Take a guess as to how many variants of the 911 there are currently on sale today. We’ll give you a minute.
Nope, more than that. Yep — more than that, too. Including versions of the brand new model, no fewer than thirty models of 911 present themselves to customers who fire up the pricing tool. Earlier this week, Porsche rolled out the least-expensive trim of the new 911 so far. Simply called the Carrera, it starts at just a few stacks under a hundred grand.
Porsche is known for ladling option packages onto its cars like your Canadian author ladles gravy onto his poutine, so actually finding a no-options 911 would be akin to finding a unicorn or a jar of moonbeams. A base 911 is surely one of the rarest cars … in the world.
Stickering at $97,400 plus freight, the new 911 Carrera is offered in four no-charge colors including the fabulous Guards Red and an eye-popping Racing Yellow. Note that Miami Blue, the shade shown in all the buff books, pads the bill by an alarming $3,270.
That new little nubbin of a gear selector controls an eight-speed PDK bolted to a 3.0L turbocharged flat six (yes, Virginia, it isn’t just the Turbo that has a turbo) making 379 horsepower and 331 lb-ft of torque. It’s rear-drive, of course, since it is absent of a ‘4’ appended to its name. Porsche is currently saying “stay tuned” for news of a manual transmission.
Expect a 0-60mph run in about four seconds flat. Ace of Base customers will be leaving a couple of tenths on the shelf by not selecting the $2,720 Sport Chrono package. At least Porsche isn’t decontenting the base 911, as it is equipped with the brand’s active damping system and iron brakes the diameter of the entire wheel on my car in college. Those are four-pot pistons, compared to the six-point clampers of the Carrera S. A staggered tire setup is standard, sized 235/40ZR19 up front and 295/35ZR20 at the rear.
While this base Carrera has jumped $6,400 in price, largely thanks to its newfound level of standard kit, it remains $15,800 cheaper than the S. Ace of Base posts like this are flights of fancy, of course, but sometimes it is nice to see how the other half lives. Besides, if a person did manage to find themselves a no-options 911, they’d be holding the keys to a very rare car indeed.
[Image: Porsche]
Not every base model has aced it. The ones which have? They help make the automotive landscape a lot better. Any others you can think of, B&B? Let us know in the comments and feel free to eviscerate our selections.
The model above is shown with American options and priced in American Dollars. Your dealer may sell for less.
It appears the days of manual windows and steelie hooped base models is well and truly gone!
The version with manual windows will start at $120k.
hahahah! “Ve vill take doz off for you for $20k”
And to add the a/c and stereo back will be an extra $10K But you’ll keep the cloth straps as door pulls!
$4,252 extra for manual windows…$8,468 extra for manual locks, $9,756 extra for AM/FM radio replacement for infotainment system.
LOL
They still make Porsches? I thought oil-cooled engines were extinct.
No, but they did change from 2-stroke cycle engines to 4-stroke cycle engines. LOL
…and yet, with five minutes on their website, millionaire dreams deep in one’s mind, and a few clicks on the mouse or taps on the screen, this “Ace of Base” stripped Porsche can easily crash through $130,000!
Look at that dash…so plain, so drab. No contrast seams, or bright red leather to liven things up! Is this how the down on their luck receive their Porsches?
And those seats – I bet there isn’t an electric motor in any of them. Your butt and jacket provides the heat. The horror! (Insert a comment on how a $25,000 Kia heats and motorizes the seats right here.)
Porsche is proof positive that if you really want the badge, you’ll pay to play. But after all of these years, the 911 really still is a driver’s car first. But c’mon Porsche, stop with all of the add-ons that are standard in almost everything else in much cheaper cars, please???
Nice car, but even being an automatic fan, at the $100k mark I’d likely go for a GT4 version of the 718 over a base 911.
Ha ha ha! No manual transmission? So at least the price is with an automatic, which is usually some $3500 extra. But without a manual, why would I want this car over a (no-manual) C8 corvette? Actually, without the manual, why would I want this car at all?
Recovering ex-Porsche owner here. I required my car had to be a manual, but after seeing and driving PDK models, I can really appreciate why those auto-manual PDKs are so popular. They are a thing of mechanical beauty and savagery. This isn’t a slushbox we’re talking about here.
Former 911 owner also. The PDK is arguably the best dual-clutch system there is. It is magical. The thing about a Porsche is that it is just spectacular all around. I don’t even care which one is faster. I’d take the 911 without hesitation.
Almost 6 figures for a base model, not really a deal to most of us.
Makes the C8 look like an even bigger bargain. I’ll save the $40 even if someone made me wear the jorts and white new balances to do it.
I propose that for a car to qualify for “Ace of Base”, the model must be in-stock at a reasonable quantity of dealers. Not a hypothetical mirage that exists more-or-less as nothing more than a large-print number in an online configurator.
This is what makes that new Corvette so interesting, $40K LESS
Can we stop talking about the Corvette being under $60,000 please. With dealer markup for the first year and options packages, I doubt many will sell at this cost.
The first year of Corvette production is almost sold out. And options packages on the Corvette aren’t nearly as costly as the 911 and are probably well worth it.
This piece is called “Ace of Base”, so I’m comparing the “base” Corvette with the “base” Porsche, whether either is realistically available is a different issue
We can’t control what dealers try to sell them for. As always, the early adopters will pay. In a few years, once demand stabilizes, you’ll have no problem getting one at that price or even less.
I’d have to think a base model would be a special-order-only affair – assuming Porsche actually lets you do that. (?)
I believe Porsche is pretty good about allowing special orders.
I would assume so as well – just wondering out loud. And I wonder how many Porsche customers would go this route.
Two hours of phone calls to HQ, at least a dozen emails with the subject line: “Sind Sie im Ernst?” and a sales manager that probably had to pick himself off of the floor, laughing, just to tell the potential buyer that, no, buying a base 911 isn’t in the cards. But would you like to buy one of the diecast models from our showroom gift store?
LOL…actually, I collect diecast cars, and Porsche models are always overpriced.
Porsche VERY happily does special orders. Porsche does European Delivery too – though unlike BMW you don’t get a discount for doing it. At the small dealer in Maine 50%+ are ordered, at the big dealer in FL a bit lower since they stock far more cars. That huge option list is really not for the dealers. Most of the cars on the lot are fairly basic – though non-power seats are hard to find.
I came *this* close to ordering a pretty darned close to base Cayman for Euro Delivery this year ($3-4K in options), but just couldn’t quite talk myself into spending $70K for one car, and it would have meant giving up my rather loved GTI. I erred on the side of fiscal responsibility and bought a Fiata instead. 50th birthday present to myself.
You can buy one of these as long as you add enough leather dash vents, contrasting seatbelts, and full-color Porsche logos to bring the price up to the base Carrera S level.
Every time I see a new(er) 911 I wonder “Is that a $100k car, or a $250k car” because I can’t tell you the difference between any of them…..
This new 911 makes a compelling case… for a Cayman.
I want to know just what the “deviated leather seat” option involves.
Does it hurt much, or only in a good way?
They just add stirrups to the regular leather interior
The proliferation of 911 submodels has left me wondering what they want this car to be: luxury cruiser? sports car? AWD all weather car? track car? Ultimately it makes me feel like the base model is kind of soulless – but maybe upselling customers after attracting them in with a cheap 100K model is the point.
Why can’t it be any or all of those things? It’s a heck of a platform. You can option it mild to wild. At a price, of course, those famously fat margins don’t make themselves.
You won’t find a bigger brand snob than yours truly, but I think I’d rather have the new Corvette.
I’ve always wanted a 911 and while I doubt I’ll ever be able to afford a new one, it’s fun to dream. Maybe in a few years I’ll sell the 89 Mustang GT convertible I’ve got and get a 911 ‘vert.
I went into specifying my P-car with the mindset that I can choose a poor man spec. I could avoid all the options that I would love to have but don’t need. I’m tired of packages on my other cars bundling things I don’t want with the one item that I do.
Except for a rear seat, the GT4 > 911 I should know, I own the ’16 GT4
They’re expensive as hell, but the damn things don’t actually depreciate all that much. 10-year-old 911s go for somewhere around 50 to 60k, so you’re looking at 400 bucks a month depre! At 5 years old it looks like they’re selling for 75, so you’re still not a whole lot more than 400 to 500/month. Of course, you’ve got to calculate the opportunity cost of having 100 grand socked away in a depreciating car rather than somewhere else, but compared to spending 100k on, well, pretty much any other $100k car, it’s a lot cheaper over the long term.