Porsche seems to have hijacked this year’s GP Ice Race event at Zell am See, Austria. First it tested the new Cayman GT4 Rallye Concept Car ahead of its plans to enter the FIA R-GT class next year. Then it presented the new, eighth generation, 911 at the Areit-Alm high above Zell am See in Austria. This was the first appearance of the new 911 away from a motor show. It was flown in dangling below a helicopter to the Alm, which lies at an altitude of 1408 metres in the Austrian Alps. Watching the performance were Dr Wolfgang Porsche, brand ambassadors Walter Röhrl and Mark Webber and works drivers Timo Bernhard and Richard Lietz.
The new Carrera S models use the previous generation flat-six turbocharged engines, though further developed to produce 444bhp, driving through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. With the optional Sport Chrono Package, the rear-wheel-drive Coupé achieves the 0-60mph acceleration time of 3.5 seconds, while the 911 Carrera 4S with all-wheel drive completes the sprint in 3.4 seconds. Top speeds are 191mph (911 Carrera S) and 190mph for the all-wheel-drive version. And that’s all very nice, but then Porsche let some of the previous models out to play on the ice, including the Rallye Concept and a neat 356 that just looked immediately at home on the white stuff. After all, the first 356 models were built not so far away, in Gmünd, Austria.
Images courtesy of Porsche
