911 Turbo S, £5k runabout and unusual hearses

From an unsung Porsche hero to peculiar funeral processions, here's what to expect in today's pod...

By Cam Tait / Tuesday, 23 September 2025 / Loading comments

It’s been a busy few weeks in the car world. We’ve had the BMW iX3 Neue Klasse reveal at the IAA Mobility show in Munich, the production version of the 884hp Polestar 5 and the highly divisive Ferrari 849 Testarossa. In all the hullabaloo, it’s easy to forget that Porsche announced a new 911 Turbo S that a) has a whopping 711hp and b) set a lap time around the Nurburgring that was 14 seconds faster than its predecessor and only six seconds short of the 918 Spyder’s time. And given we were invited to Weissach for a live demonstration, it seemed worthy of a mention on today’s episode of The Gassing Station podcast.

Don’t worry, this isn’t just another podcast where two journalists gush about how good new 911s are. In fact, John’s not all that keen on the Turbo S (surprise surprise). Nope, instead we focus our superlatives on legendary Porsche driver Jörg Bergmeister, the man behind that extraordinary ‘ring lap. For those unfamiliar with the name, Bergmeister was a phenomenally talented GT driver, racking up class wins at Le Mans and outright victory (in a GT car!) at the 2003 Daytona 24. He’s perhaps best known for tangling with Jan Magnussen on the run to the finish at Laguna Seca in 2009 (you really must watch it), but also more recently for taking yours truly out for a lap around Weissach in a camo’d up Turbo S to show what it - and he - are really capable.

Once the racing driver appreciation is out of the way, it’s on to another buying challenge. This week, we’re sinking our teeth into the ‘suggestion for someone in their early 20s’ topic here. We’ll let you have a read through the extensive list of criteria, but the crux is that it needs to be a car not more than ten years old for a budget of £5,000. Naturally, we wanted to put a PH spin on it, so I went down the hot hatch route with this 2017 Ford Fiesta ST. It’ll be brilliant to drive, relatively inexpensive to run and, with 83k miles, still has plenty of life left in it. John, on the other hand, ignored most - if not all - of the criteria and went for this Mercedes 190E. True, it’s 20 years older than the poster would ideally like, but there’s no denying its charm. You can put forward your own picks here.

On a more morbid note, our final topic takes us to the ‘unusual funeral vehicles’ topic started by 33q. While on holiday recently, I came across a peculiar funeral procession consisting of a Ford Mach-E hearse and a matching limousine right behind it. A change of pace from the usual Jaguar XJs and Mercs, but it does make you wonder how they achieved the transformation, given the Mach E’s battery sits between the front wheels. How do you stretch a skateboard EV? Anyway, turns out there are all sorts of hearses out there, from a Maserati Quattroporte to a tank, because who said hearses had to be boring? All that and much more on today’s episode of The Gassing Station.

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