Enough about how this car does those things that you would expect a 3.6 911 to do. What about all those features that are really different? How about a spoiler that is about the size of the old “sugar scoop” but plays a hide-and-seek game with the rear deck? It doesn’t flaunt itself, it just appears unobtrusivelyinthe lower part of the rear view mirror, announcing that you’ve quit fooling around and are ready for some serious driving. (Don’t worry, it won’t get to be known to the police as a flag that you’re not below the legal limit; once up it stays there until you slow almost to a stop. And if you like, you can send it up on your own with an on board switch.) This should cause some real consternation in traffic until other drivers get used to seeing these variable aerodynamic devices. If they ever do. Oddly enough, the car looks good with it in either position.

Next in the area of real-world importance is the ABS brake system finally permitted by the new design of the 964. Like a hound with its nose to the ground, this puppyfinds the places where adhesion is still available and grabs for them, bringinganew feeling of security when driving on not-so-good surfaces and encouraging tricky maneuvers like braking in turns. When the system is activated another of those little dash lights comes on briefly to let you know that the envelope is again being pushed back.

But the real amazement is the all-wheel drive, both in what it does and in what it doesn’t do. I wasn’t sure quite what to expect: funny handling, peculiarities in corners, rocks flying off the front wheels? What actually happened was that the system is unobtrusive, invisible. Until you start push-

ingit. Go down to the grocery store and you would never know that the power is divided four ways, all the time. But push it hard, and watch the miracles start. Remember what happens with your 911 when you come out of the driveway and punch it before you have the wheels straight? The rear tires light off and you have a classic case of power oversteer: noisy, dramatic, but not terribly fast. That, along with other somewhat more subtle 911 maneuvers, is why we buy two sets of rear tires for each set of fronts.

Butthe 964 is anewgame. Allfourgetthe urge, and ifone is temporarily incapacitated by changes in the car’s dynamics or by having passed through a pool of some unmentionable slickness, the other Musketeers take over automatically. The end result is a car that has power that can be applied to the real road, not just a perfectly smooth and dry skid pad or drag-strip straight. I remember something that Professor Bott said about the question notbeing whether this car can pullaglaterally (which it does), but how often and how easily it can do it. We never saw the car come loose on these real world roads. Sure, there’s a limit to what it’ll do. It’s out there somewhere, past where all those red and green lights come on telling you that all the systems are doing their thing. I never saw it, but there’s got to be a limit. Somewhere. I think.

So. A new amazement from Zuffenhausen, the 964, the 911 that is what 911s always were, and so much more. A new enthusiasm, a new car that I would like to have. And then the old question: “But would you trade your 911 for it?”

Damn right I would.

—Leonard lhrner

JANUARY, 1989