German Car Zone

The great car journo Dan Pund once called Porsche "the Taco Bell of automakers." He was referring to the way the brand uses a few ingredients to create a variety of items — the same fundamental engines, transmissions, and chassis go into the Boxster, the Cayman, the 911, and the 911 Turbo Bellgrande. The new 911 Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S, on sale this October, are no different: They use the basic shell of the 2009 997.5 and lay in a caulk-gun squirt of all-wheel drive from the 997 Turbo.

We reported on the revised 911, with its direct injection engines and PDK dual-clutch manual transmission, last month; you can read Kurt Braun's masterly shakedown of that car. And even if the RWD and AWD 911s have many, many things in common, we weren't going to pass up Porsche's invitation to see Berlin from the wheel of the new Carrera 4. I loved that band in the '80s, and still have some of their awesome songs on cassette.

Report: http://www.motivemag.com/pub/feature/first_steer/Motive_First_Drive_2009_Porsche_911_Carrera_C4.sht ml