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Around the offices of this magazine, there are a few basic
tenets. Among them: Any Porsche is a good start. A Porsche
911 is better, and a 911 Turbo is better still. A wind-in-yourhair
911 Turbo Cabriolet is about as good as it gets, while a
Speed Yellow one is closing in on automotive nirvana. And
then there is this car, a Speed Yellow 911 Turbo Cabriolet
bristling with $20,000 worth of Porsche's customizing
options.
The 911 Turbo has been under continuous development
for more than 30 years now, and at this stage, it produces 480
horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque, 60 hp and 45 lb-ft more
than the last version. It drives through a six-speed manual or
Tiptronic automatic transmission, and delivers torque to all
four wheels through the programming of a nearly infallible
computer chip.
In addition to all-wheel drive, the Turbo Cab comes with
gigantic 13.8-inch ABS brakes, traction control, stability control,
Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) and a
host of other standard equipment, all for a smidgen over
$136,000, which is not unreasonable money for a near-200-
mph convertible.
The 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet is as technically
advanced and proficient as any car alive today; it just looks
and acts cooler than most. There are technoid tidbits hiding
all over this car. The main body is steel, but the door skins
and hood are aluminum alloy. The huge Michelin tires come
with a tire-pressure monitoring system, and each car comes
with an electric air compressor and tire puncture sealant-
just in case. The wheels are forged aluminum for strength.
The slots in the rear of the body are there for a reason, to take
in intercooler air. The ones behind the tires are there to
exhaust that intercooler airflow. The exhaust system is almost
all stainless steel, right out to the chromed tips. The rear
spoiler doesn't go up and down just to wave bye-bye to the
cars behind it; it adds significant rear downforce at speeds
over 75 mph.
The convertible or Cabriolet model has been part of the
Turbo family for 20 years now, and the new version has the
thickest, tightest, quietest top ever, fully automatic up or
down in 20 seconds or less, at speeds up to 30 mph.
This car was built for a particular customer who likes
Speed Yellow, because in addition to the gleaming paint, it
carries yellow brake calipers (they're normally painted red on
Turbos), yellow sport seat shells, a yellow console, yellow
seatbelts, and yellow instrument faces. The contrasting Stone
Gray leather interior works perfectly to offset and soften the
yellow accents, and each of the front seats is embossed with
the Porsche Stuttgart logo.
Porsche's brakes are legendary and on the 911 they routinely
deliver the shortest stopping distances of any car on the
market. Check the box on the order form, though, and you
can step up to Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes or PCCB.
Unlike the ceramic composite brakes on some other very
high-end cars, these are not grabby, snatchy or all-at-once
brakes. Rather, they are extremely powerful, very easy to
modulate at the pedal, and they'll pretty much last for the
life of the car. If you're going to subject your 911 Turbo to
weekend forays at the track, you're going to want these-
a bargain at $8,840.
The rest of the options rundown is: adaptive sports seats,
$1,145; locking rear differential, $950; heated seats, $500;
Sport Chrono timing system, $1,920; CD changer, $650;
Speed Yellow instruments, $860; painted console, $730;
Speed Yellow seat shells, $1,495; Speed Yellow seatbelts,
$540; Porsche crests in the headrests, $270.
When every one of the options is added to the bottom line,
the price of this car is close to $156,000, well under the starting
price for an Aston Martin V8 Vantage or a Lamborghini
Gallardo coupé. But it's quicker, faster and much easier to
live with than either of them. And it's one of a kind. Custombuilt.
Bespoke.
I can't conceive of anything much better than a long drive
in a car like this with my favorite female radio/navigator in
the other gray leather bucket seat. The exhaust burble of the
latest 3.6-liter twin-turbo engine at idle speaks to me about
potential and possibilities. The manual transmission is possessed
of one of the best shifters in the business, and the
"layer-outers" of these pedals know all about heeling and toeing.
The clutch itself is heavy-duty, made for thousands of
full-throttle shifts, but the pedal stroke is light and easy.
The aforementioned ceramic composite brakes-once you
get used to the way they reverse the direction of your eyeballs,
like Wile E. Coyote on his way down that canyon
again-are simply awesome. Braking starts at the very top of
the pedal travel, but it's progressive and smooth as a baby's
bum all the way into the panic zone. Well, with these brakes,
technically, there is no panic zone.
The combination of sheer decelerative power and progressive
application puts the PCCBs in a class by themselves. And
that factor, in turn, lets you wait until the last possible moment
to apply them, whether you're trying to master a particular
corner at the track, or just out for a drive through the woods.
Going up through the Turbo's gears on streets and boulevards
brings out the latent drag racer in my soul. I just know
that, whatever is in the other lane at the stoplight, it will be
the second car across the intersection, and it will never, ever
catch up. Porsche rates the Turbo's acceleration at 3.5 seconds
from 0 to 60 mph (in Tiptronic form, the manual is a tad
slower at 3.8), and I think it's even quick than that. Porsche
quotes 0 to 100 mph in 8.4 seconds. Yes, 8.4 seconds.
For more on this article and much more grab a copy of Auto Aficionado Magazine on newsstands nationwide!
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