closest rival to the Carrera S in terms of the crucial all-round package is an esoteric, extra-fruity M coupé that has no cupholders and isn’t exactly grown up?
Improbably, Lexus may yet be our champion: it’s developing a V8 coupé to homologate a GT3 race car. This is the sort of activity we condone.
For now, the Carrera S feels like the last man standing. It has won the day; seen rivals eaten up and spat out – or simply transformed for the worse – by the economics of sports car making. It sounds like a dream scenario for Porsche, but it isn’t.
Engineers love competition: they use it to improve their product and it prompts them to embrace their own engineering idiosyncrasies. Limited rivalry isn’t healthy for the 911, and the shelves of the affordable-ish, driver-focused 2+2 market being so shoddily bare is no fun for anyone.
