Porsche Symmetry: a 911 road trip to the A911 Car News

The 911 condenses the drive north remarkably well. It doesn’t look basic, although it lacks toys compared to its more expensive, plush siblings. There is no rotary drive mode selector on the steering wheel or power seats. But it has navigation, Apple CarPlay and air conditioning, even adaptive two-stage dampers and the ability to prompt me to select “Wet” mode when the rain gets heavier.

We stop briefly in Dundee to see what SABER says is the only remaining part of the old B911, now a parking lot overlooking the mist-covered Firth of Tay. The inner city ring road is the A991, if someone with a slightly older 911 wants to visit. But the journey north from there proceeds at a cautious pace under the watchful eye of endless mid-speed radars. The days when the A90 was treated like a racetrack by cashed-in oil workers are long gone.

After Aberdeen we are in what immediately looks like a more natural Porsche country, which is reflected in the road numbers. The A944 carries us west and we pass the junction for the B993 before reaching the equally minor turn for the B992, towards the mighty Keig and Insch conurbations. The road seems narrow. Will it be another wet firecracker?

Hopefully not. From the first mile, it’s clear that it’s not only an extremely thin piece of tarmac, but also a piece that fits the Porsche almost perfectly. The initial stretch of the B992 is open, conspicuous and empty enough to allow the Carrera to stretch its legs, even in soggy conditions.

Even more fitting, it’s a road that fits the base 911 better than one of its faster siblings. The 380 hp of the 3.0-liter flat-six can be fully exploited, and the limitations of rear-wheel drive and a slippery surface become a challenge rather than a limitation. The Porsche is light and manoeuvrable, its shock absorbers controlling its mass perfectly on bumps and ridges. He’s eager to change direction and with chatty feedback exceeding the slight assistance of his power steering, but he never feels temperamental. The traction remains good in the rain. Yet it is also throttle controllable in a way that few other cars are, with the finesse of the balance between grip levels at each end being adjustable with just small inputs as the mass shifts toward. forward and backward.