The eighth generation 2020 Porsche 911 features one clever addition which is a true technical innovation for a brand not always well associated with wet or otherwise treacherous driving conditions. Porsche Wet Mode was unveiled in this year’s 911 which allows it to be the most drivable version of the storied ride yet.
It’s a situation that’s pretty hard to avoid in most of the climates where you are likely to find a Porsche: rainy days when you least expect them. Unfortunately, those weather people are sometimes flat wrong and a simple relaxing day of Sunday driving quickly turns into a frantic race home.
Porsche Wet Mode has You Covered When Unexpected Rain Hits
Porsche Wet Mode on the new 2020 911 has you covered here.Us ing the proprietary Porsche Stability Management (PSM) and Porsche Traction Management (PTM) systems, this features provides extra security in the most challenging of driving conditions.
“Wet Mode was developed to provide the driver with consistent support in wet conditions. It does not restrict the maximum power of the engine or limit the top speed, and should therefore also not be used as insurance for driving too fast in very wet conditions. Instead, it should be seen as an assistance system in the truest sense,” says August Achleitner, Head of Development for Porsche 911.
Getting Swept Away by the Potential
Porsche describes the conditions and landscapes that have inspired Wet Mode.
Around 450 kilometres south-west of Paris or more appropriately, only 250 km from Le Mans, lies one of the strangest roads in the world: the Passage du Gois. It connects the island of Noirmoutier with the French mainland over a total length of almost 5 km in the Bay of Biscay. At low tide it is a road like any other — at high tide it disappears.
“Some challenge the passage over and over again. You can see where this can end here …”, says oystercatcher Gérard Moreau, pointing to pictures of stranded and half sunken cars. “I often came to this place with my parents when I was a small child, it fascinates me to this day”.
“Once a friend was surprised by the tide. Only one kilometre from the island he had to leave his car at the end. Fortunately, he was a good swimmer and managed to get back to land on his own. His car sank completely into the sea”.
People like Gérard Moreau have lived with the Passage du Gois for decades. You have to bow to the tides here. The incipient tide is both hard to see and to hear. At least for humans. The new 911 with Porsche Wet Mode is capable of doing just that.
Better Driving Conditions Thanks to Acoustic Sensors
Instead of being a reactive system which responds to worsening conditions, the Porsche Wet Mode innovation is proactive. It uses acoustic sensors in the 911’s wheel wells to monitor the conditions on the road. These tiny microphones are able to very precisely tell if the road is sopping wet or just coated with a light mist. The system is able to respond depending on what it analyzes.
If the system notices wetness, it alerts to driver to manually engage the system. Once initialized the system adjusts the 911’s suspension to handle more dynamically given the danger poised by a wet surface. Adjustments to the Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV), PSM, and PTM ensure a more secure and responsive handling environment.
Source: Porsche Newsroom