Porsche 911 Turbo: The Man Who Understands

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Porsche 911 Turbo: The Man Who Understands
Porsche 911 Turbo: The Man Who Understands

Video: Porsche 911 Turbo: The Man Who Understands

Video: Porsche 911 Turbo: The Man Who Understands
Video: Jeremy Learns To Love The Porsche 911 | Top Gear 2024, March
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It is fast, dangerously fast and still the most perfect symbiosis of racing car and road coupé. Trips in the Porsche 911 Turbo are wonderfully unspectacular and can be addicting - we promise.

By Stefan Grundhoff and Stefan Zaumseil

Entire generations of sports cars have broken their teeth on the Porsche 911 - especially on the turbo. Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Corvette or Lamborghini - the number of opponents is almost unmanageable - the list of defeats for the competition is hardly shorter. If a sports car, it should be a 911. Anyone who raves about a true dream car often means a 911 Turbo. In itself, it's a completely normal Porsche and by the way, completely normal madness.

Merciless outbursts of strength

Around the bottom, the tightly built boxer grumbles willingly to himself, as if he was up to no harm. But even children can hear this subtle undertone as they drive past the school bus stop, which is not good for fear. One press of the right pedal and the thunderstorm is there. A burst of strength, merciless, frightening and yet so coherent as no other sports car company outside of Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen can manage. The 1.6-ton turbo always can, always wants and celebrates every outbreak of emotions with a grandiose tube staccato.

It's not the roaring sound of a Ferrari or the sonorous bubbling of a Corvette. The 4.45 meter long and still delightful to look at 911 Turbo is one thing in particular - typically Porsche. That hasn't changed since 1974. At that time, the G-series of the 911 came onto the market for the first time with performance-enhancing forced ventilation. 260 hp, then 300, in between just under 400, 420 and finally 480 hp. That is the current house number and the 500 mark has long since fallen internally.

Fascination for decades

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But the current production model already has more power than the Porsche 959, long considered untouchable, which shocked the competition in the mid-80s with variable all-wheel drive, high-tech chassis and 450 turbo hp. The previous generation 996 had already lost its turbo horror of past years. Charging, yes, but an excellent chassis and all-wheel drive took away much of the former sharpness of the Zuffenhausen-based driver, which gave experienced pilots warm and humid axle cavities and sweat on their foreheads.

The Über-911 has retained its fascination for small and particularly large over the decades. You don't have to thunder at night at 325 km / h on the swept-out A94 in the east of Munich. Porsche specifies a top speed of 310 km / h for its flagship product - a profound understatement and a risk for your driver's license and points account.

Timelessly beautiful

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With a 911 Turbo you turn the head of the competition on the racetrack, only to shop unspectacularly on Maximilianstrasse a little later. The almost infinite spectrum has scared the competition for over 30 years and despite the most diverse attacks, the man from Zuffenhausen is more firmly seated than ever on the sports car throne.

It has not lost its incomparable charm so far. The forms are unabashedly timeless and beautiful; the technology is beyond any doubt and is praised by the toughest competition over the clover. The current Turbo is an absolute high-tech projectile. Others have electronic dampers, retractable spoilers and a stopwatch, but the turbo unit with six cylinders is a masterpiece of automotive engineering.

Under four seconds to 100 km / h

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Variable shovels are already working in many turbodiesels, but in the gasoline fraction, most engineers found the technology too fragile in view of the well-known performance outbursts. The 3.6 liter boxer engine of the 911 has made use of the variable turbo vanes and takes away the pilot's last senses.

The 353 kW / 480 PS and powerful 620 Nm torque impressively demonstrate their sensible use. Anyone who cannot get their necks from 0 to 100 km / h in 3.7 to 3.9 seconds should check the Sport Chrono Package, which is much too long, in the surcharge list. There is another 60 Nm booster function as a candy, which ensures taut facial features.

15 liters are always in there

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It is no secret that a Porsche brakes as impressively as it accelerates. The more than 8,000 euro expensive ceramic brake does not have to be. A delight in tough racing conditions, the standard steel model can be operated much more sensitively.

At the latest at the next petrol pump you should bring it to use. 12.8 liters of SuperPlus are a nice factory specification. If kept in a species-appropriate manner, you should calculate at least 15 liters per 100 kilometers.

In its own league for over 30 years

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Anyone who has ever held a car quartet in their hands knows the different generations of the 911 and their impressive strengths. Weaknesses and flaws are few and far between. The driving performance is excellent, the workmanship is impeccable and the stable value has been a guarantee for good sales figures for decades. So you can count yourself lucky if you can turn the quartet dream of yore into reality and bring a Porsche 911 Turbo into your own garage.

The base price of over 140,000 euros is beyond good and evil; but seriously does not interest anyone. After the test drive, the seller has no problems explaining that the standard equipment of the turbo leaves too many wishes unfulfilled. Another proof that the 911 Turbo is in a league of its own - for over 30 years.

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