Saturday 6th May 2017

Turbo uber alles: PH Blog

Resistance is futile in the face of the 911 Turbo

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Throw your outpourings of sympathy for my current situation into the comments thread below but as I write I'm on the way back from Wales after a pretty stellar couple of days in a fabulous combination of cars. Videos, reviews and more to follow from this. But out of a group comprising a super saloon three-way (M3, C63 S and Giulia Quadrifoglio) and two rivals for 'my' McLaren 570GT long-termer one car stood out. And not just for its colour.

Yes, my transformation from Turbo sceptic to Turbo lover is now pretty much complete, courtesy of the latest custodian for Porsche GB's famous 911 HUL registration. Straight up? I'm not sure bold, flat colours like Miami Blue suit Turbos. And there's quite a lot of tyre noise.

And that's about it on the negatives.

Musical chairs on the shoot meant everyone involved had time in each of the cars. And there were no duffers among them, not by any stretch. But the Turbo was the one that got everyone the most animated, despite being the supposed 'known quantity' in the group.

I've said it before but I think we owe the Nissan GT-R a huge debt of gratitude for Porsche taking a look at the Turbo and reconsidering its approach. This has always been a stupidly fast car. It's now genuinely rewarding and exciting one too.

Launch Control is a bit of a gimmick but is so nonchalantly easy to select and deploy you can't help doing it, especially if your passenger hasn't been paying attention. No longer does the Turbo just sway one speed for another - it throws in a little drama to make exciting too. And the way a launched Turbo plays its power around the tyres, squirms around just enough to give a sense of what's going on and yet feels utterly nailed down and secure is just addictive.

And, unlike a GT3, on the track it rewards everyone. Nervous and new to circuit driving? The Turbo will look after you with its grip, traction and face-saving driver aids yet at the same time thrill you and inspire you to dig deeper into your bravery and skills. A GT3 demands a base level of ability before letting you in and a good deal more before really revealing its skillset. The Turbo is accommodating from the off. But, dear god, when you really start pushing it the thing just gets better and better and better.

The noise is amazing too. Flat chat PDK upshifts shriek through with a thunderclap of boost, the PCCBs haul you down from mental speeds even when you think you've been way too bold and if you do go in too hot the four-wheel steering rotates you into the corner just when you expected the front tyres to scrub. Get on the throttle at that point and the transition to four-wheel drift and lunatic corner exit speed is just boggling. Hold your nerve, keep your foot in and the Turbo will do things you never thought possible. In one fantastic moment on Anglesey the nadge of corrective lock as I drifted out of the blind 90-degree left turned out to be exactly what I needed for the hairpin right that followed. I just held the wheel, stayed on the throttle and the car rotated perfectly around its middle.

I shouldn't like this car. It's heavy, it's reliant on a huge array of gadgetry, gizmos and gimmickry to do what is basically the polar opposite of everything I love about 'my' McLaren. And yet out of that amazing group of cars it's the one we're all talking about on the way home.

Dan

[Roma101]

A few people with experience have said to me that if you could just have one Porsche to do everything, it would be the Turbo. So I get what you are saying. And, yes, perhaps not in blue though!

Hope your saloon shoot-out was fair and that you took along a CP equipped M3.