Bennett chases down the Tour of Britain in a bid to reconnect with the new generation of 911 and challenge the pros over the course of the Tour's 'Queen' stage. Porsche v Peloton. Bring it on
Words: Steve Bennett Photography: Antony Fraser
Apparently there's going to be a Rumble on The Tumble. "A what on the where?" Well, you may well ask. The Tumble, you see, is a big lump of land that rises 1600 feet above sea level, casting a shadow over Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. You don't need mountaineering gear to ascend it - wheels will do, but at 6km and a steady gradient of 10%, you'll be glad of an engine, Porsche or otherwise. You certainly wouldn't want to cycle up it and certainly not as the final 6km of a 190km day in the saddle. No, that would be foolish.
The Tumble is the final climb on the Tour of Britain's 'Queen Stage.' Here we go again, talking all funny. 'Queen' denotes the toughest, most gruelling, leg busting stage of the seven day round Britain (well most of Britain) cycle race starring Sir Wiggo, Cav, his German nemesis, Marcel Kittel and many more top riders and pro teams from the UK and continental Europe. The Tumble is a Category One climb, which in bike race parlance means Complete B*****d.
Starting in Newtown, Powys and finishing on The Tumble, stage three of the ToB is predicted to be the one that will smash the field apart and could decide the Yellow Jersey. It's unusually early to have such a potentially decisive stage in a one-week race, but this year's event is especially gruelling, with more of the same to come later, including Ditchling Beacon on the South Downs on the penultimate day.
Of course you don't need 9ii&PWto tell you that cycling is big news in the UK right now. The Wiggo effect, Froome, Team Sky, Olympic Gold's on track and road, two Tour de France wins and of course that small matter of the TdF Grande Depart on our green and pleasant land and our best roads in the summer, in front of simply mind-boggling crowds.
But it's more than that. Our European friends have been bike racing mad for years. In France, Belgium, Holland, Spain and Italy, it is a near religion. We're just catching up, albeit fast. We're getting it. Bike racing UK style was 10-mile time trials on dreary stretches of dual carrigeway, followed by a cup of tea in the club hut or dusty village hall. Now it's fast paced road racing, Criterium racing in city centres, bike mad wannabes tackling Sportives and the tea has been ditched in favour of espresso coffee, colour, carbon fibre and titanium machines that drip with technology. Electronic 22-speed sequential-shifting? That beats your seven-speed PDK. Power meters and datalogging? Tick. GPS mapping so you can download your rides and compete against virtual foes on the same course. That will be Strava.
And we can't get enough of this stuff. More often than not the bike on the roof is worth more than the car. Bike spending is huge, golf clubs are emptying, sailing clubs are suffering, we're all velo road warriors now. And not surprisingly there is a crossover between cyclist and petrolhead. The notion of going fast on four wheels runs just as deep on two. That, after all, is what it's all about. From the pros down, the aim is to go as quickly as possible and as efficiently as possible. Bike porn is all about new kit, lighter wheels, aero frames, carbon fibre cranks, ceramic bearing hubs.
Which is kind of why we're here (you were wondering
how I was going to pull this round) on the third stage, the 'Queen Stage' no less of the Tour of Britain, with a 991 Carrera C4S. This is Porsche v Peloton.
What seriously? Yes, seriously. Pro bike riders move fast. In a group they can slipstream along at 40mph on an open road with nothing to slow them. Blink and you'll miss them, left with just a rush of air, colour and the faint mechanical hum of turning cranks and narrow tyres on Tarmac. If you're lucky you might get hit by a discarded bottle, but these boys shift and achieve average speeds that most four-wheeled traffic, encumbered by other road residents, can only dream about. That is of course when they're on it. There are days when they simply can't be bothered, but in a one-week race, like the ToB, there isn't the luxury of a let up or a day taking it easy
It is, of course, the road sharing aspect that will stop this contest from being a walkover for the Porsche, and in truth I'm not expecting the Porsche to lose this. That would be a bit far-fetched, but I'm not expecting there to be a great deal in it. Seconds? Minutes and multiples of? Half an hour? Over half, but under an hour? You know I just don't know, but here's the fact of the matter: The stage is 179.9km or 111.9-miles if you prefer. The Peloton departs Newtown at 11am and with a following wind and some nifty pedalling are expected to rumble up the Tumble shortly after 3pm via a route that in terms of profile can only be described as spiky.
It's a route too that will suit the C4S and there is a reason why it's a C4S too. In fact there is a reason why it's a 911 full stop. It's been over two years now, since the launch of the 991 gen of the 911, and truth be told, I've not really gelled with the all new machine. There have
Bennett is 'King of the Mountain' at the first summit finish. Newtown, Powys, is the stage start, while towns along the way signal their support
been moments of connection, but overall I'm not getting it. For me it's the 'King's new clothes' scenario, and I'm acutely aware of how out of step I am with that thought. Editor of Porsche magazine doesn't rate new 911, shock. It's a headline that I'm not entirely comfortable with.
Of course I've analysed it at some length. In the past it's been pretty easy. Basic manual Carrera 2 wins every time. It's the motoring journo's default option, but not this time round. The base 3.4-litre Carrera is just not quick enough. Ridiculous as that may sound with 35obhp, but it's the way the power is delivered, which is to say right at the top end. It's hard work, and not at all like the old 3.6-litre 997 Carrera, which is just about perfect. The manual isn't an option either on any 991. There's nothing wrong with the shift itself, in terms of physically swapping cogs, it's just the action of moving through the gate and, in particular, coming down from the dogleg seventh, when it's very easy to get lost. The loading takes the lever beyond the sixth to fifth plain and into fourth to third. Nine times out of ten you'll get it right, but when it matters, when you're driving for the thrill of it, you will at some point get into a right muddle and you'll hate it and wish, for the first time ever, that it was a PDK. It's just not intuitive.
And to make matters worse, you just know that the Gen 2 991 Carrera, which will be coming soon, will be getting a 3.6-litre engine, because that's how these things work. So, surely, the Carrera 2S or the C4S is the answer. More power, ditch the manual, go PDK, job done. Well not so far. Maybe the whole collective driving experience just hasn't aligned itself yet. Yes, the 3.8-litre engine has, as you would expect, got the get up and go.
We'll take ours in stealth grey, please. Sometimes it's easy to take the familiar shape of the gii for granted, but the high waist and low roofline of the ggi gives the gii a sleeker look 51 years into its life
The PDK beats the manual, but it's not just about the powertrain and how it changes gear. There's the small matter of handling and steering and some confusing messages therein.
A week with the retro inspired gu@50 Anniversary model, with wide body and rear drive, should have been ggi nirvana, but frankly it was awful, thanks to PASM suspension with zero tolerance to body roll, but at the expense of any sort of ride quality. Remember the gg7 GTS, again rear drive and wide-bodied and derived from the limited edition Sport Classic? That was just gii heaven in the way it dealt with our broken roads. And the steering? Don't get me started.
And then there was a recent dalliance with a ggi Targa, which significantly had passive rather than active suspension. All of a sudden ride quality restored, perhaps helped further by lgin wheels. But that had a manual 'box too and once again shift confusion crept in just when you didn't need it.
And so here we are giving the ggi another go. The C4S is the everyman choice, the one that ticks the most boxes for customers, and in the right spec too, although I'm not sure about PASM given recent experiences. Chasing down the cyclists is an added frisson, and I won't
It takes a lot of vehicles to keep the Tour on the road. Team Sky can claim to have the best team cars running, as they do, a fleet of Jaguar estates. All the teams run estate cars, which tells you everything you need to know about SUVs and the like!
deny that it taps into a personal passion of mine. I am no stranger to lycra, carbon fibre and the obsession that comes with cycling.
Of course we didn't come all this way and not see a bit of the stage ourselves. After a bit of Google Earth research we set up seven miles out of Newtown to watch the riders come through and contest the first King of the Mountains (first rider across the line scores points towards the KoM jersey) segment. The riders are expected at around 11.30am, which is pretty impressive given that it's a constant climb all the way, but then they're not pros for nothing I guess.
There wasn't quite the fever that surrounded the Tour de France Grand Depart, but you can't help but get caught up in the buzz and the anticipation as the course cars and Police outriders come zooming though and then the event helicopter rises from the horizon, nose pitched to the ground, seemingly scanning the landscape. And then the Peloton crests the hill and sweeps through, cutting a perfect apex and moving in one fluid arc. Gone in sixty seconds or less as they whirr out of sight. A couple of days later, when I get home, I watch the recorded highlights of the show, and there we are clearly visible from the helicopter, standing next to the C4S!
Left: Camera helicopter caught Bennett and Fraser on film and put them on
the telly! At the start of the 512 metre climb to the summit of The Tumble Right: At the top!
So time to give chase. Well not quite. We need to give the race time to get ahead for obvious reasons. A chance to study the route and get back down into Newtown to make a proper start and get some fuel. The route? Well it's a mix of hilltop moorland B roads and fast valley-level A roads taking in villages and a couple of major towns on the way, notably Crickhowell and Abergavenny. Some of the roads are known to us already as we've used them for testing over the years, South Wales being a popular proving ground for motoring 'mags looking for quiet driving roads.
A final word on our Peloton Pusher. Fuelled up and sitting on the forecourt it looks, quite simply, the business. That is certainly one thing that the 991 has in its favour. It's colour sensitive too, but in dark metallic grey, with matt grey 19in wheels, it really does work, the 911 profile accentuated by its deep waistline and low roofline that, compared to the 996 and the 997, makes the 991 look as if it's been chopped.
Newtown centre is solid with the aftermath of the tour depart and it takes some time to grind and climb out of town on the uphill switchbacks. The PDK transmission is
switched to Sports mode in anticipation of any gap to get past the meandering, late summer dawdlers. At slow speeds the C4S seems disinterested and slightly wrong-footed, but soon we're off the main road and up, up onto the moors and the first King of the Mountains segment. How are we doing? Well, shockingly, with the congestion in Newtown and the grind out, we're barely ahead ofour leg and lung powered bike heroes!
This is a cracking, testing wiggle of Tarmac now though. To the left are the Black Mountains and to the right expansive views over the valley and we're high enough to be sharing air space with the buzzards surfing the thermals. Then the road starts to drop down and the going gets tight and twisty making the C4S really start to work. It's too much for the PDK to keep up with and a switch to the paddles is called for. No hardship. The damped click of each up or down change might lack the tactile quality of manual interaction, but there's no disputing the speed of the shifts, and to make this sort of seamless, stable progress in a manual 991, you'd have to be very deft on the pedals.
Periods of rapid progress are hindered and halted out of respect to 3omph limits through villages and the odd dawdling tractor/tourist. Frustratingly, given the twists and turns, it takes a bit of luck rather than judgement to get through on occasion, not helped by the C4S's extra size. The 991 is borderline as a B road contender these days, but that said it's still more at home than its Italian rivals. You just find yourself breathing in more often, particularly with oncoming traffic.
Maybe it's because we're on the ToB route, but so far the road surfaces have been excellent, and some stretches have been absolutely top quality black top, the sort that in most parts of our sceptic isle have become just a distant memory, replaced instead by molten tar sprinkled with loose chippings. Road surface aside I'm overdriving this new fangled 911. My direction changes are snappy, braking scruffy and I'm just hanging on. It's partly because the straights are short and the bends are coming thick and fast and it's impossible to build up a rhythm, and it's partly because I'm going too fast to be neat and the C4 is just understeering in response to my inputs. Ah, that four-wheel drive understeer thing? Hmm, not so sure about that. It's just the default setting these days and I doubt that the C2S would be any different. It's the safe option.
Strangely, perhaps, after all these years of refining the rear engine layout, tweaking the suspension and lengthening the wheelbase, the 911 still responds best to slow in, fast out. It's all relative though. The 991's slow in is rather faster, than even a 997's slow in. You just don't appreciate it.
I don't know about Wiggo and co, but even behind the wheel, this is exhausting. Quite where I am time wise I've
The ggi C4S covers ground at a rate that takes serious concentration to keep up with. It is hugely capable, carrying speed in a way that would have been unthinkable a few years ago
no idea, but there's a welcome stretch of A road now for a good few miles. With space and well-sighted corners, we can get a wiggle on. The 991 is more at home here. It can settle into a bend and use its massive traction to slingshot out, not to mention power. It's fast, effortlessly fast with a never-ending powerband.
Back on the B roads now for another lengthy stretch. This is the sort of terrain that gets the Peloton all twitchy. Narrow enclosed roads are a nightmare and increase the chance of a Peloton pile up. One thing that the 991 is not, though, is twitchy. That really has been all but eliminated from the 911's repertoire of tricks. That constant movement from the rear, and the unsettling of the front wheels as the front-to-rear weight transfer moves down the relatively short wheelbase has been checked by the longer, more stable platform of the 991. It's kind of still there, but it's slightly slower, and lazier. And that in turn has affected the steering. It's not so much the electronic steering rack that's robbed the 991 of steering feel. It's more the longer wheelbase that stops the front wheels from weighting and un-weighting. Modern cars have so much damping in their steering, to combat the potential kick back from massive wheels and tyres, that steering feel disappeared long ago. What the 911 had wasn't steering feel in the traditional sense, but steering feel induced by its weight distribution. It was an anomaly, one that's now been dialled out.
Fast A roads again through Crickhowell and into Abergavenny and Monmouthsire. We're not far geographically from the finish, but in miles there's still another 25 to go. The going has been tough or 'draggy' in cycling parlance. Apart from the A road stretches it's
Left: The Peloton rolls though, completing the 110-mile stage in 4hrs 35mins, which is actually pretty slow in bike race terms, and is an indication as to just how tough Stage 3 was
Middle: Bennett grabs the headlines. There's gonna be a Rumble on The Tumble!
been a relentless, leg busting up and down, with little chance for a rhythm or to get the pack moving en masse It feels the same where I am too. Every blind turn and crest is treated with caution and I don't mind admitting that I'm knackered from the concentration.
The pros blast through the middle of Abergavenny town centre, while we crawl round the one-way system, hampered by road works. It takes a good half an hour anc we trundle to the foot of The Tumble, where we're met with a roadblock. The stage is, of course, over but the barriers and stage furniture are being packed away. Stop the clock, we'll have to wait, and wait. Still gives us a chance to catch up on the result, the 'Rumble up The Tumble.' Italian Edoardo Zardini takes the stage win, Wigg is back in fifth and eventual overall winner, Dutchman Dylan Van Baarle is 12th. Apparently The Tumble has had the desired effect and hit the riders hard, with only the overall favourites emerging to fight it out at the summit.
And so what was Zardini's overall time? Four hours, 35 mins and 2 secs. Is that fast? In terms of the terrain, and the distance, yes, that's fast. Had that been a flat stage, you could knock over an hour off that time, easily.
And so finally we make it up The Tumble and to the aftermath of the stage. I've done a few long distance
Top left: At the wheel of any ggi is a fine place to be. Cabin quality is second to none. Below: The C4S is hugely stable on the road. Body control is of the 'iron fist' variety with roll kept in constant check
events, hell I've cycled up Box Hill, but The Tumble is a relentless low gear grind that even has the C4S dropping cogs to second on its fiercest inclines. And so we stop our own clock at 3hrs i5mins 47secs. Porsche thrashes Peloton on the Queen Stage? Well that's what it looks like, but think about it? Despite having 40obhp on tap and the ability to carry prodigious speed, that's not much ofa margin compared to human athletes on two wheels powered by fresh air and energy gels.
And the 991C4S? Is the relationship restored? Partly. This is easily the most convincing 991 that I've driven. After the 50th birthday edition, the PASM enhanced suspension is much more compliant, although I still prefer the passive set up and that experience is shared with passive v PASM Boxsters and Caymans too.
The C4S is a hugely capable car and still easily the best of its type. I guess what I miss is the interactivity of the 997 and the 996. In the constant evolution of the 911, the imperfections that were/are part of its character are being engineered out. It seems wrong to hanker after something that wasn't as good, but that's just the way I feel. But then my next road bike will probably have electronic shifters and in time I'll forget about the less effective friction shifters. Progress eh?
Words: Steve Bennett Photography: Antony Fraser
Apparently there's going to be a Rumble on The Tumble. "A what on the where?" Well, you may well ask. The Tumble, you see, is a big lump of land that rises 1600 feet above sea level, casting a shadow over Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. You don't need mountaineering gear to ascend it - wheels will do, but at 6km and a steady gradient of 10%, you'll be glad of an engine, Porsche or otherwise. You certainly wouldn't want to cycle up it and certainly not as the final 6km of a 190km day in the saddle. No, that would be foolish.
The Tumble is the final climb on the Tour of Britain's 'Queen Stage.' Here we go again, talking all funny. 'Queen' denotes the toughest, most gruelling, leg busting stage of the seven day round Britain (well most of Britain) cycle race starring Sir Wiggo, Cav, his German nemesis, Marcel Kittel and many more top riders and pro teams from the UK and continental Europe. The Tumble is a Category One climb, which in bike race parlance means Complete B*****d.
Starting in Newtown, Powys and finishing on The Tumble, stage three of the ToB is predicted to be the one that will smash the field apart and could decide the Yellow Jersey. It's unusually early to have such a potentially decisive stage in a one-week race, but this year's event is especially gruelling, with more of the same to come later, including Ditchling Beacon on the South Downs on the penultimate day.
Of course you don't need 9ii&PWto tell you that cycling is big news in the UK right now. The Wiggo effect, Froome, Team Sky, Olympic Gold's on track and road, two Tour de France wins and of course that small matter of the TdF Grande Depart on our green and pleasant land and our best roads in the summer, in front of simply mind-boggling crowds.
But it's more than that. Our European friends have been bike racing mad for years. In France, Belgium, Holland, Spain and Italy, it is a near religion. We're just catching up, albeit fast. We're getting it. Bike racing UK style was 10-mile time trials on dreary stretches of dual carrigeway, followed by a cup of tea in the club hut or dusty village hall. Now it's fast paced road racing, Criterium racing in city centres, bike mad wannabes tackling Sportives and the tea has been ditched in favour of espresso coffee, colour, carbon fibre and titanium machines that drip with technology. Electronic 22-speed sequential-shifting? That beats your seven-speed PDK. Power meters and datalogging? Tick. GPS mapping so you can download your rides and compete against virtual foes on the same course. That will be Strava.
And we can't get enough of this stuff. More often than not the bike on the roof is worth more than the car. Bike spending is huge, golf clubs are emptying, sailing clubs are suffering, we're all velo road warriors now. And not surprisingly there is a crossover between cyclist and petrolhead. The notion of going fast on four wheels runs just as deep on two. That, after all, is what it's all about. From the pros down, the aim is to go as quickly as possible and as efficiently as possible. Bike porn is all about new kit, lighter wheels, aero frames, carbon fibre cranks, ceramic bearing hubs.
Which is kind of why we're here (you were wondering
how I was going to pull this round) on the third stage, the 'Queen Stage' no less of the Tour of Britain, with a 991 Carrera C4S. This is Porsche v Peloton.
What seriously? Yes, seriously. Pro bike riders move fast. In a group they can slipstream along at 40mph on an open road with nothing to slow them. Blink and you'll miss them, left with just a rush of air, colour and the faint mechanical hum of turning cranks and narrow tyres on Tarmac. If you're lucky you might get hit by a discarded bottle, but these boys shift and achieve average speeds that most four-wheeled traffic, encumbered by other road residents, can only dream about. That is of course when they're on it. There are days when they simply can't be bothered, but in a one-week race, like the ToB, there isn't the luxury of a let up or a day taking it easy
It is, of course, the road sharing aspect that will stop this contest from being a walkover for the Porsche, and in truth I'm not expecting the Porsche to lose this. That would be a bit far-fetched, but I'm not expecting there to be a great deal in it. Seconds? Minutes and multiples of? Half an hour? Over half, but under an hour? You know I just don't know, but here's the fact of the matter: The stage is 179.9km or 111.9-miles if you prefer. The Peloton departs Newtown at 11am and with a following wind and some nifty pedalling are expected to rumble up the Tumble shortly after 3pm via a route that in terms of profile can only be described as spiky.
It's a route too that will suit the C4S and there is a reason why it's a C4S too. In fact there is a reason why it's a 911 full stop. It's been over two years now, since the launch of the 991 gen of the 911, and truth be told, I've not really gelled with the all new machine. There have
been moments of connection, but overall I'm not getting it. For me it's the 'King's new clothes' scenario, and I'm acutely aware of how out of step I am with that thought. Editor of Porsche magazine doesn't rate new 911, shock. It's a headline that I'm not entirely comfortable with.
Of course I've analysed it at some length. In the past it's been pretty easy. Basic manual Carrera 2 wins every time. It's the motoring journo's default option, but not this time round. The base 3.4-litre Carrera is just not quick enough. Ridiculous as that may sound with 35obhp, but it's the way the power is delivered, which is to say right at the top end. It's hard work, and not at all like the old 3.6-litre 997 Carrera, which is just about perfect. The manual isn't an option either on any 991. There's nothing wrong with the shift itself, in terms of physically swapping cogs, it's just the action of moving through the gate and, in particular, coming down from the dogleg seventh, when it's very easy to get lost. The loading takes the lever beyond the sixth to fifth plain and into fourth to third. Nine times out of ten you'll get it right, but when it matters, when you're driving for the thrill of it, you will at some point get into a right muddle and you'll hate it and wish, for the first time ever, that it was a PDK. It's just not intuitive.
And to make matters worse, you just know that the Gen 2 991 Carrera, which will be coming soon, will be getting a 3.6-litre engine, because that's how these things work. So, surely, the Carrera 2S or the C4S is the answer. More power, ditch the manual, go PDK, job done. Well not so far. Maybe the whole collective driving experience just hasn't aligned itself yet. Yes, the 3.8-litre engine has, as you would expect, got the get up and go.
The PDK beats the manual, but it's not just about the powertrain and how it changes gear. There's the small matter of handling and steering and some confusing messages therein.
A week with the retro inspired gu@50 Anniversary model, with wide body and rear drive, should have been ggi nirvana, but frankly it was awful, thanks to PASM suspension with zero tolerance to body roll, but at the expense of any sort of ride quality. Remember the gg7 GTS, again rear drive and wide-bodied and derived from the limited edition Sport Classic? That was just gii heaven in the way it dealt with our broken roads. And the steering? Don't get me started.
And then there was a recent dalliance with a ggi Targa, which significantly had passive rather than active suspension. All of a sudden ride quality restored, perhaps helped further by lgin wheels. But that had a manual 'box too and once again shift confusion crept in just when you didn't need it.
And so here we are giving the ggi another go. The C4S is the everyman choice, the one that ticks the most boxes for customers, and in the right spec too, although I'm not sure about PASM given recent experiences. Chasing down the cyclists is an added frisson, and I won't
deny that it taps into a personal passion of mine. I am no stranger to lycra, carbon fibre and the obsession that comes with cycling.
Of course we didn't come all this way and not see a bit of the stage ourselves. After a bit of Google Earth research we set up seven miles out of Newtown to watch the riders come through and contest the first King of the Mountains (first rider across the line scores points towards the KoM jersey) segment. The riders are expected at around 11.30am, which is pretty impressive given that it's a constant climb all the way, but then they're not pros for nothing I guess.
There wasn't quite the fever that surrounded the Tour de France Grand Depart, but you can't help but get caught up in the buzz and the anticipation as the course cars and Police outriders come zooming though and then the event helicopter rises from the horizon, nose pitched to the ground, seemingly scanning the landscape. And then the Peloton crests the hill and sweeps through, cutting a perfect apex and moving in one fluid arc. Gone in sixty seconds or less as they whirr out of sight. A couple of days later, when I get home, I watch the recorded highlights of the show, and there we are clearly visible from the helicopter, standing next to the C4S!
the telly! At the start of the 512 metre climb to the summit of The Tumble Right: At the top!
So time to give chase. Well not quite. We need to give the race time to get ahead for obvious reasons. A chance to study the route and get back down into Newtown to make a proper start and get some fuel. The route? Well it's a mix of hilltop moorland B roads and fast valley-level A roads taking in villages and a couple of major towns on the way, notably Crickhowell and Abergavenny. Some of the roads are known to us already as we've used them for testing over the years, South Wales being a popular proving ground for motoring 'mags looking for quiet driving roads.
A final word on our Peloton Pusher. Fuelled up and sitting on the forecourt it looks, quite simply, the business. That is certainly one thing that the 991 has in its favour. It's colour sensitive too, but in dark metallic grey, with matt grey 19in wheels, it really does work, the 911 profile accentuated by its deep waistline and low roofline that, compared to the 996 and the 997, makes the 991 look as if it's been chopped.
Newtown centre is solid with the aftermath of the tour depart and it takes some time to grind and climb out of town on the uphill switchbacks. The PDK transmission is
switched to Sports mode in anticipation of any gap to get past the meandering, late summer dawdlers. At slow speeds the C4S seems disinterested and slightly wrong-footed, but soon we're off the main road and up, up onto the moors and the first King of the Mountains segment. How are we doing? Well, shockingly, with the congestion in Newtown and the grind out, we're barely ahead ofour leg and lung powered bike heroes!
This is a cracking, testing wiggle of Tarmac now though. To the left are the Black Mountains and to the right expansive views over the valley and we're high enough to be sharing air space with the buzzards surfing the thermals. Then the road starts to drop down and the going gets tight and twisty making the C4S really start to work. It's too much for the PDK to keep up with and a switch to the paddles is called for. No hardship. The damped click of each up or down change might lack the tactile quality of manual interaction, but there's no disputing the speed of the shifts, and to make this sort of seamless, stable progress in a manual 991, you'd have to be very deft on the pedals.
Periods of rapid progress are hindered and halted out of respect to 3omph limits through villages and the odd dawdling tractor/tourist. Frustratingly, given the twists and turns, it takes a bit of luck rather than judgement to get through on occasion, not helped by the C4S's extra size. The 991 is borderline as a B road contender these days, but that said it's still more at home than its Italian rivals. You just find yourself breathing in more often, particularly with oncoming traffic.
Maybe it's because we're on the ToB route, but so far the road surfaces have been excellent, and some stretches have been absolutely top quality black top, the sort that in most parts of our sceptic isle have become just a distant memory, replaced instead by molten tar sprinkled with loose chippings. Road surface aside I'm overdriving this new fangled 911. My direction changes are snappy, braking scruffy and I'm just hanging on. It's partly because the straights are short and the bends are coming thick and fast and it's impossible to build up a rhythm, and it's partly because I'm going too fast to be neat and the C4 is just understeering in response to my inputs. Ah, that four-wheel drive understeer thing? Hmm, not so sure about that. It's just the default setting these days and I doubt that the C2S would be any different. It's the safe option.
Strangely, perhaps, after all these years of refining the rear engine layout, tweaking the suspension and lengthening the wheelbase, the 911 still responds best to slow in, fast out. It's all relative though. The 991's slow in is rather faster, than even a 997's slow in. You just don't appreciate it.
I don't know about Wiggo and co, but even behind the wheel, this is exhausting. Quite where I am time wise I've
no idea, but there's a welcome stretch of A road now for a good few miles. With space and well-sighted corners, we can get a wiggle on. The 991 is more at home here. It can settle into a bend and use its massive traction to slingshot out, not to mention power. It's fast, effortlessly fast with a never-ending powerband.
Back on the B roads now for another lengthy stretch. This is the sort of terrain that gets the Peloton all twitchy. Narrow enclosed roads are a nightmare and increase the chance of a Peloton pile up. One thing that the 991 is not, though, is twitchy. That really has been all but eliminated from the 911's repertoire of tricks. That constant movement from the rear, and the unsettling of the front wheels as the front-to-rear weight transfer moves down the relatively short wheelbase has been checked by the longer, more stable platform of the 991. It's kind of still there, but it's slightly slower, and lazier. And that in turn has affected the steering. It's not so much the electronic steering rack that's robbed the 991 of steering feel. It's more the longer wheelbase that stops the front wheels from weighting and un-weighting. Modern cars have so much damping in their steering, to combat the potential kick back from massive wheels and tyres, that steering feel disappeared long ago. What the 911 had wasn't steering feel in the traditional sense, but steering feel induced by its weight distribution. It was an anomaly, one that's now been dialled out.
Fast A roads again through Crickhowell and into Abergavenny and Monmouthsire. We're not far geographically from the finish, but in miles there's still another 25 to go. The going has been tough or 'draggy' in cycling parlance. Apart from the A road stretches it's
Middle: Bennett grabs the headlines. There's gonna be a Rumble on The Tumble!
been a relentless, leg busting up and down, with little chance for a rhythm or to get the pack moving en masse It feels the same where I am too. Every blind turn and crest is treated with caution and I don't mind admitting that I'm knackered from the concentration.
The pros blast through the middle of Abergavenny town centre, while we crawl round the one-way system, hampered by road works. It takes a good half an hour anc we trundle to the foot of The Tumble, where we're met with a roadblock. The stage is, of course, over but the barriers and stage furniture are being packed away. Stop the clock, we'll have to wait, and wait. Still gives us a chance to catch up on the result, the 'Rumble up The Tumble.' Italian Edoardo Zardini takes the stage win, Wigg is back in fifth and eventual overall winner, Dutchman Dylan Van Baarle is 12th. Apparently The Tumble has had the desired effect and hit the riders hard, with only the overall favourites emerging to fight it out at the summit.
And so what was Zardini's overall time? Four hours, 35 mins and 2 secs. Is that fast? In terms of the terrain, and the distance, yes, that's fast. Had that been a flat stage, you could knock over an hour off that time, easily.
And so finally we make it up The Tumble and to the aftermath of the stage. I've done a few long distance
events, hell I've cycled up Box Hill, but The Tumble is a relentless low gear grind that even has the C4S dropping cogs to second on its fiercest inclines. And so we stop our own clock at 3hrs i5mins 47secs. Porsche thrashes Peloton on the Queen Stage? Well that's what it looks like, but think about it? Despite having 40obhp on tap and the ability to carry prodigious speed, that's not much ofa margin compared to human athletes on two wheels powered by fresh air and energy gels.
And the 991C4S? Is the relationship restored? Partly. This is easily the most convincing 991 that I've driven. After the 50th birthday edition, the PASM enhanced suspension is much more compliant, although I still prefer the passive set up and that experience is shared with passive v PASM Boxsters and Caymans too.
The C4S is a hugely capable car and still easily the best of its type. I guess what I miss is the interactivity of the 997 and the 996. In the constant evolution of the 911, the imperfections that were/are part of its character are being engineered out. It seems wrong to hanker after something that wasn't as good, but that's just the way I feel. But then my next road bike will probably have electronic shifters and in time I'll forget about the less effective friction shifters. Progress eh?
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