  2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet. Click image to enlarge |
Review and photos by Greg Wilson
Going topless in the new 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet adds an extra dimension of sensory pleasure to the seat-of-the-pants thrill of driving the recently redesigned seventh-generation 911. A button on the centre console lowers the top – now made of lightweight magnesium panels covered in a durable noise-deadening fabric and interior liner – in about 13 seconds, and it can be lowered and raised at speeds up to 50 km/h. It fits snugly and unobtrusively under a solid tonneau behind the rear seats unlike earlier 911 Cabriolets where it stood up rather ungraciously under a fabric cover.
With the top down, the distinctive raspy, burbling sound of Porsche’s flat-six engine comes alive just behind your ears. If your 911 C4S and its 400-hp 3.8L is equipped with the optional Sport Chrono Package as our test car was, the engine sounds are magnified even further by a Sound Symposer that channels the engine’s combustion chorus to a baffle behind the rear seats. As gimmicky as that sounds, it’s designed to enhance the experience of the improved performance provided by the driver-selectable Sport and Sport Plus performance driving modes, which modify throttle, transmission, and suspension settings.
Lowering the top also opens up your world to the sound and feel of the rushing wind, which surprisingly is not that noisy or hair ruffling. Thanks to the 911’s low seating position, aerodynamic design and an automatically deploying wind deflector behind the rear seats, wind buffeting in the front seats is limited to some minor hair tussling behind your ears. All bets are off for the rear seats, though.
With the top down, I expected increased engine and wind noise, but I was surprised at the amount of road noise coming from the standard Pirelli PZero performance tires. Perhaps that’s not so surprising when you consider how much rubber is on the road: up front are 245/35ZR20 PZeros mounted on 8.5-inch-wide alloy wheels; at the rear are super wide 305/30ZR20-inch PZeros on 11-inch-wide alloys. That’s a big footprint.
  2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet. Click image to enlarge |
Driving with the 911 Cab’s top up significantly reduces engine, tire and outside noises inside the cabin, thanks to the well-built top’s magnesium panels and integral insulation. This makes long drives much more comfortable. The top looks good too: in side view, the convertible top curves in an unbroken curve with the rear deck so that the Cabriolet looks almost like a coupe. The big disadvantage of the convertible top is the driver’s restricted view over the right shoulder when changing lanes. While the coupe has a window there, the cabriolet has a fabric panel. However, the view through the fairly wide rear glass window is good even though the rear deck is fairly high.
It’s tempting to resort to superlatives to describe the 911 4S’s acceleration and handling, but let me just say that you need to hold on really tight to the steering wheel and use the dead pedal for all it’s worth to press you back into the seat if you want to duplicate the Carrera 4S Cabriolet’s official 0 to 100 km/h time of 4.3 seconds (equipped with the optional PDK automatic transmission; 4.1 seconds when equipped with the Sport Chrono package). It goes by in a time-bending, g-force-laden, engine-barking, pedestrian-startling blur that’s over before you can say Doppelkupplungsgetriebe. The 911 4S Cab’s handling limits far exceed that of the average driver and it’s likely you’ll wet your pants before reaching the 911’s maximum entry velocity into a tight corner.
Still, it’s a much less daunting experience than in many other sports cars because the 911 Carrera 4S will compensate for just about every driving error, road surface, or act of God that may spoil the experience [flooding as seen in Calgary and Toronto recently may prove to be exceptions – Ed.]. Porsche Traction Management distributes power front and rear automatically in only 100 milliseconds as needed, and for 2013, the system was modified slightly to direct most of the torque to the rear wheels on dry roads in order to improve fuel economy. Porsche Torque Vectoring features an electronically controlled differential lock which brakes the inside wheel through turns and improves acceleration when emerging from a turn. Porsche Active Suspension Management and Stability Management automatically control understeer and oversteer and improve high-speed stability while the optional Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control nearly eliminates body roll using a variable stabilizer system.
They should just lump them all together and call it the Guardian Angel Systems Package…
Having said that, there is one area of the 911’s vehicle dynamics that I think could use some divine intervention: the ride. In Normal mode over smooth pavement it’s fine; but over bumps and pavement breaks, it’s very stiff. Given the 911’s emphasis on handling and high-speed stability, this might seem like an impossibility or even heresy, but if Porsche can introduce electric steering with extra assist to help driver’s parallel park, they can probably smooth out the ride too.
A seven-speed manual transmission is standard in the new 911, but our test car was equipped with the optional seven-speed PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplung) transmission. It’s lightning fast in automatic operation, particularly in Sport and Sport Plus modes, but I had problems with the operation of Porsche’s manual paddle shifters. They’re unlike most other paddle shifters: to shift down gears, the driver pulls back with their forefingers on either the left or right sides; to shift up, the driver pushes forwards with their left or right thumbs. Most other manual paddle shifters require the driver to pull back on the left paddle to shift down and pull back on the right paddle to shift up – an arrangement I find far easier and more intuitive.
    2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet. Click image to enlarge |
Still, I suspect most PDK owners will not use the paddles anyway. In automatic mode, the seven-speed PDK is so good at choosing gears itself that performance is almost always ideal. In default Normal mode, the transmission is programmed to shift earlier for lower revs and better fuel economy, and I found this the perfect setting for commuting and driving around town. To save fuel, an automatic start/stop turns the engine on and off when the car is stopped at traffic lights, but it can be can be a pain in the butt in stop-and-go traffic – fortunately, it can be deactivated by pressing a button on the console.
In Normal mode, the 3.8L engine has so much torque that the Carrera 4S will accelerate away in higher gears at low revs without balking. And on the highway, the Carrera 4S will cruise along at 100 km/h in seventh gear at just 1,600 rpm; when coasting, the Porsche Traction Management is decoupled to help improve fuel economy. A speed-activated rear spoiler automatically pops up at highway speeds and can also be raised manually with a button on the console.
Should more performance be required in Normal mode, the PDK doesn’t hesitate to respond to the driver’s foot. In fact, a little known feature of the PDK and the Tiptronic is that when entering or braking into a corner, the driver can kick the accelerator pedal to the floor to change down gears (simulating a heel and toe downshift).
Pressing the Sport button on the centre console increases throttle responsiveness, stiffens the suspension and engine mount settings, modifies shift timing, and deactivates the auto-stop feature. As well, the Sport Exhaust system merges the two exhaust lines to create a sportier sound and the Sound Symposer activates to add volume to the experience. Finally, activating Sport+ keeps the transmission in lower gears more often, shifts later and activates firmer shock settings. This setting is best used for weekend races and slaloms. You can also activate Launch Control to maximize off-the-line acceleration. Porsche says this decreases the 0 to 60 time by 0.2 seconds.
    2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet. Click image to enlarge |
No review of a 911 is complete without mention of the brakes and the braking experience. The 2013 Carrera 4S has enormous 340-mm (13.4-inch) cross-drilled front rotors with six-piston calipers, and at the rear 330-mm (13-inch) vented rotors with four-piston calipers. Brake pedal feel is solid and linear but a bit touchy if you brake too hard when coming to a traffic light. At high speed though, the combination of the powerful disc brakes and the 911’s rear-biased weight distribution results in shockingly short braking distances with minimal forward pitch and dive. I’ve driven a few 911s at track sessions against competitive vehicles and I’ve found the easiest way to overtake them is simply to outbrake them into the corners – that’s how good the 911’s brakes are.
Like other Porsches of late, the quality of the 911 Cab’s interior materials is first rate with real aluminum trim, stitched leather dash, and leather sport seats with integral head restraints. The optional 14-way front seats in our test car ($2,650) offered plenty of support when cornering and the two small rear seats have fold-down backrests to support luggage that won’t fit in the small trunk under the front hood. Though small and narrow with upright backrests, the rear seats will accommodate adults up to about 5’3” tall if the front seats are moved forwards a bit – but don’t expect them to like you afterwards!
 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet. Click image to enlarge |
The 911’s high centre console makes reaching the shift lever and control buttons easier – though some of the buttons are fairly small – and the 4.8-inch centre touchscreen is quite bright and easy to use for phone, media choices, navigation, vehicle info, and sound settings. The dual-zone automatic climate control uses traditional buttons below the screen. One thing about the climate control that bugged me was that there is no off button – you have to turn down the fan speed to zero to turn it off. [This is compounded by how finicky the fan speed switch is. –Ed.]
Five pods behind the steering wheel, dominated by the centre tachometer, seems a bit cluttered to me. The pod beside the tachometer is a digital information screen that can be toggled between many of the same functions available in the centre touchscreen: navigation, telephone, and information, but it adds a g-force meter, AWD power distribution graphic, tire pressure monitoring, and audio information. There is no shortage of information available in the new 911.
But there is a shortage of covered storage space: there’s nothing under the centre console and a very shallow bin under the centre armrest, however the two rear seats can serve as large open storage bins. Two rather ungainly cupholders flip out from the passenger side of the dash, but the left one hangs over the centre console which seems like an expensive accident waiting to happen.
For protection in a collision, the 911 Cab has eight airbags including front head airbags and side thorax airbags, plus automatically deploying roll bars behind the rear seats.
 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet. Click image to enlarge |
The base price of the 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet is $134,100 and our tester had almost $25,000 worth of options – some of which you’d think would be standard on a $130,000 car! Options included the PDK seven-speed transmission ($4,660); Anthracite Brown metallic paint ($820); Umber leather interior ($4,710); Burmeister audio package ($5,720); Sport Chrono Package ($2,710); 14-way power Sport Seats ($2,650); seat ventilation ($960); multi-function steering wheel ($710); heated steering wheel ($310); Park Assist ($440); Premium package ($710); 5 mm wheel spacers ($560). With $1,085 Freight charge and $100 A/C tax, the as-tested price came to $160,245.
That’s a lot of change for a 2+2 convertible, but it’s not an unreasonable price for a performance convertible that looks and performs unlike any other car on the road (except perhaps another 911 Cab.)
Pricing: 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet
Base Price: 134,100
Optional Equipment: $24,960 (Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK) seven-speed transmission $4,660; Anthracite brown metallic paint $820; Umber leather interior $4,710; Burmeister audio package $5,720; Sport Chrono Package $2,710; 14-way power Sport Seats $2,650; seat ventilation $960; multi-function steering wheel $710; heated steering wheel $310; Park Assist $440; Premium package $710; 5mm wheel spacers $560)
A/C Tax: $100
Destination: $1,085
Price as tested: $160,245
Competitors:Audi R8
BMW 6 Series
Jaguar XK Convertible
Maserati
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class
Crash Test Results:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)
