Porsche 911 Carrera 4S is Even More Awesome on Ice
A winter excursion to Canada proves there’s even more to love and learn about the iconic brand.
The beauty of owning a Porsche 911 is the thrill that comes with being able to fully enjoy the car’s capabilities. Buying one for any other reason is akin to cashing in on a winning lottery ticket and then blowing all your good fortune at a casino. Sure, given that it’s yours, you’re certainly entitled to enjoy it as you like. But to have a hot possession like a 911 in hand and not make the most of it seems like such a waste.
That is, unless it’s one of those drool-worthy classics currently on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, as part of “The Porsche Effect” exhibit. Owning one of those, understandably, requires a lot more tender love and care. But when the Porsche comes badged in a model like the $112,000 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, it only makes sense to experience every thrill the car has to offer.
Snow and Ice
That idea shines through even clearer after spending some time wheeling a 911 Carrera 4S on an icy, snow-covered track in Mecaglisse, Quebec, at Porsche’s Camp4 Canada. Although, it’s also a place where one quickly realizes that, “hey, perhaps I could use a few tips to brush up on my driving skills.”
Then again, that was the intention of our Porsche press excursion, held in conjunction with the carmaker’s 30th Anniversary of the 911’s AWD system. Neatly tucked away in the heart of the Laurentian Mountains, Circuit Mecaglisse is a sprawling 700-acre motor sports facility that’s transformed into a slithery test ground in the winter to help drivers improve their skills.
First Thing’s First
Our full-day of activities was also intended to give us a better understanding of exactly how the 911’s current AWD system works, and how to make full use of its capabilities. However, the first step of our winter driving excursion included a brief refresher course on some of the fundamentals like eye focus, hand placement and proper seating position.
A lot of those simple points that we tend to ignore take on an entirely new sense of importance when you’re trying to control a car on an ice, even when driving a vehicle as intuitive as the 911 Carrera 4S.
The winter excursion also included driving the rear-wheel-drive 911 Carrera S to get a sense of how it behaves in comparison to the AWD Carrera 4S. As you might expect, the different performance attributes of the models is more exaggerated on ice. In fact, it only takes one run, trying to corner the Carrera S through a turn on snow and ice, to realize how wild a rear-wheel-drive Porsche can get.