Porsche 911 Carrera S: Hitching a ride with Times car reviewer
It was one of those freeway on-ramps where two lanes merge into one, and the big black Mercedes had the pole position, already at cruising speed.
Good time to see just what the new Porsche 911 Carrera S could do.
A few seconds later, the Mercedes was in the rear view. Thank you, Dr. Porsche.
And thank you, David Undercoffler, for letting me get behind the wheel.
Undercoffler is a producer for the latimes.com home page, but for nearly two years he has moonlighted as an auto reviewer for The Times’ Business section.
As the business editor, I wanted to see how Undercoffler went about putting new cars through their paces. And heck, the 2012 Porsche Carrera S seemed as good a car as any to see how he did business.
Undercoffler agreed to let me come along, so on a lunch hour this week we took the canary-yellow 911 out for a spin.
“Generally my goal is to drive the car as a potential buyer would drive that car,” he said as we got on the freeway heading out of downtown L.A. “So what I would do with this car would not be the same as what I would do with a minivan when I test one of those or with a sedan.”
Since we were in a $126,000 Porsche, I presumed Undercoffler would be strapping on a Breitling, dressing head to toe in Zegna and slow-cruising Rodeo Drive.
But no, what he meant was that he would take the coupe on some twisty mountain roads. I presume this means he takes the new Jeep to Newport Beach.
Anyway, it was fun to spend part of the day in Undercoffler’s office. Look for his review of the 2012 Porsche 911 in Business next month.
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