Frankfurt 2011: Porsche 911 Carrera S

Whilst Porsche's seventh generation 911 Carrera was previewed last month, it finally made its worldwide debut at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show on Monday to a wash of the cream of the crop of the automotive journalist world.

With one of the busiest stands and the most rammed press conference of the lot, Porsche really loaded their floor space with the old and new but the newly shaped Carrera was the pick of them all. Based in some ways on the Panamera (especially on the inside with improved space for rear passengers), the new "991" Carrera has an updated exterior look with polished headlights and a longer, more gradiented roofline. The wheelbase has been extended by 100mm from the 997 and this is immediately evident when looking at this sleek vehicle.

Under the hood and the base model Carrera packs 350 horsepower from a 3.4-litre engine unit which turns over 380Nm of torque allowing for rapid acceleration from 0-62mph of only 4.4 seconds. The sprint to 100kph can be reduced if you decide to opt for the Sport Chrono package with the stopwatch coming in at a brisk 4.2 seconds.

Better yet, the Carrera S that was on display has been tuned to output 400bhp and 440Nm of torque which is enough to propel it to 62mph in 4.1 seconds. Using launch control and you can achieve ridiculous sprint times of 3.9 seconds, and altogether that makes the 991 Porsche's fastest Carrera yet.

Elsewhere on the stand we were able to pick out a Porsche Boxster E which has already been tested by the likes of Autocar but whic is still just a prototype electric-only vehicle capable of releasing 121 horses from a 340-cell battery pack. And let's not forget this black on black Cayman S which shined under the Frankfurt spotlights.