Evo Mag - 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo
Dec 17, 2009 | 10:56 PM
#1
Thread Starter
| Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 31,554
From: Zoo York
Evo Mag - 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo Stung by Nissan’s GT-R, Porsche has thoroughly revised its turbo flagship
"The 911 Turbo used to be easy, the sonic screwdriver of supercars. There seemed to be nothing it couldn’t do or, indeed, ‘do’. It was especially useful for cutting flashier, pricier Italian exotica down to size through the not-so-weird science of fusing a well-engineered four-wheel-drive chassis with an engine just powerful enough to push a pumped-up 911 body (still remarkably compact by supercar standards) down the street at a lick that would simultaneously elevate your heart rate and paralyse the muscles controlling your eyelids. Even in the wet.
Then, quite suddenly, things changed. The Nissan GT-R, a menacing hulk of largely unfathomable Japanese technology, performed a move on the Porsche that the Porsche had routinely performed on more extravagantly endowed machinery: it kicked it squarely in the nuts. The Nissan’s fractional advantage in outright acceleration snowballed on any circuit chosen to stage a comparison. It was a palpably quicker A-to-B machine, too, and easy to drive at speeds that would have even a skilled Turbo pilot’s jaw muscles pulsating madly.
Worse still, Nissan’s claimed time for a lap of the Nordschleife in the GT-R (7min 26sec) undercut Porsche’s best effort in the Turbo by a crushing, and thoroughly embarrassing, 23 seconds. A PR spat over tyres, drivers and conditions ensued but Porsche’s pride had been badly stung by a car with a six-cylinder engine, two turbochargers and four-wheel drive, just like its own, hitherto untouchable 911. But one with a price little over half that of the Porsche’s.
It couldn’t get much worse for the 911 Turbo. Until Audi decided to drop the V10 engine from the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 into its R8, a mid-engined marvel that had already, in the view of some commentators, usurped the 911 as the perfect, user-friendly everyday sports coupe. Clearly time for the Turbo to grab another gear, and then some.
The new car is the result of an extensive two-year programme, reflecting the size of the task in hand; phoning this mk2 997 update in from the beach was never a realistic option. The inevitable power hike isn’t achieved by further tweaking the 3.6-litre twin-turbo flat-six that has served the Turbo so well over the years but by replacing it with an all-new direct-injected 3.8 toting reworked variable-vane turbos, an increased compression ratio, a one-piece ‘closed deck’ crankcase, larger intercoolers, an unequal-length intake manifold and a free-flow exhaust with two separate catalysts. Power is up from 472 to 493bhp at 6000rpm while torque climbs from 464 to 479lb ft between 1950 and 5000rpm, though if you order the optional Sport Chrono pack, which also includes launch control, this swells to a huge 516lb ft for up to ten seconds at a time with the ‘Sport’ button engaged.
In line with other mk2 997s, the Turbo gets the option of Porsche’s seven-speed, dual-clutch PDK transmission and a simplified ‘Sport’ steering wheel incorporating conventional +/- paddle-shifters rather than the perversely counterintuitive thumb ‘n’ finger buttons that accompanied PDK’s introduction, though they’re still there on the standard multi-function wheel, presumably for the benefit of people who never intend to use them.
Visually, not much has changed. There are new titanium-coloured louvres for the front side air ducts, sleeker looking double-arm door mirrors, larger tailpipes and mildly reworked lights, including some rather-too-dazzling circular LED daytime driving lamps where the fogs used to be.
There’s not much you’d hesitate to give a friendly ‘please move over’ flash to, either – not even a Nissan GT-R. In fully sprint-optimised form – that’s with PDK and the Sport Chrono pack – 0-62mph is done and dusted in 3.4sec and 0-100mph nailed in 7sec dead, while the claimed top speed is 193mph. A 959, for so long the apogee of 911-derived technology and performance, might have a few mph in hand at the top end, but it would have to concede defeat to the new Turbo for sheer thrust.
What’s perhaps most remarkable of all is how little the new engine needs PDK’s seven gears, never mind the frenetic throttle and transmission remapping of the Sport Plus function, entertaining as it is in small doses. The 3.8 is so massively flexible and responsive – the extra capacity and revised turbo set-up has allowed Porsche to ease back peak boost from 1bar to 0.8 for less lag and better driveability – it could probably get away with three speeds and a 5000rpm red line with little appreciable diminution in the violence with which it hurls you from one bend to the next. True, PDK’s seamless, lightning-shift schtick adds an edge of hi-tech excitement to proceedings, especially via the nicely tactile, well-weighted paddles, even if they could do with being a tad longer, but it’s still hard not to hanker after the short, oiled machine-bolt action of the manual for real involvement.
Perhaps the new Turbo’s best trick is the way it folds its weightier, wider power-band into a tidier, lither and more supple chassis. The combination of active engine mounts that provide more solid location for the flat-six under hard cornering, optional ‘torque vectoring’ that automatically brakes the inside rear wheel to force a more neutral cornering attitude, a 25kg chop in weight compared with the old 911 Turbo auto, revised software for the four-wheel-drive system and re-tuned dampers has given the helm a pointier, cleaner, more precise feel and eliminated what could be a fairly abrupt transition from understeer to oversteer in the old car.
The revisions have also introduced new levels of comfort and composure over poorly surfaced roads without sacrificing an iota of the startling levels of grip and drive out of bends. The steering may lack the acuity and detail feedback of a GT3’s but it’s a lucid communicator nonetheless and, like the phenomenally good brakes, beautifully weighted.
And round the Nordschleife? A handy ten seconds quicker than the old 911 Turbo, which makes it only 13 seconds slower than the Nissan GT-R. It’s one way to measure progress, but it undersells Porsche’s achievement. As an all-weather, all-purpose, everyday supercar, this is a spectacular return to form. Nissan and Audi can bring it on."
Source -> Porsche 911 Turbo | Car Review | evo
"The 911 Turbo used to be easy, the sonic screwdriver of supercars. There seemed to be nothing it couldn’t do or, indeed, ‘do’. It was especially useful for cutting flashier, pricier Italian exotica down to size through the not-so-weird science of fusing a well-engineered four-wheel-drive chassis with an engine just powerful enough to push a pumped-up 911 body (still remarkably compact by supercar standards) down the street at a lick that would simultaneously elevate your heart rate and paralyse the muscles controlling your eyelids. Even in the wet.
Then, quite suddenly, things changed. The Nissan GT-R, a menacing hulk of largely unfathomable Japanese technology, performed a move on the Porsche that the Porsche had routinely performed on more extravagantly endowed machinery: it kicked it squarely in the nuts. The Nissan’s fractional advantage in outright acceleration snowballed on any circuit chosen to stage a comparison. It was a palpably quicker A-to-B machine, too, and easy to drive at speeds that would have even a skilled Turbo pilot’s jaw muscles pulsating madly.
Worse still, Nissan’s claimed time for a lap of the Nordschleife in the GT-R (7min 26sec) undercut Porsche’s best effort in the Turbo by a crushing, and thoroughly embarrassing, 23 seconds. A PR spat over tyres, drivers and conditions ensued but Porsche’s pride had been badly stung by a car with a six-cylinder engine, two turbochargers and four-wheel drive, just like its own, hitherto untouchable 911. But one with a price little over half that of the Porsche’s.
It couldn’t get much worse for the 911 Turbo. Until Audi decided to drop the V10 engine from the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 into its R8, a mid-engined marvel that had already, in the view of some commentators, usurped the 911 as the perfect, user-friendly everyday sports coupe. Clearly time for the Turbo to grab another gear, and then some.
The new car is the result of an extensive two-year programme, reflecting the size of the task in hand; phoning this mk2 997 update in from the beach was never a realistic option. The inevitable power hike isn’t achieved by further tweaking the 3.6-litre twin-turbo flat-six that has served the Turbo so well over the years but by replacing it with an all-new direct-injected 3.8 toting reworked variable-vane turbos, an increased compression ratio, a one-piece ‘closed deck’ crankcase, larger intercoolers, an unequal-length intake manifold and a free-flow exhaust with two separate catalysts. Power is up from 472 to 493bhp at 6000rpm while torque climbs from 464 to 479lb ft between 1950 and 5000rpm, though if you order the optional Sport Chrono pack, which also includes launch control, this swells to a huge 516lb ft for up to ten seconds at a time with the ‘Sport’ button engaged.
In line with other mk2 997s, the Turbo gets the option of Porsche’s seven-speed, dual-clutch PDK transmission and a simplified ‘Sport’ steering wheel incorporating conventional +/- paddle-shifters rather than the perversely counterintuitive thumb ‘n’ finger buttons that accompanied PDK’s introduction, though they’re still there on the standard multi-function wheel, presumably for the benefit of people who never intend to use them.
Visually, not much has changed. There are new titanium-coloured louvres for the front side air ducts, sleeker looking double-arm door mirrors, larger tailpipes and mildly reworked lights, including some rather-too-dazzling circular LED daytime driving lamps where the fogs used to be.
There’s not much you’d hesitate to give a friendly ‘please move over’ flash to, either – not even a Nissan GT-R. In fully sprint-optimised form – that’s with PDK and the Sport Chrono pack – 0-62mph is done and dusted in 3.4sec and 0-100mph nailed in 7sec dead, while the claimed top speed is 193mph. A 959, for so long the apogee of 911-derived technology and performance, might have a few mph in hand at the top end, but it would have to concede defeat to the new Turbo for sheer thrust.
What’s perhaps most remarkable of all is how little the new engine needs PDK’s seven gears, never mind the frenetic throttle and transmission remapping of the Sport Plus function, entertaining as it is in small doses. The 3.8 is so massively flexible and responsive – the extra capacity and revised turbo set-up has allowed Porsche to ease back peak boost from 1bar to 0.8 for less lag and better driveability – it could probably get away with three speeds and a 5000rpm red line with little appreciable diminution in the violence with which it hurls you from one bend to the next. True, PDK’s seamless, lightning-shift schtick adds an edge of hi-tech excitement to proceedings, especially via the nicely tactile, well-weighted paddles, even if they could do with being a tad longer, but it’s still hard not to hanker after the short, oiled machine-bolt action of the manual for real involvement.
Perhaps the new Turbo’s best trick is the way it folds its weightier, wider power-band into a tidier, lither and more supple chassis. The combination of active engine mounts that provide more solid location for the flat-six under hard cornering, optional ‘torque vectoring’ that automatically brakes the inside rear wheel to force a more neutral cornering attitude, a 25kg chop in weight compared with the old 911 Turbo auto, revised software for the four-wheel-drive system and re-tuned dampers has given the helm a pointier, cleaner, more precise feel and eliminated what could be a fairly abrupt transition from understeer to oversteer in the old car.
The revisions have also introduced new levels of comfort and composure over poorly surfaced roads without sacrificing an iota of the startling levels of grip and drive out of bends. The steering may lack the acuity and detail feedback of a GT3’s but it’s a lucid communicator nonetheless and, like the phenomenally good brakes, beautifully weighted.
And round the Nordschleife? A handy ten seconds quicker than the old 911 Turbo, which makes it only 13 seconds slower than the Nissan GT-R. It’s one way to measure progress, but it undersells Porsche’s achievement. As an all-weather, all-purpose, everyday supercar, this is a spectacular return to form. Nissan and Audi can bring it on."
Source -> Porsche 911 Turbo | Car Review | evo
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Bookmarks
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)