Cabrio test: 911 Turbo S vs California T IMAGINE BOTH PORSCHE and Ferrari sheltered under Volkswagen or Fiat’s umbrella. Mostly, they’d be entirely complementary stablemates: Porsches typically sit in the £40-£100k bracket, Ferraris between £175-£225k, so market cannibalisation would be near non-existent. If CEOs Müller or Marchionne were to have headaches, it’d be at £150k, the only price clash. Barring the 918 there is no costlier Porsche than the 911 Turbo S Convertible, no cheaper Ferrari than the California T, directly comparable convertibles that make exactly 552 ponies and weigh 1750kg, give or take. They also tilt more towards luxury performance than the driver-focused thrills we often associate with both marques. Suppose you’re Müller or Marchionne, then; which gets the bullet? The 911 Turbo S Convertible felds a 3.8-litre turbocharged fatsix, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and all-wheel drive. A 911 Turbo costs £121k, removing the roof adds £7500, and appending an S injects 39bhp and 66lb ft extra for 552bhp/553lb ft. It also introduces active anti-roll control, carbon brakes, LED headlights and the Sport Chrono pack with its dynamic engine mounts to get on tippy toes and touch Ferrari territory at £149,668. All manner of options are available, but our tester gets only Adaptive Cruise Control, black rims, a brushed aluminium gear shifter and assorted nick-nacks to tickle the total to £152,703. Pretty representative, I’d say. The £154,490 Ferrari California T is a comprehensive development of the California. There’s revised styling inspired by the 250 Testa Rossa’s pontoon lines, 15% more interior space, an uprated chassis, faster gearshifts and an all-new engine. It’s also Ferrari’s sole front-engined convertible, the only way for Tifosi to carry four roof-down. The California T is the frst Prancing Horse to go turbo since 1987’s F40 – the 488 GTB comes next – and features a 3.85-litre V8 producing 552bhp and 557lb ft. Like the Porsche, it gets a dual-clutch transmission, but the Ferrari sends power to the rear wheels alone, and there’s only one favour of California T. Choice instead comes via the options list, and Ferrari has done more box-ticking than a Whitehall bureaucrat. The price swells to £200,628 as a result, highlights including £7k Rosso California Red paint, £4k contrast roof, £4k parking cameras, £3.5k 20- inch rims and £3k audio. IT’S A BLUSTERY spring day when we meet at Barry Island, Wales. The holiday resort is out-of-season quiet, but every local is drawn like iron flings to the magnetic Ferrari. The Porsche is almost universally overlooked. Either way, owners may feel aggrieved; I take the chance to familiarise myself with the Porsche. You sit down low, standard 18-way electric memory seats hugging you comfortably and ofering more adjustment than a dentist’s chair. The steering wheel is small, perfectly sculpted at the crucial quarter-to-three interface and disconcertingly multi-functionless, while the centre console – idiosyncratically busy with buttons – rises upwards, ofering the Excalibur of gear levers into your left hand. Combined with a relatively high waistline, you feel cocooned, the 911 driving position focused, purposeful. There’s plush leather, perfect stitching, Monty Python’s Whicker Island was full of Alan Whickers. Barry Island, however, contains a maximum of one Ben Barry, plus £300k worth of super cabrios brushed aluminium trim and build quality born from the Blitz, and the luxury touches you’d expect in this segment are very much in evidence: heated seats, cup holders, sat-nav, Bose sounds, cruise control, parking sensors, all factory-ft. But frst impressions of the 911 at a cruise disappoint. The steering has an 4 94 1XX CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | May 2014 | June 2015
Behold the first turbocharged Ferrari engine for 28 years. 3.85-litre V8, 552bhp, 557lb ft, and not enough character Porsche’s active aero a sure sign this is more than a posing machine. Spoiler lifts at 75mph and again at the push of a button June 2015 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 95
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