A new Porsche 911 is always intriguing because it’s exciting to see how after more than 40 years of improvement the Porsche team still manages to bring changes and advancements to this iconic model.
The new 997 combines the silky contemporary appearance of the 996 series with the popular retro styling of the older 911’s. The front end is completed with round lights and separate parking/fog/indicator lights. This modification, combined with wider hips resembles the last of the air-cooled 911’s, the 993. Other changes in the body shell are the new door handles, wing mirrors and the trendy cut of the rear wings into the bumper/lights.
Even if the 997 looks a lot like the preceding model, the 996, the new car is in point of fact 38mm wider which makes for a more forceful look. With each new model brought out, Porsche has tried to reduce the drag co-efficient helping the 911 glide through the air more efficiently thereby aiding performance. The same thing has been done with the new car, and if we compare the 993 Cd of 0.34 to the 997`s 0.28, we can see how far the aerodynamic game has moved on. The latest body shell and rear wing combine with new under body paneling to also offer increased levels of down force for this latest evolution of Porsche’s best.
The latest Porsche model has the best handling 911 ever. Improving a car’s rigidity helps ensure that the suspension can work more effectively and although not making such a quantum leap as the team did with the 996, Porsche improved torsional rigidity by 8% and added as much as 40% more strength.
For their new model car, Porsche wanted to improve crash safety provisions so they added two new air bags, which are situated in the side of each front seat back-rest and are designed to protect the thorax. They also kept the earlier two front and two side airbags, which means that now there are six air bags in total. For the same reason, that is crash safety, the reinforced body shell boasts further protection such as a more extensive use of super high strength steel.
The most recent model is also 50 kg heavier than the 996. The reason is that modern crash safety regulations sort of force vehicle makers to produce new cars of increased weight, despite the prevalent use of a large range of weight saving measures, such as an aluminum bonnet.
Aside from the crash safety advancements, much of the additional weight can be attributed to the higher standard specifications of the new cars. The power to weight ratio is analogous with the latest car offering 233 bhp per tonne against it’s predecessors 238 but the new model’s superior aerodynamics must help it achieve Porsche’s claimed performance figures, which are identical to those of the 996.
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