1975 Porsche 911 Carrera Isn’t about Sophistication

From the March 1975 issue of Car and Driver.

Nobody can be indifferent to the new Porsche Carrera after they’ve driven it. Stand on the gas in second gear and you’ll use up a week’s quota of adrenaline in one burst. Just the smell of the interior is enough to overcome most leather fet­ishists. So the 1975 Carrera is a com­manding package, whether you are in­clined to think the Porsche blueprint was handed down on stone tablets or if you are more of the persuasion that it’s a Su­per Beetle honed to a razor edge.

There are, of course, changes in the Porsche lineup for 1975. The choices have been culled down to two models: the 911S and the Carrera. Both share the same 157-hp (152 hp in California), 2.7-liter six, which is down 10 hp from last year’s 911S engine and up 14 hp from the old base engine. A four-speed transmission is standard on the 911, the five-speed is standard on the Carrera and the Sportomatic is optional on both. Other standard equipment for both mod­els includes front and rear sway bars, tinted glass and intermittent wipers.

An extra $1900 over the base 911S gets you the Carrera in all of its radiant splendor. The wider wheels (7.0 inches in front and 8.0 behind, compared to 6.0 all around for the 911S) are functional, as are the wider low-profile tires on the rear and the flared fenders to accommo­date them. The aerodynamic aids (chin spoiler in front and the whale-tail on the rear lid) should be steadying influences at extra-legal speeds. And fog lamps will help you keep the pace when the ceiling is low. The rest—leather seats, velour carpet and Carrera side lettering—is cosmetic. Or labor-saving in the case of the electric windows (coupe only).

So much for the specifications. You also notice a few differences as a driver. Acceleration is about the same as last year’s plain 911 due to the reduced horsepower of the new S engine and about 100 pounds of additional weight in the car—partially attributable to the new rear bumper. There is also a slight shift toward the rear in weight distribution, but this is not readily apparent in handling. Skidpad cornering ability (at 0.80 g) shows no change from last year’s Carr­era despite the extra inch of wheel width in the new model, but there does seem to be a minor improvement in road­-course behavior. The tail has learned its place a bit better and it’s less inclined to sneak out when you lift off the power at the approach of a turn. Still, the differ­ence is small. The new Porsches remain Porsches and must be driven according­ly. More power means more understeer, watch out for lift-throttle oversteer and be careful when you try to brake hard and turn hard at the same time. Apart from that, everything is rosy.

If you are up on your Porsches, you will also notice that the gear ratios have once again been reshuffled so that all five speeds are effectively longer than before and there is a bigger gap be­tween first and second. The engine now sounds less frantic at cruising speeds and the interior is one dBA quieter at 70 mph than the 1974 model. Unfortunate­ly, the same old balky shift linkage con­tinues without relief. No two Porsches are alike in this regard: Some are ac­ceptably good; others, like our test Carr­era, frustrate nearly every shift. The machinery seems to bind up as you pull into gear. You must be careful or risk a graunch—which is to say you must shift slowly, which in turn is altogether out of character for this kind of automobile.

Because when you get right down to cases, the new Carrera is maybe the world’s best tearing-around car. In ac­celeration, it’s got every new U.S.-legal automobile covered, including the Cor­vette. Punch the gas and it squirts. And it’s a specialist at hanging lefts and rights through the cityscape. A combina­tion Godzilla and weasel just waiting to be turned loose.

But at times it’s unnecessarily hairy. Send it up an undulating blacktop at about twice the legal limit and you’d bet­ter hang on. The steering wheel twists against your grip as the front suspension geometry fights itself on every bump; as a result, your path is a series of side­ways lurches. No other car would dare act that way, but this is merely another chapter in the Porsche mystique. It’s what makes Porsches fun. It’s like driv­ing a half-wild car. You don’t dare relax; the Carrera is too nervous and twitchy (although it is admittedly tamer than the 911S of three years ago). If you want to sit back and take it easy, get a Buick or a Ferrari or something sensible like that. Porsches are for car junkies in the ad­vanced stages.

It also must be remembered that Porsches are in the advanced stages themselves and, when you consider their mechanical heritage, it’s little won­der that the Carrera is a hairy car. It is the superest Super Beetle of them all. Take a look at the layout: MacPherson front suspension, semi-trailing arms in back, the engine hung out behind the rear wheels and all with a bug-shaped body draped over top. The difference is not in concept but in degree. The Carr­era is a Super Beetle optimized for per­formance, which makes it as intriguing from an engineering point of view as it is to drive. The performance is considerable: 0.80 g cornering, 0.83 g braking and enough power to urge you through the quarter mile in less than 15 seconds. And as a companion to all of this is the half-wild demeanor of a rear-engine car that makes you reluctant to take your hands off the wheel for fear it will do something rash. The truth is that enthu­siasts—be they parachute jumpers or pi­lots or drivers—are usually taken more by the quirks and the demands of their machinery than by simple sophistication. After all, sophistication does not require involvement; quirks do. And no group is more involved with its cars than Porsche drivers.

Still, technology marches on. The Beetle and the Porsche 911 are now alone on what was once a highly fash­ionable island of rear-engine cars—and even these two have evacuation plans.

Porsche’s escape centers about a front-engine, water-cooled V-8. With the company’s engineering expertise, it should be a sophisticated and fantastic automobile when it arrives. Yet it’s hard to imagine the new car offering more to be enthusiastic about than the Carrera. It could be more powerful—but since the Carrera is already the quickest new car around, little is to be gained here. And every step toward a conventional layout will mute the Porsche personality which, as it is known today, emanates entirely from the air-cooled rear engine.

All of which tends to make today’s Carrera highly attractive to those who are susceptible to it. And Porsche, through the magic of a price cut, has done its part. Like Detroit’s price roll­backs, it’s hard to know what the Porsche cut is really worth. A long list of optional equipment for which Porsche charged exorbitant prices (mandatory rear spoiler, $285; tinted glass, $190; intermittent wipers, $25, etc.) have now been made standard equipment. This extra value is at least partially offset by a new engine that does not contain all of the premium parts of the old 911S. But the bottom line on the window sticker—­the figure that counts—is about $1000 less. Now you can buy a Carrera just like our test car for only $14,410.

Or you can shake your head in amaze­ment and walk on by. But the point is that nowhere else can you buy this sort of high-powered, hair-trigger sports car at any price.

Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com