Porsche 911 Turbo (2006-) Review

On the road

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If the bare figures don't make you sit up and pay attention, which, on balance, they really should, then the way the Turbo goes about its business certainly will.

There are faster cars on sale against the stopwatch in the clinical surroundings of a proving ground. But out on the road, on cragged asphalt with narrow lanes and dawdling traffic, the Turbo is the supreme performance car. There is nothing with four wheels (with a sensible level of cabin space and creature comforts) that comes close.

Grip from the 19" Michelin Pilot Sport 2s is extraordinary on dry and wet surfaces and the car has one of the few worthwhile electronic damper facilities on sale. It offers two settings, one supple and one firm: both are excellent, although UK users will only want to use the more yielding set-up. The ride is firm, but underpinned by freakish wheel control at all times. The bottom line is, it's comfortable.

The Turbo is a car that makes you feel invincible. The steering rack is identical to the standard Carreras, but wider tyres and altered suspension geometry have added weight and, somehow, an element of accuracy. The Turbo is 22mm wider than before, but still small enough to feel manoeuvrable on tighter roads. It's all-wheel drive system is judged to perfection: rear biased under normal circumstances but electronically controlled to react instantly should the front axle need to help drag the car from a corner.

Headline figures don't do the 997 Turbo justice.

By any standards 192mph, 0-62mph in 3.9sec and 0-100mph in 8.3sec are devastating - and the tiptronic self-shifter carves a full 0.5sec off that zero to 100mph effort because the engine ECU is mapped to get just the right torque delivery after each gear change. Big brother isn't just watching you, he's quicker too.

But the fact is, Ferrari has just launched the 599 GTB Fiorano and, whichever way you look at it, the Fezza's numbers are of a different magnitude altogether.

But, just as its chassis is all about accessibility, the Turbo's performance is far more effective than even those ballistic figures would suggest. This is a car that produces 457lb-ft of torque at 1,950-5,000rpm. This has even greater effect than the impressive 473bhp at 6,000rpm. Its turbochargers are the first to use variable vane technology in a petrol engine, altering their pitch according to turbine speed - the result is freakish levels of mid-range. Brush the gas and the Turbo doesn't accelerate in the conventional fashion, it picks itself up and deposits its mass 200 yards further down the road. This isn't conventional poke, it's genuine thrust.

It does lack something in character next to rivals from Aston and Ferrari though. Induction noise is always muted, and whatever exhaust noise filters back into the cabin is drowned by the twin turbochargers.