It would be both contentious and untrue to record that Porsche has turned the 911 into a luxury car with this latest generational revision. The 992 Carrera S’s cabin is one that still feels appealingly functional, and it’s equipped only with systems that make it a better sports car and an easier and more pleasant one to use and to interact with. Yet it will still feel like a step into a much richer, more stylish and more advanced world for anyone coming from an older 911.
The car’s instrumentation is now almost entirely digital, with the exception being the central analogue tacho dial – without which a Porsche simply wouldn’t feel at all familiar. On either side of that are crisp-looking digital screens whose content you can define yourself – so if you want navigation mapping near your eyeline instead of a trip computer display, you can have it.
The smaller meters for fuel level and water temperature remain in their familiar location on the outward extremes of the binnacle, presented as if they were analogue dials. Those who like to keep tabs on oil pressure and temperature, however, will notice that the dials for those have been replaced by an analogue-style clock – and so you now have to probe into one of the primary display’s modes to find that information.
The 992 Carrera S gets a new-generation PCM touchscreen infotainment system measuring a generous-looking 10.9in from corner to corner, which looks like an imposing presence in the car at first. But when you realise that it centralises many of the controls that had to be accessed by the instrument cluster on the 991 – and once you spend a bit of time getting used to the navigating logic – you quickly realise that the set-up makes plenty of functions easier to perform.
The system is graphically appealing, and displays mapping in useful detail and at great clarity and scale, making it very easy to follow – and you can scroll that mapping using pinch or fingertip rotation gestures. There’s a user-configurable home screen, as has become fashionable with these things, which allows you to group your most commonly accessed menus as ‘tiles’.
Meanwhile, a line of shortcut keys just inset into the driver’s side of the screen means you’re never more than one fingertip stretch from the menu you need in any case. Porsche’s voice control system comes as standard, and works dependably well.
