Porsche 997 Carrera S

The honest truth: boys never really grow up; our toys just get bigger and better. Even the biggest and strongest men deep down in their hearts know they are still boys. We want to play, we want to feel happy and we want to have the best toys. For petrolheads this equates to faster, more expensive and more exclusive cars. For as long as I’ve known Neil, he’s always surrounded himself by beautiful cars, yet he never seemed to hold on to any of them for too long. When I tried to find out the reason for it the explanation was simple: “why not, I just get bored”. There are no perfect cars out there; however, there are ones that are as close to the perfection as possible - Porsche 911 is one of them. For more than fifty years the German luxurious car manufacturer has been releasing and perfecting the 911 and with every new model they release they become faster, better handling, more responsive and more luxurious. So what's the previous generation 997 like? Porsches are confusing - FACT!

The motoring press gave nothing but positive reviews upon its announcement. Whilst the 997 was vastly based on the 996 model, it was a major improvement and received raving reviews from all motoring journalists, including one of the biggest “anti-Porschers” - Jeremy Clarkson himself. The Porsche 997 was truly the perfect 911 with phenomenal handling allowing really smooth transitions and perfect weight balance. It was the sports car everybody aimed to be. Whilst many autmotive manufacturers chase the numbers - fastest 0-60mph times or top speed or most amount of horsepower, the Porsche 911 just aims to be the best sports car it can in the hands of any driver. And it succeeds at this so well. Porsche 911 may just be the longest running production model in the world and it also is one of the most successful cars ever built. Its appearance hasn’t changed much since the first model left the factory. First and most noticeable design change on the 997 are the headlights.

Porsche decided to get rid of the horrendous broken egg-yolk headlights and return to its original 911 style headlights. Despite the plus size"curves" on this car it actually is shorter than the previous model but the aggressive lines are really exagurated witht he help of the beautiful aero kit on this. Finding a manual version of this car with aero kit proved to be very complicated as Neil admitted. Step inside the Porsche 997 and you’re greeted into a subtle, yet functional and welcoming interior. Porsche had never tried too hard to impress anybody with fancy buttons, dials or gadgets - the interiors are very simple and they always have been; their focus was and still is aimed at the driving experience. In standard form the Carrera S is capable of accelerating from 0-60mph in 4.7 seconds and could reach a top speed of 186 mph (not that we could test it). The engine and gearbox really work toghether in a symphony and makes you want to push the car any time you drive it. Porsche really had thought through every detail, focusing on performance and perfection, e.g having the car in sports mode alters the accelerator pedal movement improving the response that can help when pushing the 997 on the track.

In fact, the overall cabin ambience is far more inviting and luxurious versus the likes of Toyota HIACE and the Kia Pregio. Heck, there is even a touch screen double-DIN DVD player up front along with a ceiling mounted LCD screen to keep my kids and their cousins quiet during an outing to Kuantan, and back! After returning the tester unit, this writer was actually contemplating getting one for his ever expanding, at times extended family. If only the economic uncertainty that looms with the doom of global financial crisis isn’t so murky and threatening. Nonetheless, at sub-RM140k there is nothing like this out there in CBU form (or even CKD!) and as a brand-new vehicle for you to pick. So it does make sense - more so in these testing and trying times - as say, a third ‘car’ for mass transportation or utility purposes for a large family. That’s provided you can get past the usual badge snobbery that may afflict most of us. For the record, this Hyundai is already well received by the decision makers in the hospitality, travel and tourism industry. That's some positive testament, isn't it?