At this week's Geneva motor show the finalists for World Car of the Year were announced, along with World Performance Car of the Year, World Green Car of the Year and World Car Design of the Year. Here we list the three finalists in each catergory:
Category: World Car of the Year
Car: Porsche 911
New Porsche 911 review
The fourth all-new platform for Ferry Porsche's brainchild. Eyes down, it's the new, 991 series version of the long-running 911 dynasty.
In the 911 zoo, the inmates nitpick like grooming gorillas. For 48 years and 700,000 sales (80 per cent of which are still on the road), Ferdinand Porsche’s design has engendered an obsessive loyalty. Each new generation of 911 derivative creates its own fanatics to make safe the legend of the rear-engined sports car from Stuttgart.
For this, the seventh generation and arguably only the fourth all-new 911 since 1963, an assembly of such journalistic Kremlin-watchers was arrayed at Santa Barbara in California. The spectacle drew public and the Californian Highway Patrol in equal measure, with boosts to the local economy from restaurant trades as well as juicy speeding fines.
It is easy to be intimidated by the 911 and its mythology of ossified derivatives, races and faces – I have been in the past. Notwithstanding that the latest 911 costs from £71,449 (from £81,242 for the Carrera S, and a whisker under 100 grand with all the options fitted to our test car), there’s also a school of thought that the 911 has long ceased to have any relevance as a sports car, is an overweight express for smug old men and that the Cayman R is the car that the 911 should have been. Porsche adamantly refutes such suggestions, but they’re out there.
So with the need to reclaim the high ground as the sharpest thing with a Porsche badge, the most obvious changes for the latest 911 are a wheelbase extended by 4in (100mm), the front track pushed outwards by 2in, a scant quarter of an inch (7mm) off the roof line and the body 2in (56mm) longer than its predecessor. This is a sleeker, lower and meaner 911. Parked alongside, the previous version looks ungainly but somehow more in keeping.
A new aluminium and galvanised steel body is intended to last another generation and 14 years, so it’s been future-proofed with 130lb of boron-steel cage around the fuel tank, massive sill and door pillars and front crash beams. In spite of that, the engineers have managed to save about 88lb over the previous model.
The suspension has been reworked, although the basic wishbone rear and strut-based front remains. Also new are a seven-speed manual gearbox, electronically assisted steering and Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC), which amounts to hydraulic rams mounted on the ends of each anti-roll bar, which jack the body up and down in corners.
There’s also a torque vectoring system, which stabilises the car on the brakes to enhance the dynamics, although there is still a stability system which does the same to help keep you out of the scenery. Myriad optional chassis tweaks include adjustable dampers, active engine mounts, carbon-ceramic brakes and an electronic differential lock.
The cabin is a huge improvement on previous 911 fare, which looked as though the components had been fired at the dash with a punt gun. This facia gives a nod to the old five-dial layout, but has more logic and feels classier. The centre console gains most, with a new screen and flush switches around the gear lever. The satnav is still hopeless and the fold-out cup holders ludicrous, but the seats are more comfortable and there’s a bit more leg room.
The engine fires with a guttural roar rather than the tinkling valvegear and whirring fans of yore, but it’s unmistakably a flat-six Porsche. It rides stiffly out of town but the new steering with optional Servotronic is light and direct. The optional PDK twin-clutch transmission is a massive improvement on its Tiptronic predecessors. Redesigned with nicer steering wheel paddles (£283) and a new gearlever, it will swap ratios as fast as you require, especially under full power with the Sport Plus mode engaged. In overrun it will automatically coast with the engine idling to reduce fuel consumption.
The seven-speed manual is basically the PDK ’box with slightly different third and seventh ratios. It isn’t a success, presenting a bewildering array of five vertical selection planes. It’s a measure of the potential confusion that there’s an interlock to prevent the selection of seventh from anything other than fifth and sixth. Despite the selected gear being displayed on the facia, it’s easy to get lost, while seventh is so overdriven that you end up changing down for motorway hills.
The new engines have reduced displacement to help achieve an almost 16 per cent overall improvement in economy. The standard Carrera delivers 350bhp from 3.4 litres, the Carrera S has 394bhp from 3.8 litres. We were only allowed to drive the latter and it’s addictive. While the torque curve is far from flat, it pulls mightily from 3,000rpm and sounds wonderful at peak revs, partly thanks to a noise generator. You don’t really want the switchable sports exhaust, which just adds an annoying boom. The abiding impression is of creamy power, comfort and a lack of road noise; this is the most refined 911 ever.
As ever, the handling is scalpel sharp and the steering, while lower geared and less manic than previous models, is direct, well weighted and with fine feedback. The chassis still bobs over bumps like 911s of old, but this one can be thrown through turns with a precision and verve that flatters the driver. Only occasionally do you find a slight hollowness in the steering feel, but it’s a very clever piece of engineering.
Everyone had their opinion, but one man who might be expected to know his onions is Cass Whitehead, former racer and lead instructor for the Californian Porsche Driving School. “We can debate this forever,” he says, “but each new 911 model gets faster, more powerful, more economical and more comfortable. What’s not to like?”
And what about the fine 997 GTS, the final incarnation of the previous generation? “Yeah, we thought that would run this car real close,” says Whitehead, “so we put them on the track and the new car just blew it away.” Whitehead waits a second before delivering his killer qualification: “My judgment is that’s mainly down to the chassis control systems.”
Each successive 911 model narrowed the gap between a good and a bad driver and now technology has almost eliminated it. Is this new model a better car than its predecessor? Indubitably. But is it a better 911? Here the 911 zoo begins a debate on just how scary a 911 should be. I think the 997 predecessor was marginally more of a Porsche.
THE FACTS
Porsche 911 Carrera S
Tested: Rear-engined sports coupé. Flat-six petrol engine, seven-speed manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive
Price/on sale: from £81,242/December 17
Power/torque: 394bhp @ 7,400rpm/ 324lb ft @ 5,600rpm
Top speed: 188mph
Acceleration: 0-62mph in 4.3sec (PDK)
Fuel economy: 21.4mpg/29.7mpg (EU Urban/Combined)
CO2 emissions: 224g/km (205g/km with PDK gearbox)
VED band: L (£790 for first year, £445 thereafter)
Verdict: Refinement and performance in spades. With modern chassis electronics taking the sting out of the notorious tail, this is the most consummate 911 ever – but it loses a little of the charm
Telegraph rating: Four out of five stars
RIVALS
Jaguar C-X16, about £70,000
High hopes for this fantastic-looking car based on the XK coupé chassis, with a supercharged V6 engine. It debuts in 2013, priced against the 911 and Cayman. Expect one of the most focused Jaguars for many years.
Aston Martin V8 Vantage S, from £102,500
Expensive, but one of the best examples of Aston’s VH platform cars, especially with a 4.7-litre engine. Lovely to look at and to drive, although gearbox is noisy and change quality is variable.
Audi R8, from £86,935
Efficient, good looking, reliable, engine in the back – much like the virtues of the 911, then. The Lamborghini-derived V10-engined version gets more plaudits, but the V8 version is a bit of gem. Avoid the R-tronic auto, though.
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