The Porsche 911 R has finally made it to 911 R in India. Bhoopesh Reddy, a Porsche collector based out of Bengaluru has bought has gotten himself one of the 991 units that Porsche will build. The 911 has been hailed as a driver’s car in the truest sense. It takes all of Porsche’s engineering prowess and focusses it on one thing: enhancing the driving experience. Here is Bhoopesh with his new car:
The R has won evo’s Performance Car of the Year award recently and there are quite a few reasons to it. Here are four things that make the 911 R special:
One of the USPs of the R is it’s 6-speed manual gearbox, that uses casing from the GT3 RS’ PDK but with all new internals. And once launched, it’ll be the first sportscar in India to be offered with a manual transmission. A Porsche with a manual gearbox! Still looking for a reason to get one? Then read on.
Porsche wanted it to be an out-and-out driver’s car (yes, that was the brief given to the engineers who developed the R) and we are sure they’ve done their job well. Like a few other 911s in the range (including the
Carrera S Cabriolet we have driven), the 911 R gets rear wheel steering. Rear steer gives a smaller turning radius in the city and more stability at high speeds.
3. It’s light and nimble:
Remember, a driver’s car has to be light and the R weighs just 1250kg, which is roughly equal to Fiat Linea’s dry weight. It is even lighter than the GT3 RS by over 50kg. 20kg of weight loss is a result of the automatic gearbox being given away, then there are those carbon fibre front wings. Even the sound insulation materials have been removed to shed more than 4.5kg of weight! And the list doesn’t end there as you can even have the air conditioning system as well as the radio removed from your car. Doubt Indian buyers will do that though.
Again, a straight lift from the GT3 RS, the 4-litre, naturally aspirated, flat-six engine makes 493bhp of power at 8,500rpm and 460Nm of torque at 6,250rpm. The performance figures are impressive with a 0-100kmph claimed figure of 3.8 seconds and a top speed of over 323kmph. And with lesser sound deadening material, you will be able to hear the engine pop and crack behind you, for an ever better driving experience.
The Porsche 911 R is the ultimate sportscar to own if you’re looking for the Thrill of Driving then.