Matt Farah Finds the Soul in the Porsche Taycan Turbo S
Auto influencer comes away highly impressed by Porsche Taycan Turbo S, can’t stop mentioning how fast it is.
Porsche’s first fully electric EV, the hard-to-pronounce Taycan, has been one of most highly anticipated vehicles ever to come from the German car maker. In large part that’s due to the fact that it’s made by Porsche, a company legendary for its driver-centric cars like the 911 GT3 RS, etc. Whether the Taycan can live up to the the heritage conveyed by the crest on its hood has been a burning question. Automotive journalist Matt Farah of the YouTube channel The Smoking Tire recently got his hands on a pre-production Porsche Taycan Turbo S and came away highly impressed.
“I’m having a tough time forming words,” says Farah, a highly seasoned car reviewer. “Cornering speeds are extraordinary. Oh my god this car is so fast.” And so it goes throughout the video. Farah is highly impressed with the electric Porsche’s driving experience. “This requires substantially more focus than a gas car, because I have to really watch my entry speed and really think about it. And delivering a monologue at this pace and without the benefit of engine noise is quite difficult.”
“First things first, this feels like a Porsche,” he says. “It’s built like a Porsche. Steering wheel, seating position, view out the front, all extremely Porsche-like. Beautifully refined inside on the highway.” As expected then, the Taycan impresses with it’s build quality and overall feel. “Have I brought up that this car is like banzai-fast? Because this car is banzai-fast. It’s awesome! It feels like it’s built and put together by people who take building cars very, very, very seriously. Electric cars don’t have souls like gas cars do, but I can feel the spaceship love in this thing. This is a car built by people who love driving cars. This is like, real fun.”
Ok, so the Taycan is fast, which was expected, given it’s 750-hp electric driveline that Porsche claims will rocket the big sedan to sixty in a scant 2.6-seconds. But is it actually fun to drive? According to Farah, the answer is an unequivocal yes. “The handling is very good,” he raves. “You’re able to micro adjust in corners, with throttle and brake, and steering. It’s bananas fast. It’s a dancer though. This has 911 steering, pretty much. The car’s heavier, but it’s Porsche steering.”
Farah also has an interesting comment on the driving experience of the Taycan versus a Tesla, which you can drive with one pedal. “One of the things this does that is very different from what a Tesla does is that it does not use re-gen on the coast. One of the unique things about a Tesla is it’s one-pedal driving. When you lift it brakes pretty aggressively with the re-gen system in order to capture as much of that energy back into the battery. Porsche’s math is slightly different. Porsche math says it is better to allow the car as much coast as possible. They think that energy being used to coast is a better use of it than being recaptured into the battery. To you the driver the difference is, you have to use the brakes in this car like you would in a gasoline car.”Â
All up, Farah really couldn’t have been more impressed with the speed, quality and level of engineering embodied in the new Taycan Turbo S. “This thing is crazy, guys. It’s real crazy how fast this thing goes. It feels like a sports car that was built by serious sports car people.” Oh, and the “Turbo” badging that Porsche chose to slap on an electric turbo that doesn’t actually have a turbo? “There is no turbo, that’s true,” comments Farah. “Its just a naming scheme. Also Teslas don’t use superchargers and we drive on parkways and park on driveways.” Well said, sir, well said.