Man Maths: Porsche 911 Carrera S (991)

Back to that earlier question: is the 991 an unloved 911? These things being relative, I think it is. Much like the 964 and 996, it was a very different 911 to those that had come immediately before it. Apart from being bigger with a far longer wheelbase, it also switched from hydraulic to electric power steering, which really did alter the character of the car. What’s more, the sublime manual gearshift of earlier versions was lost to a weirdly vague, slightly stringy seven-speed manual that repurposed the innards of the PDK transmission. It was Porsche’s weakest manual for years; the vast majority of buyers chose the PDK anyway.

It wouldn’t be fair to say the early 991-era 911 Carrera S was poorly reviewed when the first drives were published in late 2011, but if you reread them today you’ll sense a certain coolness, like a chilly draft blowing through your otherwise cosy living room. One reviewer wrote: ‘every imperfection has been systematically ironed out,’ saying the 991 ‘lacked expression’.

As I saw it back then, there were two key differences. The first was that the 991 wasn’t as tactile or interactive as the 997 that came before it, thanks in large part to its more muted steering. The second was that it didn’t feel as distinctively rear-engined as its predecessor, because the flat-six sat a little further forward in the chassis and the longer wheelbase made it an inherently more stable car. Some of those familiar old 911 kinks really had been ironed out.

But did that make it a bad 911? I didn’t think so. I remember driving a manual Carrera S early in 2014 and though it was clearly very different to the 911 it replaced, it was still a brilliant sports car. I loved it. After driving several hundred miles over a handful of days, I wasn’t lamenting its electric steering, larger dimensions or longer wheelbase one bit.

So if you want a 911 to keep in your garage to be wheeled out on high days and holidays, choose a 997. But if you plan to use it every day, which surely is the point of a Carrera S after all, the 991 is the one to have. These days you can pick one up for significantly less than £40,000, but if you don’t want a leggy example, budget £45,000 and take your pick. And if anyone says you’ve bought the wrong 911, just smile and know you’ll be proven right in years to come.

Free Reads on The Intercooler are freely available for all to read. The vast majority of our stories, including all of our feature articles, sit behind the paywall, only available to subscribers who get unlimited access to our ever-growing library of more than a thousand stories and close to two million words. 

Click here to start your 30-day free trial and gain full access to The Intercooler’s multi award-winning website and app.