Next year, the Porsche 911 will celebrate its 50th anniversary. What the sports car maker from Stuttgart will do to commemorate the occasion remains to be seen, but I thought it would be an opportune time to revisit this perennial favorite and highlight the latest development in the series, the 2012 Carrera, internally known as the 991. While changes to the exterior are subtle at best, one of the major features to be unveiled was a new 7-speed manual gearbox, a first for a production road car. While it is generally accepted that Porsche’s 7-speed dual cutch PDK transmission is faster and more efficient, I couldn’t fathom owning a 911 without three pedals. Weight is down on the new Carrera by 45 pounds and with the standard 3.4 liter, 345 horsepower flat six engine, performance is more than adequate for this rear engine marvel.
2012 Porsche 911 Carrera on eBay
This 911 ‘s level of quality is not meant for just anyone. It’s meant for the person who strives for a classy, comfortable, and luxurious car. Driven by many, but adored by more, the 911 is a perfect addition to any home. The 911 will provide you with everything you have always wanted in a car — Quality, Reliability, and Character.
This Porsche includes:
Wheel Caps with colored crest
Platinum Silver Metallic
Fuse box cover in leather
Sport exhaust system
Natural leather interior processing code
Delete rear lid model designation
Ornamental Porsche crest
Auto dimming interior/exterior mirrors
Carrera red, natural leather seat trim with full leather interior
Power tilt/slide sunroof with shield
Heated front seats with multi-stage controls
It’s rather chilling that on the same day Ferdinand “Butzi†Porsche passed away, the new 911 was declared World Sports Car for 2012. The man who designed the original 911 would have been proud. While some enthusiasts have derided the 911 for being an inherently compromised design throughout the years, continuous improvement has brought us to this point. The 911 has outlived both the front-engined 944 and 928 that were designed to succeed it and there seems no end in sight for this most venerable icon of German performance.
-Paul
Beautiful and desirable, of course. New 911’s continue to get even more obscenely expensive. But why is a dealer advertisement for a new car being featured on GCFSB? Seems a bit out of place, doesn’t it?
Regarding the dealer, this is true, but right now there aren’t a lot of 2012 911s with the 7 speed manual out there on the used market. From time to time, we like to feature some of the newer iron, as well.
Fair enough, Paul. It just seemed a bit off.
7 forward gears has huge cool factor. Period. If I had one, I’d show it off to everyone. However, for real world driving, how necessary or value-added is it? Most people can’t even shift that well, let alone possess the skills to take advantage of the incremental performance benefit of a 7-speed.
My 986 has a 5-speed, but the gear ratios leave me wishing for a 6th gear for more relaxed highway cruising (reality check: most of our driving time is NOT spent on exciting backroad adventures). Conversely, my E90 has so little difference between 5th and 6th, it borders on irrelevant. A reminder that it’s about the gearing, not the number of gears.
My two cents.
After having my R53 Cooper S for almost two years, I’ve finally gotten used to the idea of having 6 speeds (shifting down into 5th seemed like a wild concept at first). I doubt most times you would use the 7th gear in this car, as most of the time, I would run my 2007 Mercedes C230 as a 5 speed auto (put in winter mode for second gear starts and use the manual mode so it wouldn’t go past 6th). It seemed to get better mileage that way and made it more agreeable around town, as in straight auto mode it hunted around too much for my tastes. But ultimately, I got tired of that gearbox and went back to three pedals.
I was in Stuttgart last December when I saw the 991 at the factory. Great technological evolution of the model. Drove a 7 speed DCT M3 on the Autobahn for the 1st time. I really appreciated that 7th gear as I acclerated past 100 mph. Personally I find this silver colour 991 a little too plain for me. The red dash top could be a glaring reflection on the windscreen. Just too much red interior. You can never have too much power, so I prefer the Carrera S. But if you handed the keys to me for this one, I wouldnt hesitate to drive it.
That 7th gear would be great for the 1 time you try to top it out but 99.997% of the time it would be useless.
@ Hotshoe, I agree. I love silver or gray with a red interior, but if the top of the dash was black, it would break it up a bit and help cut down on the glare a bit. And Wes, you are right. Except on very long highway drives, I usually never come close to hitting 6th in the MINI around town. Cruising in 7th would be more often than not be a fantasy in the US.