2010 Porsche 911 - Review

By Marty Padgett

Marty Padgett

Editorial Director BIO

Marty Padgett is High Gear Media's Editorial Director, overseeing the words that skim across High Gear Media's portfolio of automotive destinations... More

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2010 Porsche 911 Turbo

Of course, you wouldn't, and I wouldn't make those gross mistakes in the latest edition of the 911 Turbo, you because you're perfect, and me, because my rain-inducing powers completely snuffed out our track time. It turns out that rubber residue, plus oil and grease, plus rain, turns the track into a frictional coefficient no car company wants to explore deeply with a bunch of jetlagged drivers. Smart, very smart. Smarter would have been leaving me at home.

Still, our gaggle spent more than 200 miles blowing around greater Lisbon with the latest 911 Turbo-easily, Porsche's most advanced blown 911 ever and the most powerful "standard" Turbo, too. It may check in on paper as a lightweight in pure horsepower next to a 638-hp Chevy Corvette ZR1, but there's monstrous torque afoot, and a relatively lightweight body to haul around the lightly paved hammercurls and blind alleys they call streets here.

It's an astonishing, pure driving experience, despite the layers of technology added to cope with its copious power. And it's still distinctly a Porsche, from the way it lockstitches a seam along the proper driving line, to the narrow worldview you get between its trademark raised front fenders.

2010 Porsche 911 Turbo: Command performance

There's more familiar aural pleasure--and some dissonance--inside the 911 Turbo, all kinds of whooshes, clicks, whistles, booms and slams as you plumb into its throttle travel and push its needles deeply into their far reaches.

The basics sound evolutionary, but the 3.8-liter flat six in the 911 Turbo this year is a new engine, the first time the model's received its own dedicated, ground-up powerplant in its 35 years. It's up to the moment in history, and delivers 500 hp and 480 lb-ft of torque, up 20 hp from the previous edition. Credit goes to a new manifold, direct injection, and variable-vaned turbochargers. With the available Sport Chrono package, the torque rises through overboost to 516 lb-ft when pressed.