PNH80
Low life livin' the high life.
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2008
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Lads, lasses....
I know this is totally non Audi related (well...other than i own an Audi and Porsche now own most of Audi!), but for the last 24 hours i've had a relatives Carrera 4S to borrow. Ice blue (special order), anthracite wheels with polished rim, charcoal leather etc. Basically £80K's worth of car .
Ok now here comes the Audi related part....
I own an A3 (see my signature for model) and to be brutally honest, the cabin in the carrera left me quite uninspired. Doesn't feel any better quality overall considering price. Alright sure, the money has got to be spent somewhere so the fixtures and fittings are bound to be better....but it just didn't FEEL it, and thats what a cabin is all about for me, being surrounded by the car and it being a nice place to be for any length of time.
I have a little issue with the engine sound as well, from outside the Carrera sounds phenomenal but from inside it's all very 'whiny'. There's actually more road noise from the back tyres than roaring engine sound. Maybe Porsche have tried to make the car too driver friendly and refined for every day use and actually lost some of it's better qualities in translation?
Clutch and gear change has a more solid, abuse-proof feel than my Audi (hey, it should do!). Acceleration at low revs about town is quite similar strangely. Very controllable and doesn't actually feel that rapid until you plant your right foot into the shag pile. Similarly, the brakes are pretty unresponsive til they get warmed up ( few nervous moments approaching roundabouts at 70mph)...but i expected that and it's no detriment to the car, more my inexperience as a driver of exotic motors!
Don't get me wrong, it's a beautifully made and engineered car but considering i own an A3 (costing 27K), i should be gettin into the Porsche (costing 80K) and saying "holy mother of god this is a seriously incredible machine" , then getting back into my Audi and thinking "this feels cheap and nasty". Not the case. I was left a little flat to be perfectly honest. Such a smooth, responsive car on the open road and the power delivery in mid to high revs is pant wetting. I found myself driving everywhere with the windows down just to hear the exhaust note, but then when you remember the price tag it's just not enough.
Another surprising thing is the number of glances the car gets. Yes, it gets a good few looks but not as many as an 80K car should get! People would be breaking their necks if it was an Aston, Maseratti, R8 etc etc. I squarely blame porche's design ethic for this. They've made the Cayman and Boxter way too similar to the Carrera and it's almost turned what was a special car into something quite common and ordinary.
My point is, i'm comparing certain aspects of the car to my S-line A3, and it SHOULD be impossible to do! But it's not. There is no way on earth a Carrera can possibly be better than the R8. I haven't driven an R8 but christ on a bike it must kill the Carrera in every department. And have you seen the new Maseratti Grandturismo? Porsche have got work to do on the next Carrera, in fact it better be the best one ever. In my opinion it needs redesigning from the ground up and almost throw away the expected carrera shape.
So to clarify...Carrera 4S is a superb everyday semi-supercar. Beautifully engineered and a simply magic engine... but as a package a little bit blunt and uninspiring. Most people used to driving fast cars will get bored before too long. I'm betting the GT3 would be a MUCH better shout. Infact i'd imagine the old 996 would be a more thrilling drive.
Basically (IMHO) if you've got £80K lying about and only want 1 car to serve all purposes....Spend it with Audi (R8, RS6...can't go wrong)
Like i say... Not really Audi related but there's been a lot of Porche talk on here lately comparing TTS to Cayman etc etc so thought i'd share my opinions on the car!
Cheers!
Paul
I know this is totally non Audi related (well...other than i own an Audi and Porsche now own most of Audi!), but for the last 24 hours i've had a relatives Carrera 4S to borrow. Ice blue (special order), anthracite wheels with polished rim, charcoal leather etc. Basically £80K's worth of car .
Ok now here comes the Audi related part....
I own an A3 (see my signature for model) and to be brutally honest, the cabin in the carrera left me quite uninspired. Doesn't feel any better quality overall considering price. Alright sure, the money has got to be spent somewhere so the fixtures and fittings are bound to be better....but it just didn't FEEL it, and thats what a cabin is all about for me, being surrounded by the car and it being a nice place to be for any length of time.
I have a little issue with the engine sound as well, from outside the Carrera sounds phenomenal but from inside it's all very 'whiny'. There's actually more road noise from the back tyres than roaring engine sound. Maybe Porsche have tried to make the car too driver friendly and refined for every day use and actually lost some of it's better qualities in translation?
Clutch and gear change has a more solid, abuse-proof feel than my Audi (hey, it should do!). Acceleration at low revs about town is quite similar strangely. Very controllable and doesn't actually feel that rapid until you plant your right foot into the shag pile. Similarly, the brakes are pretty unresponsive til they get warmed up ( few nervous moments approaching roundabouts at 70mph)...but i expected that and it's no detriment to the car, more my inexperience as a driver of exotic motors!
Don't get me wrong, it's a beautifully made and engineered car but considering i own an A3 (costing 27K), i should be gettin into the Porsche (costing 80K) and saying "holy mother of god this is a seriously incredible machine" , then getting back into my Audi and thinking "this feels cheap and nasty". Not the case. I was left a little flat to be perfectly honest. Such a smooth, responsive car on the open road and the power delivery in mid to high revs is pant wetting. I found myself driving everywhere with the windows down just to hear the exhaust note, but then when you remember the price tag it's just not enough.
Another surprising thing is the number of glances the car gets. Yes, it gets a good few looks but not as many as an 80K car should get! People would be breaking their necks if it was an Aston, Maseratti, R8 etc etc. I squarely blame porche's design ethic for this. They've made the Cayman and Boxter way too similar to the Carrera and it's almost turned what was a special car into something quite common and ordinary.
My point is, i'm comparing certain aspects of the car to my S-line A3, and it SHOULD be impossible to do! But it's not. There is no way on earth a Carrera can possibly be better than the R8. I haven't driven an R8 but christ on a bike it must kill the Carrera in every department. And have you seen the new Maseratti Grandturismo? Porsche have got work to do on the next Carrera, in fact it better be the best one ever. In my opinion it needs redesigning from the ground up and almost throw away the expected carrera shape.
So to clarify...Carrera 4S is a superb everyday semi-supercar. Beautifully engineered and a simply magic engine... but as a package a little bit blunt and uninspiring. Most people used to driving fast cars will get bored before too long. I'm betting the GT3 would be a MUCH better shout. Infact i'd imagine the old 996 would be a more thrilling drive.
Basically (IMHO) if you've got £80K lying about and only want 1 car to serve all purposes....Spend it with Audi (R8, RS6...can't go wrong)
Like i say... Not really Audi related but there's been a lot of Porche talk on here lately comparing TTS to Cayman etc etc so thought i'd share my opinions on the car!
Cheers!
Paul