Porsche 911 C4S - long-term review

“This is Jackie Stewart’s favourite 911,” says Mark Webber. “I was on a track day with him a month or two back and told him he ought to try a Turbo S, but he loves the C4S.” I’m with Jackie on this – as a daily driver, the C4S feels more responsive than the Turbo S, you don’t need 572bhp when 414bhp is plenty to, ahem, keep up with the traffic.

Mark has clearly been spoiled by the fact his daily driver produces something in the region of 1,000bhp. Nope, the 919 Hybrid you see here, and which has helped Mark win the last three LMP1 rounds on the trot, isn’t road-legal, but for a few hours one morning last month it was given special dispensation to take a tour of the London landmarks. Accompanied by eight police outriders. We used the 911 to give chase.

“The engine’s quite robust, but as soon as we started I was like, ‘Guys, quicker, absolutely, quicker.’ We ran with the engine on, but we’ve got no fans to keep it cool and you don’t want to ride the clutch too much,” says Mark. Combine this with other issues (restricted visibility, a woeful turning circle, minimal luggage space – the list goes on), and the 919 is much less suited to the daily grind than the 911. With one exception – the 919 can run on electric, a party trick that, as yet, no 911 can match.

How long until Porsche rectifies that situation? Not too long, we’d imagine. But in the meantime, life with the C4S continues to be a pleasure, with its combination of effortless pace, stunning looks and wonderful gearbox winning over anyone lucky enough to get hold of the keys. With the mileage fast approaching 13,000 miles, the brakes are beginning to show signs of hard use (in its formative months before our ownership, obviously) so RX16 BVF is heading to Cambridge Porsche to see what needs to be done. Full report next month.

Good stuff: Seeing a Le Mans-winning 919 cruise around the streets of London was truly excellent – and left us thinking what a truly amazing street circuit our capital city would make. Come on, Sadiq

Bad stuff: Squeaky brakes at slow speeds mean a trip to the dealership. Full report on how it gets on next month CarPlay has been flicking in and out... might just be a dodgy iPhone cable