The King Is Dead, Long Live The King

Yes, sure as night follows day and the leaves of summer blow away in the gusts of autum-...I digress. The biggest driver's car release of 2011 is out of the bag.

 The Porsche 911, the world's longest living, most popular sports car has yet again reinvented itself for a new generation. There'll be masses of speculation of the specification to come in all the first drives, and talk of the downsized motors in the Carrerra with inflated power. The main purpose of this blog is to splash the leaked press portraits right down the page and drink in the details of the new 911, and what we reckon to its styling. With tens of variations to come and a wealth of history to live up to, it's important it makes a good impression.

My initial thoughts are these. The front is cleaner than before, but also more gawky, with some Panamera cues it didn't deserve, around the 'eyebrowless' headlights and square chin. The daytime running lights are also way too prominent, they're bad enough dazzling everyone to blindness on the front of every current Audi all hours of the day, but for them to be so shouty and bling when switched off is odd.

The profile is classic 911, but lower and leaner somehow, which is a good thing. Those spindly wheels aren't my cup of tea on this car but Porsche usually have an infinite amount of option designs so that'll be an issue for the configurator to resolve. They must be sporting some serious unsprung weight deductions, you've got to assume.

The rear's sliver-thin lights and less fussy engine cover look smart, but the numberplate housing is slightly too prominent and clumsy (though it's even worse on the US spec square plate version) but then again these are hot off the press pictures, and details like that will be easily overlooked in the passage of time. I like the aggression the shotgun barrel tailpipes hint at as well, a nice parting statement from the car there.

Much more is still to come, but it's good to digest these shots of the definitive sports coupé nice and early, before Frankfurt, and beyond. Just keep the Top Gear 'it's the same as the old one, boring' comments to a minimum. Please.

Tweet