The 911 Grand Tour: Putting Prosects in Porsches

CLARINGTON, Ontario – It’s hard to imagine why the German automaker would embark on a nationwide tour to promote the Porsche 911. After all, the iconic sports car is more than 50 years old, and no longer needs an introduction.

As a teenager, pictures of cars neatly covered every square inch of my bedroom walls. Deciding between a poster of the Porsche 911 or a Samantha Fox pinup was relatively easy, despite both being highlighted by two very big, round, attention-grabbing objects. I chose a 1989 911 Carrera 4, the first all-wheel drive variant of the car and it was the biggest poster on the wall.

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I’m assuming I’m not the only person who spent a lot of time gazing into the 911’s eyes, dreaming one day of driving one. Samantha Fox, who also reached 50 recently, was a passing fad, but my admiration of the legendary Porsche wasn’t.

Still, there are probably some people out there who know the name 911, but have never really warmed up to the car. Maybe because it had a reputation of being a tricky car to drive with its funky weight balance. Its engine is located aft of the rear axle, and if a corner was taken too enthusiastically and the tail broke loose, only the most skilled drivers could bring it back in line.

But that’s old news. The most recent generation of the Porsche 911, code-named 991, is the most user-friendly of the bunch, and the most forgiving to those of us who have no talent behind the wheel (but think we do). Thank modern technology and advanced electronic stability control systems for that.

The 911 Grand Tour’s objective is to bring a truckload of cars to each dealer—they’re called Service Centres now—and invite a select number of customers or potential buyers to try them out and compare them. Some Service Centres spent a few bucks for track time, some preferred keeping their prospective clients on public roads.

The 911, or 991 generation two

The cars in question are a diverse range of Carrera and Carrera S variants, in either Coupe, Targa or Cabriolet configurations, with or without all-wheel drive. We initially thought there would be a 911 GTS or a 911 Turbo in the mix, but the automaker is putting the emphasis on the cars with the new smaller-displacement, turbocharged engines.

Oh, in case you missed the headlines during the past six months, Porsche has integrated more turbocharging to the 911 range. The base Carrera gets a twin-turbo, 3.0-liter flat-six that generates 370 horsepower and 331 lb.-ft. of torque, while the Carrera S boasts the same engine, but massaged to produce 420 hp and 368 lb.-ft.

To give us a taste of what’s in store for the people invited to participate in the 911 Grand Tour, Porsche welcomed a bunch of journalists to the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park outside of Toronto for a perfectly sunny day of testing.

On the morning agenda, we hit the road aboard the slew of 911s and drove through the towns surrounding the motorsports complex. For this portion of the day, we jumped on a 911 Cabriolet and quickly dropped its top. During the drive with the windows down, wind noise was low and a conversation inside the cockpit can be had without resorting to shouting. For such a visceral sports car, it’s amazing how comfortable the suspension can be during normal driving. At least compared to some of its rivals such as the BMW 6 Series, the Aston Martin Vantage and the Mercedes-AMG GT.

The additional 20 horses and improved fuel economy of the turbocharged engines come at a price. The naturally aspirated engines 3.6L and 3.8L Boxers of the 991 Gen One had a more vicious soundtrack, and the new blown sixes’ shriek seems a little muffled. Power also peaks 900 rpm earlier, which also has an impact on the engine’s voice. The optional Sport Exhaust System goes from a nice-to-have feature to a must-have.

Upon our return to CTMP, we were invited to try out two 911s on an autocross course set up to demonstrate the car’s agility. One of the cars was equipped with AWD as well as rear-axle steering, newly optional on the 911 Carrera S, while the other car wasn’t.

Through the slalom course, the Miami Blue 911 Carrera 4S snaked through the cones with cat-like finesse, aided by its rear-steer system. The latter barely rotates the rear wheels in the same direction as the front ones at higher speeds, while at a more relaxed pace, the rear wheels twist in the opposite direction as the fronts. Meanwhile, the rear-drive 911’s front end felt lighter, with a touch less understeer.

Track time

After lunch, we finally hit the circuit. CTMP’s Driver Development Track is a fine playground for evaluating a car’s dynamics, a tight course with plenty of twists, turns and elevation changes. And as its name implies, it’s also a good place to sharpen one’s driving skills, experienced or not.

After a couple of moderately fast laps around the track, we started getting a hang of the 911’s handling and weight balance. As was the case on the autocross course, the RWD 911s exhibited crisper turn-in, with slightly less mass on the front axle. Otherwise, the tangible differences between the various variations of 911s tested were mainly due to suspension setups.

Although Porsche Active Suspension Management, or PASM, is standard across the board, among the group were a base 911 Carrera Coupe and a Cabriolet that didn’t include the Sport Chrono Package, and they were the toughest to drive in order to keep the pace with the rest. The latter adds the SPORT PLUS mode that stiffens the suspension even more, which helps reduce body roll.

The Carrera S versions obviously benefit from their 50-hp advantage, but they can also be decked out with Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (active roll stabilization) and PASM Sport Suspension (active variable damping and 20-mm drop), which bring incremental increases in handling prowess on the track. They also ratchet the price of the car up accordingly; the blue 911 Carrera 4S tested, the most rewarding one to drive hard of the bunch, included pretty much all the hardware mentioned above, and rings up more than $170K on the cash register.

Oh, and aside from barely noticeable styling revisions, these 991 Gen Two cars now feature the latest Porsche Communication Management infotainment system that’s a significant improvement from the previous interface.

Now, you’re interested in getting in on the 911 Grand Tour, so what should you do? Nothing. The event isn’t open to the general public, you must be hand-picked by your local dealer. Still, this is the kind of extra value a brand like Porsche can give its loyal customers, and those who’ll have the opportunity to participate in the 911 Grand Tour will definitely enjoy themselves.

Just for fun, if we’re not going to track our 911, we’d chose a base Carrera Coupe, slap on a set of 20-inch Carrera S wheels, select the Black/Bordeaux Red interior combination, add the heated seats and tick the Sport Chrono Package and Sport Exhaust System option boxes. If we’re more into a track beast, the Carrera S with all the suspension and steering upgrades is the way to go.

Samantha Fox, which also recently celebrated her 50th birthday, seems to have aged well, but the Porsche 911 is getting better with age.