2016 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S PDK first drive

The Carrera 4S Coupe is among six new four-wheel drive Porsche 911 models rolling out into the UK, including the £90,240 Carrera 4 Cabriolet, £81,398 Carrera 4 Coupe, £99,684 Carrera 4S Cabriolet, £90,240 Targa 4 and £99,684 Targa 4S: excluding, of course, the new Turbo and Turbo S derivatives.

As with its recently introduced rear-wheel-drive siblings, the 911 Carrera 4S receives a series of subtle styling updates as part of a reasonably comprehensive mid-life facelift. Included is a redesigned front bumper sporting active air ducts that open and close to channel air to the front-mounted radiators dependent on throttle load, revised headlights with altered internal graphics, larger exterior mirror housings and new door handles.

It also gets reworked air vents atop the engine lid at the rear for greater cooling efficiency, modified taillights sporting more heavily structured three-dimensional lenses, and a revised rear bumper with air vents either side to channel hot air away from the engine.

Wider rear wheelarches and a horizontal light band set between the taillights continue to distinguish the various four-wheel-drive models from other new 911 models.

More significant than the styling tweaks, though, is the adoption of an all-new engine. Taking the place of the old naturally aspirated 3.8-litre flat-six unit is an all-new twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine: the '9A2', as it is known within Zuffenhausen circles. It endows the new 911 Carrera 4S with an added 20bhp and 45lb ft, delivering 414bhp at 6500rpm and 369lb ft on a band of revs from 1700 all the way through to 5000rpm.

Gearbox choices remain the same as before, with a seven-speed manual offered alongside a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch unit with the choice between manual and automatic shift modes. Both work in combination with an electro-hydraulic four-wheel-drive system that has been updated with new software claimed to speed up its responses.

As with facelifted rear-wheel-drive 911 models, the various four-wheel-drive variants of the latest 911 all receive Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) as standard. As well as providing adaptive damping qualities, it brings a 10mm reduction in ride height.

A new option on the 911 Carrera 4S is a four-wheel-steer system, similar to that used by the 911 Turbo and GT3. Also available is an hydraulic lift function that can raise the ride height by 40mm within five seconds at the press of a button.

As well as providing tunable settings for the dampers and throttle mapping, the Sport Chrono package now includes a steering wheel-mounted driving mode switch that allows the driver to choose between Normal, Sport, Sport Plus and Individual driving modes. On models running the optional Sport Chrono package and seven-speed PDK dual-clutch gearbox, an additional Sport Response button is fitted. When activated, it provides maximum acceleration for 20 seconds by selecting the optimum gear.

Inside, the four-wheel-drive 911 adopts the upgrades already made to rear-wheel-drive 911 models. Included is a new generation of Porsche’s Communication Management (PCM) multimedia system. Its larger 7.0in touchscreen supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, with satellite-navigation coming as standard.