Ballistic Porsche is one for wide boys

TURBO S PROVES YOU CAN HAVE TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

Now I’ve driven the new Porsche 911 Turbo S I’ve come to a conclusion. It’s too fast. Way too fast. In fact, it’s too everything. Wide, heavy, complicated, grippy and quite frankly, computer game-like. Oh, and expensive. Porsche’s latest heavy artillery weapon has a 3.8-litre flat-six twin-turbo engine that produces 642bhp that drives to all four wheels via a new 8-speed PDK semi-automatic gearbox to a top speed of 205mph.

It’ll do 0-62mph in 2.7sec and 0-125mph in 8.9sec. None of those numbers were of much relevance as I intended to drive the Turbo S over some lovely roads in Berkshire with a max speed limit of 60mph.

Like many of us, the

911 has grown wider with age. And none more so than this Turbo S version which has a track 45mm wider than the standard 911 at the front, and 20mm wider at the back. Wide is bad, skinny great as you have more road to play with. It’s that obvious.

Apart from the original 3.0-litre 911 Turbo launched in 1975, and the 3.3-litre version that followed it, I drove every generation of the ‘Turbo’ when new – including a

964 3.6 Turbo while at Autocar magazine in the late 1990s. It was fitted with the rare X88 power kit which lifted the horsepower to 385. Doesn’t sound much now, but don’t be fooled – that 964 3.6 was the last of the rear-wheel drive 911

Turbos and the last time they used a big, single turbocharger. It meant lots of lag but a big kick in the trousers when the boost arrived.

With the new Turbo S, Porsche should supply the business card of a hotshot defence lawyer. Because

if this car looks fast on paper, it’s even more outrageous in the metal. Acceleration is ballistic as soon as you’ve hit the throttle.

Thankfully, the brakes are carbon ceramic, gripped at the front by 10-piston calipers.

Slip the optional Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) into Sport Plus mode and several things happen: your back starts hurting unless on a really smooth road and the rear wing pops up while the kerb-biffing front spoiler retracts itself.

There are several modes including Eco that activates the irritating start/stop system if under 10mph. Being easy to drive fast, it’s good to know grip is astonishing. Active rear-wheel steering makes it turn into corners with amazing accuracy.

Our test car, which costs £155,970, has the optional sports exhaust, but the sound is disappointing compared to the naturally-aspirated GT3 and GT3 RS models that are the hardcore choice for 911 purists. For me, too.

Its performance puts it on a par with Ferrari’s F8 and McLaren’s amazing 720S – both of which cost north of £200k. The Porsche isn’t bad value. But the firm makes a car that’s almost a third of the cost of the Turbo S that I’d much rather own or drive.

It’s the Cayman GTS – naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre engine, 400bhp and a top speed of 182mph and 0-62mph in 4.5sec. It’s a smaller car, also available with a manual gearbox, that is fantastic on the road.

The only drawback is the Cayman only has two seats. But people who buy cars like these rarely own just one car.

What’s the next Porsche 911 Turbo S going to be like? Will it have 741bhp and do 0-62mph in under 2.0sec?

Will it be wider and heavier and do 220mph? Who knows, but I wonder where it will all end with this power race.

Perhaps some sense will be seen and Porsche’s engineers will look again at cars like the 964 3.6 Turbo and try to recapture some of its drama and excitement. And more importantly, work out what made an older model with ‘only’ 385bhp feel so dramatic.

I may have grey hair and be in the queue for a bus pass, but I’m still up for some good old lag and brutal power delivery.

The car looks fast on paper – but it’s even more outrageous in the metal