Porsche pushes the limit with the new 911 Turbo

MANILA, Philippines - How much quicker does man need to get from a standstill to 100 kilometers an hour? Seriously? What about to 200? Does the air taste any different if you get there one second ahead of the next super car? If so, why not just leave the house a little earlier? And kissing 312km/h? C’mon. Unless you have a boarding pass and a stomach for glorified hospital food, is there any logical reason to have a speedometer that reads past 220?

If you find yourself nodding in quiet agreement, I’m afraid you may have us confused with the lifestyle section. If not, then set some tires alight and join me in welcoming the new 911 Turbo – one of Porsche’s quickest production cars. Ever.

Sure the Carrera GT is faster, but not necessarily quicker. The same goes with the GT2. And while the Porsche purists may now be polishing their pitchforks and Google-mapping the my home, even they would have to admit, at worst, the new 500hp 911 Turbo has managed to blur the lines between sports car and super car.

0-100 in 3.4 seconds. 0-200 in 11.3 seconds. 20.8 kilometers, 73 corners, 290 meter elevation gain, 7:39 seconds. The defense rests, your honor.

But impressive as those figures are, it only tells a fraction of the story. Just as you wouldn’t size up Manny Pacquiao on his stats alone, the Turbo is much more than just a bunch of numbers on a spec sheet – it is how it threads those numbers together that will really take your breath away.

Take the new electronically controlled engine mounts that automatically vary their stiffness and damping effect depending on the driving conditions by using a magnetisable damper fluid and an electrically induced magnetic field magnetizing the particles in the fluid that changes its viscosity, making the engine mounts either harder or softer. Or the sensational new Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) system that uses the brakes to discreetly slow down the inner rear wheel in a bend and improve the steering behavior and precision of the car.

Yes, I admit that digesting all that tech talk for the first time can cause minor nose bleeds, but loosely translated from geek speak, it simply means that Porsche has developed new body control technology to compensate for the rather generous helpings of extra power and weight loss. And my God, does it make a difference.

Despite having the smallest displacement of all its competitors, and the lowest rated power output, the Turbo still manages to destroy the competition once it steps into the ring. It all begins with a launch control system that you could use as often as your parking brake. None of this “use-it-and-it-will-void-your-warranty-crap”. Then there’s the substantial drop in weight – 25kg to be exact. Throw in the most incredible double clutch gearbox (PDK) and a brilliantly balanced boxer engine with direct fuel injection into the equation and you have a weapon of mass destruction.

The fact that it beats the Bugatti Veyron, the Superleggera, the SLR Mclaren, Ford GT, and the Pagani Zonda S around the ‘ring, (plus more super cars than there are inhabitable islands on this archipelago), and still somehow manage to cost a fraction of their sticker price is reason enough to run it as this week’s lead story; the fact that it can do all that and use as much fuel as a Toyota Corolla Altis, well… that deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Employing an entirely new 3.8-liter engine with direct fuel injection that made its debut on the Carrera S, this new power plant, with its reworked Variable Turbine Geometry that employs adjustable blades that guide the flow of exhaust gas variably and in exactly the process required to the turbine wheels, combines the advantages of a small exhaust gas turbocharger for fast response and a large turbocharger for devastating power.

This new technology basically allows even greater control over the delivery of fuel and a more seamless build up of power that gives the new Turbo its extremely linear acceleration and explosive torque that is now spread neatly across a wider and more useable range of the rev band.

So let’s just recap here. The new Turbo develops 20 more horses, delivers 30 Nm more torque, accelerates up to 8 per cent faster and now uses 16 per cent less fuel. Not bad for a mid model upgrade. But honestly, all those figures are just one dimensional until you can grab one by the scruff of the neck and throw it around a few mountain roads, or better yet, a race track.

And exactly 25 years after motorsport and turbo charger technology history was written, when Formula 1 world champion, Niki Lauda, drove his Porsche powered McLaren TAG turbo to Porsche’s first ever championship title in Estoril Racetrack, I was back on the exact same stomping ground just outside of Lisbon, Portugal, to see if I could turn this press release into life.

I look for the fire-red start/stop button on the dash or around the gearbox. I forget for a moment that Porsche has refused to embrace the trend and instead insist on sticking with tradition and making use of the twist key on the wrong side of the steering column. I write it off as character, and am just thankful that Porsche engineers have finally succumbed to the pressure from journalists and offered up the more functional left and right paddles instead of that clumsy push-button type arrangement that came standard with the Tiptronic system.

Everything else is familiar and where it should be. The seats are firm, yet comfortable, and offer almost infinite adjustments for that perfect driving position. Its pretty warm with the top down, but the vents on he perforated leather keep my back (and backside) cool, by sucking hot air out – rather than the traditional way of blowing air through.

I keep one foot on the brake and load up around 5,000 RPM onto the bright red needle on the center dial. As I lift my left foot off the brakes, all hell and its’ tenants break loose. Devastating may be an over used word, but it only dilutes the description of what just happened back there.

All four wheels dig in to the racetrack and launch the Turbo into wild and relentless acceleration. It is only after around 60 km/h or so do my eyes adjust and I begin to enjoy the ride. The first second or so feels like I have been shot out of a canon, and it takes a second or so more to get my bearings. One second after that and I’ve already breached a 100 km/h. The journey to two hundred, however, is more memorable.

The Turbo just keeps building up steam. Just when you think you’ve got the better of it, there always seems to be either another gear or an extra inch of travel on the accelerator. Throw it into corner and the load transfer is so fluid that it gives you predictable and sustainable oversteer that is easily modulated by your right foot. I hate to be repetitive, but there is just so much power that it covers a multitude of sins, allowing you to correct your line with dabs of throttle. And with its linear power curve, you don’t get any nasty boost mid corner – just smooth, brutal and relentless acceleration.

This may not be the quickest car I have driven, but I could easily say that it is the most satisfying. The California offers up a more religious experience, but the Porsche Turbo is definitely still the driver’s car to beat. Steering is surgical, brakes are extremely powerful, and the gearbox now feels like a machine gun. It quite simply doesn’t get much better than this.

I must admit, I expected the gear shifts to feel like pulling a trigger – after all, it doesn’t get any faster than instant. But what blew me away was the mapping in automatic mode. While the first 5 laps saw me fiddling with the new left and right, rear mounted steering-wheel paddles, I decided to try out the fully automatic “S” mode with the “sports plus” button lit up.

I let the computer decide my shift points as I focused on getting the tricky line around the former F1 track sorted out. Upshifts were understandably perfect, but it was the downshifts that kept me mesmerized; I have never driven anything so in tune to the driver and the conditions, intuitively selecting the lower gears precisely when needed and holding it brilliantly around long flowing corners with gradual accelerations where other gearboxes would have simply been stumped. I could honestly say that you would struggle to do a better job yourself. It was that good.

Visually, the new 911 Turbo (dubbed as the 997.5) shares all the same visual clues with the 997. Keen spotters will have to look out for the all-new LED taillights and LED daytime running lights housed where the fog lamps used to be. Other than that, its pretty much business as usual.

What it does offer in spades is an even more enhanced driving experience. Aside from the stupendous performance, you would be hard pressed to find anything with such a broad range of driving dynamics – from puttering around the choked up city streets to flattening out mountain roads, to getting a full workout on the the track, the new Porsche Turbo delivers it all effortlessly. It is arguably the most complete two door sports cars out there.