Month: November 2013

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Saturday – Flawed Beauty

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These aren’t the seats from a Bentley – they’re what you will find in top end versions of the Citroen DS5.

The French are notoriously good at putting fine couture into their luxury cars – remember the Citroen CX, Renault Avantime and Vel Satis – but these seats are exceptionally good to look at.

Unfortunately, they are not quite so good to sit on. Despite electric adjustment on the driver’s side with a massaging facility and heat, I’ve found it exceptionally difficult to find a decent driving position.

And it’s also worth pointing out that although the DS5 can carry five people, the centre bolster in the rear bench seat combined with a lack of rear leg room means the Citroen is really more of a stylish 2+2.

Is this going to be a typical French case of form over function – like the three cars mentioned above – or is the DS5 the real deal? Find out how it drives tomorrow…

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Friday – Space Craft

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Is this the coolest looking Citroen ever? Not only does the exterior styling look sensational but the interior is more like the cockpit of a spaceship.

We drove the DS5 to see the new George Clooney film Galaxy last night and the Citroen seemed to have such as many buttons and dials to play with as the International Space Station.

The HDi Sport model is just stuffed with technology and equipment. You need time on the driveway to understand everything that is going on here. I’m sure some technophobes would get in and hop straight back out again.

More on that later in the week but for now, just marvel at the styling of this exceptionally stylish family car. It leaves the Ford S-Max for dead in every department – apart from the lack of two extra seats in the boot, I suppose.

If I ever had to do the school run, this is the car I’d want to turn up in.

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Thursday – Perfect Partner

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Saying goodbye to the 911 this afternoon was like watching a man come to repossess the house. Painful…

At lease seven days in a great sports car is better than none and we can tell you, the 911 Cabriolet is a great car in every respect.

It’s a super car you can use on a daily basis. Trundle around town in a low gear, storm off at the traffic lights or blast around country A-roads in four-wheel drive heaven, the 911 does the lot.

Negatives? Slightly tricky cupholders, an awkward gate to the seventh gear and poor over the shoulder visibility.

What are you waiting for?

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Wednesday – Wood Powered Porsche?

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There just aren’t enough good reasons to drive the 911 at the moment. Work is piling up and the wet weather hanging over Britain rather dampens the spirits.

Today I used the Porsche for exactly what it wasn’t built for – collecting a couple of bags of wood from the Longleat Estate timber yard. Don’t worry, I lined the bonnet boot with paper and made sure I didn’t slam the lid on a rogue log. That would be an expensive mistake.

The woman at the counter couldn’t quite believe I was using a Porsche but at the end of the day, if the 911 is meant to be an everyday car, then it has to do everyday chores too.

Which would normally mean using the back seat for passengers, I suppose. I haven’t tried them myself but space is at a premium, especially for adult legs. And with a black canvases hood, it’s going to be pretty claustrophobic too.

Still, I’m at the wheel and back seat passengers are the last thing I want to worry about. Just give me the keys, I’ll drive.

 

 

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Tuesday – Attention To Detail

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Here are a few random reasons why the 911 Cabriolet is the best soft-top on the market. First, when you open the door after a rainstorm, the water doesn’t drip in to the cabin. Does your car do that?

Second, if it rains when the top is down, provided you don’t come to a grinding stop, you will stay dry. Such are the aerodynamics of this car.

Thirdly, there is a second sat nav screen that pops up in the instrument binnacle when you come to a navigation instruction. So, you have an overall map in the main dashboard that affords a general view – then the second explains graphically where you need to turn.

And finally, the wind deflector really is a work of art. Instead of manually pulling a deflector out of the boot and fighting to install it at the roadside, this one works beautifully. The frame pops up automatically, then the fabric material stretches over it.

You see, it’s the attention to detail that makes a great car…

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Monday – Sun Out, Top Down

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It’s been a long wait but the sun has finally got his hat on over the Cotswolds today – perfect weather for woolly chapeau and a Porsche 911 Cabriolet. And I actually have to drive to Banbury for a reason, so I don’t feel bad about leaving the office and ‘making progress’ in the Porsche.

I believe the sign of a great cabriolet is when it looks as good with the top up and is does down. With the Porsche it’s the other way around. The 911 is sensational roof on – and just exquisite with it tuck away under the automatic tonneau cover.

The roof mechanism is fast too and there’s a separate button for the wind deflector which keeps the draught away from the back of you neck and deadens the noise front the rear-mounted engine. Although that rather adds to the excitement…

One fact I have found about the 911 is that either the seats or my backside need a little extra padding. While the Porsche can be a very usable everyday car (unlike a Ferrari F430, for example), my bum is numb after 45 minutes behind the wheel. They are great sports seats for throwing the 911 around a corner, just not soft enough for a well-trimmed driver…

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Sunday – Sixth Sense

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I can’t help but compare our 911 to the Jaguar XKR-S we tested earlier this year. While the Big Cat has a much bigger engine, the Porsche feels more refined, agile and surefooted on the road – probably thanks to its smaller body dimensions and the addition of four-wheel drive.

For some reason, I’ve also found the 911’s seven-speed manual gearbox a bit tiresome around town. It’s not just the heavy clutch but using sixth gear and has become a bit of a struggle for me. I can only describe it as similar to looking for the gate to a reverse gear – tricky at high speed!

I thought the seventh gear would be fairly redundant in a car like this but you can cruise along a congested A-road in top gear with the engine still responding to the slightest tweak. A remarkable engine, it’s barely audible at cruising speeds, even with the sport exhaust in operation.

There still hasn’t been a chance to lower the hood, every time the sun comes out today it seems to be followed by a cloudburst! The acoustics of the hood are so good, I’ve almost forgotten this is a convertible…

 

 

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Saturday – Magnesium Sandwich Anybody?

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That’s right – every 911 Cabriolet comes with a magnesium sandwich as standard. You won’t find it in the glovebox but in the roof. One of the reasons why it’s so easy to forget this is a convertible not a coupe is down to the design of the electric hood.

Design in a 911 Cabriolet has always been incredible but this latest model takes it to new levels. Sandwiched between the fabric components of the roof is a layer of magnesium, which forms a coupe-style hard top when it is in place.

The result is minimal road noise but just enough to let you and your passenger enjoy the rasp from the 3.4-litre engine behind you. It’s nothing short of remarkable – although I’d dread to think what it costs to replace!

God decided to make it rain for the last 48 hours in the south of England, so that roof is staying firmly in place. My only problem so far? Remembering the seventh gear in the manual gearbox. To be honest, if I was buying I’d opt for the auto -a round the town you need Fatima Whitbread‘s legs to work that heavy clutch pedal…

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Friday – Look At Me!

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Just in case a 911 Cabriolet isn’t enough to get you noticed, Porsche has thoughtfully added the ‘Extrovert Button’. It’s right next to the gearstick and a quick press is guaranteed to turn every head in a 100 yard radius.

The sports exhaust system improves the car’s exhaust note by opening a flap in each of the twin exhaust system’s silencers. It turns the Cabriolet into a snarling beast – although why it’s not a standard feature on the latest 911 is rather surprising.

Shy, retiring types are unlikely to be driving a Porsche in the first place but having just returned from the Bath, I can tell you the 911 wouldn’t have been more conspicuous if I had Kate Moss siting naked next to me.

This latest version of the Cabriolet is around 60kg lighter than the old one and with a more powerful engine under the boot lid, it’s very fast indeed.

However, the best bit so far is the wind-blocker behind the driver’s seat. Wind-blockers are usually removed from a sports car and kept in the garage until the day you sell the car. In the 911, it pops up electronically from the hood well. Brilliant – and you can still hear yourself talking on the Bluetooth phone system at 65mph…