Test drive Porsche 911 Carrera 4 997 2005 - 2008 coupe

Bird of youth

Around the German city of Cologne there are several settlements with complex, but alluring names-Menshen-Gladbach, Bergish-Gladbach, etc. Like aristocrats with double surnames of the Sukhovo-Kobylin and Bender-Zadunayi type, they attract an unspoken, but long history. Sometimes a story that was happening a century ago becomes a story that is going on here and now. The launch of the new Porsche Carrera 4 Cabrio and Porsche Carrera 4s Cabrio will be a historical event this year. At least for the little world of our world garage.
To that guarantee-a badge for the start of Carrera 4s Cabrio in the Bensberg Palace of Bergish-Gladbach. And also - fourteen pars built in two rows on the paths of the palace in anticipation of the riders.
The guys from Stuttgart are able to arrange a holiday. The everyday life was gray, and here-and here they are, bright yellow, red, silver and blue Carrers 4s, like a quintessence of a good mood. Something is akin to champagne, which all threatened to open Pushkin when black thoughts come. He did not know that instead of the marriage of Figaro, one could read the RoadBook Cabriolet Trail Driving Presentation Schloss Bensberg 2005, and instead of a bottle, open the soft controlled top of the latest model of the famous machine. So inserts, so inserts.
 
Apparently, the Stuttgart organizers decided, not to say unnecessary words, to immediately enclose the car public as the quality of the goods - an elegant plan, like a stone tied to a stick that we were tapped on the head (for the dark: this is a quote from O'Genry).
On the first day, without any celebrations, we were simply given a 4s and a plan for somewhere a kilometer of 44. We are drivers attributed to Leisure Drivers, and do not persecute for the prizes, so we took a red car with a tiptron. Let cool and fast dangle on the handle.
So that no one has illusions: 911 Carrera 4s Cabriolet is equipped with a 3.8-liter engine that has a capacity of 355 horses and disperses the car to a hundred in 4.7 seconds. The largest speed measured on the track is 288 km/h. But, unlike other countries, in Germany you can ride in the same way in some areas of civilian highways. At the same time, the organizers cynically advised us all, despite the speed regimes, to follow road rules.
We roll out over the castle through the gate, located in such a way that a couple of hare ears of the Cologne Cathedral are visible in the distance, in the valley. The owners of the palace were distinguished by great taste, or rather, Prince Jan Villem, who began to build a house here three hundred years ago. The first impressions: the spaces in the back were even smaller, and even a decent camera has nowhere to put, not only to plant his beloved Kurzhaar or Labrador. This fact is aggravated by a complex design of a grid screen, which suppresses the turbulence of air in such a way that with an open roof you can talk with a neighbor. What to talk about with a neighbor? What is Bensberg spa in the castle? So we did not take swimming trunks.
We are leaving the city of Bensberg, which, according to the administrative reform of 1974, merged with Bergish-Gladbach together, and we have an option to slightly drive along the A4 federal highway. What we use. The car, thanks to the four leading (the connection, as in the previous models, through the Visus-Muft, which transmits from five to forty percent of the power to the front wheels), is confidently kept at any speed and even on the wet road. It is trying to rain, and therefore we have no special desire to use the open roof. However, we see that colleagues, having clutched at the intersection, lit emergency lights and open the top. For this, they did not actually stop. The new roof will openly open and 50 km/h in twenty seconds. What opens up new opportunities not to be doused with a natural cataclysm somewhere on the road without a parking space.
Ahead of us are colleagues from Spain - now there is an opportunity to consider the stern of the new flagship of Porsche. This battleship has an amazingly muscular ass. Indeed, the contours around the rear wheels are 4.4 cm wider than the front -wheel drive models 911 Carrera and 911 Carrera S Cabriolet, which, of course, are quite known to autopilot readers and simply fans of the legendary machine. Oksana Hartonyuk (Porsche-Rush), who is sitting on the right, says that the general view of the new machine is considered muscular, and not just the ass, and in general, the word ass in corporate materials is not found. Well, okay, we just like how this wide bright frog stands on the road. Although some believe that this is a cat on four legs. It seems to us that the word cat is already tightly busy with another chic brand of car.
We are spraying in small towns Overat, Lomar and Rosrat to enter the Bensberg Palace back. Ahead-cocktail and press conference of the winners. The winners announced that for the world press the start of the new car was already given a month ago on the historical highway in Monte Carlo. Thus, the Spaniards, Russians and the Portuguese were explained that they were just not the world press. Although further Chinese and Russian markets were called the most promising report. Thank you, have already seen the promising city of Vladivostok. As he was promising thirty years ago, he was in the 80s and even more so in the 90s. He will die a promising city. The main thing that the representative of Porsche said, the price of Carrera Cabrio in Europe will be 79,900, and C4S - 88,700, while in the USA - $ 87100 and $ 97100
For a press conference, at which only one question was raised and then in Spanish, dinner began. He was worthy of the price category of the new model. And the wine was this: 2004 Le Domaine de Menard Cote de Gascogne and 2003 BellerChe Cote du Rhone M.Chapoutier. Still, the Schloss Bensberg Hotel consists in a very decent Leading Hotels of the World association.
The very first car that carried on board the name Porsche 365 No 1 was actually an open relative. Since the launch of the first 911 Cabrio in 1982, more than 130,000 cars have been sold. And only for the past, 2004 - more than 10,000 cars with an open top. In total, shortly before the end of the financial year, Porsche cars were sold at the plant in the region of 80,000. Is it worth clarifying that the lion's share of sales is Porsche Cayenne?
On the second day after long conversations under a cigar about the fate of empires, it turned out that the rain only intensified, and now there could be no talk of an open roof. This time we got a red Carrera with a 3.6-liter engine. It accelerates a little slower, but the body feels this difference without instrumental control not very clearly. And here are other seats, as it seemed to us after much more steep by 3.8 liters. This time, the track is designed to pass in two hours - 120.9 km. It includes a section of an autobahn, hilly serpentines, small roads in dark forests through Engelskirhen, Marienheida, Kyurten and Lindlar. Both on a wet carbon car, and on narrow wet paths, the car behaves perfectly, despite the fact that its rear wheels are slightly already than that of 4s, and have size 295/35 ZR 18.
And in terms of applied linguistics - it seemed to us funny that in the Russian language Carrera is, of course, she, while the manufacturer calls her Brother Cars - that is, brothers.

Text Igor Maltsev, photo of the author and Porsche AG

Porsche 911
Carrera 4 Carrera 4s Cabriolet
Gasoline engine, 6-cylinder opposite
Working volume (cubic meter) 3596 3824
Power (L.S. at rpm) 325 at 6800 355 at 6600
Moment (Nm at rpm) 370 at 4250 400 at 4600
The drive is complete
Gearbox 6-speed mechanical
Length/width/height (mm) 4427/1852/1311 4427/1852/1301
Wheel base (mm) 2350
Equipped mass (kg) 1560 1535
Maximum speed (km/h) 280 288
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 5.3 4.9
Fuel consumption average (l/100 km) 11.3 11.8
Price in Europe () 79 900 88 700
To increase the safety of driving in an open car, both subjects were equipped with the Porsche Side Impact Protection (Posip), which includes separate airbs for the head and Thorax for both front riders. Plus, of course, the front full -size airbags. For a coup version - two super -strength steel pipes and two powerful rods located behind the rear seats.
 

Source: "Autopilot"