Despite car makers and car buyers moving away from manual transmissions, Porsche has announced a new seven-speed manual for the 911 Carrerra S and 4S.
The manual transmission might be on the way out as car makers flock to more-gear automatics, but Porsche has re-committed announcing the 911 Carrera S and 4S would be available with a seven-speed manual as a no-cost option. The standard-fit is an eight-speed automatic.
As if that wasn’t new enough, Porsche announced the addition of new cost options for the Carrera S and 4S including its Innodrive package (although this is only available for those cars running an automatic transmission). It tweaks the adaptive cruise control function via sat-nav data allowing it to predict the optimum acceleration and deceleration across the next three kilometres. It uses radar and video to work out what it needs to do and it can even recognise roundabouts.
The 911 will also be available with a SmartLift cost option which allows the vehicle, via stored GPS data, to lift the front of the vehicle by up to 40mm to avoid scraping the nose. If the driver sets the location where the vehicle’s nose needs to be raised, and the driver approaches the obstacle from the same direction, the vehicle will automatically raise the nose without driver intervention.
These tweaks are for Europe and related markets and while Porsche Australia hasn’t said yet whether the changes will make it here, we’d suggest they will.
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