Test Drive Porsche 911 Carrera Targa 4 997 since 2008 coupe

Sky nearby

No one buys Porsche as a vehicle. It is always a car for pleasure - aesthetic, driver and human, by demonstrating the subtlety of its taste, the height of requests and opportunities for their satisfaction. The new version of Targa perfectly fits into this concept. And to nature closer, and review from it is better, and the driver in it is also good. If he wants.
Porsche employees most interested in my impressions at all about the new Targa. They were interested in the newest concept from Lamborghini - after all, the four-door Estoque is the most direct competitor to the future sedan Porsche Panamera. I was lucky, just in the morning of the same day, see the view of Estoque on the Motor Show in Paris, and in the evening, to be on the Italian Lake Garda, where we presented a new Targa. In Italy, where the word Targa came from, he has two values \u200b\u200b- a sign and shield . It was the first and made it famous because the Golden Rectangular Plate was the main race for Sicily, organized by Vincenzo Florio. Until World War II, it was mostly Italian competitions. But from 1955 to 1973, Targa Florio was part of the World Championship, and Porsche leads among the brands of the winners. Is it worthwhile to be surprised that the new version of the body of the famous Porsche 911 was assigned to Targa?
As often happens, a new idea was born due to problems. The United States was already an important market for many automakers, and Porsche among them. And open body were very popular in America. Porsche released the version of the roadster from the very first model 356. But just in the sixties, the lawyer Ralph Nader took up research on passive security, and in his famous bestseller is dangerous at any speed (unsafe at any speed) among other things criticized and cabriolets that did not create protection when tipping over. There was a possibility of a complete ban on open bodies in the United States. In reality, she embodied much later, but Porsche reacted with the probe. The principal distinction of Targa from the usual rhodster was the presence of a safety arc. It was possible to put a rigid roof between it and windshield. Panoramic rear window on the machines of the first series was made of plastic and it could also be removed. So the car was advertised as four in one: two removable details allowed to create four different combinations. Later, the rear window was fixed. And by that time it became almost a standard: for the sake of security, such a body type began to use many firms. But the right to Targa remained for Porsche.
By the beginning of the 90s, the security of open bodies was resolved using an enhanced windshield frame, which also added advanced safety arcs on some machines. Porsche wondered how to surprise buyers again. After all, the roadster 911 has already provided a normal level of comfort and safety. In 1989, he saw the light of the TYP 911 Panamericana concept, in which there was no transverse arc, but the longitudinal appeared. They created a spectacular rapid silhouette. This idea was developed by the new Targa. It appeared in 1995 in a series of 993. A fundamental difference from the usual 911s was a glass roof. Usually, it is difficult to make a hatch in the roof on the coupe: it's very short. So on Targa of the second generation, the question was solved simply and elegant: the roof was made glass, so it could be tested under the rear window, while maintaining an acceptable level of visibility. Since then, this concept is also applied on new models. Another addition, especially understandable to the Russians - four-wheel drive. The new Targa is at all offered exclusively in the options Targa 4 and Targa 4S. Four here and there is a number of leading wheels.
Yes, this year, the turn has reached a new family 911. Success does not always facilitate life: Porsche designers, he complicates it. Form 911 was created over 40 years ago Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, the son of the founder of the Ferry Porsche car company and, accordingly, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. The style turned out to be so perfect that all subsequent models are variations on the same topic. Is it easy to improve the ideal? Periodically, third-party influences are interferred in the case: tightening safety standards, finishing from the point of view of aerodynamics ... But the car has long become cult, so make a new one and not spoil it every time everything is more complicated. Sometimes designers help themselves: an attempt to find new accents led to the emergence of 996 new form headlights. But many of the fans of the brand name did not like the novelty. So when creating a series of 997 in 2004 it was clear what to do with light engineering: oval headlights triumphantly returned.
This year, lighting equipment also became a prominent part of the new exterior: LED headlights for day ride appeared. Here Porsche also takes care of the future: in Europe there are innovations in legislation, when such light will become mandatory. But even more than new parts in the cabin and cockpit, we admire us new aggregates. Direct gasoline injection, already embedded on Cayenne, helped increase power, reduce consumption - everything is as expected. An even more revolutionary move is the appearance of a long-awaited gearbox with two clutches of Porsche Doppel Kuplung (PDK). It was Porsche once became the first company that combined the benefits of a mechanical gearbox and automaton in Tiptronic transmission in 1989. This time, the approach, so to speak, the opposite: if then with the help of electronics, it became possible to force the transmission from the hydromechanical automatus, now the same electronics automates the switching process in a completely mechanical transmission. The technology has already been tested on related Volkswagen. Two clips - tool to speed up the transmission shift, because the first time passes the moment through one step, the second is already preparing to connect the next one. Weling result - change of gear with almost no breaking power break. Seven steps allow you to most accurately choose the necessary gear ratio.
However, the wheel suddenly it turns out that the usual mechanic is simply gorgeous. And with such an engine, in fact, switch the transmissions from a clean desire to deliver the pleasure of the accuracy of this process. The motor perfectly pulls on almost any revolutions and in the range required for the country road, to change the transfer almost no need. No, if we begin to take care of ecology, then, perhaps, it is worth working as a lever.
This confirms PDK. If you go in normal mode, then on a calm road, she quickly gets to the sixth. Let's try switching to Sport - and, as it is now accepted, the suspension settings are also changing, and the engine response. And the box already allows him to get to much more revolutions. But we have and Sport Plus! In this mode, as it turns out, on the permissibles in the settlements of the speeds for it, other gears, except first, is not at all.
True, this mode switch is included in the Sport Chrono Plus optional package. Together with the stopwatch on the instrument panel and the Launch Control function, this is when the machine starts with the motor turnover at the level of 6500. The four-wheel drive helps to use the entire torque, and the transmission allows the wheels to stop smoothly so that the start is as fast as possible.
The abundance of options is not only dignity, but also a disadvantage. Because at 911, not only the latest headlights with lighting in turns are offered, but also such banalities, as a parking sensor or, for example, a rear wiper. By the way, the shift roof also does not improve, although transparent. However, it is probably the only drawback of the new Targa. And not so significant: who in such a car may be interested in what is happening from behind?

 
Porsche 911 Targa 4 / Targa 4S
EngineBenzine
Opposite
6-cylinder-working volume (cube cm) 3614 /
3800
Power (hp at rpm) 345 at 6500 /
385 at 6500moment (nm at rpm) 390 at 4400 /
420 with a 4400 transmitted full transmission. 6-speed
(PDK 7-speed) Length / Width / Height (mm) 4435/1852 / 1310-1300Massa lied (kg) 1530 (1560) /
1540 (1570) Maximum speed (km / h) 284 (282) /
297 (295) Acceleration up to 100 km / h (c) 5.2 (5.0) /
4,9 (4,7)
Fuel consumption city / highway (L) 18.5 / 12.1 /
16,5/7,7 (16,1/7,5)
Price in Moscow4 577 200 /
5 090 300
Note: Data in brackets relate to Versions with PDK transmission
Text: Valery Chusov
Photo: AG
 

A source: "Autopilot"