Review of the new Porsche 911 Turbo S

There are lots of options open to the customer who wants a fast 911. Porsche has been nice enough not to make any slow ones, which is handy, but what it does have is a wide range of 911s offering different temperatures of searing pace. Between the sizzling standard Carerra and the roasting race-bred GT3 RS, there are models to suit most tastes, budgets and levels of insanity. If you want the hottest 911, however, the Turbo S has its own personalised parking bay on the surface of the sun.

Porsche has sold 911 Turbo S models in the UK before but they were short-lived run-out derivatives designed to prolong interest in the 993 and 996 generation cars before their replacements arrived. Today's 997 car gets its Turbo S version while there's still plenty of life left in it.

Whether you see this as the ultimate 911 will depend on your point of view. The GT3 and GT3 RS might offer the purer driving experiences with their normally-aspirated engines and the turbocharged GT2 may well have the edge in terms of outright lunacy but these track-focused products will be demanding companions to live with on a daily basis. The 911 Turbo remains the high performance benchmark for buyers confident they can do without a fire extinguisher and a roll cage and don't want their spine compacted by race-tuned suspension. The Turbo S is a progression from the iconic Turbo and, for the time being, the most powerful turbocharged Porsche 911 ever.

Any car topping the Porsche 911 range is going to be devastatingly fast and the Turbo S is certainly that. The same twin-turbocharged, six-cylinder 'boxer' engine found in the Turbo is employed but for the Turbo S, it develops an extra 30bhp. That gives a grand total of 530bhp ably assisted by 700Nm of torque. The result is a 0-62mph sprint that's 0.3s faster than the standard Turbo at 3.3s and a 196mph top speed.

"Porsche has thrown the options list at its 911 Turbo flagship, then chucked in an extra 30bhp for luck"

Otherwise, the mechanicals are much as you'll find in the Turbo with some of the more desirable extras from that car's options list thrown in as standard. All that power is transferred to the road surface by an all-wheel-drive transmission system governed by PTM Porsche Traction Management technology. PSM Porsche Stability Management is also on hand to step in and save the day should things get a little too hairy. Fans of automotive acronyms can also get their teeth into PTV Porsche Torque Vectoring which helps to sharpen the car's response to steering inputs and includes a limited slip differential between the rear wheels. Dynamic Engine Mounts work to stiffen the chassis when cornering and the Sport Chrono Package Turbo incorporates a launch control function that's activated via buttons on the steering wheel.

Porsche is rightly proud of the evolutionary styling development of the 911 but the policy doesn't generate the buzz around each model that some more extrovertly-styled rivals enjoy. With Porsche, the focus is on the technology and the driving experience and that's the way the company likes it but it sometimes seems as though our ancestors progressed from hitting woolly mammoths with clubs to inventing the microwave oven quicker than 911s change headlights. The classic lines of the car still hold water today and the Turbo S model emphasises its potency with an all-round more aggressive look than the standard cars - just not too aggressive.

The 911 interior is as classy as its exterior lines would suggest. Expensively slush-moulded fascia materials made a welcome change to the hard plastics seen in the 996. Two-tone leather sports seats come as standard with the Turbo S featuring adaptive technology that holds you in place when cornering hard. The PCM Porsche Communication Management system dominates the facia with its 6.5" colour screen display. It bundles satellite navigation, together with the various settings menus together with the audio system and even an optional TV tuner.

The Turbo S is available exclusively with the PDK gearbox, a conventional seven speed manual gearbox with a hydraulic control mechanism which is divided into two separate units. There's one clutch looking after the even gears and one taking care of the odd ones. It means that the clutches can work in unison, producing super fast shifting. Each gearchange is around 60 per cent more rapid that that of a conventional automatic transmission.

Coupe and Cabriolet versions are available, each with an extremely generous equipment list and prices around £21,000 over the equivalent Turbo model. Turbo S buyers get Dynamic Cornering Lights, Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes, 19" RS Spyder alloy wheels, cruise control and a CD/DVD changer on top of the standard features on the Turbo model. The Porsche Vehicle Tracking System is also included in the price, as is driver training at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone.

Thanks in part to its efficient direct injection engine technology, the Turbo S isn't the ecological disaster you might expect. Its 24.8mpg combined economy is identical to that of the normal Turbo and better than the vast majority of cars with this kind of performance. Of course, if you use that performance on a regular basis, the fuel consumption figures will make far grimmer reading.

Porsche has thrown the options list at its 911 Turbo flagship, then chucked in an extra 30bhp for luck. The resulting 911 Turbo S sets a new benchmark for power and performance within the 911 dynasty. The package comes at quite a premium but the Turbo S is loaded with advanced technology and has the ability to out-pace supercars with far larger pricetags.

TOP 5 911 TURBO DEALS

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Porsche 911 Turbo S 2dr PDK 911 [997] turbo coupe
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