Four Hundred And Thirty The Hard Way: Porsche Introduces The 991 Powerkit

Does the new 991 need more power? After all, in addition to the inevitable (and mandatory) color-mag fellatio you'd expect, it's already impressed Brendan McAleer at a Porsche-operated press event and squeaked out a narrow victory over a Mustang GT in an impromptu challenge at Summit Point's Shenandoah course. In the days when Porsche was a manufacturer of sports cars, rather than a purveyor of two-ton plasti-metallic pig-mobiles doing the occasional sporting car for purposes of brand enhancement, its policy of continuous improvement meant that each year's 911 was better than the last. Nowadays, however, the company sets out its marketing objectives and molds the product to suit. Witness: the new 991 Powerkit. The Powerkit, which has yet to receive the usual (and strangely evocative) X50 or X51 designation, bumps the 911 Carrera S from 400 to 430 horsepower courtesy of different cylinder heads and cams, a redesigned intake, some additional cooling, and an ECU tune, plus Sport Chrono. There's probably under a thousand dollars' worth of genuine cost involved in the Powerkit. Anybody who thinks the Powerkit will cost the customer a thousand bucks, or even three times that, probably just got done sucking twelve lungfuls' worth of smoke out of a five-foot-tall homemade bong which was nicknamed "I, Claudius" by that one guy in the third-floor loft who is theoretically a member of the fraternity but nobody remembers seeing him pledge. Once upon a time, Porsche would have put the Powerkit on all 2013 Carrera S cars and been done with it. No longer. Now it's another monstrously profitable rung in the prestige ladder. Buyers looking to spend $150,000 on a normally-aspirated 911 without resorting to the time-honored expedient of doing seatbelts dyed to sample will no doubt welcome the extra opportunity to impress the sheik next door. Porsche also announced an Aerokit, which will cost $5,990 or thereabouts plus about four grand for even more wings. It's shown above. Supposedly, the rear decklid pays tribute to the '73 Carrera RS, and it does, the same way that a picture of Justin Bieber holding a Strat could be said to be a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The 400-horsepower 991 is already cutting high eleven-second quarter-mile times in private hands, and this Powerkit certainly won't hurt. The question is: do you want to be the guy stupid enough to pay near-Turbo money for a loaded 991 Carrera S Powerkit when the 991 Turbo is almost here? from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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