The Porsche 911 has always been the purist’s choice in sports cars, with a meaty flat-six engine in entirely the wrong end of the car, and driven by the rear through an intuitive steering rack and quick manual shifter.

So imagine the travesty and shock when Porsche first launched its all-wheel-drive automatic 911….

While the traditionalist would never deign to enter the plush cockpit of such a car, the Carrera 4S is as much a Porsche as its siblings. Particularly now, with enough power to spin all four wheels and a lovely sequential automatic transmission dubbed PDK.

Basically, the Carrera 4 and the sports up-spec S variant are housed in a 911 turbo body, with fat rear guards that are 44mm wider to accommodate both drivetrain and drive through its wide rear rubber.

The drivetrain incorporates the top-spec 911 Turbo’s differentials and electronic controls, pumping out power from the newly charged S engine’s growling 3.8-litre six. It now offers an extra 22kW and 20Nm for final figures of 283kW and 420Nm through all four wheels.

A new suspension management system lets the car squat and launch like a large wild cat. Without getting bogged down in the technical jargon, the two-stage electronically controlled system dubbed PASM is an option worth the expenditure, allowing the already grippy all-paw Porsche to sink its claws right into the road. The 911 has always been tail-happy on the corners due to its engine placement, but the 4S sleeper hardly stirs. In fact, it’s difficult to slide the car unless you intentionally unbalance it at speed.

The car also a green machine, clocking 10.3L/100km average fuel consumption - though the average punter may find this a little higher given the rush attached to the right foot. Still, it’s not bad for a car that sprints to 100km/h in 4.7secs.

Some of the speed and lighter fuel sipping has to do with the 2009 911 engine upgrades, which removed 6kg from engine alone through less internal moving parts. The rest can be credited to the trick new ‘PDK’ twin-clutch gearbox.

The clutchless semi-automatic transmission replaces the awkward and rather droll traditional auto, and it rivals the F1-style boxes from Ferrari and the Volkswagen Group in its execution.

Either in traffic or on the track, the car zips through the ‘box seamlessly, and shifts up and down gears five-times faster than a human hand. Shifting mid-corner can be done without losing balance or the rear end, speeding everything up along the way.

While the PDK is worth its $8,000 price tag, it does have one downside – the wheel-mounted toggle shifters aren’t ergonomic and shift in a way that feels unnatural, particularly for those used to F1 style ‘boxes. However, current owners have demanded – and recently received – the Porsche Turbo steering wheel as a retrofitted option, complete with paddle shifters that sit behind the wheel, always on hand.

No doubt it will be an expensive option, but those who can afford the 4S in the first place probably won’t even wince. The only people doing that are the purists, both at the sight of the 4S badge, and the fact that it’s in front of them as they try to catch up through the twists and turns.

The figures say it all - usually. But while the 911 Turbo models scream seuction with thier flared guards and pumped bodies, it’s what’s inside that counts.

And what’s inside the new GT2 RS?

The twin-turbocharging of this lovely lady puts out 620hp from the smaller of the two flat-six engines in the Carrera range. But while the 3.6-litre is up 90hp, it’s down 70kg (to 1370) due to the new range’s engine internals and carbon trimmings. And of course it has better fuel economy than its predecessor, for those with a green thumb as well as the greenback.

It’s a purists manual only, with standard carbon-ceramic stoppers, and electronics such as the Porsche Adaptive Suspension Management (PASM) and Porsche Stability Management (PSM) give ultimate grip while allowing the freedom to slide or relinquish complete control.

Porsche is boasting a 7:18sec on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

To those who can afford one, we salute you. You can guess with which finger.

OFFICIAL VIDEO: Awe (The Stig)

2011 Porsche GT2 RS

That’s not a typo – Porsche is said to be readying an RS version of the GT2 to join the GT3 RS we know and love. Outlets are reporting that Porsche has just shown the 2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS, depicted above in this borrowed spy shot, to German dealers yesterday.

Official press info is going to be released on 14th May. The only bit of news we have so far is the price of this new Porsche 997 GT2 RS. When it debuts this September, the price is expected to be 240.000 euro. Oh, and it’s said to be faster than a Carrera GT. Yikes.

Williams Formula 1 pilot, Nico Hülkenberg, was the lucky winner in the “Who gets first crack at the Nürburgring with the new Porsche GT3 R Hybrid?” sweepstakes. Nico took the orange-and-white racer out to get it ready for the Nürburgring 24-hour race scheduled for next month. Nico got the nod because of the Williams-Porsche connection. What connection you ask? Williams makes the flywheel generator used on the race car. No lap times were released, so there’s a possibility it didn’t best the Ferrari 599XX production-car-based record time posted last week, but then again, we’re not sure if this falls into the same category.

As a refresher, the GT3 R Hybrid uses two electric motors at the front axle, each boosting the power level by 82 hp when active. That’s on top of the 480 horsepower generated by the four-liter flat-six out back. No batteries are used, the car relying on a flywheel generator instead. After each charge period, the driver can tap that power for six-to-eight seconds. In principle it’s closer to the Formula 1 KERS system than to a typical hybrid, like that in the Prius. We’ll get you that lap time when we track it down.

Porsche hasn’t offered an “S” version of the 911 since 2006. Sure there have been slightly hotter “S” versions of the Boxster and Cayman all along, but when it comes to the 911, that “S” is usually reserved for something really special. The 2011 911 Turbo S you see here definitely sounds like it deserves to wear that “S” proudly. This will be the first 997 S, and Porsche has waited just long enough to take advantage of the 2010 upgrades to the standard Turbo.

The car’s direct-injected twin-turbo flat-six gains 30 horsepower over the “base” Turbo with output now measuring a GT2-matching 530 hp. The extra power comes with no penalty in fuel consumption either. How does Porsche do that! The 3.8-liter turbo-six splits 516 pound-feet of torque between those four 19-inch, center-lug wheels, routed through Porsche’s seven-speed PDK dual clutch gearbox. Porsche’s torque vectoring system helps keep it pointed where the driver wants it.

The 0-62 miles per hour dash should clock in at just 3.3 seconds while top speed is quoted at 195 mph. That compares favorably to the 911 GT2’s 3.7 seconds and 204-mph terminal velocity, with the same amount of power. The European price has already been announced and it looks like the Turbo S will rival the GT2 there as well. The coupe will cost €173,241 including 19 percent VAT (the actual base price is €145,400), while the Cabriolet stickers for €184,546, also including the 19 percent VAT (base price €154,900). It should go on sale in Europe this May, following its official unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show next month. The U.S. market should get theirs soon after. Full press release from Porsche below.

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The road sign said ‘Achtung!’, a dramatic punctuation in the  bridge matched to a pair of reptilian eyes peeking out from the murky waters below.

The odd German tourist must have ventured too close to the water’s edge in the past - the countless rivers snaking through Kakadu in the Northern Territory, Australia, are home to some of the largest crocodiles in the world.

We didn’t stop to meet the locals. In fact, we did not stop; our German tourers were spurred on by a very different sign on the side of the road. There is no time for the sights on a derestricted road in the world’s fastest Porsche.

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