Porsche 911 Turbo driven

20 October 2009

  • Great power and performance
  • Looks too much like any other 911
  • Costs from £101,823

Porsche 911 Turbo

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Trust us, this is the new Porsche 911 Turbo. Okay, so except for a row of LED daytime running lights where the foglights used to be and some fatter exhaust pipes it looks pretty much identical to the outgoing model. Don’t be fooled, though, because with so many changes under the skin the two cars are like night and day.

For a start, the 3.8-litre engine is all new: it’s lighter, has direct fuel injection for better efficiency and reworked turbochargers for more power.

Big numbers, big performance
Talking of which, power is up to 493bhp, while 0-62mph is down to 3.7 seconds and top speed is now 194mph. It’s plenty fast enough, then.

Just for the record – and if you can afford the £100k pricetag then you probably won’t be too bothered – fuel consumption has increased to 24.4mpg and CO2 emissions have fallen.

Perhaps the biggest change, however, is how the engine delivers its power. With next to no turbo lag, it sings to the redline so rapidly and with so little vibration that it’s all too easy to bash into the 7000rpm rev limiter before you have the chance to grab the next gear.

Thankfully, if you specify the £2552 PDK semi-automatic gearbox, you can pay another £271 for steering wheel-mounted paddles instead of the counter-intuitive shift buttons.

Handling has been ratcheted up another notch, too. There’s immense grip from the four-wheel-drive system, and with so much information flooding through the steering and the electronically controlled suspension, you’d have to be driving like you’re being chased by the mob to come unstuck.

The ride is also remarkably civilised – so much so, it beggars belief that a car that handles this well can also be so comfortable.

Now who was it that said beauty is only skin deep?

Our verdict
Fast and furious yet extremely civilised supercar