2013 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Long-Term Road Test

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2013 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Long-Term Road Test

There are positives and negatives to the 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera's engine.

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duck87

A high revving naturally aspirated engine that sings to redline is the only kind of engine that belongs in a sports car.

bankerdanny

I realiz rhe Porsche is an expensive car, but even in this price range a sub 5 second 0-60 should qualify as more than just 'respectible'

fordson1

I agree with Brent. People buy hp but they drive torque. Plenty of FA engines that sing to redline now and more coming down the pike all the time.

mfennell

FA? Fully Aspirated? Porsche overgeared it for MPG (0.617:1 top gear w/3.55:1 final drive) IMHO. That "high torque" C7 is geared to tepidness too, isn't it? 1700rpm@80mph! Meanwhile, my 360 has almost identical peak torque to the 3.4 in the Carrera but it's geared (0:85:1 6th, 4.44:1 rear) for 3750rpm@80mph, 1000rpm shy of torque peak. It accelerates adequately in top gear though fuel economy is nothing to write home about.

greenpony

+1 duck87

cjasis

There are no con's to this engine. It's a wonderful engine and only lacking in torque due to unreasonably high expectations set by other, really good engines in the marketplace.

I'd still buy the Carrera S but even that is down on torque when compared to the C7 and others.

quadricycle

mfennell: Don't forget that we're now in the age of 7-speed manuals and 8-speed automatics, where those last couple of gears are just low-ratio highway eaters. Unless I'm mistaken, the Z51 7-speed C7 is similar, if a little less aggressively geared, to your 360. In fact, your sixth @0.85:1 is pretty similar to the corvette's fifth @0.84:1. The last two are of course geared for hyper milling @0.56:1 and 0.42:1 respectively. The first two in your 360 are surprisingly high by the way, but that's probably because of the (relatively) low torque. Just an excuse to make her scream right?

dunning15

Ridiculous. Edmund's own 2013 Tesla Model S will absolutely smoke that little Porsche. Since when does a company with a 100 year history of racing and German Performance Engines get its butt kicked by some four-door 4500lb electric car created in a software lab in the Bay Area? Pony up, Porsche.

bassrockerx

i'm with Mfenell horsepower and weight is one thing but when you have a car the is not geared like a street car that is a whole different experience. my most recent example i can think of is the fiat 500 abarth you was right on the power no waiting it's top speed is only 140 but in a car that small going 90 is almost a white knucke expereince and it was still pulling strong so i believe it could make it. i put slightly smaller diameter tires on my truck a long time ago and it was like i had tons more torque out of the hole all of the sudden.

mfennell

@quadricycle: Yep, absolutely! 8500rpm means those short gears can still get to reasonable speeds. I love the way it's geared - you can spin through 3 gears with a reasonable expectation of staying out of jail and there are no big we-gotta-hit-CAFE

desmolicious

Ok , so it needs to drop down a few gears to get max overtaking thrust. But doesn't the gear box in this car do that automatically when you floor it? The ones i have driven react almost instantaneously to your twitchy foot. In a very very good way.

So this post entry really is about reading spec sheets, not actually driving the car. Floor it in this car and it freakin flies.