When did the Porsche 911 GT3 RS become the new Lamborghini? Seemingly overnight, Stuttgart’s extraordinarily hardcore rear-engined sports car went from being a road-legal ride for a lunatic subset of chronic adrenaline junkies to the sort of four-wheeled celebrity that normally requires wedge-shaped styling and Italian theatrics. It’s a wild piece of kit, the quickest production current-shape 911 around any circuit, yet it’s not the quickest-accelerating sports car Porsche currently sells. That would be the utterly ballistic 911 Turbo S.
In the context of the finned, winged GT3 RS, the Turbo S is refreshingly subtle. Beyond an air intake in each flank, there isn’t much to tip passers-by off that it isn’t a normal 911. Spec’d in a neutral tone like Slate Grey Neo, it slides almost completely under the radar. In a way, that’s sort of a licence defence mechanism because this is the most powerful production 911 ever made. It’s also the first 911 Turbo since the dawn of the lineage more than half a century ago to feature hybridization. Big shoes to fill here.
[Full disclosure: Porsche Canada let me borrow this 911 Turbo S for a week so long as I kept the shiny side up, returned it clean with a full tank of premium fuel, and reviewed it.]
Hybrid Theory
The 1970s was a dark time for the automobile. New crashworthiness and emissions standards did make cars safer and cleaner than ever, but often at the expense of performance. The muscle car era died, and many American-market cars grew bumpers like orthodontic headgear. Yet among the absolute chaos, one built-backwards German sled ruled supreme. For 1976, Porsche strapped an air compressor onto its iconic rear-engined sports car to create an icon of conspicuous consumption—the 930 Turbo. The result was zero to 60 mph in fewer than five seconds at a time when most family cars required more than double that. Granted, a four-speed manual gearbox with extra-long ratios helped achieve that time, but no matter. The original 930 Turbo was diabolically quick for its era, provided it was really switched on.
The 1970s were still early days for turbocharging, with old-school single-scroll units and limited knock-mitigation solutions serving up huge potency but also huge lag. The original 930 Turbo featured a compression ratio of just 6.5:1 to prevent meltdown, and that contributed to uneven power delivery. Think curious inertness at low RPMs followed by feeling like you got rear-ended by a 747 once boost kicked in. Oh, how much has changed in the past 51 years.
See, Porsche’s latest 911 Turbo S features the lineage’s biggest change since the 2001 model switched to water-cooling. Its motor still has turbos, but its turbos now have motors. Like the current 911 GTS, the new Turbo S uses Porsche’s T-Hybrid system, which is not like the hybrids you’re thinking of. Sure, there’s a tiny 1.9 kWh battery pack and a flywheel motor on hand, but their goal is to work with two more electric motors to boost output rather than drive the car on silent power. Those other motors, of course, are in the turbochargers.
Is this arrangement mind-bogglingly complex or wonderfully simple? That depends on how you approach it. On the one hand, putting an electric motor between a turbine and a compressor wheel subjects it to a ton of heat. On the other hand, electric power can spin the turbo up to virtually eliminate lag and prevent airflow stall, and regenerative braking of the turbocharger shaft eliminates the need for a wastegate. With two of these electric turbochargers bolted to a 3.6-liter flat-six, the new Porsche 911 Turbo S is good for 701 horsepower and 590 lb.-ft. of torque. That’s a torque match to the previous car but with an extra 60 horsepower. Sheesh.
Flying Private
Should you find yourself behind the wheel of a 911 Turbo S and wish to depart a location posthaste, simply make sure both you and the tarmac you’re on are pointed dead straight, dial up Sport Plus mode, put your left foot on the brake, and mash the skinny pedal through the carpet to cue up launch control. Release the brake, and suddenly your atoms simply rematerialize someplace else. While Car And Driver’s reported two-second-flat zero-to-60 MPH time is but a pebble’s throw from the Taycan Turbo GT’s biblical 1.9-second time, the way the latest 911 Turbo S achieves such a sprint is entirely different. It’s a mother of violence, this one.
The dash starts with a 5,000 RPM clutch dump. The sort that would be grossly, monumentally abusive in a manual car. As the rear tires scrabble for traction, you get merely a few milliseconds to marvel at just how beautiful oil-bathed clutches are. Then the sticky rubber finally finds grip and the twin electrified turbos shove your frontal lobe through your cerebellum. In the beat it takes to realize your spleen’s no longer where it used to be, the Turbo S will already have completed a shift and be on its way to extralegal speeds. It’s amazing dealers aren’t selling it with aftermarket ADS-B. Forget Explorers in the median, if you’re a genuine lunatic in a Turbo S, you’re going to have to look out for airplanes.
Part of the reason the 911 Turbo S is such a test of self-control is due to just how assured it is. Even at low engine speeds in a higher gear, the electrified turbos simply spool up and do their thing. The dual-clutch transaxle is utterly obedient, the four-wheel-drive system offers immense traction, the carbon-ceramic brakes have monstrous bite, and all the modern handling gadgets are on deck to help the quickest production 911 ever simply erase sweepers. Adaptive dampers, electrohydraulic roll stabilization, four-wheel-steering, stability control seemingly calibrated by Sir Isaac Newton himself.
The resulting car is as far from its widowmaker 930 Turbo ancestor as humans are from the primordial ooze. It’s practically asset-backed traction and driveability, but also a willingness to play should the mood and mental fortitude call for it. If you’re feeling especially brave, feedback-rich steering and a beautifully composed chassis mean you can still trail-brake it in and leave the apex in neutral-steer without the stability control light flashing once. Proper sports car stuff.
It makes a good noise too, a touch more classic flat-six rasp than its predecessor. Or you can shut the exhaust valves, slacken off the dampers, and enjoy remarkable comfort. Despite the steamroller-width 325-section rear tires, road and wind noise remains appreciably hushed. The fancy adaptive dampers do an absolutely wonderful job of ironing out sharper road imperfections, and should you come face-to-face with a particularly nasty driveway entrance, the 400-volt hybrid system makes the nose lift work faster than on the pre-facelift model. And if you only want a boost of power instead of a full attitude adjustment, there’s a red button on the steering wheel that works like a scramble mode. Press it, and everything sharpens for 20 seconds. The gearbox downshifts, the turbos spool, the throttle response wakes up ready to fire the Turbo S down the road.
Downsides? Well, if your ego lives and dies by insufferable bragging, the new car’s top speed of 200 MPH is five MPH shy of the old car’s. Unless your daily commute involves a lightly travelled section of derestricted autobahn, you ought not to care. What difference does it make when terminal velocity’s already one football field every 1.2 seconds? Instead, the larger step backwards you might actually notice from behind the wheel is curb weight. The new Turbo S weighs around 193 pounds more than the old one and 513 pounds more than a Carrera T. You don’t feel it in a straight line, but the extra heft is noticeable in the corners like there’s an extra passenger aboard. The Turbo S isn’t quite as eager in the low-speed stuff as lighter 911s, understandable given its curb weight of 3,829 pounds.
In theory, the weight should be a larger concern than it is, but that’s tempered by the 911 Turbo S being outrageously competent. All the acceleration you could ever imagine, all the braking you could possibly need, and absolute bucketfuls of lateral grip make it a difficult car to push on a favorite backroad because it’s so overwhelmingly composed. Within legal confines, you aren’t even going to come close to the Turbo S’ actual limit, and that presents a bit of a conundrum. Is it simply too good? Not if you’re looking for a high-speed thrill ride capable of grand touring from trackday to trackday, but if you spend your weekends on the twistiest roads, something like the 911 Carrera T will be more exploitable more of the time.
Creature Comfort
Inside the 911 Turbo S, it’s understandably like the cabin of a 911 Carrera, only nicer. As standard, you get silky leather on the dashboard and door cards, some diagonal stitching, and all-day comfortable 18-way power-adjustable seats, pricey upgrades on less-expensive 911 models. A few square feet of cow and some fancy thrones do make a difference, but mostly because the fundamentals inside every 911 are well-judged. The driving position’s spot-on, the infotainment with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality works as promised and is simple to use, and you get a nice blend of physical controls.
Of course, Porsche’s options list runs as deep as your wallet can handle, so very few 911s leave the factory perfectly standard. The no-cost rear seats are a no-brainer as they’re a huge aid to practicality. The optional adaptive cruise control works rather nicely, ventilated seats ought to be standard but run an extra $900 in America or $960 in Canada, and I’m more fond of the leather-wrapped sun visors than I likely ought to be. However, the optional Porsche Design clock is more controversial. It replaces the regular stopwatch-style Sport Chrono clock with one that has hour and minute hands, and it just doesn’t seem as appropriate in a car that can reach 60 MPH in just a few tenths longer than it takes to say its name.
Speaking of options, this particular 911 Turbo S came equipped with the Burmester sound system, a must-spec upgrade on any 911 for music lovers. It’s so much cleaner than the Bose system, with far flatter sound reproduction, vastly tighter bass, a wider soundstage, the works. It’s worth every penny of its $4,210 ($4,530 in Canada) price tag.
The Ultimate Daily Driver?
On the subject of pricing, let’s address the biggest figure in the room: $272,650. That’s what a new 911 Turbo S costs before any options. In Canada, that number’s $292,600 before luxury tax, which means the 911 Turbo S is now operating in a new echelon, the sort occupied by entry-level Ferraris and Lamborghinis just a few short years ago. The thing is, those Italian sports cars have since grown an order of magnitude more expensive. The Ferrari 296 GTB starts at $333,950 before options, and the Lamborghini Temerario starts at $387,649 before options. On pricing alone, the only real rivals for the new 911 Turbo S are the McLaren Artura and the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X.
Sure, the McLaren has billionaire doors, but it also has a tiny servicing network and objectively can’t quite keep up with the Turbo S. The Corvette ZR1X is a different beast altogether. In the right conditions, it’s even quicker than the Porsche in a straight line and an absolute weapon around a racetrack. However, it does compromise on one thing: daily usability. The Porsche has a frunk and a no-cost option of rear seats, whereas the ZR1X has neither. The Porsche’s also much smaller and easier to park, visibility’s better, and a true mechanical all-wheel-drive system is a better choice should you wish to go skiing.
The new 911 Turbo S is more than the quickest 911 yet. It’s also the ultimate performance daily driver. One car to do it all for the well-heeled driver with a Snell-rated shower cap. It’s not nearly as singular as a GT3 RS, and that’s the point. No matter sun, rain, snow, or sleet, this thing’s able to do the supermarket run and the hot lap without fuss, complaint, or discomfort. For perfectionists, that’s just the ticket. The Turbo S might not be everyone’s favorite 911, but it’s difficult not to get on with. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? Not if you have the right sort of self-control.
Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal
Hot take: Because the 911 has gotten so large, this feels more like the natural evolution from the base model than any GT3. The 911 has definitely become more of a GT car and the Turbo S makes it more of that philosophy rather than sports car track scalpel
Hot take here – I owned a 997 Turbo S for about two years. It was an amazing piece of machinery, but it was so fast, and so competent that it actually wasn’t that fun to drive outside of the rare times I was able to even get close to the performance edge. I sold it and bought a 718 Boxster MT. Much more fun. YMMV.
When Ferrari and McLaren would mostly not participate in review group tests.
They did it for so long, in so many conditions where they felt they might not win, it left Porsche to just win comparison after comparison after comparison.
Lamborghini was rarely considered for those media comparisons, so they usually weren’t in there. What was left had to fend against the GT3 RS. It’s why you’d see things like a BMW M4 up against a GT3 RS in a test, because the Ferrari or McLaren they wanted was never going to be there.
Top speed “only” being 200. If a passenger car goes over say, 150 mph, which is far more than any of us need, does anyone actually care what the “top” speed is? Who ever uses that speed? Where and for what? Even on a track, those speeds aren’t happening unless that track was built for top speed runs. If you are driving like that on public roads, what the hell is wrong with you?
> eliminate the need for a wastegate
I’m sorry you’ll have to repeat that part, it sounded like you wrote “eliminated need for wastegate” because gofast car absolutely needs stututu or loud BOV
Wastegates don’t really make any appreciable sound. The stututu is flutter caused by the turbo taking too long to slow down, and the pshhhhh is the blow of valve/diverter.
I almost exclusively hear blow-off valves on Fiesta ST’s these days, most other cars use a diverter valve or just the wastegate on its own.
Yeah diverters are unfortunately better at everything and also boring
Same with injection vs carbs, Webers can make any engine sound glorious but fuel injection with a single throttle body is better under 99% of conditions.
I think if I was trying to build a collection of Ultimate Driving Experiences, I’d for sure need something with a pair (or trio) of Webers and something with an old-school turbo and low compression.
Like a 105 Duetto and a 2002 Turbo, or more realistically, a 124 Spider and an Omni GLH.
My next car, albeit 2nd hand for sure due to cost, I just hope my 2024 GT3 is still worth a lot in 2 years time.
Can I get a manual?
Dang! That nose is fugly! Positively Soviet with those vertical slats and graceless curves. I think it was PJ O’Rourke who called Porsche designers the laziest in the industry, since they just copied last years test that the football team hid in the dorms. This is beyond lazy. Positively Basset Hound levels of snooze.
Ontario – yours to discover – still?
Stereo -wider soundstage = Imagery?
I’m loving it until I got to the price. That used to be “a nice house” money.
Note my wife and I both drive their products (a Macan S and a 718 GTS 4.0). And there’s almost nothing I could afford from them now.
I would be impressed if Porsche released an under $60k small sports car with 350hp.
My wife and I both want to see what they’d do with the golf platform.
Porsche engineered the Audi RS2, so they have form, I’d love to see what they could do with a Golf.
Or better yet, a Polo 🙂
Porsche’s platform is 60% Golf (40% tennis) ????
I’d be too, as you’d be in the same ballpark as a Hybrid Highlander.
Which is able to sell as “cheaply” as it does, because they sell 300,000* a year, whereas Porsche sold fewer than 20,000 mid-engine cars a year.
Corvettes start at $73.5K stripped. A Z theoretically starts at $44.5K, because they’re stretching some stuff that’s two-plus decades old, but the average sale price of a Z is probably closer to $60K than not. Even V8 Mustangs are probably reliably creeping on $60K equipped, not the theoretical stripper almost no dealer orders.
Miata and Toyobarus are small, simple and 4-bangers for a reason: Cost.
Super cheap Porsche sports cars unfortunately work against the brand image, and would be like Mercedes chasing volume with the CLA and GLA and GLB. It’s not something the brand wants, nor its dealerships, and the dealerships are cranky enough with how the BEVs worked out. Especially when a “fun-first car” is something people consider less and less.
It’s like wanting a sub-$200K Bentley non-Bentayga. Ain’t happening, unless the brand decides to entirely abandon quality for pure enshittification.
* Total Highlanders, not just hybrids.
Scrolled down to the price, not surprised. Add this 911 to the list of cars that are great, but way too expensive. Worth the money? I’m sure, but at this point pretty much every Porsche is too much.
How are they going to keep building these when all the cars that kept the bottom line alive (Macan, Boxter, Cayman) are gone now?
The SUVs, crossovers and sedans are what keep Porsche’s bottom line atop comfortable upholstery.
A cheap Porsche like the Speedster or 914 would certainly be welcome though.
The Cayman and Boxster do small volumes and are likely not very profitable as they offer a unique drivetrain and platform. The Cayenne, Macan, and the 911 are the bottom line cars…and for sure Porsche is sweating the Macan ICE–>EV transition.
I think the title is a little misleading. For a car that’s likely over $300k with options, you don’t need self control, you need lots of money and a nagging hope that by buying this car, you will be considered cool.
Nobody knows what this thing is. I really don’t think people are buying them in hopes that it will make them cool, at least not in numbers that matter to Porsche. The most astute of normies may look at it and say “Hey, a Porsche. Cool color”. That’s about all you’re gonna get from someone who isn’t a Porsche nut. It looks like traffic and unless you’re a gearhead AND you notice the Turbo S badge, the insanely wide tires, or front bumper vents, you’d have no idea you’re looking at a 700hp rocket. I bet most valet’s wouldn’t even leave this one up front. They’d take it to the back with the rest of the Cayenne’s and Range Rovers.
If someone has cash to burn and desperately wants to peacock, they have options such as the C8, which looks unhinged.
Watch nerds buy watches to impress other watch nerds. So too for Porsches.
Nobody under 60 is buying a C8 to peacock.
As one who has had his car valet parked up front at all but the most exclusive places in LA (I could never compete with the Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, Ferraris and McLarens at the Beverly Hills Hotel or the Beverly Wilshire) it just takes a great non-greyscale color, a recent wash, and arriving with the roof down.
So at the valet stand, a debadged violet metallic w cream leather 911 Carrera Cabriolet with the roof down could well outrank a grey enamel w black 911 Turbo S coupe.
I had my car valet parked right in front of restaurants in LA when I lived there, but that was because it was so scary the valets didn’t want to drive it. I mean scary in the sense that it looked like something might fall off.
Back when I didn’t have the money to go anywhere with a valet, my Peugeot 504’s ignition key broke off in the cylinder. My “good enough” solution was to install a toggle switch under the dash for the ignition and a momentary push-to-start button in the center console. It would have been amusing to instruct them how to get the thing stopped and re-started. A missed opportunity.
This is a bit much. A 992 is four inches shorter than a C8 and an inch narrower. Both are shorter than a Civic. If that’s making a difference where you park, you need to spend some of that sports car money on a bigger garage.
I suspect that he means parking out in the world, not at home. The C8 is 5.2″ wider than a Civic and the Porsche is 3-4″ wider. Combine that with long doors, and I’m sure these can be annoying, especially in some of those parking garages out there.
Base-to-base, definitely, but the Turbo S is 4.9 inches narrower than a ZR1X. That sort of delta makes a significant difference in older parking garages, and the Turbo S’ vastly superior rearward visibility certainly helps too.
Fair. My perspective on this is biased too, rarely parking in downtown garages and driving larger vehicles most of the time.
It’s a shame they didn’t buck the trend and keep the five nested analog instruments in front of the driver instead of switching it to a screen. Now it’s just like a Nissan Sentra.
Also, I know that extreme multi-six-figure versions have been part of the 911 family for many years, but though I can see the appeal (especially in that nice blue-grey paint, which reminds me of Ford’s ‘Area 51’ used on early Mavericks and Bronco Sports, etc…) I honestly think I’d rather daily a cheaper/slower 911 variant. After all, I don’t routinely drive 200 MPH and some of that lower bodywork looks awful vulnerable too.
This is always my answer when people ask me what my cannonball run car would be. It’s comfortable and ludicrously fast. I think there’s an argument to be made that a 911 Turbo S is the ultimate GT, especially if you’re being German and going off of pure numbers.
That being said, my friend bought one and traded in on a Cayman GT4RS within a couple of months and likes the Cayman more. It just depends on what you want. I’ve always said that this car exists because nouveau rich corporate types bust into dealerships and go I WANT THE FASTEST PORSCHE YOU HAVE AND I WANT IT NOW!
If that’s your bag then go for it, and I’d certainly never kick one out of my driveway. But I’m not sure what the argument for one of these over a GT3 is. I guess if you “need” all wheel drive and want to daily your ultra extreme 911…but does anyone actually do that?
I feel like the average person who buys one of these has a Cayenne or something they daily and they take their top tier 911 out when they want to flex at cars and coffee. A Turbo S is cool and had a sleeper quality, but as a Parsh fanboy I can’t help but feel like this isn’t the 911 The Real Ones get.
This car is old money, GTx are new money. At least in my experience.
I’ve never once seen a Turbo S owner flexing at a cars and coffee. GT3s and GT4s are everywhere though.
Obviously not a blanket statement about all Turbo S owners, but whenever I see a car of this caliber it’s usually doing about 10 over in the middle lane, just cruising as Altima’s and K5’s swim through traffic banging it off the speed limiter.
100% every new-ish Porsche at cars and coffee is a GT-something
I take mine to cars and coffee, but it’s mostly GT3’s for sure.
I mean you’re a former MLB player you can do what you want
haha!
I think part of the whole allure of the Turbo S is what a lot of people have mentioned, it’s so understated. No huge wing, (usually) no loud colors, no gaudy stickers, it just blends in. It’s the perfect DD: comfy, not insanely loud, mind bogglingly fast, has decent room for small kids and groceries.
People look at it and go, “cool, nice Porsche”, but 95% of them have zero idea what a Turbo S really is, and that’s why I love my 991. Mine is Dark Metallic Blue, so it blends in even more than normal.
I daily my GT3. It’s my only car.
Um, except for one thing.
I’m just fascinated by the color. Is blue, gray, or maybe blue-gray? Whatever it is, I like it. I imagine it looks different depending on the weather or lighting.
To my eyes, it appears to be either Aetnablue or Nashyblue
https://media.porsche.com/paint-to-sample/en/911/aetnablue
https://media.porsche.com/paint-to-sample/en/911/nashyblue
This one’s Slate Grey Neo!
This makes three Slate Greys from Porsche – That’s ridiculous!
O tempora! O mores!
Especially with Zanzibar Red still not being on the PTS menu…