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Porsche 911 Carrera 4S

Test date 05 November 2005  Price as tested  £72,950

What’s new?

Taking the Porsche 911 3.8 Carrera S — last month voted Britain’s Best Driver Car by Autocar — as a base, the 4S adds four-wheel drive and 22mm extra width over each rear wheelarch.

A minimum of five per cent of the 350bhp is directed to the front axle, but should rear grip diminish up to 40 per cent can be directed forwards.

What’s it like?

No question, the wide body looks the absolute business — this is by far the most imposing new 911 on sale. Suitably, our first experience of the C4S in the UK was on wet, greasy, unknown autumn roads, where four-wheel-drive security makes the C4S a faster cross-country machine.

Concentrate hard and you’ll notice the steering is heavier, but marginally less feelsome than that of the two-wheel-drive Carreras.

Should I buy one?

Should you buy a 911 — do we really need to answer that? However, if you asked whether to go for a Carrera S or 4S, now that’s a much more tricky question.

On your favourite road, ultimately, rear-wheel drive offers greater rewards, but on unfamiliar stretches or for the less committed driver the C4S delivers greater thrills more of the time.

Jamie Corstorphine