Carrera 4 Beats Carrera 2 round Rally Course on Top Gear

[persuader]

Wow what a great Top Gear show tonight. The Stig raced a Carrera 2 and then a Carrera 4 round a stadium rally circuit. The 4 was faster but the 2 was more enjoyable to control and nicer to drive. I wish they had used S models though.
Any one see it?

[dealmaker]

Yeah, the time differential would have been greater with the "S" models.

[patrico]

Wasn't the C4 an S? It had the quad exhaust pipes or is that standard on the 4?

[clubsport]

1/2 a second quicker round that lap, for the extra 4,500 quid you would pay for the 4 over the 2 for less fun...I didn't really see what that test proved....

I would have thought a trip from London to val d' isere may have shown the 4 in a better light and maybe appealed more to it's target market.
However a C4 with 325 bhp is 2,500 quid cheaper than the 355 horse C2S...who is actually going to buy a C4???

[dealmaker]

patrico said:

Wasn't the C4 an S? It had the quad exhaust pipes or is that standard on the 4?

Probably just had PSE option - both cars were standard "Carrera" spec. I think

[persuader]

Well I've currently got a 4 and have had a 2 coupe and a 2 cab. I admit the 4 isn't as much fun to drive as the 2 but the extra traction the 4 gives in the wet and when turning sharp out of junctions is really noticeable.

[mutt k]

Don't normally like red cars but that Carrera 4 looked very tasty

[deep]

Test should have been on wet British roads when 4wd may provide an advantage, not on a dry track

[DanH]

I'm sure they said it was a 4S. So they were comparing a 4S vs a 2, and the 4S was barely any quicker despite the extra power. Doesn't the 4S also have uprated damping?

[persuader]

It was definitely a 4 not a 4S.

[Patrico]

persuader said:

It was definitely a 4 not a 4S.

how do you know?

[clubsport]

Well the close up shot of "Carrera 4" on the rear engine lid was a clue...the "S" was definitely missing.

[Patrico]

clubsport said:

Well the close up shot of "Carrera 4" on the rear engine lid was a clue...the "S" was definitely missing.

ahh missed that.

[jjr1]

On a slippery concrete surface with loads of very slow corners what would you expect? Put them on the road and there would be no difference.

[silver993tt]

jjr1 said:

On a slippery concrete surface with loads of very slow corners what would you expect?

You mean real road conditions in the UK

[jjr1]

Not even the Cat and Fiddle is that tight.

[dealmaker]

jjr1 said:

On a slippery concrete surface with loads of very slow corners what would you expect? Put them on the road and there would be no difference.

On a dry smoothe A/B road I'd agree.

On typical give-and-take A/B and "unclassisifed" roads (i.e the types I drive on), with typical British weather thrown in, then I'm afraid the 4S will leave our beloved 2S's behind (I know I've tried it in a cat and mouse chase with both cars back to back - irrespective of which of us was driving the 4S, it would invariably pull away)- 90% of the time it's the better car. (for the other 10% you want a 997GT3 or RS anyway!)

[jjr1]

The 4wd might give the driver more confidence hence they may push it harder but I very much doubt it would pull away if a good driver was piloting both and certainly not on the road as I have never seen anyone push a car hard on the road.

I often ride or drive over the Peaks and the only people who push it are the bikers. Not all bikers but some will ride so close to death it is unbelievable. Get in a scrap with them and you have to be prepared to meet your maker very soon.

Cars never seem to be going fast and the faster the car the slower they drive. I could count on one hand the number of car drivers in the last 14 years I have seen pushing it hard in this country and by that I mean on twisty roads not straight line blasters on big A roads or dual carriageways (abroad is a different matter with plenty of drivers up for a blast).

[tony.t]

4WD cars will always suffer more power losses through their more complex transmission systems and hence will put less power on the road than an otherwisw identical 2WD car. Invariably the extra components of the 4WD system adds weight which reduces the power to weight ratio cf a 2WD car. The upshot is that a 4WD car will always be slower when traction isnt a problem.

Given that modern 911s are quite heavy anyway and the electronic diffs are efficien you're not really going to notice these disadvantages to any great degree on the road but the added traction will be plainly felt

Perhaps the choice of which to buy depends on how you view the 911 anyway; As a GT with a sporting bent - 4WD or as a fun sportscar that can doeveryday road use 2WD

Personally I wouldn't go back to 2WD drive for everyday use.

[sidicks]

tony.t said:

Perhaps the choice of which to buy depends on how you view the 911 anyway; As a GT with a sporting bent - 4WD or as a fun sportscar that can do everyday road use - 2WD.

Precisely the reason I went for the C4S over the C2S !

Still 3 months to wait, though..........

Sidicks