There are worse things in life than driving a 911 C4S Cabriolet every day. In fact, I can think of quite a few things I'd rather not do. Even in stock form the 911 is still one of the best sports cars money can buy. And when you're talking about a Carrera 4S, well, that only multiplies the fun by about thirty extra horsepower and two more drive wheels.
This particular cabriolet runs under the WTW banner, specifically the wheel-and-tire giant's GFG line of high-end, modular forged wheels. And believe it or not, it is a daily driver, piloted by the boss's wife. Apparently she's a bit of a stickler when it comes to perfection, so once the car was positioned for photos it may as well have been confined in a plastic bubble: nobody in, nobody out. And hey, watch those finger smudges, damn it!
Cars like this have become the premier Southern California boulevard cruisers. Out here 911s, and particularly convertible 911s, have become almost as ubiquitous as cell phones and Starbucks coffee. In order to stand out you need to make a statement. Black on black with full TechArt aerodynamics, big 20-inch wheels and a pinch of performance tweaking makes a pretty strong statement.
This car began in stock form as a 2006 911 (997) Carrera 4S equipped with the 3.8-liter flat six. It is equipped with a six-speed Tiptronic transmission, which isn't what we would have chosen necessarily, but remember, the car is driven daily--and have you seen the traffic out here? Driving a manual-equipped Porsche up a deserted mountain road is one thing; driving it through the mind-numbing crawl of Los Angelean rush hour is quite another.
The engine has been made over with a TechArt sport exhaust with the TechArt logo etched tips and an Evolution Motorsports open-element intake kit. To take advantage of this altered airflow through the engine, the factory ECU was reflashed using GIAC code. Concrete numbers were not immediately available on this altered setup at press time, but it wouldn't be unrealistic to expect close to 375 bhp (give or take a pony or two) at the crankshaft.
Numbers and figures aside, the true objective of this project was more about altering the car's visual demeanor to make it stand out among the teeming So Cal 911 masses. The TechArt Aerodynamic Kit I played a major part in filling this need by adding a front bumper spoiler and a rear diffuser to the respective front and rear bumper covers, as well as replacing the side skirts in their entirety. For a bit of tension up top, a TechArt Type III rear wing was placed over the engine cover. Beneath the liquid-steel Carrera body panels, a set of TechArt lowering springs approximately one inch shorter than the factory coils drops the ride height into a more aggressive stance over a set of blacked-out deep-dish wheels with brightly polished machined lips. These forged modular GFG Visso units measure a full 20 inches across and have been strung with high-performance Pirelli P Zero rubber, 245/30 up front and 325/25 steamrollers in the rear.
Already a peerless giant in the wheel industry, GFG/WTW appears to be embarking on a holistic tuning philosophy by turning out cars like this, whose mods extend beyond the general plus-one or two high performance wheel-and-tire packages. Considering the company has or has had at least one example of virtually every European exotic of the last several years on its showroom floors, it's undeniably exciting to think of what they might throw out next. I think we'll probably find out soon enough.