Behind the Wheel: 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo: Kinetic Art That Really Moves You September 24, 2006
This entirely tractable daily driver performs like a purpose-built racecar. It accelerates with the explosive power of a rifle shot, then stops like a bullet hitting a tree.
CREATING a rocket-fast, world-class supercar that is also usable, dependable and workaday-sensible is like persuading an abstract expressionist to paint by the numbers. He might do it for a moment or two if you asked politely, daubing cobalt blue on ?5? and burnt umber on ?23.? But all the while, he aches to fling gobs of paint at the canvas ? not by the numbers, but by the bucket.
Which brings us to the 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo. However expensive and exotic it may be, relative to a Camry or a Cobalt, it was still meant to be a paint-by-numbers kind of car ? reliable, solid, steadfast. It must run in heat, cold and ice, year after year after year.
Then why are the Turbo, David Murray and I raging down the pit straight on the grand prix course at Watkins Glen raceway at full racing speed, wide open at 155 miles an hour? One explanation could be that David Murray is a professional racer and knows what he?s doing.
But he isn?t driving! He?s carrying on a running commentary, while behind the wheel, I monitor myself for early signs of an infarction.
?Really great, isn?t it?? Mr. Murray says in his easy Georgia drawl. ?If this car had slicks,? he adds, referring to racing tires, ?it?d lap here just as fast as my racecar!? His racecar is a Porsche 911 GT3, the fastest racing 911 there is.
At the first turn after the pits, I stand on the brakes hard ? but way too early. The Turbo?s huge 14.96-inch ceramic discs stop us as if we?ve hit a bridge abutment.
?Rocks, doesn?t it?? Mr. Murray says, beaming.
It rocks.
This entirely tractable daily driver performs like a purpose-built racecar. It accelerates with the explosive power of a rifle shot, then stops like a bullet hitting a tree. The Porsche Turbo combines Jackson Pollock with painting-by-the-numbers. It will dither around town at 30 m.p.h., daubing cobalt blue on ?5? like the Golden Years painting class down at the senior center. But say the word and it slings buckets of paint manically, like a Pollock imitator who has had too much coffee.
This new car reinvents Porsche?s legendary Turbo line. Since the first 261-horsepower Turbo in 1975, Porsche has released a new, hotter version every few years. In 1995, the Turbo had 408 horsepower, and in 2000, 450 horsepower. This latest Turbo delivers a sensational 480 horsepower at 6,000 r.p.m., combined with a similarly sensational 460 pound-foot of torque, available uninterrupted from 1,950 to 5,000 r.p.m.
And a special Turbo 10-second-at-a-time overboost function produces a positively prurient 505 pound-foot. It?s the work of the devil.
?The last Turbo was so great,? Mr. Murray says. ?Then they make this much improvement. It makes you wonder what more they can do.?
Mr. Murray is a Porsche driving instructor, so his sympathies are clear. But his remark is more than mere advertorial. Besides adding raccoon tails and mud flaps, what more can Porsche do? More outrageous performance in a volume production car is hard to fantasize.
Central to harnessing the Turbo?s explosive thrust is all-wheel drive, and that was never truer than with this new model. With all four wheels driving, the Turbo?s 3,572-pound curb weight (with the Tiptronic S five-speed automatic, or 3,495 pounds with a six-speed manual) zaps to 60 m.p.h. in 3.4 seconds. That?s frightfully close to the immortal world-champion Porsche 917K racecar, which got to 60 in 2.8 seconds.
Startlingly, the automatic is quicker than the manual, which reaches 60 in a turtle-ish 3.7 seconds.
Tiptronic S can be left in fully automatic mode or shifted with thumb buttons on the steering wheel. Either way, its lightning-quick shifts keep the twin turbochargers blowing at full gale, commanding the engine?s maximum power. Tip S is so good that on the track Mr. Murray said, ?Just leave it in automatic ? it?s faster.?
Without prompting, Tiptronic S downshifts when you?re braking or climbing, and if the tires lose grip in a corner (they did), it automatically upshifts to reduce wheelspin and restore grip. Working in conjunction with all-wheel drive and the Porsche Stability Management system, control is restored before you know anything is amiss.
- Posted in : Uncategorized, Porsche
- Author : arnold
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